Now, I realize that what I’m feeling is not reality.  It’s not dead air and my faith tells me that someone, namely God, is always listening even if I don’t feel like He is.  With that faith as support, you keep on going.  You don’t give up.  You don’t let temptation win out.  And here’s the kicker … you need to PRAY about overcoming the dryness and until God reveals to you how to get past it, you offer up that dryness as suffering.

There is a great series about dryness in prayer over at Catholic Spiritual Direction.  Fr. Bartunek’s comments are very helpful in putting this into perspective.  If you are feeling spiritual dryness or want to read about it, I recommend going over there and reading the three articles Father has posted.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

What struck my when reading this is that, at it’s core, Catholicism has not changed much.  Sure, we’ve explained things more clearly to show how they pertain to a particular time; but the principles are very similar.  I mean seriously, who would have thought that in the early second century (which is when this is believed to have been written), there was an explicit prohibition against abortion, or that one could not approach the Eucharist if they had not confessed their sins first.

I guess there is some truth in the saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

For those interested, there are a number of English translations for The Didache.  Below I will link one of them as well as the audio book:

The Didache at New Advent
The Didache Audio Book

The writing is very short but a great way to peer into our Church’s history.  While it may not be a catechism, per se, you can’t deny that it describes ”the Way”.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

The Catholic New Media Celebration is an annual gathering of podcaters and bloggers where ideas are shared, newbies are inspired, and old friends (whether virtual or physical) get together.  This year, the CNMC will be happening in Boston, right in my neck of the woods.  I decided that I just could not pass up this opportunity, not only to meet the people behind the voices and the text, but to learn a thing or two from those in attendance.

The CNMC MMX (i.e. Catholic New Media Celebration 2010) will be happening on August 7th at the Pastoral Center for the Archdiocese of Boston.  Will you be there?

For more information, watch the video below or go to http://www.celebration.sqpn.com.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

A few weeks ago, Jeff Young, The Catholic Foodie had an episode on his podcast about the Divine Office.  This episode was not just about the prayer itself, but about DivineOffice.org.  The episode was primarily an interview with the crew of that ministry — Dane, Chriss, Denise and Greg.  DivineOffice.org is recording audio of the Liturgy of the Hours “with the purpose of promoting the tradition of praying always  through these ancient treasures of the Church, not only to Catholics but to all Christians universally.”

This interview had my headphones glued to my ears.  They not only explained how they ended up in this ministry but also explained what this prayer is really all about, and that helped demystify it for me quite a bit.  As I implied above, one of my biggest hesitations has always been how much time this employed-full-time-Catechist-by-night-husband-and-father would be able to commit to a prayer that could be lengthy.  I honestly never considered the possibility of just praying some of the prayers throughout the day.  The crew suggested that one begin with just one of the Hours of the day and grow from there.  I had always assumed it was all-or-none.  Additionally, the fact that you can pray the Hours together with these fine folks by downloading their recordings or listening to them directly off their site, made this even more of a possibility. One might otherwise feel lost or intimidated on how to pray them correctly.  Even though the recordings don’t contain specific instructions, they still almost double as a tutorial of sorts.

So I decided to begin praying the Divine Office.  I try to pray the three major hours each day — Office of Readings, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.  Occasionally, I’ll sneak Night Prayer in before going to bed.  These prayers are absolutely beautiful!  There is a lot of focus on the psalms and the readings thus far have flowed like stories.  This is this a great way to grow in your familiarity with the scriptures overall.  I’m starting to have a broadened understanding of salvation history even within the short time since starting this.

Have any of you contemplated trying the Divine Office?  If you have and have been scared off or have otherwise delayed doing so, let me strongly recommend that you listen to the interview on The Catholic Foodie, then go over to DivineOffice.org and have a look around.  The service is available for free directly through their website, RSS Feed or iTunes podcast.  They do have a paid iPhone app, but that is completely optional and not getting it will have no impact to your ability to pray the Hours.  (It’s a great app, by the way.)  I hope you will consider praying this beautiful prayer of the Church.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

For our parish, the formal Catechetical year is over.  Our Catecumen has been initiated, our students have had their final exams and classes are over until September.  I guess that means it’s time to reflect on the past year.  Teaching others is always a work in progress, no matter what it is that you are teaching.  Religious Education is, of course, no different.

As I think back, I tried some new things this year with mixed results.  Additionally, I tried some very successful strategies from last year, surprisingly also with mixed results.  But through the great discussions, the disciplinary issues and everything in between, something struck me; I think that as a Catechist, I’m learning more about the faith then I did when I was being catechized myself.

That statement I just made has a lot of meaning in it.  Some people would say that the catechesis my generation received as children was sub par, while others would say that my memory is slipping and I just don’t remember (Sr. Martina would be very upset about that), and yet others would say that I was just a kid and didn’t really care back then, which isn’t true at all.  I’d like to think that it is something totally different.  I’ve progressed in my faith journey since my days back at Our Lady of Fatima School in Jackson Heights, NY and I’ve experienced a lot more at this stage of my life.

I now have the opportunity, capacity and maturity level to delve deeper into what it is that Christ was trying to tell us 2000 year ago, and continues to tell us today through His Church.  I have a different prospective today then it did when my biggest worries were around lying to my parents about something silly or how I treated my friends or my little brother.  Today, as I prepare to guide the children charged to me, I have begun to understand how it all fits together and what the end goal really is — to love all unconditionally. That’s the big picture!  That’s what the message boils down to.  A one work summary of the Good News — Love.

By no means am I saying that I understand everything, after all, our faith is full of mysteries; nor am I saying that I even know how to put it all into practice in my own life, but all the preparation for my lessons has broadened my own understanding and has propelled my own faith journey further than I ever realized it could go.

Who could have imagined that my efforts to help with the Church’s mission to make disciples of all nations would have helped my own discipleship?  I thought I’d be sharing my own knowledge with my students and the Holy Spirit has used that to throw me a curve ball, to my own benefit no less.  He’s a sneaky one; or better put, He works in mysterious ways!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

RCIA is a whole different animal, isn’t it? While I understand the importance of catechizing individuals of all ages, I never really appreciated the difference between working with the parish youth and working with adults. As you all know, catechizing youth is generally structured with focusing on one broad theme for the entire year. In my case, the 6th Grade curriculum is primarily focused on the Bible, comparing the Old and New Testaments in an effort to better understand Salvation History and how it connects between the two collection of books. In RCIA, it’s a much broader approach. You have to try to share as much of 2000+ years of Scripture and Tradition in one year.

What seemed like an impossible task, has proven to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It has not only been a privilege to follow Christ’s command to “make disciples”, but the discussions are so much more profound at this level. You can explore topics in much greater detail, helping foster a deeper understanding. Additionally, those discussions have helped me develop my own faith further by forcing me to contemplate some of the topics and questions in a way that I have never done before.

But there is something else that is uniquely special about RCIA … the Easter Vigil. The reward at the end of the program, not only for the candidate or catecumen, but also for the catechist. It’s not like sharing the faith with youth, which has its own rewards; but you get to witness your ministry bear fruit right before your very eyes. I was able to witness the rebirth of an individual through Baptism, who was then fortified by the Holy Spirit through Confirmation and unified with Christ through First Holy Communion; and the Holy Spirit did it in part through me. I have been truly blessed!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

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.

I actually chuckled.  I forced patience on them because I told them there were five other commandments that we needed to review before we got to that one.  It’s very clear though, what was on their minds and that they already had an idea of what that commandment relates to.  To no surprise, they had questions, lots and lots of questions.

When we finally got to the Sixth Commandment, I explained it’s literal meaning as well as it’s broader meaning, just like I did with each commandment before it.  Then I let the questions begin:

- What does adultery mean?
- You have to be married?  Why?
- How about if it’s with your girlfriend?
- What if you live with your boyfriend?
- What if you love your boyfriend?
- What if it happens the day before you get married?
- Is being a homosexual a sin?
- What if someone has already done stuff?

I have to thank my students from last year for preparing me for this discussion.  Last year, I flew by this topic and avoided answering questions in any detail.  Not this year.  I felt like I missed a teaching opportunity the last time this happened and I did not want a repeat of that this year.  Oddly enough, I did not prepare for the discussion.  In fact, I completely forgot what had happened last year; but when the first question arose, I felt at perfect ease discussing it.

The Holy Spirit must have been guiding me last night because I had a “sex” discussion with these kids without skipping a beat.  I did everything possible to control the giggle-fest that ensued once the discussion began and I was successful in doing so.  Also, while talking about it, I wrote the word “Sex” on the board to dispel any sense of hesitation or shyness on my part.  My inclination was that by have a serious and open discussion about what the Church teaches regarding this topic, I had more of a chance of making an impact.

We focused on things like the importance of sex only happening within a marriage, why it is otherwise considered a mortal sin, what the natural purpose of the act is (i.e. love, commitment and procreation), why being with a boyfriend / girlfriend is not enough, etc.  We even discussed why being a homosexual, or more accurately having those tendencies, is not a sin in and of itself.  I focused on the fact that a person is not a sin, only acts are sins.  I did this to help distinguish between the dignity we all deserve as human beings and the sinfulness of acts that we may commit, irrelevant of any sexual tendencies.

All in all, the discussion went very well.  I made it a point to not let it digress and gave them the opportunity to ask some questions that were clearly on their minds.  My only regret was not having a little more time.  I know I left some questions unanswered and since next week is a unit review, I may leave a little extra time to answer any remaining questions.  I’d rather they ask me and come away with an accurate understanding of what we are called to believe then to have the questions remain without answers or with poor answers from others.  Of course, recognizing the controversial nature of the topic, I gave my CRE a heads up just in case any parents called in about it.  While my comments were perfectly in line with the teachings of the Church, that does not mean that some parent out there may not like what was discussed.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Our keynote speaker for the English program was Joe Paprocki from Loyola Press.  My loyal readers will recognize him from my frequent referrals to his blog, Catechist’s Journey; but besides being an insightful blogger on catechesis, he is also an author as well as an 8th grade catechist.  His address, “Catechesis That Enters Through ‘Their Door’ but Leaves Through ‘Your Door’” was all about connecting with your students’ lives with practical tips for overcoming the generational gap that can exist between catechist and student.  I think his insights were spot on since I experience what he pointed out each week with my 6th graders.

Aside from Joe’s address, there were a number of workshop options available throughout the rest of the day.  I attended a morning session called TIPS which shared creative ways to make that class more interactive and more organized to help foster a higher level of learning while keeping the students active and engaged through the class session and throughout the year.  For the afternoon session, I chose to attend a presentation by our diocesan Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults.  This session was a perfect compliment to Joe’s comments because it explored the mindset of today’s youth when it comes to God.  It focused on reading the signals that the youth are sending us and offered some practical approached to strenghting our own signals back to them regarding the Good News.

In reflection, I’m glad that I atteneded this year’s congress.  Not only did I learn a lot from those presenting at the event, but I benefited greatly from the interaction with and participation of the attendees, many of which are more experienced that me in catechesis.  As an added benefit, I got to meet some really great people there and was inspired by the focus and support that the Archdiocese of Boston places on this ministry.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

I have to admit that the whole structure of an online course took some getting used to.  It really does require a certain amount of self-direction and motivation that differs from a course with a physical classroom setting and an instructor.  The role of the facilitator for this type of course is to guide and provoke discussion more than it is to teach.  Most of the education comes from reading material, exercises, reflection and discussion with other students through the use of discussion boards.  Once I adjusted to the structure, I could appreciate this method of learning much more. 

As for the course itself, the “Catholic Beliefs” course at the VLCFF was great!!  It allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of many of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church, thereby helping further deepen my faith.  We focused on various topics including the purpose and true meaning of the Creed, and compared the three versions of the Creed used by the Church since its inception.  Did you know there were three Creeds?  We also learned what the true teaching of the Church is regarding Papal Infallibility, the difference between Church “Tradition” and “tradition”, the intent of the Second Vatican Council for the Universal Church and the importance of community in catechesis, especially as it relates to children.  I had definite misconceptions about some of these teachings and so did many of my classmates. 

A course like this can definitely be humbling.  Just when you think you know a lot about the teachings of the Church you realize that your knowledge may be superficial at best.  Most of what we know go so much deeper then we realize and has a much broader meaning then what is commonly known.  Do you really think about the words of the Nicene Creed when you recite it as Mass?  When you really focus on it and understand its deeper meaning, you begin to appreciate just how powerful this statement really is!! 

I have two weeks between courses.  Starting on August 30^th, I begin the second course for my certification.  I’m looking forward to “Introduction to Catechesis” and I anticipate that I will be taking more courses beyond those required for my certification as time goes on.  There is so much to learn.