Archive for March, 2007
My friend and colleague Sr. Julie Vieira sent this to me via her blog, A Nun’s Life:
I just recently read an article about your website and decided you might be able to help me. I teach a Sunday class of 12-14 year olds.It is a basic doctrine class and these young people have been baptized and are preparing for the sacraments of Confession & Eucharist. They struggle with understanding the Holy Trinity and who God is. Where did He come from? where is He? etc. I believe and have always believed, but these young people are probably receiving these sacraments because the parents think it’s time. I’m not sure that they receive any religious instruction from their parents. I explain as best as I can and tell them that faith is so important. But in the end they say, “I don’t understand.” Is there anything you can suggest that I can tell them that might help them?
In Christ,
Gracie
First, I think that it is best to not try to “explain” God or the Trinity. We can explain all that we want but ultimately, God, our Triune God, is a mystery. We may not fully understand God, but we can KNOW God. We can experience God. Most of all, we learn about God through Jesus who reveals the face of God. Don’t focus on explaining but rather on inviting. Our God invites us into his divine life. The Trinity is the essence of loving relationship: 3 persons unified in one God. Whenever we experience and work toward building loving relationships with others, we are experiencing the life of the Trinity.
I would focus on inviting your young people into reflective prayer so that they can come to know God and God’s love for them rather than just knowing about God. Consider leading them in some guided reflections that invite them to encounter Jesus in their imagination within the setting of a Scripture story. A good program that contains such guided reflections is Finding God: Following Jesus and Finding God: Celebrating Church by Loyola Press. You may also want to check out resources such as Guided Meditations for Teens and Guided Meditations for Child Catechumens by Resource Publications.
After experiencing God’s presence, the young people will be in a better place to talk about their understanding of God. My point is that we don’t necessarily “teach” mystery, we invite people to enter into it and then we talk about it. Thanks Sr. Julie for passing this inquiry along and thanks Gracie for your question and for your dedication to the catechetical ministry.
Any other advice out there?
Since the DaVinci Code came out, there has been much talk about the quest for the Holy Grail, normally thought of as the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Funny how there seems to be little interest in finding another receptacle used at the Last Supper: the bowl with which Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Perhaps this bowl is just too mundane for our tastes. Yet, in the same way that Jesus commanded that we “Do this in memory of me” after sharing the cup, he also commanded, “As I have done, so must you do” after washing the feet of the apostles.
With Holy Thursday fast approaching, we might all do well to reflect on our sacred quest for the grail…the receptacle of eternal life…whether that grail be the cup that held our Lord’s Precious Blood or the bowl that held the water with which he washed feet. Both are the key to our salvation.
You’ll enjoy reading the article by Gary Smith, S.J. that inspired my post this morning.
Summer is a good time for catechists to get some spiritual enrichment from reading. More often than not, however, catechists I speak to are not sure of where and how they can locate Catholic publishers to explore their reading materials. I recommend the following resource: the Member Directory of The Catholic Book Publishers Association (www.cbpa.org/members.html). From their Web page, you can identify various Catholic publishers and then follow the links to the publishers’ own Web sites where you can explore their reading materials.
As always, when you find something good, please share it with readers of my blog!
P.S. If you had trouble earlier with the link above, try again…I fixed it!
A few days ago, I wrote about ten things than can and will go wrong. Well, wouldn’t you know it, one of those things (#9 to be precise) DID go wrong last night! The catechist who was “on” for leading the class last night (I was scheduled to just sort of “co-pilot”) did not show up. I had nothing planned and a room full of 8th graders to keep occupied for 75 minutes! Luckily for me, a number of the students had to report for rehearsal for the Living Stations of the Cross, leaving me with only 6 students. So, what did I do?
First, I asked for their understanding as I quickly shifted gears and tried to mobilize. I told them that I would never come to class unprepared if I was scheduled to teach…that their time and my time is to be respected. Then, I sent for the office to deliver enough copies of the student book (which we hadn’t been using since we began immediate Confirmation prep) to the room so that we could go over the Lent and Holy Week seasonal chapters. I had no catechist guide with me, so I did indeed have to “wing it” as far as my leading discussion. Being so unprepared goes totally against every fiber in my body but I prayed to the Spirit to guide me and, of course, the Spirit did. I broke up the evening with a 15-20 minute meditation on the Stations of the Cross with the lights turned down. That went very nicely.
All in all, things went well. The kids were very good and very understanding. God gave me enough calm and insight to carry the class and we had some good discussion about Holy Week and the Triduum.
I guess even when we’re not scheduled to be “on” we should prepare!
Kids are very familiar with the tradition of people decorating their homes for Christmas with creche scenes that draw from Scripture. Here’s an idea to prod the imaginations of young people and help them to focus on Scripture images from the Easter stories:
Invite your students to imagine that they own a business that manufactures home decorations. First, have them brainstorm all of the figures that need to be manufactured for a creche scene (Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, stable, animals, shepherds, the Magi). Then, tell them to imagine that there is a new demand for Easter decorations other than bunnies, rabbits, and eggs. Their job is to create Easter scenes that people can decorate their homes with. Have them brainstorm a list of figures that they could manufacture to create Easter scenes for home decoration. Have them use their Bibles, specifically searching the following: Matthew 28: 1-10; Mark 16:1-11; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-18.
What figures might they include? An empty tomb, a stone rolled away, Mary Magdelene, the “other” Mary (the mother of James), Salome (in Matthew, Joanna in Luke), the angel of the Lord (Luke includes 2 men in dazzling garments and John also includes 2 angels), the guards, the Risen Jesus, Simon Peter, the “othe disciple”.
Encourage the students to draw a mural of their proposed scene. Allow them to mix the Scriptural images in the same way that creche scenes mix images from Matthew and Luke, but help them to recognize the nuances from each Gospel.
Talk about how it is interesting that we so easily decorate our homes with the Scriptural scenes of Christmas (everyone can relate to a baby being born) but we rarely, if ever, see homes decorated with Easter Scriptural scenes even though Easter is the central feast of Christianity. It is certainly more of a risk to publicly proclaim faith in a man being raised from the dead than in a baby being born!
Religious education classes at the parish where I serve as a catechist are 75 minutes. That’s not a bad amount of time although it really seems like 90 minutes would be more effective, especially to allow for more substantive prayer experiences. I think it would also be nice to have occasional “extended” sessions that last 2 to 3 hours, perhaps once a month or at least quarterly. Where is it written that classes must be the same length every week?
Anyway, I’m wondering how much time you feel is needed for an effective religious education session. Let’s hear from you.
This past Monday, we gave an end-of-the-year assessment to our 8th graders that covers all of the basics of the Catholic faith: the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, parts of the Mass, and so on. First, we spent the week before reviewing, especially the Ten Commandments, which far too many of the kids seemed fuzzy on. Then, we gave the assessment, and, I’m happy to report, they did very well on. There were a handful of perfect scores and most were only 1 or 2 items wrong. Only 3 students did below average (although still a “passing” grade). I’m happy to see that some things “took.”
During the review, I reminded the kids about the importance of knowing our faith. I told them that a class full of Muslim kids of their age would be learning Arabic and memorizing the Koran while a class full of Jewish kids of their age would be learning Hebrew and memorizing the Torah. I told them that in a few years, when they go to college and enter the work force, they will encounter people of many faiths and, unless they understand their own tradition, will feel lost. They seemed to respond well to that notion as it is very real. I know far too many young adult Catholics who resent not knowing how to talk about their faith because of a lack of solid formation in their childhood and youth. The best strategy for healthy ecumenical and interreligious dialogue is for Catholics to know their own faith well enough to be able to talk about it intelligently with those unfamiliar with it.
Tonight we will be giving our 8th graders a year-end assessment (test). I like the fact that this is done AFTER Confirmation so that it is not seen as a hoop to jump through to receive the sacrament. It will be interesting to see how they do.
I’m going on a brief road trip with 3 of my brothers, visiting our sister in Columbus, Ohio. I won’t be posting for a few days. Talk to y’all later this week!
I love the Opening Prayer for the 4th Sunday of Lent:
“God our Father, your Word Jesus Christ, spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death he endured. TEACH US, THE PEOPLE WHO BEAR HIS NAME, TO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE HE GAVE US: may our faith, hope, and charity turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, death to eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
The words in bold are so appropriate for us as catechists. In baptism, we bear Christ’s name and we long to be taught by God to live up to that name. We, in turn, strive to teach others, who bear Christ’s name in baptism, to follow the example Christ gave us. We strive to teach our students to live in faith, hope, and charity so that these virtues may turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, and death to eternal life.
May God give us the grace to do this each time we teach.
With the end of the program year coming up soon, Patti and I are thinking of planning a pizza party for our class following our last session. We’ve received the DRE’s blessing as long as we have permission slips, etc. (the pizza place is right across the street from the church!) Several catechists have commented on this blog that they have done similar things to bring closure to their time together. The program has a Mass to bring closure to the year on a more substantive level!
Anyway, I’m wondering what other folks do at the end of the program year to wish their students well and to bring closure.
