Be a dreamer this Advent

I have one of those weight-lifter art books that nobody really reads. You know, the kind you get one of the kids to help you drag off the bookshelf onto the coffee table when company is coming over. Well, in this tome is a picture of a painting by a 15th-century painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, titled “Adoration of the Shepherds.” It’s a nativity painting in which the whole world is coming to adore the newborn Christ child. Seriously, this painting looks like it could have been inspired by the crowds at LAX the day before Thanksgiving. And every one of the throng is focused on Jesus. Everyone, that is, except Joseph.

Joseph is oblivious to the commotion, gazing far off into the distant sky, looking, in fact, in the opposite direction of his adopted son. He is depicted as an elderly man, and, when I saw the painting, I thought he’d already slipped off into dotage.

We know from Matthew’s gospel that Joseph is a man of dreams. And we know that a guy who dreams up the kind of stuff Matthew tells us about—angels appearing right and left with life-changing exhortations like “flee to Egypt”—isn’t a guy who only has three or four dreams in a lifetime. This guy lives in a dream.

How did Joseph get to be saintly? After all, when he found out Mary was pregnant, he planned to divorce her (Mt 1:19). Not shocking, but also not what you’d expect from a saint. It was his dreams that changed him. Because he was a dreamer, he was able to welcome Mary into his home and into his heart.

I took another look at the picture. In Ghirlandaio’s painting, Joseph is not an addled old man. He is a man of purpose. His hand rests firmly on a sarcophagus that serves as the Christ-child’s crib in the painting and a foreshadowing of his fate. That is to say, Joseph is grounded in the paschal mystery. With that foundation, he looks to the sky, far off in the distance, focused on what everyone else is too busy to see.

The challenge that Advent poses for us is to dream. And to teach our children to dream. But what are we to dream of? Joseph teaches us: A messenger of God, bearing good news.

Knowing Christ is our goal

When I was a kid, we didn’t have “tech.” If we did, I would have been identified as “tech-challenged.” I once tried to make a telephone out of two soup cans and string. Let’s just say AT&T’s R&D department has nothing to fear from me. I also bought a set of those X-ray glasses that were in the back of the old Superman comics. In the ad, the kid using them could see people’s bones. When I finally got them, they were two plastic rims, each encasing a single chicken feather. I guess it was supposed to look like you were seeing “bones” when you looked through the feathers.

My next door neighbor, on the other hand, two years younger than I, was a budding scientist. He built a volcano one summer. It was about four feet high and spewed rivers of colorful muck all over his father’s driveway. He also built a working telegraph, which put my tin-can phone to shame. We stretched the wires between our bedroom windows, and he’d send me Morse code messages. The fact that I didn’t know Morse code dimmed neither his enthusiasm nor my amazement.

I feel the same amazement when I see children text messaging their friends or tricking out their MySpace pages. While I struggle to set the alarm correctly on my cell phone, people who have to be “this high” to get on a Disney ride are practicing a tech wizardry that must surely be classified somewhere under the dark arts.

How do we know?

I suppose I should be more disturbed than amazed by this. After all, as an elder to these tech-savvy youngsters, I should be the one who, after long years of experience and study, has acquired a superior and even mysterious knowledge. But I don’t think of knowledge that way.

To think of knowledge as something I have, like a bottle of water, which I open up and pour over you at my discretion, isn’t really how knowledge works. That bottle of water is more like information

Knowledge on the other hand is more like the ocean. It’s not mine to give or to keep, but only to discover. I can help you discover it or not. But if you get anywhere near it, you’ll discover it with or without me. The more of us who dive in together, the more we will discover. The more we will know.

As catechists and teachers, our ministry is about discovering knowledge, not dispensing information. The General Directory for Catechesis says our goal is “to know [Christ’s] ‘mystery,’… the requirements…in his gospel message, and the paths that he has laid down for anyone wishing to follow him” (80).

If we discover a new facet of the mystery, we could try to let others know by using my soup-can phone. But the kids will have it posted on their MySpace pages before I can find my can opener. More than any previous generation, they’ve turned the idea of “teaching” on its head. They are teaching us elders what it is to be co-discovers of the Mystery of Christ. Just as the gospel requires. I think that’s amazing.

Teaching as a sacrament

Fall is a good time to look forward. It is often a time of new beginnings, new hopes, and new quests. In looking forward to this year of publication, Religion Teacher’s Journal began by looking back. In the first issue, Neil Kluepfel, editor and publisher, wrote:

If the articles [in this first issue] have helped to reinforce your convictions to continue to strive to make our religion the most important thing in the lives of your students, then the magazine this month has achieved its objective.

As we looked at that first issue and at the mission Neil laid out for the magazine, we realized that the core of the catechetical ministry is teaching. However, it is not teaching so much in the pedagogical sense (although it often includes that). Primarily, catechesis is teaching in the sacramental sense.

What is a sacrament?
The more ancient word for “sacrament”—the word the apostles used—is “mystery.” The sacraments take on a slightly different meaning when we call them mysteries. We certainly “receive sacraments,” but we “encounter mysteries.” A mystery is something that draws us in, fascinates us, perhaps even frightens us. Sacraments are always about an encounter with the Mystery of Christ. And like any mystery—the mysteries of love, or art, or music, or nature—there is much to be revealed. It can take a lifetime.

Jesus never administered a sacrament. At least not in the sense of following a ritual text inside a church. Jesus is as sacrament. Jesus is mystery. When Jesus wanted to feed the first disciples, handing on small bits of himself to his nervous, confused, child-like followers, he told stories. He drew them into the mystery of himself with parables and signs. He taught.
Teaching is first of all a mission of mystery. Pope John Paul II said the first task of a catechist is to lead people to intimate communion with Christ. To even imagine what that might look like, and how to go about it, is both fascinating and frightening.

Perhaps we fail more than we succeed. Sometimes we are stiff and formulaic. Often we are not quite sure what we are doing. Sometimes we feel like we haven’t accomplished much. But we teach, nonetheless, because we are fascinated by the Mystery. And perhaps we succeed more than we think. Because we know that even on our worst day the sacrament happens.

As we begin this new year, Religion Teacher’s Journal joins you in looking forward to the future of teaching the faith, just as it did more than 40 years ago.

Help parents share faith at home

In the September 2007 issue of Religion Teacher's Journal, Harry J. Dudley has written a terrific article on how to involve parents in the faith formation of their children. Below is a lists of resources he suggests for use in the household churches.

• Harcourt Religion has a section of their Web site dedicated to faith at home. Go to tinyurl.com/yqwzto.
• Loyola Press prints a parent newsletter called “Finding God” Our Response to God’s Gift. For more information go to tinyurl.com/2djgoo.
• Twenty-Third Publications offers a number of resources to help you become more comfortable with faith sharing and the stories from Scripture. Go to 23rdpublications.com and search on “family faith.”

Family Prayer Resources

Looking for ways to support the domestic churches in their prayer lives? Check out these resources:

"Harcourt Religion - Family Prayers." your.harcourtreligion.com. 25 May 2000. 25 May 2007 .

Lewis, Suzanne. Children's Daily Prayer. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2006.

Martin, Michaelann, Carol Puccio, and Zoe Romanowsky. The Catholic Parent Book of Feasts: Celebrating the Church Year With Your Family. : Our Sunday Visitor, 1999.

Renz, Kelley. God Listens to Our Children: Kids' Prayers for Every Day of the Liturgical Year. : Our Sunday Visitor, 2006.

"Ten Prayers Every Catholic Child Should Know - Ten Prayers for Catholic Children." Catholicism - Roman Catholicism - Roman Catholic Christianity. 2007 .

Thompson, Katie. The Complete Children's Liturgy Book: Liturgies of the Word for Years A, B, C. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 2004.

United States Catholic Conference. Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers. Washington D.C.: Usccb Publishing, 1989.

Catholic Prayers (Small Prayerbook). Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1990.

Table Prayer Cards: Table Prayer Card for Autumn and Winter. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2001.

Prayer space in the domestic church

We arrange our homes to reflect our personalities and interests. Literature lovers fill their rooms with books and comfy reading chairs. An enthusiastic cook may spend thousands turning a dull kitchen into a glittering showpiece. Yet aside from occasional holiday decorations, the spiritual side of life rarely plays a starring role in the home.

Read rest of this helpful article on creating a prayer space in the domestic churches of the parish. Click here.

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How important is religious literacy?

Boston University professor Stephen Prothero says you need to be literate about religion in order to be an effective citizen. And he says religious literacy is on the decline in the U.S. In his new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't, he notes that while 20 million bibles a year are sold in the United States, many people are unable to name the authors of the Gospels or one of the apostles.



Read a Zenit report about religious literacy in Ireland and the U.S. here.

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Concerned about the future church?

You're not alone. Futurist Rex Miller writes:

The current church model (denominational, contemporary and postmodern) stands on the same modern platform along with every other institution that holds our world together. Our industrial mindset infiltrates the Church with its “efficient spiritual delivery” system approach. This efficient spiritual delivery system poisons the well of community life and threatens our spiritual eco-system. We should ask, “Are we creating the same kind of unintended negative consequences that every other institution now faces?” What if the activities of our traditional church model actually induces lostness?

Read more of Miller's thoughts and concerns about the future here.

If you want to hear him live, and you are in the Dallas area, click here.

Church kids are better behaved

According to LiveScience.com:

Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development....



The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services—especially when both parents did so frequently—and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

Read the entire story here.

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What does the parish of the future look like?

Overall, Mr. Wagner is optimistic about the state of the Catholic parish in coming years.

"Generally, it's going to be an exciting time in the near future as these changes come into place," he said. "I'm a person who enjoys newness and change, and I think that challenge is ultimately what the Catholic faith is about: seeing the face of Jesus Christ in that challenge. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Click here to read the rest of Karen Dietlein Osborne's interview of me regarding the parish of the future.

7 things you need to tell young Catholics

Twenty-Third Publications author Michael Carotta was in San José for a workshop on young adolecent Catholics. (The event was hosted by Harcourt Religion Publishers). He spoke on some of the recent data regarding middle school aged children and how that data relates to catechesis. He said that 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have more in common with college students than college students have with their parents. This is primarily because of the postmodern outlook that folks in their 20s and younger share. This age group, from middle school to college age, is commonly referred to as Gen Y. For them, everything has to be immediate. They do not understand delayed gratification. Mike identified five myths about this generation:

1. They have low self esteem
2. There is a large parent-teen gap
3. They are generally troubled
4. They are all the same
5. They have little faith

None of these are true. However, two things that are true: they have diminishing levels of hope and their ability to make moral decisions is not based on traditional, authoritative voices.

Mike said we have to do two things catechetically. We have to turn up the volume on hope. And we have to start conversations on morality from the perspective of who gets hurt. Gen Y places a high value on not hurting anyone and not allowing anyone to be hurt.

He said this generation has two basic questions about Catholic identity: how are we different and why do you (the adults in their lives) remain Catholic.

He said he would spend the short time we have with them on these issues:

1. Spirituality
2. Hope
3. Providing a powerful experience of God
4. Emphasizing the multicolored richness of Catholicism
5. Engaging their moral imagination
   
6. Attending to stories
7. Teaching discipleship. What is the difference between a believer and a disciple?

He had lots of data, most of which he culled from the National Study on Youth and Religion, pulling out the specifically Catholic data. He emphasized over and over again that this group has a high level of faith. He urged catechists not to spend precious catechetical time trying to evangelize this group. "The already believe," he said.

A couple of the statistics he cited struck me as especially interesting. 8 out of 10 believe in God, and yet only one third of them have had a powerful religious experience. I wonder if they have not had a powerful experience of God, what or who is the God they believe in.

Another interesting thing is the majority of them talk with their parents about religion at least five times a month. And the majority of them are interested in learning more about their faith. This seems like a huge opportunity to provide catechetical resources for the domestic church so they will know how to talk with their kids.

Finally, half of them find liturgy to be boring. I'm amazed it's only half. Still, there is a lot of work to do to keep this group engaged liturgically.

The Upper Room

Did you ever have one of those “strong driving wind” experiences in which the Spirit rushed upon you, and all of a sudden anything seemed possible? That happened to me recently. I met the new director of our local Catholic Charities office a couple of months ago. I was making small talk and asked him what his plans were for his new position. “To cut poverty in half in this county,” he answered. Well, yeah. I meant in this lifetime. But he meant within this lifetime. Actually, he meant within 15 years. I was startled. The trends are in the opposite direction. Child poverty is actually getting worse, up 12 percent since 2000. But he has a plan. And I believe it’s possible. That’s what the Spirit can do.

But it’s not just the Spirit that does these kinds of impossible things. It is the gifts of the Spirit. If you turn to page 20 [of the April / May 2007 issue of RTJ], you’ll see a listing of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us. Now I know there are a lot of gifts, and I can even name most of them. I’ve taught classes about them. Nevertheless, something about seeing the gifts all lined up on the page that way—well, I was startled again. It’s like your favorite Christmas as a kid when you not only got all the stuff you asked for, but also the stuff you never dreamed your parents would ever get you.

So here’s a challenge for all of us who love kids. Let’s put some of those gifts to use. Let’s cut poverty in half in 15 years. Or choose your own impossible goal. But start working on something. All we need is a plan. Not sure where to start? Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, has some suggestions that can help us start putting our gifts to use:

1. Don’t feel entitled. Don’t assume a door is closed; push on it. Don’t assume if it was closed yesterday that it is closed today.
   
   
2. Assign yourself. If no one has given you a task or a job to do, assign yourself one. Take initiative. Be persistent.
   
   
3. Be honest and demand that those who represent you be honest. And don’t ever confuse morality with legality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us, “Everything Hitler did in Nazi Germany was legal, but it was not moral.” Don’t give anybody the proxy for your conscience.
   
   
4. Don’t be afraid of taking risks or of being criticized. An anonymous saying is, “If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t do anything, don’t say anything and don’t be anything.” Don’t be afraid of failing; it is the way you learn to do things right.
   
   
5. Listen to the sound of the genuine in yourself. If you cannot hear it in yourself, you will spend all of your life on the end of strings that somebody else pulls. Today, there are just so many noises and so many competing pulls on us. Find ways and times and spaces to be silent to listen to yourselves and to listen for other people.
   
   
6. Never think life is not worth living or that you can’t make a difference. Never give up.

When did they change confession?

In "What is a Sacrament? New Wine, Old Wineskins," (Religion Teacher's Journal, Februray 2007) Sr. Linda Gaupin writes:

Catechists and teachers must be people who themselves have been transformed by sacraments and who live the sacramental life. It also goes without saying that they know the meaning of sacrament as set forth in the revised sacramental rites of the church. In my ministry of forming catechists it is not uncommon to find catechists who are unaware that the ritual forms of reconciliation have changed from “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”

Apparently she was right about the amount of formation we still need to do. Ever since the article appeared, she has been getting e-mails from catechists (and from DREs and priests!) asking when the sacrament of reconciliation changed. Here is her response:

---

The sacrament was revised following the Second Vatican Council. It was published in Latin in 1973 for the universal Church and issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship. Pope Paul VI approved the revised Rite of Penance and ordered it to replace "the pertinent titles of the Roman Ritual hitherto in use." The decree issuing the rite states: "The Rite in its Latin original is to come into force as soon as it is published. Anything the contrary notwithstanding" [Decree].

The English translation of the revised Rite of Penance was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1975. The Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy [BCL] recommended that the new rite not be introduced until adequate catechesis had been done for clergy and the faithful. To allow time for a full and authentic catechesis, they delayed the effective mandatory date for implementation until the First Sunday of Lent, 1977. To facilitate this catechesis the BCL prepared The Rite of Penance: Study Book Edition. This book contained the entire official rite plus introductory material to acquaint priests and religious educators with the richness of the meaning of the sacrament as well as the renewal of penance in the church.

In the revised Rite of Penance there are three sacramental forms.

1. The first is entitled the "Rite of Reconciliation of Individual Penitents." This is the sacramental ritual that is to be used between a penitent and the priest.
2. The second sacramental form is used when several pentitents are present. It is entitled "Rite for Reconciliation of Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution." This ritual form can be found in the Rite of Penance.
3. The third sacramental form is entitled "Rite for Reconciliation of Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution." This form is generally not permitted for use in the United States.

I trust this helps. You may want to contact your diocesan director in the worship office of your diocese if you need further assistance with this.

---

Click here for a list of resources on the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Fire of Faith

The choir huddled together near a wood pile stacked higher than Jane’s head. “Holy Week,” she thought. “Yeah, right. What’s so holy about it?” Nothing had gone right since it started. She loved her sixth grade Sunday school class, but the only part of the Passion play they got right last Sunday was the mob scene. Not exactly a dramatic stretch for most of them.

Then she and Tom had had a fight about…what? She couldn’t remember. But he should know better. rehearsals for the kids, planning Easter dinner, trying to get caught up at work (and failing) so she could take Good Friday off. “Wouldn’t a good husband cut you a little slack?” she thought.

And then John had been a real pain all day. “Mom, do we have to go to Easter Vigil?” he whined. “It’s going to be cold.” He had begged her to join the seasonal choir with him. “It would be a lenten family thing,” he explained. “Like Father Thompson told us to do on Ash Wednesday.” She knew it had much more to do with Mary Beth Richards in the soprano section than Father Thompson, but whatever gets the kid to church.

Her own voice, unused to regular singing, was raw from practicing and from the rainy weather. The seminarian intern—-what was he thinking?—-had talked Father Thompson into starting the Vigil outside this year. John stood sullen at her side, alternating between pouting and stealing glances at Mary Beth.

“Dear friends in Christ,” said Father Thompson, “on this most holy night….” John stifled a yawn. Jane elbowed him, and gave him her best “DON’T YOU DARE” look. “We ask this through Christ our Lord.” Boom! Boom! Boom! Someone was pounding a drum. A torch appeared, snaking its way above the heads of the crowd.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Jane realized they were too close to the wood and began to inch backward. The torch bearer tossed the flame into the wood. Woosh! Flames lit up the night. Boom! Boom! Boom!

Jane grabbed her son’s arm to pull him back, but he wouldn’t move. He stared into the flame, his face glowing in the fire light. “Wow!” he said to the fire. “Is that what God’s like?”

“Holy Week,” thought Jane. “Holy indeed.”

Genius Tool

We posted earlier about mind maps. Here is a short video of Tony Buzan, the inventor of the concept, discussing how to use mind maps to boost your thinking power.


[via Slacker Manager]

The Sixth Station

When she saw him fall, she tried to call out but could only whisper. Her throat was raw and her voice spent from earlier shouting his name against the mob. “Barabbas,” they had yelled in unison, drowning out her frantic pleas.

Then Simon called out to the guards. They pulled him from the crowd to help, and she tried to follow. The guards pushed her back, and she stumbled and fell, just as he had.

From the dirt, she remembered this was how she had first encountered him. She had been trying to reach through another crowd, crawling on the ground, intending only to touch his sandal or his cloak. Somehow, in all the jostling, the people pressing round him, he’d known her touch. He turned and looked directly at her, down in the dirt, her tunic stained and caked. She was embarrassed, ashamed to be in public, ashamed for him to see. She buried her head in her hands and wept. But he would not take his eyes off her. He knelt down and cupped her chin in his hand. She looked up and saw his face.

It was unlike any face she’d ever seen. It was ordinary and plain and unremarkable. And at the same time it was completely extraordinary, a most remarkable face. She couldn’t stop staring. Long after he’d gone, she would still see his face as if it were inches in front of her, looking back, deep into her soul.

As Simon shouldered some of the weight off of him, he turned toward her once again. The pain she saw was too much for her. Blood dripped into his eyes and off his chin; sweat and tears mixed with the dirt of the road, making his face into a gruesome mask. And still somehow, it was his face, that face that had stared back at her on the road to Capernaum. He reached out to help her up, but the guards lashed him and pushed him forward. The crowd cheered and urged him on with taunts and jeers.

She tore a piece from her new tunic, the first she’d had in years that was not stained with her own blood, and charged after the mob. She slipped under the guard’s arm as he tried to stop her and reached out to touch him once again. But this time, standing, face to face. She wanted him to see—see what she’d become because of him. Healed. Whole.

She took the unstained scrap torn from her dress and wiped the blood and dirt from his face, praying she could stop the pain for him as he had for her. As the guards pushed the procession onward, she held the bloodstained rag in her hands and wept, still seeing his face, inches in front of her.

Quiz Bowl

In the March 2007 issue of Religion Teacher's Journal, Michael Haggartey suggests hosting a quiz bowl to renergize your youth gatherings. Here are a few questions from the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament to get you started. For lots more questions, click here.

• Are Mormon baptisms valid in the Catholic Church?
• Can weddings be celebrated at Sunday Mass?
• Can non-Catholics share in communion at a Catholic Mass?
• How many holy days are there in the church calendar?

Do you have a question you have been wondering about? Click on the comments link below, and post it here for an answer.

10 Ways to Inspire Others

Lisa Haneberg has listed 10 ways to inspire employees on her Management Craft blog. The suggestions are all business oriented, but several could be translated to parish or school environments. Here's my favorite:

Be a role model of courage. When our managers demonstrate courage, this will inspire us to do the same, and we will respect them all the more.

That could be adapted to read:

Be a role model of courage. When pastors demonstrate courage, this will inspire parishioners to do the same, and we will respect them all the more.

Or:

Be a role model of courage. When teachers demonstrate courage, this will inspire students to do the same, and we will respect them all the more.

Can you suggest some adaptations or some brand new ideas for inspiration? Post your thoughts here, and I'll compile a list of the best entries.
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/7455470

The cross and hoe

An RTJ subscriber wrote in about the February poster:

I have ordered the Stations of the Cross posters for my Sunday School program. I am working on activities to correlate with the poster. However, I do not understand the symbol that is used for the 5th Station. A hoe? Can you explain the relevance? Any help you can offer is appreciated.

Gwen Costello, who authors the monthly posters, replies:

In the gospels of Mark and Luke, Simon of Cyrene is referred to as "coming from the country," which has traditionally been interpreted as coming from the fields. The hoe is the symbol of his work in the fields. I'm sure there might be other symbols for Simon but I don't know of them personally. I hope your class enjoys the poster. My best wishes for some wonderful lenten lessons.

To order copies for your group or class, click here.

Pastor/Principal as CEO

Thomas J. Healey writes in the San José Mercury News:

If the pursuit of best practices and improvements in corporate governance has pushed companies to higher performance levels, why couldn't the Catholic Church -- whose workforce of 1 million is triple the size of General Electric's, and whose annual operating budget of nearly $100 billion would rank it among the nation's largest corporations -- reap the same kinds of rewards?

That's the message the church is beginning to hear from a small group of parishioners who also happen to be CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives from some of the country's most successful private and non-profit organizations. They've formed a team of consultant volunteers known as the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, which is offering a range of talent and expertise, free of charge, to the Catholic Church.

[More; free registration required]