Archive for the 'Sublime to Ridiculous' Category
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.
Last night was our last class for the year and it was a very nice send-off. The closing Mass was very good and the young people seemed genuinely touched by the little token that I offered them. A number of the 8th grade students also went out for pizza afterwards accompanied by 3 of us catechists.
As it turns out, last week, when I missed class because of my daughter’s illness, my aide, Kris, had the young people make thank you cards for me! What a nice gesture! Here are some of the comments that they wrote in their cards:
- Thank you very much for taking the time to teach me about Jesus.
- Thank you for dealing with us all year. Thank you for volunteering your time to teach us about God. Iliked the way we meditated. I don’t like reading in the book so it was cool that you made PowerPoints.
- Thank you very much for your class this year. I really learned a lot and enjoyed it very much. I liked how we meditated in class. You always came to class knowledgeable and prepared and we really appreciated that. Since you came wanting to be there, most of the class ended up wanted to come. This year we made our confirmation, and I think I was really ready for it. Your class was a lot of fun and it was the best year of CCD I’ve ever had!
- Thank you for the time you spent with us talking about Jesus Christ.
- Thanks for the meditation time.
- Thank you for all the things you have taught me. You taught me things outside the book that no other teacher has done. The meditation helped me pray and spend time with Jesus and God. Thanks for everything.
- Thanks for teaching our class. U really made it fun this year! It went by so fast! So thanx.
- Thank you so much for making my last year of CCD awesome! When I first came in and heard you were one of the authors of the book, I was thinking to myself, “Oh, great, we are going to do nothing but read from the book.” But I was wrong. Even though we used the book at times, this class was really fun. Learning about the history of the church and watching Jesus of Nazareth was very interesting. The meditations were also really cool. Thank you!!
I think I’ll keep doing the meditations, eh?
Here’s an exchange I recently had with a catechist working in RCIA for children:
Dear Joe,
I am a catechist teaching RCIA for children. This is my first time teaching RCIA. If you could recommend some approaches to answering questions to children grades 3rd through 5th RCIA, I would really appreciate your help. Here are some of their questions:
Why do we decorate the church with a barren looking tree during Lent? Who made God and why aren’t we from a different planet? What is the difference between a Catholic and a Christian?
Thank you, Joe!
What wonderful questions! I just wrote a post this morning about a question one of my 8th graders asked (”Would it have been better if Jesus didn’t die?”)
This is such a great opportunity for you to be able to work with these young people during such a meaningful time in their lives. You are also very thoughtful to be so concerned with approaching their questions in the most effective manner. How we respond to questions can have a lasting impact on a young person.
My first thought is to affirm the questions and the questioners. Let them know that they have asked a good question.
Next, show that you are interested in what they may be thinking. Invite the others in the group to grapple with the question. You can say something like, “That’s a good question that -N- just asked. What do you think? How would you respond to that question?” Let them know that it is good to grapple with issues of our faith and that asking questions is what disciples do…it’s how we learn.
Now, on to how to address the specific questions you listed:
- why do we decorate the church with a barren looking tree during Lent?
The Church has long compared the 40 days of Lent to the 40 year journey of Israel in the desert where their faith was tempted. In the same way, Jesus grappled with temptations in the desert for 40 days before beginning his ministry. For us, Lent is our journey through the desert - a barren area - where we face up to our temptations, away from the clutter of everyday life (this is why we give things up during Lent…to clear away the clutter).
- Who made God and why aren’t we from a different planet?
This is one of the wonderful and mysterious things about God - God has no beginning and no end. Nobody made God. God just is. That’s why when Moses asked God what his name was, God said, “I Am Who Am.” This means that God just is. This is a very hard concept for even adults to understand. God is the creator and we are creatures (created by God). The story in Genesis chapter one of how God created the world tells us that before the world came to be, God already existed and that he created all of creation out of love for us. We come from God, not from another planet, because we have an intimate relationship with our creator God.
- What is the difference between a Catholic and a Christian?
One of my 8th graders asked this on the first night of class this year! Of course, Catholics ARE Christians! The term Christian is a broad term that describes anyone who is a follower of Jesus and has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For the first one thousand years of the Christian Church, there was only one kind of Christian…anyone who followed Jesus. In the 11th century, the Christian Church became divided between those who followed the leadership of the bishop of Rome (Roman Catholics) and those who followed the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople (The Orthodox Church). Then, in the 16th century, the Christian Church became even more divided because of the Protestant Reformation. This means that some Christians chose not to follow the leadership of the bishop of Rome (the pope). These Christians established many different denominations: Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and so on. They are Christians baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but they do not follow the leadership of the pope. As Roman Catholics, we are Christians who follow the leadership of the pope and bishops, the successors of the apostles. (Much of this answer will be beyond the younger children but I wanted to provide you with as much as possible and you can adapt it for your various age groups).
Great stuff! Kids ask such wonderful questions!
This exchange was posted with permission and, as always, I posted the catechist’s e-mail anonymously.
A very blessed Easter to you all!
My wife and I had the pleasure of attending the Easter Vigil at St. Clement parish on the North side of Chicago. It was a beautiful and moving experience. It was doubly special because a friend and co-worker was being received into the Catholic Church that night.
Fr. Ken Simpson, the pastor, gave an excellent homily. He spoke about what he called “the angel with an attitude” from the Gospel of Matthew (28:1-10) who rolled back the stone and then sat on it. He emphatically made the point that the angel did not roll back the stone to allow Jesus to “escape” the tomb. Rather, the angel rolled back the stone to allow the women to see that there was nothing there for them to see…that Jesus was not to be found there. Instead, the angel tells them to go quickly and tell the others and then to find Jesus in Galilee.
I couldn’t help but think that all of us catechists can look to this “angel with an attitude” for inspiration. Our job is to roll back the stones on the various tombs in which our young people think they will find life. Perched atop the stones of these tombs, we warn them away and instead send them in the direction in which they will encounter the Risen Christ.
May the joy of this Easter season give all of us an attitude of confidence so that we can tell our young people to not fear, to turn away from places of darkness and emptiness, and to go quickly to those places where they will find new life in the Risen Christ!
Amen, Alleluia!!!
I always found it interesting that society as a whole embraces the Christmas story…creche scenes abound and the story is told and sung of a child being born in humble surroundings.
For Easter, we have bunnies, jellybeans, colored eggs, and flowers!
And yet, the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place is because it is the birth of the one who died and rose from the dead. Without Easter - the Resurrection - there would be no need for Christmas. The 2 cannot be separated.
Personally, I’ve always felt much more drawn to Easter. It is after all the celebration of what forms for us the context of our lives: death and resurrection. Here it is that we find the meaning of life - not summed up in a pithy phrase but in the complex reality of death and resurrection.
I wish you and all those you teach a very blessed Triduum. I offer one piece of advice: go into these 3 days fully aware of how the story “turns out.” We don’t celebrate Holy Thursday and Good Friday as though we are sad and then turn happy on Holy Saturday, as though we need to act surprised that Jesus is raised from the dead. Jesus IS risen! We know that already. We commemorate Jesus’ suffering and death with reverence but with the knowledge that this suffering, and ours, is transformed.
We will meet again here next week when we will joyfully proclaim: Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
Here are some interesting facts about how the Internet has influenced kids’ traditional viewing habits:
- 64% of kids report going online while watching TV, with 49% of Teens doing the same from three times a week to several times a day.
- 73% of kids are actively multitasking, which is up by +33% since 2002.
- 50% of 9 to 17-year-olds visit websites they see on TV even as they continue to watch
- 45% of teens have sent instant messages or e-mail to others they knew were watching the same TV show
- 33% of 9 to 17-year-olds say they have participated in online polls, entered contests, played online games or other online activities that TV programs have directed them to while they are watching.
- While TV/internet multitasking, 47% of kids report their attention focused primarily online, with 42% saying they focus equally on the two, while 11% report TV holds their primary attending.
The US study (The Kids’ Social Networking Study by the research firm Grunwald Associates) was conducted online with 1,277 9-17-year-olds, 1,039 parents, and telephone interviews with 250 school district leaders in charge of internet policy.
Implication: kids are into multi-tasking, meaning that content in one medium is influencing a concurrent behavior in another medium. In other words, it’s not enough to just watch a TV program or read a book, nowadays - you also need to be online or connected by cell phone while doing so. An example: you just don’t watch American Idol, you also go online (or on a cell phone) and vote people off of the show. This means that, if Jesus had a TV program today on which he was telling parables, there would be an accompanying Website where viewers could log on and express their opinion, select an option, ask a question, or indicate their level of understanding!
I had a list of topics that I’ve wanted to blog about and couldn’t decide which one to pick so I thought I’d address them all! Here goes:
- They came back! Kudos, once again to my DRE, Arlene, for making it clear that Confirmation is not the end. All of my students (save for one absentee) returned last night for their first class after Confirmation!
- Their biggest comment about Confirmation? “The bishop put SO much oil on my forehead!” I told them that this was a symbol of the abundance of the Spirit and of the outpouring of the Spirit’s gifts.
- My blog has been nominated for a Catholic Blog Award! My category is Best Individual Catholic Blog. Thanks to whomever it was that nominated me.
- Here’s some feedback about report cards in religious education from a DRE:
Dear Joe,
You asked for the results or feedback concerning the use of report cards in our program this year. In general it went well. I think the catechists liked the opportunity to use report cards for feedback. I didn’t receive negative comments from any of them.
We gave about 150 report cards. I heard of only six negative comments by parents. Only two were directed to me. They boiled down to saying there should be no report cards for religious education. One thought it puts too much pressure on children. The other wasn’t happy with one of her child’s marks.
What I hope to find out from catechists is whether or not a significant number of children begin to strive to do well and improve their weak areas. In other words, was this effort motivational.
- Lots of stories on the news about the Vatican announcing “new sins.” I find it amusing how many newscasters introduced this story with a smirk on their face as though to imply “that wacky old Church…still hung up on the idea of sin while we know better.”
- Another thought about the “new sins.” There’s a saying about heresies that goes like this: “there are no new heresies…just old ones in new packaging.” The same can be true of the “new sins” identified by the Church. They really are not new but the same old “seven deadly sins” in new packaging.
- Best quote related to the “new sins” story: “Father Antonio Pelayo, a Spanish priest and Vatican expert noted that it is time for both sinners and confessors to get over their obsession with sex and think about other ways humans hurt each other in the world in which they live.” Well said, Fr. Pelayo.
- If I have time today, I’ll watch Oprah’s second session on spirituality and offer some thoughts tomorrow or the next day.
How often do we hear kids say, either about Mass or about religious education class, “It’s boring”? Too often, I’m sure.
Kids (and most of us in general) are engaged when there is drama involved. That’s why sports is so big…we don’t know how the game is going to turn out and so we are engaged. Movies and video games are big because we don’t know how they will end.
One of the challenges we face as catechists is to present the drama of the Christian story. This can be particularly challenging because, on the surface, we know how the story ends. During Holy Week, we enter into the dramatic events of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. And yet, we know “how the story ends.” Where’s the drama?
The drama is, in fact, discovered in how the death and resurrection of Christ intersects with our own lives.WE DO NOT KNOW HOW OUR OWN PERSONAL STORY “ENDS.” We do not know how the Paschal Mystery will “play out” in our own lives.
The only way that the Christian story, and Mass, and religious education can be perceived as boring is if we in general find life to be boring. Granted, we do experience redundancy in our lives, but there is nothing boring about the human experience. Our challenge is to tap into the drama of the human experience and show our young people how the death and resurrection of Jesus is found in that experience and how the paschal mystery of Jesus can transform our experience.
One way we can bring our young people to this realization is to be sure that we are always addressing the profound issues of life going on around us. We need to invite our young people to pray for and keep in mind those people who are sick, suffering, oppressed, enduring hardships, experiencing the loss of a loved one, or a relationship, or of a job, and so on. We need to invite the young people to share prayers for people in their own lives who are experiencing these things, as well as the great joys of life…births, accomplishments, victories, vacations, engagements and marriages, and so on.
Life is not boring. It is full of turns and twists that can make our heads spin. We need to invite our young people to plunge headlong into the mystery of life and help them to see how God is found in the midst of it. We do our young people no favors by suggesting that following Jesus is fun or that it will take away all of our problems. The biggest favor we can offer our young people is to recognize the profound complexities of life within the context of the death and Resurrection of Jesus.
My thanks to Fr. J. Glenn Murray, S.J. for touching on this topic in his workshop at the L.A. Congress this past weekend. It obviously made me think!
Saint Patrick’s Day will fall during Holy Week this year for the first time since 1940. This means that there will be no Mass in honor of St. Patrick on March 17 which is the Monday of Holy Week (according to the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship).
Many Catholic bishops are asking for even more sensitivity to this overlap by urging parades and festivities to be scheduled outside of Holy Week. Many cities and organizations are doing just that. However, in Columbus, Ohio, the Shamrock Club is going ahead with its March 17 parade. The president of the club cites the following:
“It’s not a sin to celebrate your Irish culture.”
and
“Actually, you’re born Irish first and then you’re baptized.”
In both cases, he is technically correct but spiritually wrong. It is not a sin to celebrate your culture. It’s a matter of timing and of priorities. The word “holy” means to be “set apart for God’s purposes.” Holy Week is thus a time that we set aside from our usual practices to enter more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Christ. To insist on celebrating Irish heritage during this week is to miss the profundity of the Paschal Mystery in our lives.
Likewise, when we place anything, including our cultural heritage, in a position of more prominence than our relationship with God, we are skewing our relationship with God. What is sin other than the skewing of our relationship with God and others?
Most importantly, the idea that we are born Irish (or Polish, or African-American, or Puerto-Rican, etc.) first and then baptized is chronologically correct. However, it misses the entire point of baptism. In baptism, we are born again, recognizing that our true heritage is as children of God. This is why St. Paul said,
“for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-28)
As in many cases, this is not a case of the Church asking us to say “No” to something as it is asking us to remember what it is that we have said (and must continue to say) a greater “YES!” to.
Being Irish (or any other ethnic background) is nice, but it’s not our source of salvation.
Catechists, let’s be sure to plan any recognition of St. Patrick’s Day with our students BEFORE Holy Week so that Holy Week is truly holy: set apart for God’s purposes.
