Last time, I mentioned that I was trying to begin a Youth Ministry group in our parish.  That has really taken up quite a bit of time.  The original core group of adults had a very different view of youth ministry than I did.  That being said, I tried to be accommodating because if it’s one thing I learned over the years, it’s that I do not have all the answers.  Well, the two other adults decided to leave the program and that left me having to do everything.  The good news is that I get to structure the group in a way I think best balances faith and social activities; the bad news is that it is all me at this point, which I think limits how much we can do.  I’m praying and asking for more help, but we’ll see what happens there.

As I mentioned, Religious Education is pretty challenging this year.  I have a group of 9th graders, and about a third of the class is made up of members of a local high school’s freshmen football team.  Additionally, two thirds of the class are boys that know and feed off of each other.  Discipline is a challenge and they seem so disconnected from their faith that they just don’t get the curriculum from this year.  I’m going to talk to my CRE about the possibility of changing the content for next year.  While I love the idea of going through the Mass in detail, there are some basic things these students seem to be missing, which significantly limits how much they can get out of the material.  Can you say “blank stares”?

Anyway, I’ve recieved some great feedback over the last few years on my blog and encouragement to keep it up.  I’ve also gotten a lot out of posting and reading the comments some of my readers leave, so I’m not ready to give this up.  I truly hope to have more content to offer going forward, but I also recognize that I’ve said that before and have then fallen off the face of the blogosphere.  I ask for your patience and forgiveness as I try to get back in a routine that will allow me to share with all of you again.

Until next time (which I hope will be much sooner than last time), keep sharing the faith.

Real life.  It’s an unpredictable thing.  Things pop up that you don’t expect.  Your free time begins to dry up.  You put things on the back burner.  You get busier and those things never get moved back to the front.

That’s sort of what happened to me.  Family life got hectic.  Projects at work went into a ridiculous level of overdrive.  Religious Education continued at a steady pace but still required a good amount of prep time.  And then there is Youth Ministry.

Yep, that’s right, Youth Ministry.  I am helping start up a youth ministry at our parish.  I don’t think I could have ever anticipated how much work would need to go into building a youth ministry from the ground up — training, idea generation, comprehensive structure, volunteer needs, budgeting (or lack thereof), activity coordination, marketing, dealing with varied opinions on what this ministry should look like, coordinating with other parish ministries — I’m sure I left something out.

I have not given up on blogging.  It is a great vehicle to share my joys and let out my frustration.  I have to rejigger my time and figure it all out, but I definitely want to get blogging its due time.  If you are still reading here, please stay tuned and activitry should kick back in at some regular intervals soon.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

There was a lot of good information offered throughout the day, with much of the focus being around media literacy.  The overreaching message that I got from the workshop was that this form of communication is not a fad.  Whether you “love” it, “hate” it or have a “love/hate” relationship with it, is here to stay and we must embrace it.  Also, this means of communication is a game changer.  It is interactive.  It must respect open communication.  Everyone wants to have a say and if you make it one directional, you will have very little, if any impact on the world.

This seems very different from how we traditionally think of communication from the Church.  The Church preaches from the ambo, it teaches the Truth as given to us by Jesus Christ and as revealed by the Holy Spirit.  This stuff isn’t up for discussion, is it?  Unbeknownst to most, the Church’s official position on its presence within the world of media is to be an active listener, not simply and authoritative teacher.  This is contradictory of the perception, but that position places the Church in a good position to participate effectively in the use of these tools.  It listens and responds with the Truth.

I think many would comment that the Church has been slow to embrace some of the tools available in the new media space, but through the leadership of the Venerable Pope John Paul II and the current leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the Church is making great strides.  This must continue through the embracing of these technologies at the parish level.  As was made clear at the workshop, to be effective, the use of these tools must allow the opportunity for dialogue.  Pastors and catechist must listen first and teach as a follow up to that listening.  I don’t think the average parishioner is used to that, nor are many of the pastors and catechists out there; but I think our youth are definitely ready to engage us with the hope of learning and better understanding.  We need to engage them in a way that shows that we respect them, their concerns and their methods of communicating and learning.  Bishop Herzog said in his comments, “If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.”  We don’t have to change the message, only how we deliver it.  We must go to them, not expect them to come to us.

Thank you Sr. Helena and Sr. Anne for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us!  I, for one, have been given a deeper understanding of the importance of using these tools effectively.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Catechetical programs today are not like that.  Today, we see a lot less memorization and much more conceptual, story-based and scriptural-based teaching methods that help get the message across.  I have to admit that the programs of today seem a lot less dry, make it easier to keep the attention of the students and do a good job of connecting the teachings of the Church to today’s society.

So then, which one is better?  I would say neither, or maybe it’s both.  Okay, I think it’s a blend of the two.

I received a comment in class last night when we broke out into an unscheduled Q&A session that “this is what makes religious ed fun.”  My response was that Religious Education by unstructured Q&A does nothing more than give one points of Catholic trivia.  Unless it is part of a structured program, you can’t understand how it fits into the big picture.  That being said, are the current catechetical programs really answering the questions of our students?  Are we trying to beat around a teaching instead of hitting it head on, like the Baltimore Catechism did?

We have all seen it.  People don’t know their faith today.  Scarier yet, the kids in our religious education programs don’t know their faith all that well either and presumably it’s supposed to be fresh in their minds.  Why might that be?  I would submit because as we teach something, we move on and don’t continue to review it over and over again.  Let’s take the Ten Commandments.  We teach the Ten Commandments to our second graders as we prepare them for First Reconciliation.  That is integral to their curriculum.  We review the Ten Commandments in 6th grade as part of our review of the Old Testament.  By 6th grade, students have forgotten the Ten Commandments.  Sure, it may have had cursory mention in other years, but a mention is just not enough.  That’s a pretty basic thing to know, but we don’t support it from year to year so it gets dropped from memory.  I won’t even go into basic Catholic prayers!  It’s our fault for not holding our youth accountable for this knowledge; our fault and the fault of parents.

I think we, as religious educators need to balance the need to understand our faith with the need to know our faith.  Just going through a program that teaches through Q&A does not help you understand how to truly live your faith because it is not flexible enough to cover that ever developing scenarios we are faced with; but it is a great way to learn “the facts”.  On the flip side, teaching you the meaning of a particular tenant of faith in detail once without returning to it again in any great detail doesn’t really help make it stick.  Should we not have some basic items that every student should be required to show knowledge of every year?  Test on the Ten Commandments every year.  Test on Acts of Mercy every year.  Test on the Act of Contrition every year.  Test on the True Presence every year.  I can go on.

It is important to progress through topics of faith and help students understand what it should mean to them today, but not so exclusively that we never give it an opportunity to set in through repetition and memorization.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Does your life ever take on a life of its own? Mine seems to have done just that. I guess being busy is a good thing. When it comes to my day job, it can lead to some amount of job security, or at least the appearance of security. It can lead to less wasted time simply because I always seem to have something to do next. When it comes to Religious Education, more challenges easily leads to more knowledge and an ever growing appreciation for the faith, with the added bonus of a strengthened relationship with the Almighty.

Let me catch you up.  My diocesan Catechist Certification came through.  Yay for me!  It’s nice to have that behind me.  I was also asked by the Archdiocese’s Office of Religious Education to write an essay about my experiences while going through the certification process.  The essay ended up being published in The Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, last month.  If you are interested in reading it, I’ve posted the essay text here.

As I mentioned previously, I’m teaching 9th Grade this year and the theme of the year is the Mass.  The class has been going pretty well, but it didn’t start off that way.  The first couple of weeks had such a power struggle that it would have put the movers and shakers in Washington D.C. to shame!  But my focus on respecting them and commanding respect from them ultimately paid off.  Of course, showing them that I respect them by bringing in candy each week didn’t hurt either.  Hey, I’m not above a little bribe of sweetness, nut-free of course.

With a couple of months under my belt at this point, I’ve make one clear observation so far.  It has become obvious as to just how much the secular media has impacted my students’ thinking and beliefs.  I know that this isn’t unique to my students or my community and I’m pretty sure that my 6th graders last year were just as strongly influenced; however, I think the 9th graders are much more confident and comfortable expressing what they believe, even if they are not a Christian beliefs.  As a Catechist, I have a responsibility to show them where they are going astray in their beliefs and why, but with responses like, “but that is what I believe” and getting comments like, “you’re just not going to change my mind” can be very disheartening.  I only take comfort that Jesus never forced someone to believe.  I can only lead them to the well but it is up to them to choose to drink.  That being said, I have a good class and I can only pray that the seeds that are planted will grow some day.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Over the past year, I’ve been looking at a lot of resources on the internet gathering ideas on class setup and lesson structure.  Part of what I plan to do next year is to throw my students off their game a bit.  The grade’s primary curriculum will be an in depth look at the Mass.  This will be a topic that will lend itself to discussion, so I’m going to move the students away from the tables and have the chairs placed in an open circle in the center of the room.  My hope is that the proximity to me and the other students will make the discussions more lively and intimate.  It should set the tone that all must participate and it doesn’t give anyone a place to hide. A huge plus is that there will be no table there to help them hide their texting under and while that hasn’t been a huge problem in the past, with an older grade I wanted to eliminate the temptation. My CRE is also working on a way to incorporate Theology of the Body into the year.  My experience is that sex is on every teen’s (and tween’s) mind, but they are uncomfortable discussing the topic with any reliable source of information.  I suggested a student retreat as an option for covering some of the material.

Intimidation aside, I’m actually excited about the change.  The Mass is such a central part of how we express our faith that I think this has so much potential.  Additionally, I’m hoping the three year difference in age will make for more intelligent discussions as compared to what I was able to have with my 6th graders.  I’m pretty sure the students will keep me on my toes, so I ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit wins out.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Anyway, Sister usually answers reader-submitted questions on her blog. Last week, she answered a question from a catechist around the use of the left hand for making the sign of the cross. This post really got me thinking about the various traditions and devotions that exist in the Catholic Church. Our faith has so much to strengthen us as we progress through our faith journeys. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through high school and was constantly exposed to ways of expressing our faith, not only through prayer but through action as well. I can clearly remember learning the Hail Holy Queen in 3rd grade, learning how to pray the Rosary, walking the Stations of the Cross every Lent, attending First Friday Mass throughout the school year, learning how to follow along using a missalette (talk about confusing!) and having Benediction periodically. (Boy, I hated the smell of incense back then!!)

All of my students go to public school and therefore they get none of that exposure. For example, I was shocked to find out that none of my students had ever done the Stations of the Cross before!?! Many of these traditions are opportunities to better understand the meaning of our faith and to strengthen us spiritually. Additionally, they are beautiful, especially when you understand their history and meaning. I would love to be able to expose my students to these practices as tools to further their understanding of Catholic faith.

I have two challenges here. The first is time. How does one go about giving their students exposure to some of these traditions and devotions when one is limited to 1 hour a week with a full lesson’s worth of material to cover? The second challenge is the fact that while they are not exposed to this at school, most are not exposed to this at home either. Even if I could find the time to do at least a cursory review of some of these practices in class, there is very little expectation that it will stick without exposure to it outside of class.

I guess I have a whole summer to figure this out. Have any of you found successful ways of exposing your students to the beautiful devotions of the Church and its faithful (and making them stick)?

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

I have been lucky enough to have participated in two excellent webinars over the past couple of weeks that have really helped me to reconsider how I should engage in my ministry.

The first webinar was presented by Jonathan F. Sullivan, who is the Director of Catechetical Ministries for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.  The webinar was titled “Catechizing Digital Natives” and focused on the different ways that today’s kids process and learn information.  Below is the video recording of the webinar and here is a link to some of the resources discussed in the video.

The second webinar was presented by Joe Paprocki from Catechist’s Journey.com and Loyola Press.  Joe is well known among Catechists as not only an author of numerous books about being a Catechist, but also as an 8th Grade Catechist himself.  His webinar was titled “Growing as a Catechist: A Self-Evaluation Based on 7 Critical Tools from The Catechist’s Toolbox” and focused on how to reflect on our own ministries with the goal of tweaking our approach and preparation to add more impact when we catechize.

I found both of these webinars so valuable that I just had to share them with you.  As Catechists, sometimes we feel like we are left to our own devices and it’s nice to know that there are others out there who share their ideas with us.  It’s amazing when you find out that the problems you face in your classrooms and parishes are not as unique as you might think.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

All that being said, I have been busy. Not spectacular busy, but more like boring, every day busy. It’s time, however, to refocus on sharing my experiences with you — experiences of catechizing, experiences of personal spiritual growth and experiences of sharing the faith to all. Stay tuned for more regular updates and thanks for sticking with me!

So what’s been going on you might ask?  Besides all the things at work that would bore you, I’ve been busy working on Religious Education stuff.  My classes have been going well.  In my 6th Grade class, we’ve discussed wisdom, focusing on individuals like King Solomon.  I was able to use one of my favorite Old Testament stories (1 Kings 3:16-28) to show wisdom in action.  It was great to see their reactions as I read parts of the story and stopped for impressions.  We’ve also discussed some of the prophets that foretold of the coming of the Messiah, like Isaiah & Zechariah.  I think the differences of how the Messiah was described were a bit tough for them to grasp.  With those topics, we wrapped up the formal curriculum around the Old Testament.

This week, we moved into the New Testament, exploring parts of the Gospels in a little more detail.  We got to focus on one of my favorite New Testament stories, “The Boy Jesus in the Temple” (Luke 2:41-52).  Oddly enough, the prior week I got asked the question if Jesus knew he was God from the time he was born.  I referred to this passage to help express my opinion.  As we reviewed this story, I chose to focus on Luke 2:51.  We discussed the significance of the fact the Jesus was “obedient” to his parents.  I always find it such a powerful example that Jesus, who is God, was obedient to His human parents.

On top of my 6th Grade lessons, I had the opportunity to present at RCIA this past week.  My topic was “The Sacraments of Healing”.  As much as I felt comfortable with my knowledge around the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I still felt that this needed to be spot on, so I did a lot of work with the Catechism and some other resources to help make sure I got it right.  Additionally, I had never done much work around the Anointing of the Sick, so this gave me an opportunity to increase my own knowledge as well.  I felt very good about my presentation and our catechumen asked some insightful questions which was a signal to me that my presentation was giving him reason to think.

On top of that, I’m also working with my CRE and fellow catechists in developing a plan for our 6th Grade Retreat that will be happening in early February.  My CRE provided me the framework and I helped build out a more detailed discussion plan.  The theme of the retreat will be the Ten Commandments.  Lastly, I’ve been methodically working on my pastor to allow me to create a Facebook page for our parish.  After months of my pastor not having time to focus on it, we met today and he agreed that we needed to do it.  And just like in the business world, the person who has the idea gets the project.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m very excited about doing this.  It will be a great opportunity to stay connected to parishioners beyond the Sunday Liturgy, but for it to be successful, it needs constant focus.  Please pray for me as I deal with whatever the game of life throws my way.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.