by Joe on September 9, 2008
Last night was my first class of the R.E. year and I couldn’t be more delighted with how things turned out! Here are the highlights:
- I arrived to discover that there is no period 1 class (5:30 – 6:45 pm) taking place in my room which means that I can get there nice and early each week and set my room up without rushing!
- I have a very large room this year…no desks…just tables and chairs. This made it very easy for me to re-arrange the furniture, create a “horseshoe” with chairs, set up a little prayer center in the middle, and have all of my supplies in place with plenty of time to spare.
- I greeted each of the kids with a handshake as they entered and asked them their names. They were very polite and sociable.
- They had a palpable sense of curiousity about the setting – no desks, chairs in a semi-circle, Bible, candle, and holy water in their midst, lights slightly dimmed, quiet music playing in the background – that seemed to foster a sense of quiet (either that or they were afraid of me!)
- Our introductions went very nicely…in addition to introducing themselves and sharing a thought or two about their interests (sports, musical instruments, etc.), I had them share the name of the person they most trust in the world (the theme of the class was “We TRUST in the goodness of God). They did this without much hesitation, most naming one of their parents or one of their classmates (which was very nice), while one said “me” referring to himself.
- We had a nice opening prayer in which I read to them their “classroom covenant” (which states the rights and responsibilities of each young person participating in this class) and then had them come forward prayerfully to sign the covenant, bless themselves with holy water, and return to their seats. At that point I prayerfully presented their textbooks to them, calling them forward one at a time by name and saying “May you find God in all things” as I handed them their Finding God textbooks.
- Following the prayer, I invited them to leaf through their books just to get an idea of what lies ahead.
- I introduced the notion of trust and played to them a recording of a song by Linkin Park (”From the Inside”) that summarizes the difficulty that young people have when it comes to trusting, especially after being hurt. They were a bit blown away that their catechist knew who Linkin Park was and actually played one of their songs in class! I told them that they probably won’t hear that song in church on Sunday…they laughed!
- From there, I assigned them a couple of articles from chapter 1 that deal with the concept of faith (trust) in God. Half the group read one article (silently) while the other half read the other article. Then, I paired them up and had them interview one another about what they read.
- We gathered once again as a large group and summarized the key points in the articles, namely, that we are called to place our faith in God whose goodness can be trusted.
- I introduced them to the concept of “sacred space” – they each could find a place in the room to call their own – a space that they will use for prayer and reflective reading. Most chose to sit under one of the many tables! They really got a kick out of this.
- As they sat in their sacred space, I invited them to listen to the song On Eagle’s Wings which is, of course, a song about complete trust in the goodness of God (the antithesis to the Linkin Park song). I also gave them the lyrics to reflect on as they listened. I never expected anyone to sing along, yet a couple of the girls started to sing on the refrain (I heard one say out loud, “I love this song!”). During the next refrain, a number of the boys chimed in but in a sarcastic manner. I paused the song and said, “if you want to sing along, you’ll do so prayerfully. If you’re making fun of the song, don’t sing…just listen.” I resumed the song and the sarcastic singing was gone. Interestingly enough, however, those couple of girls kept right on signing and I can’t be sure but I believe a few other voices joined in!
- When the song was over, I invited them to sit quietly and ask God for the grace they need to trust him. They were nice and quiet for a couple of minutes.
- It was time to go so I invited them back into the semi-circle and had them collect the books and supplies. I told them that they had done very well for the first class and that I looked forward to working witht them this year.
- They left with a great deal of energy and, believe it or not, when they were down the hallway, I heard a few of them break into the refrain of “On Eagle’s Wings!” Not that this singing was even close to being reverent, but I had to laugh to myself that I “got in their heads” which is no easy task!
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being with me last night and for guiding and inspiring me and my students to encounter you!
by Joe on August 11, 2008
Many people, including myself, see great parallels between athletics and the spiritual life. To me, the greatest parallel is that both require discipline. The biggest difference, however, is that, while in athletics, one needs discipline in order to achieve something, in the spiritual life, one needs discipline in order to receive something! Of course, we do not earn or achieve grace as if striving to earn or achieve a gold medal. On the other hand, we can most certainly discipline ourselves in order to become more receptive to the grace and salvation that God is offering to us. Without discipline, we run the risk of allowing obstacles to God’s grace to enter into our lives.
By the time many of us begin teaching religious education classes this Fall, the summer Olympics will already be a “distant” memory. However, we can draw upon the enduring images that come out of the Olympics to inspire our young people to put forth their best efforts to seek the prize that is offered to each of us – salvation in Jesus Christ.
“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” -Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire
“You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It’s hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape – especially if you’ve got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you’re dinner’s burnt. Maybe you haven’t got a job. So who am I to say, “Believe, have faith,” in the face of life’s realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me.” If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.” -Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire
My Year of Paul began with a whimper on June 29, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles. My wife and I were vacationing in Florida and attended Mass on the day that the Year of Paul began. I was pleased that the priest announced the beginning of this special year and then he set out in his homily to educate folks about St. Paul. Unfortunately, he offered only information…a homily is supposed to be about transformation. The worst part, however was the following:
“We owe a lot to St. Paul. Because of him, we don’t have to follow all of the Jewish laws and customs. For example, we men don’t have to be circumcised. Thank goodness for that! Oh, I guess it doesn’t really matter since I was circumcised as an infant anyway!”
Too much information, Father!
At the Catechetical Ministries Awards Banquet last evening (sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry), Cardinal George gave the crowd some inside scoop on the Pope’s visit to the U.S. He told us that before the Pope departed, the bishops asked him some questions, one of which was, what his advice was about teaching young people in a culture of secularization. The Pope responded, “Teach them to pray!”
I thought this was a wonderful answer and I appreciated the Cardinal sharing this thought with us catechists. He urged us, in all that we do, to be sure that we teach the young people to pray so that they can enter into a deeper communion with the Lord Jesus.
Amen to that.
Here’s a good one (and it’s a true story).
A DRE friend of mine told me that one of her Confirmandi was ill the day of Confirmation and was unable to attend the celebration. The DRE spoke with the mother of the child on the phone and offered her all of the upcoming opportunities for the child to celebrate the sacrament at neighboring parishes. The mother replied, “Can’t you just send me the certificate?”
Ugh!
What an impoverished understanding of the sacraments! This is just another example of how much work we have to do in terms of catechizing adults.
I like to remind people that, according to Canon Law, each of us has a right to catechesis. When we encounter adult Catholics who have little or no catechesis, rather than blame them, we need to view it as a violation of their rights and we need to do all that we can to see to it that their rights are being protected.
Of course, along with rights comes responsibilities and we need to remind all adult Catholics of their responsibility to seek a full understanding of their faith.
When these rights and responsibilities are embraced, the result is growth in knowledge of the Lord.
