Franciscan at Home

Apply online today at online.franciscan.edu. Or call 740-283-4410.

To order this book from Our Sunday Visitor click here. Or call (800) 348-2440.

This is a paid advertisement in the October-December 2020 issue. 

Few people impact us on such a deep level that it changes our life journey. For me, that influence happened in 1994. In August of that year, Barbara Morgan began the catechetics program at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I had the great blessing of being there when it started. She became a spiritual mother to me and infused in me a deep sense of purpose. In this article, I would like to share a few ways in which she did that with me.

The First Class

Barbara’s significance in my life was unparalleled, and I knew it would be profound as soon as I encountered her. At that first class, in the course entitled “Content and Curriculum,” I sat in the front, which is usually not the case for me (give me the back row, please). Since I showed up to the MA program with almost six years of parish youth ministry experience, I wanted to pay attention, since this course would be geared directly to pastoral situations. Little did I know what I was in for. As much as I loved the study of theology in all its disciplines, when Barbara began to teach catechetics, I was moved at a far greater level than any subject I had studied before. Through her, God revealed my vocation and identity to me and, as a result, I could never be the same person.

After her first class, I could not contain myself. I followed her to her office and had to tell her my plans for a teen Confirmation resource. I’m sure I sounded like a babbling fool. What was happening was not about my ideas regarding Confirmation; in a real way all my grandiose plans and projects were secondary. The underlying reason I had to seek her out was because I had had an unprecedented encounter with the Lord. I was reacting with unabated joy to a calling and could not contain myself.

And that was just the first class.

¿Cómo se hace catequesis durante una pandemia?

Varios meses de separación forzosa de su grupo de RICA o su clase de Primera Comunión no es una contingencia para la cual es probable que algún catequista haya planeado. Sin embargo, aun cuando la vida ordinaria cambia más allá de toda familiaridad, el llamado que hace Cristo a Sus fieles a profundizar nuestra relación con Él ha permanecido constante – y también ha sido constante la necesidad de catequesis que hace eco de aquel llamado divino en Su Iglesia.

La sombría realidad de la cuarentena con su encierre ha incitado una respuesta inmediata e ingeniosa de parte de los catequistas. En la diócesis de Portsmouth, Reino Unido, esta respuesta ha adquirido varios formatos. Examinar cómo los catequistas de la diócesis han respondido a la crisis nos proporciona no solamente amplios ejemplos de maneras en las que la catequesis puede adaptarse a una situación de encierre o de cuarentena -  a la cual la respuesta internacional al COVID-19 quizás no sea la última – sino que también destaca las dificultades y los retos que presenta una tal “catequesis de encierre” y lo que revela acerca de la práctica de la catequesis más ampliamente.

La catequesis en el Reino Unido

El encierre comenzó en el Reino Unido el día 23 de marzo del 2020, al clausurar los negocios, los establecimientos de servicios, y los lugares del culto, y con la prohibición de viajes no esenciales. En ese entonces, los catequistas del RICA se estaban preparando para acoger en la Iglesia a sus catecúmenos y candidatos en la próxima Vigilia Pascual, mientras que los catequistas de Primera Comunión y de Confirmación estaban preparando a sus candidatos para la recepción de los sacramentos en el verano o a principios de otoño. Los catequistas en el Reino Unido trabajan dentro de un contexto que presenta un reto distinto aun sin la carga adicional del encierre: de los 3,129 millones de personas que residen en la diócesis de Portsmouth, solamente 230,000 son católicos – y de ellas, solo el 13% (29,000 personas) practican su fe.[1] Los catequistas son voluntarios normativamente no pagados que hacen caber sus responsabilidades catequéticas alrededor de sus vidas llenas profesionales y familiares.

En Portsmouth, la catequesis recibe el apoyo de un equipo llamado Formación para la Misión, un grupo diocesano compuesto de voluntarios experimentados dedicados a la formación continua de los catequistas. Seis miembros del equipo de Formación para la Misión, activos en varios apostolados en las parroquias de toda la diócesis, compartieron sus experiencias de la cuarentena conmigo: cómo han adaptado, lo que han aprendido, y cómo aquellas lecciones del encierre podrían transformar a la catequesis a largo plazo.

Subiendo la catequesis en línea

Sin excepción, los catequistas con quienes platiqué han hecho uso extensivo de la comunicación digital, principalmente el correo electrónico y la plataforma de videoconferencias Zoom, para mantenerse en contacto – pero, de distintas maneras según su apostolado específico.

Los catequistas de Primera Comunión (PC), por ejemplo, han utilizado el correo electrónico para continuar con una catequesis estructurada, basada en lecciones para los niños a quienes instruyen. Jo, una catequista de PC en Alton, utiliza el correo electrónico para enviar cada semana “un esquema de una lección para que los padres de familia lo realicen con sus hijos”, con una invitación a que los papás le envíen “algún tipo de respuesta de los niños”. Mary, una catequista del Sacramento del Bautismo y de PC en East Hendred, graba sesiones del programa de preparación para los sacramentos, I Want to Make My Home in You [Quiero hacer mi morada en ti] de Come Follow Me [Ven, sígueme] – un programa basado en la Sagrada Escritura que hace uso de grandes tarjetas con siluetas de personajes bíblicas – y las envía “a los padres de familia por correo electrónico para que las pongan a sus hijos, junto con fotos de las tarjetas con las siluetas”. Angela, una catequista de PC en Southampton con responsabilidades adicionales relativas a la catequesis de los padres de familia, envía correos electrónicos para actividades catequéticas adaptadas a los niños: por ejemplo, “la redacción de cartas a los parroquianos ancianos o compañeros de oración en su parroquia”.

El 25 de octubre del año en curso, El Pontificio Consejo Vaticano para la Promoción de la Nueva Evangelización publicó el nuevo Directorio para la Catequesis. Este es el tercer documento apostólico explícito y oficial sobre la catequesis en tiempos recientes.

On June 25th of the current year, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization released the new Directory for Catechesis. This is the third explicit apos- tolic and official document on catechesis in recent times.

What people have been waiting for!

Call 740-283-4410 or visit [email protected].

Do you want to know the most common questions a youth minister gets asked? “How many kids came to youth group last night?” or “How many kids signed up for the retreat?” Throughout my 10+ years of working as a parish youth minister, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked these questions as a way to evaluate the success of the parish youth program. Now, typically a youth minister responds to the most popular question with the most popular answer, which is “Youth ministry isn’t about numbers; if we change one heart it’s worth it.”

Unfortunately, “nickels and noses” (money and numbers), as Gil Rendle puts it in his book Doing the Math of Mission, are two of the quickest and simplest ways to evaluate ministry. Rendle, however, makes the distinction between counting and measuring, saying that counting is “more about resources and activities than about outcomes,” whereas measuring is about “change… it is more about call, purpose, and possibility.”[1] Whether clearly articulated or not, I don’t think anyone would argue that “change” is what ministry is all about. Conversion, growth, holiness: these are about change, not numbers. Isn’t this what we want to see happening in the lives of our teens?

As our culture degenerates into a post-Christian, secular humanist society, youth ministry becomes more difficult. Some studies show that Gen Z is the “least religious” generation in our country today. Youth ministers have to work harder and be more creative than ever before to connect to students. Students are busier than ever. No longer are Wednesday nights and Sundays reserved for “families and faith”; school and club teams schedule events during these previously hallowed times. Because students are more connected through social media and the internet, why go to youth group when they can watch a well-edited YouTube video or do a simple Google search to find their answers about God?

Introduction

Over the last several decades, theologians who focus on evangelization in general, and the moment of catechesis within it in particular, have given considerable thought and attention to the topic of the kerygma, and rightly so. The kerygma can be aptly understood to be the summary of the Gospel; and, as such, it is always deserving of closer study, especially so in an age when Catholicism is waning in many places.

In this three-part series, I’m explaining what the kerygma is and why it’s important. In the first installment, I provided a basic overview of the kerygma, identifying seven essential components: the (1) salvific (2) life, (3) death, and (4) resurrection of (5) Jesus of Nazareth, who is both (6) Christ and (7) Lord. Having already addressed the salvific component in the first installment, here I will focus on the next three components: Jesus’ life, death (including his burial) and resurrection.[1]

Jesus’ Life as Part of the Kerygma

When we think about Jesus’ earthly existence and the kerygma, it’s common to focus on his death and burial. After all, this is when Jesus offered himself for our salvation—another aspect of the kerygma—out of love for the Father and for each and all of us. His complete gift of Himself, his literal self-sacrifice, obviously and rightly garners most of our attention.

However, we ought not skip over the proclamation of Jesus’ life and jump straight to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In other words, the truth that Jesus really lived a human life is just as much a part of the kerygma as is his death and resurrection. Here we’ll look at just a few reasons why this is so.

First, to acknowledge that Jesus really lived, and that he did so in a specific time and place, as part of a real family and a real people, is to assert definitively that the Christian faith is not a myth. Remember, the kerygma is the proclamation of something that has happened: the Gospel is not a fable or myth that begins “Once upon a time” or “Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away.” No, our faith, at its very core, asserts that he really lived as a man.

Second, acknowledging Jesus’ “real life” also asserts the truth of his humanity: Jesus lived a real, human life. And not only was it real, it was in many ways, really ordinary. While his conception and birth were miraculous, the vast majority of his life was completely ordinary; he was like us in all ways, but sin. Speaking of the part of his life that is unknown to us -- between his parents finding Him in the temple at age twelve and his baptism by John the Baptist around age 30 -- the Catechism tells us that during that time “Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor” (CCC 531).

One might fairly ask, if much of Jesus’ life was so ordinary, why is it part of the kerygma? The Catechism provides the answer: speaking of his obedience to Mary and Joseph, it tells us that “the obedience of Christ in the daily routine of his hidden life was already inaugurating his work of restoring what the disobedience of Adam had destroyed” (CCC 532). In other words, Jesus’ ordinary life was already the beginning of our salvation: in his obedience to Mary and Joseph, he was already undoing the fall of humanity caused by Adam’s disobedience.

So, to announce Jesus’ life is to proclaim that he really lived, that he was really human, and that much of his life was both ordinary and salvific.

Fortitude is a virtue that is admired by even the non-religious. Even people who think temperance is for the overly pious, consider meekness a weakness, and scoff at humility believe that fortitude is a laudable attribute. For thousands of years, cultures have honored the courageous, recognizing the hero that finds the balanced mean between fear and impetuousness. As C. S. Lewis notes in The Screwtape Letters, people are “proud of most vices, but not of cowardice.”

The Catechism tells us, “Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life” (CCC 1808). Living a virtuous life requires courage. This is something we need to teach more frequently. The call to fortitude is not just in tales about knights or the stories of the martyrs, but in the life of every believer. The daily life of a Christian is not for the faint of heart.

For many years, catechesis shied away from presenting the Sacrament of Confirmation in “militaristic” terms. Avoiding language about battle and warfare, students were no longer taught about being “soldiers for Christ.” Some explain this language was omitted to avoid the sacrament being interpreted as a coming of age ritual or sign of maturity. If that was the case, the attempt has failed. Survey the average confirmation class and you will find most students, if not the catechist as well, has a misunderstanding of the sacrament along these lines.