Franciscan at Home

Co-founder of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom…the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.” James 3:13, 17

Sofia Cavalletti was aptly named and an appropriate answer to the question found in the Epistle of James. This woman lived among us, “wise and understanding.” She led a “good life” filled with the “humility that comes from wisdom.” Her reverence for the Bible and liturgy, her fresh and compelling style of writing and speaking, her wise and intelligent way of discussing complicated theological themes simply and her sense of humor and personal warmth will be greatly missed by many. She was a herald of wisdom and joy, a capacity developed through daily biblical study and liturgical celebration which led her to discover the profound religious potential of children. “How remarkable that a person of noble birth, a noted biblical scholar,[i] writer and educator who sat on the Vatican Council for Jewish-Christian relations (the SIDIC) would choose children and their relationship with God as the centerpiece of her life’s work.”[ii]

To many who live in the United States, ‘Montessori Catechesis’ may seem something of an oxymoron given the particular ‘unreligious’ mileu in which many Montessori schools find themselves. Yet anyone who has studied Maria Montessori and her educational philosophy knows that she was a devout Catholic, formed in the mind and heart of the Church. In her philosophy of education, we can hear an echo of St. Thomas Aquinas’ teachings on the nature of the human person[i] as well as Pope Leo XIII’s teaching on the nature of human liberty.[ii] Referring to her method, Maria boasted that ‘in its very substance (it) is Catholic!’[iii]

The General Directory for Catechesis states that ‘Catechetical methodology has the simple objective of education in the faith.’[iv] This being said, Maria Montessori offers us a unique ‘catechetical praxis’[v] that is both ‘faithful to man and faithful to God?’[vi]

We have been looking at Marian apparitions for the past few issues as a means of focus during this year of faith. Since the last issue of The Sower we have seen the historic retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis. Since Pope Paul VI we have seen our Popes eager to visit shrines and places of pilgrimage. Twelve hours after his election, Pope Francis went on pilgrimage to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. It is the oldest church dedicated to Our Lady in Rome built shortly after the Council of Ephesus (431). He prayed before the image of Mary, Salus Populi Romani [Protectress of the Roman People]. Afterwards, he greeted the people outside.

Dear brothers and sisters, good evening! Thank you very much for your presence in the house of the Mother of Rome, of our Mother. Long live the Salus Populi Romani [Protectress of the Roman People]. Long live Our Lady. She is our Mother. Let us entrust ourselves to her, because she cares for us like a buona mamma [good mom]. I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I need it. Three Hail Mary’s for me.

Why was this pilgrimage so important to the man from Argentina who had just been elected pope? He obviously understood the power of pilgrimage in our Catholic life. Instead of focusing on any specific apparition, I want to look at pilgrimages to shrines, which would be appropriate after looking at various apparitions. Shrines have been built on the sites of those apparitions and thousands and thousand of the faithful, including myself, have gone on pilgrimage to pray and praise God for his love for us.

On January 5, 2011, I had the privilege of attending Mass at the Shrine of St. John Neumann in Philadelphia. Justin Cardinal Rigali celebrated the liturgy which marked the beginning of the Redemptorist’s celebration of the Neumann Year, which will end on June 23, 2012.

‘The witness of his life speaks in a particular way to our own age,’ said Baltimore Provincial Patrick Woods. ‘As political battles are waged about undocumented immigrants and our borders, we think of our saint who was a zealous pastor to waves of immigrants. St. John Neumann lived in an age of fierce anti-Catholicism; today, we face a spirit-sapping secularism. Educating our young people is a great challenge for us today as it was for the founder of the parochial school system’.

His first assignment was to teach catechism to German children. He was ordained on June 25, 1836 and was able to gave first Holy Communion to children he catechized. On the day of his ordination, he prayed that God would ‘give me holiness, and to all the living and dead, pardon, that some day we may be all together with You, our dearest God.’ He ministered in upstate New York, traveling to all of the little villages and hamlets that had Catholics.

Br Louis explains why catechesis on the vocation to be a Brother in the Church is so important for our work.

The task of catechesis today faces many challenges as it attempts to address a generation of young people who have suffered from either poor catechesis or a complete lack of it. Those principles and teachings which generations before had taken for granted are unknown or distorted. One of these is an understanding of the rich history of our Church and the essence of the various vocations that have existed in the Church.

While most street Catholics have a clear enough understanding of the Priesthood and the Sisterhood, these in part being popularized over the years by the cinema, few have heard much about the vocation and role of the Religious Brother.

Heaven is exciting. I do not think this is always made clear. You have doubtless seen several pictures of the Last Judgement. There was often one on the West wall of Mediaeval Churches to remind the departing faithful to live in such a way that they would be among the sheep, not the goats. Many such paintings show the just being welcomed into Heaven, and the wicked cast into hell. Often you suspect that the artist enjoyed painting hell more than he enjoyed painting heaven!

One particular painting, for example, shows Heaven as a city wall, with Angels playing trumpets, while, below, hell is more interesting – a huge dragon breathing fire, inside whom the damned are being boiled in cauldrons, while demons push wheelbarrows full of the wicked into its mouth. You get the impression that the most interesting thing to do in Heaven is to look over the wall and watch what is going on in hell! A limited, even boring, picture of heaven is often seen in modern cartoons showing harps and clouds; a recent survey of children’s views of Heaven showed that they imagined things like endless ice cream. I wonder whether some artists and preachers of the past put too much energy into frightening people off hell because they found it hard to think of ways to attract them into Heaven; and I wonder how many modern preaches and teachers know how to speak excitingly about heaven.

Saints seem to have lost some of the popularity they used to enjoy with Catholics. Perhaps this is because they have too often been seen as impossibly Perfect People, who lived long ago in a world very different from the one we have to live in. They used to be known as ‘heavenly helpers’, but it is hard to see how they could be any help in our modern secular society, where people are full of doubts about everything beyond the here and now. So, why approach the faith, and particularly the history of the faith, through a study of her saints? Why is this a useful approach for teachers and catechists to take? Four important reasons stand out.

After all these years of writing these articles, I surprised myself just recently when I realized that in all the many saints I have discussed in these pages, I had yet to talk about the life and work of St. John Baptist de la Salle. He is known as the Father of Modern Pedagogy. He was the first educator to desire that lessons be taught in French, and not in Latin, as was the case. He believed that students should be grouped in classes according to their age and ability. He believed that the textbooks should be the same for all students in that class. These things are so commonplace for us teaching in the western world that we probably have not realized that these things were revolutionary in the 17th century - and that we owe them to a French priest, the founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the Christian Brothers.

Unfortunately the limited space of these articles does not allow us to delve fully into the life of these catechetical saints. But what we can observe here is that de la Salle became enamored with the education of children and the training of teachers, even to the point of taking the teachers into his own home, to provide them with both physical as well as emotional support in their difficult and often discouraging efforts.

Eventually, de la Salle gathered about him young men who were desirous of following him. In 1864, he distributed his inherited wealth to the poor, and thus the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools had its very humble and simple beginning. He determined that there would be no priests in the Institute. The brothers were to devote their entire lives to the education of youth, and priestly duties would not allow them to be free to engage in such a focused ministry.

Thomas Aquinas is not generally thought of in relation to catechesis. In fact, he is not referred to in the General Directory for Catechesis. However, Aquinas can render a valuable service to catechesis today as a model of pedagogy and a doctrinal resource for catechists.

In his essay entitled “Thomistic Theology and Religious Education,” Fr. Mark Heath provides a great service in bringing Aquinas into modern catechetical discourse. He lays out three main points, which he claims define Thomas’ contribution to catechesis: synthesis (systematic), theocentricity, and doctrine. Thomistic theology integrates all true insights (as seen especially in Thomas’ Aristotelianism), treats all things through and in relation to God, and is ordered toward a deeper understanding of the faith. These three points stand in stark contrast to current trends in catechesis, which focus on experience and praxis, as well as theories that emphasize whole-community catechesis. Therefore, Heath’s essay provides a helpful service in addressing the current crisis of catechesis, particularly by bringing Aquinas back into the discussion.

However, Heath’s essay can only be viewed as a preliminary effort. While he effectively brings forth key elements of Thomistic thought, the full catechetical significance needs further exploration. The content of Aquinas’ theology is actually tightly knit into a methodology intended to order one’s mind and heart to God. By focusing on the content of Thomas’ catechetical sermons (as well as of the Summa Theologiae) one can grasp how Aquinas’ presentation of doctrine is meant to draw the listener/reader into a deeper engagement with the realities that he presents.

The Year of Faith will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, November 24, 2013. In his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict said, “Let us entrust this time of grace to the Mother of God, proclaimed ‘blessed because she believed’ (Lk 1:45).” In these articles during the Year of Faith, I have been focusing on apparitions of Our Lady, who always leads to her Son. In this article, I want to give a brief account of several apparitions that are less well known.

Certainly we are all familiar with the conflicts in the Middle East. If we are attuned to the news, we are aware of other conflicts in the world. To many of us, they may seem so very far away, and while we may pray for these situations, we may have missed the fact that in many of these countries, Catholics are being persecuted, they are truly suffering! In the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict wants us to look again at the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Our Lady is treated in Lumen Gentium. This document focuses on her motherhood; and because Mary is the Mother of all the faithful, it should not be surprising to us that she has appeared not only in the Western Hemisphere, but all over the world.[i] These little overviews will, I hope, increase your desire to know more about her, and to know about our brothers and sisters who are suffering for the faith. My catechetical goal in this article is that we all become even more aware of the geographic universality of the Catholic Church.