Franciscan at Home

Aun cuando los documentos del Magisterio sobre la catequesis se refieren a los padres como los educadores primarios en religión, muchos padres y educadores religiosos en nuestras parroquias, no comprenden la importancia de esta afirmación. No se espera de los padres que hagan una catequesis formal, de tipo escolar. En cambio, el rol de los padres es uno que solamente ellos están llamados a cumplir: su responsabilidad vocacional para inculcar la Fe en un plano cotidiano, a través de la oración, la celebración litúrgica y la formación moral. A diferencia de los catequistas, que suelen tener solamente una hora por semana con los niños, los padres están con sus hijos diariamente a través de sus años formativos, con el potencial de establecer en ellos hábitos de oración, alentar la participación en la liturgia, y dirigir un progreso real en su formación moral. Mientras que los catequistas en la parroquia y en la escuela bien puedan proporcionar dirección y consejos, además de enseñar la doctrina, sin embargo, los padres y los miembros del núcleo familiar son esenciales para una correcta vivencia de la Fe. Una buena formación en el seno familiar, por lo tanto, provee un buen fundamento para la catequesis formal, de modo que los dos pueden ser enriquecidos mutuamente.[1]

Los padres son indispensables en el desarrollo de la consciencia y de la virtud. Esto se debe a que, como el Directorio Nacional para la Catequesis, explica: “La catequesis en cuestiones morales involucra mucho más que la proclamación y la presentación de los principios y la práctica de la moral cristiana. Presenta la integración de los principios de la moral cristiana en la experiencia de vida para el individuo y la comunidad.” [2] La familia es para el niño la primera y más importante comunidad para este aspecto esencial en su formación moral. El Directorio Nacional para la Catequesis confirma que los padres son responsables de la formación moral de los niños, de acuerdo a la ley natural. “Los padres son catequistas, precisamente porque son padres. Su rol en la formación en los valores cristianos en sus hijos es irremplazable.”[3]

¿Qué es la virtud?  ¿Qué es el bien?[4]

La virtud es un hábito o habitus. La forma latinizada se debe preferir aquí, porque nuestro entendimiento familiar de la palabra “hábito”, no está en consonancia cuando consideramos la virtud. Como habitus, la virtud ocupa una posición entre las potencias del alma y los actos de una persona. No es simplemente una acción repetida; es una habilidad dinámica de crecimiento hacia el bien en una acción humana. Se requiere de un habitus para hacer funcionar las potencias humanas que tienen más de una manera de ser activadas. Mientras que cada sentido físico, por ejemplo, tiene una particular función: los ojos ven, los oídos oyen y la lengua gusta, la voluntad, por el contrario, puede desear muchas cosas, requiriendo para ello un habitus para darle forma; una voluntad recta, una voluntad débil, malicia, todos describen el habitus de una voluntad particular. El habitus, en sí mismo, es un término neutral, que se refiere simplemente a un patrón de crecimiento en una potencia humana en particular, dirigido hacia determinados tipos de acción. Por ejemplo, una persona de buena voluntad tiene un patrón de crecimiento en la virtud, pero la persona maliciosa tiene un patrón de crecimiento hacia el vicio. Las virtudes se desarrollan a través de una acción humana correcta, y el trabajo en conjunto del intelecto y de la libertad, que afecta no sólo a las acciones ejecutadas, sino también resulta en el desarrollo moral de una persona humana. La virtud de la valentía ayuda a perfeccionar los movimientos del apetito irascible del alma en acciones que toman cuerpo en buscar el bien en circunstancias adversas. Las capacidades verdaderamente humanas del conocer y del amor requieren de la virtud para funcionar bien. Además, el carácter moral de una persona cambia a través de la virtud, de modo que la persona con virtud es una buena persona.

El bien es un concepto análogo. Cada cosa posee o muestra el bien de un modo que es específico al tipo de cosa que ella es. Un bolígrafo bueno escribe bien, una silla buena está construida de tal manera que soporta a la persona que está sentada sobre ella. Para que una persona sea buena, las potencias del alma, las emociones, y las pasiones deben estar guiadas por el intelecto hacia el propósito o el objetivo en la vida. Los padres cristianos están guiando a sus hijos a los más grandes objetivos: la unión con Dios, a través de la imitación de Cristo. Este es el bien que surge a través de la virtud. [5] El crecimiento en la virtud, por tanto, significa crecimiento en el bien, una acción buena consistente que trae alegría al agente.

While magisterial documents on catechesis refer to parents as a child’s primary religious educators,[1] many parents and parish religious educators misunderstand the import of this statement. Parents are not expected to do a formal classroom-type catechesis. Instead, the parents’ role is one they are uniquely positioned to fulfill: their vocational responsibility to inculcate the faith on a day-to-day level through prayer, liturgical celebration, and moral formation. Unlike catechists, who might have one hour per week with children, parents are with their children daily throughout their formative years, with the potential to establish habits of prayer, foster participation in the liturgy, and direct real progress in moral formation. While parish and school catechists can provide guidance and support, as well as teach doctrine, parents and family members are essential to the actual living of the faith. Good formation within the family, therefore, provides a solid foundation for formal catechesis so that both can be mutually enriching.[2]

Parents are indispensable in the development of moral conscience and virtue. This is because, as the National Directory for Catechesis explains, “Moral catechesis involves more than the proclamation and presentation of the principles and practice of Christian morality. It presents the integration of Christian moral principles in the lived experience of the individual and the community.”[3] The family is the child’s first and most important community for this essential aspect of moral formation. The National Directory for Catechesis confirms that parents are responsible for the moral formation of children, according to the natural law. “Parents are catechists precisely because they are parents. Their role in the formation of Christian values in their children is irreplaceable.”[4]

What is Virtue?  What is Goodness?[5]

Virtue is a habit or habitus. The Latinized form is more suitable here because our familiar understanding of the word ‘habit’ doesn’t quite fit when considering virtue. As habitus, virtue occupies a position between the powers of the soul and the acts of the person. It is not simply a repeated action; it is a dynamic ability for growth toward the good in human action. A habitus is required for human powers that have more than one way of being activated. While each physical sense, for instance, has one particular function: the eyes see, the ears hear, and the tongue tastes, the will can desire many things, needing a habitus to give it form; a good will, a weak will, malice all describe the habitus of a particular will. Habitus itself is a neutral term, simply referring to a pattern of growth in a particular human power towards certain kinds of action. For example, the good willed person has a growth-pattern of virtue, but the malicious person has a growth-pattern of vice. Virtues develop through properly human action and the working together of choice and intellect, which affects not simply the resulting actions but also results in the moral development of the human person. The virtue of courage helps to perfect the movements of the irascible power of the soul to actions that embody seeking the good in difficult circumstances. The truly human capacities of knowing and loving require virtue to function well. Further, the moral character of the person is changed through virtue, so that the person with virtue is a good person.

Goodness is an analogous concept. Each thing possesses or displays goodness in a manner that is specific to the kind of thing that it is. A good pen writes well, a good chair is constructed so as to support the person sitting in it. For a person to be good, the powers of the soul, emotions, and passions must be guided by reason to the purpose or goal of life. Christian parents are leading their children to the loftiest of goals: union with God, by imitation of Christ. This is the goodness that comes about through virtue.[6]  Growth in virtue, therefore, means growth in goodness, consistently good action that brings joy to the agent.

“I guess we’ll all get to see how well our pandemic plans actually work.” The moment my dad said that to me is the moment I realized that none of us were prepared for COVID-19. Even businesses that developed a pandemic plan never really tested it. And I do not know of a single parish that planned ahead for the complete interruption of normal operations. Now that we experienced “Corona Time,” as my pastor likes to call it, we have learned much about virtual ministry, found best practices, and discovered its unique benefits. Corona Time has forever changed our parish’s formation strategy and disaster preparedness for the better.

Our Virtual Ministry

The key for our Faith Formation Team was to establish a schedule, both for working from home and for our digital presence. When we first started, we all struggled with throwing together some content and slapping it on the parish Facebook feed whenever it was finished. Within a week, we settled into a programming schedule that kind of felt like running a TV station. We continued emailing specialized content to specific groups—we emailed First Communion Preparation content to second graders’ families and Sunday reading worksheets to every family every Sunday—but most of our content was posted to social media at designated times.

 To register or to get more information about the Theology of the Body June 2020 Conferences, visit RuahWoodsPress.com/Training or call (513) 407-8672.

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“Parenting was so much easier when I raised my non-existent children hypothetically”.

A friend shared this meme with me a few months ago, and it resonated. Before I became a mom, I had lofty ideas about how much screen time and fresh fruit children should consume. My parent-self, on the other hand, decided screen time doesn’t count if it’s Veggie Tales or Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; and if this pouch of applesauce says it’s 100% real fruit, then who am I to judge?

Nowhere, however, was my hypothetical parenting more exercised than during my interactions with the parents of my students in sacramental preparation and youth ministry. My twenty-something single-self couldn’t understand why parents didn’t seem to read my clever emails, attend all my parent meetings, and (most importantly) get their children to Mass on Sunday or the Saturday vigil. My thirty-something newly-married-self had animated conversations with my husband after a night of youth ministry about how our kids would be different.

Then we became parents, and every prayer for humility I had ever uttered was answered. Perhaps it was a more unusual adjustment than most, since we became parents through fostering children whose exposure to faith in general, and Catholicism in particular, was limited or even erroneous. However, the more I listen to other parents, the more I learn that, with the task of raising tiny humans (whether they are biological children, step children, grandchildren, adopted children, or foster children), there is a constant sense of inadequacy that creeps into everything we do: the food we serve, the educational methods we select, and the extracurriculars we elect.

However, as a professional lay minister—whose resume includes years of work as a youth minister and as a catechist at a mission in Central America and at parishes in both South Carolina and Florida—I was unprepared for the thoughts that buffeted me when I went from being a catechist “on staff” to being the primary catechist of the children in my home. Over the years, I’ve come to recognize these thoughts for what they are: lies. Sometimes the truth of how God sees us and how the Holy Spirit is moving can be hardest to discern in our own life and in the lives of those closest to us.

Here are some of the negative thoughts that bombard me, especially at frustrating moments when attempting to share the faith within my own home. Perhaps you can relate.

“Life is what happens when you are making other plans.” How often people have said this with a wry smile as they cope with an untimely interruption to their well-ordered (or not-so-ordered), scheduled events.

Evangelization is a primary function of Catholic schools. Although they provide quality education in a variety of subject areas, as agents of the Church, they share the larger mission of the Church: forming disciples of Jesus Christ. Catholic schools should and must be more than public schools that also happen to have religion classes. Speaking about the role of the Catholic school, the Vatican II Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis states, “But its proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith” (8). A key role of the Catholic school, then, is as an agent of evangelization.

Schools can live out their mission to evangelize in a number of practical ways, including evangelizing students, evangelizing the family, and preparing students and families to evangelize the community.

Catholic Schools Evangelize the Student

Providing religious education is a key priority in the Catholic school, but religious education must be different than education in mathematics, science, history, or other subjects. If our objective is to form disciples, the Catholic Faith cannot be simply approached intellectually. Religious education in the Catholic school must be an immersive and formative experience that begins with an encounter with Jesus Christ through the proclamation of the kerygma.

Knowing Jesus is different from simply “knowing about” him. As we draw closer to Jesus, our lives are changed—we find the joy of becoming who we were made to be, we are challenged, and we are called to places we might have never gone before. A Christocentric catechesis—one that focuses on the person of Jesus Christ—facilitates an environment in which learners can get to know Jesus and draw closer to him.

Help learners become acquainted with the Gospels, particularly the Paschal Mystery: Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Periodically choose a passage from the Gospels that is developmentally appropriate for your learners, both in length and content. Invite your learners to relax, close their eyes, and imagine themselves somewhere within the Gospel story. After meditating on the Gospel passage, invite learners to reflect on their experience. What did they hear Jesus saying to them, and how does it connect with their lives today?

¿Siquiera es posible la santidad hoy en día?

Antes de que nos casáramos, mi esposo, Curtis, y yo cada uno por su parte nos habíamos encontrado con nuestro Señor a través de unas conversiones profundas y ambos ya éramos muy comprometidos con seguir a la voluntad de Dios en nuestra vida matrimonial. Dios nos invitó a vivir nuestra fe en la arena pública a través de la pastoral universitaria donde estudiábamos, The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (La Confraternidad de Estudiantes Universitarios Católicos) (FOCUS), y de manera más íntima en nuestro propio hogar. Curtis y yo hemos estado casados desde hace más de treinta años y bendecidos con nueve hijos y cinco nietos. Dos de nuestros hijos tienen necesidades especiales: uno de nuestros hijos tiene autismo y otro tiene el Síndrome de Down. El esforzarnos por vivir nuestra fe con júbilo no siempre ha sido fácil, pero Dios sigue dándonos la gracia que necesitamos cada día para vivir según Su voluntad. A veces me desanimo y clamo a Dios preguntando si la santidad es siquiera posible. Luego me viene a la mente la Palabra de Dios, y creo que Él sigue hablando estas palabras a cada uno de nosotros en la actualidad:

“Yo soy la verdadera vid y mi Padre es el viñador. El corta todos mis sarmientos que no dan fruto; al que da fruto, lo poda para que dé más todavía. Ustedes ya están limpios por la palabra que yo les anuncié. Permanezcan en mí, como yo permanezco en ustedes. Así como el sarmiento no puede dar fruto si no permanece en la vid, tampoco ustedes, si no permanecen en mí. Yo soy la vid, ustedes los sarmientos El que permanece en mí, y yo en él, da mucho fruto, porque separados de mí, nada pueden hacer. … Si ustedes permanecen en mí y mis palabras permanecen en ustedes, pidan lo que quieran y lo obtendrán.” (Juan 15,1-5.7)

Cuando forcejamos con la pregunta de la santidad real vivida por personas ordinarias, Jesús siempre nos enseña el camino. En este pasaje, Él nos invita a permanecer en Él. Si permanecemos en Jesús, entonces daremos mucho fruto en nuestra vida y alcanzaremos la santidad. Jesús nos está diciendo que necesitamos permanecer cerca de Él si queremos ser santos en esta vida. Esto es en verdad bastante sencillo. Necesitamos conocer a Jesús, encontrarlo en la Palabra, en la oración, y en los sacramentos. Yo creo que las personas que han encontrado a Jesús personalmente, que lo han hecho el centro de su vida, y están viviendo una vida de acompañamiento con Jesús, tendrán un deseo profundo de compartir a Jesús con todos los que estén en su vida.

Jesús nos está invitando a cada uno a un encuentro más profundo, nos está pidiendo que vivamos en una relación íntima con Él para compartir con los demás esta Fe transformadora de vida. Como padres de familia, nuestra primera responsabilidad es para con nuestros hijos. Cuando aceptamos esta invitación y su gracia, aceptamos la invitación de San Pablo, “Por lo tanto, hermanos, yo los exhorto por la misericordia de Dios a ofrecerse ustedes mismos como una víctima viva, santa y agradable a Dios: éste es el culto espiritual que deben ofrecer. No tomen como modelo a este mundo. Por el contrario, transfórmense interiormente renovando su mentalidad, a fin de que puedan discernir cuál es la voluntad de Dios: lo que es bueno, lo que le agrada, lo perfecto.” (Rm 12,1-2).

Is holiness even possible these days?

Before we were married, my husband Curtis and I each had encountered our Lord through profound conversions and were both very committed to following God’s will in our married life. God invited us to live our faith in the public square through our college campus ministry, The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and more intimately in our own home. Curtis and I have been married for over thirty years and have been blessed with nine children and five grandchildren. Two of our children have special needs: one son is autistic and one son has Down Syndrome. Trying to live our faith with joy hasn’t always been easy, but God continues to give us the grace we need each day to live in his will. I sometimes get discouraged and cry out to God asking if holiness is even possible. Then I’m reminded of Jesus’ Word, and I believe that he continues to speak these words to each of us today:

Photo of illustration of Grandfather & grandson praying before meal--by Jim Surkamp--Flickr.com image

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the wordwhich I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:1-5, 7 )

When wrestling with the question of real holiness lived out by ordinary people, Jesus always shows us the way. In this passage, he invites us to abide in him. If we abide in Jesus, then we will bear fruit in our lives and holiness will be achieved. Jesus is telling us that we need to remain close to him if we want to be holy in this life. It is really pretty simple. We need to know Jesus, encounter him in the Word, in prayer, and in the sacraments. I believe that people who have encountered Jesus personally, have made him the center of their lives, and are living a life of accompaniment with Jesus, will have a deep desire to share Jesus with everyone in their life.

Jesus is inviting each of us into a deeper encounter, asking us to live in intimate relationship with him so as to share this life-changing faith with others. As parents, our first responsibility is toward our children. When we accept this invitation and his grace, we follow St. Paul’s invitation, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:1-2).