Franciscan at Home

In the 1997 General Directory for Catechesis, “Missionary Initiation” is listed as a sixth and unique task of catechesis. The 2020 Directory for Catechesis folds this task into the fifth task of catechesis, “Introduction to Community Life,” with the logic that an integral part of being formed in Christian community is learning to contribute to the growth of the community through our baptismal vocation as missionary disciples.[1] The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls mission work “a requirement of the Church’s catholicity,” meaning that because the Church is for all humanity, we must be a welcoming people, taking Christ’s message to others.[2] In fact, the Second Vatican Council called the Church “the universal sacrament of salvation.”[3] We are the visible sign to the world that Christ welcomes all to life in him. Taking Christ to the world is not only a collective responsibility, but also an individual one. In his encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio, Pope St. John Paul II calls missionary activity “a matter for all Christians.”[4] This includes, of course, the youngest Christians in our community, the children and teens we form in parish and school catechetical programs.

Notes

In its “practical directions” for reading the Catechism the authors have placed a brief instruction:

This catechism is conceived as an organic presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety. It should be seen therefore as a unified whole. Numerous cross-references in the margin of the text (numbers found at the end of a sentence referring to other paragraphs that deal with the same theme), as well as the analytical index at the end of the volume, allow the reader to view each theme in its relationship with the entirety of the faith.[1]

What is the meaning of such a direction? What would such a practice look like? How should it be undertaken and what is its value?

Because of the pandemic, instead of working directly with children, many parish catechists are helping parents gain confidence in preparing their children for sacraments without traditional classes. I believe this new process can ennoble families to better assume their role in society.

“Ennoble,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means to “make noble or elevate.” (“Ennoble,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ennoble.) Kings and queens elevate or “ennoble” a “commoner” to the status of “noble.” One cannot ennoble himself. He receives his nobility either through family inheritance, marriage, or as a gift bestowed by the proper authority.

As Catholics, our ennoblement begins at Baptism when we become members of God’s kingdom family with Christ as King. The liturgical rite itself is an ennobling gift received from the Church. The sacramental signs of candle and flame, water, oil, and white garment are gifts. So are the words of Sacred Scripture, the sign of the cross, and the renewal of baptismal promises.

At the baptism of our youngest grandchild, obligatory facemasks could not diminish the solemn dignity embodied by each member of baby Oliver’s family as we witnessed his two oldest siblings step up as godparents. Three generations were united by word and creed as we left the earthly realm of time and space to enter into the sacred liturgy and Oliver became a child of the King.

We could discuss in detail the ennobling qualities we receive in each of the Church’s sacraments, but let’s turn our attention instead toward ennobling practices Catholics can receive from the Church and adapt to family life.

Important Announcement Regarding the Future of Today’s Catholic Teacher Magazine

Dear Today’s Catholic Teacher Reader,

Ellos no conforman mis “historias de gloria”. Son los niños en los que pienso a las 3:17 A.M. Los rostros de los niños que, según mi mejor entendimiento, no logré alcanzar. En medio de la noche, las cosas que dije e hice – a veces con la mejor de las intenciones y a veces desde un punto de frustración y desesperanza absolutas – vuelven a reproducirse en mi cabeza. ¿Qué fue lo que yo había hecho que parece haber provocado que el niño se cerrara de manera contundente al mensaje de Cristo – mensaje que yo quería urgentemente compartir con ellos?

Son la esperanza y el Sacramento de la Confesión que misericordiosamente me preservan de pensar demasiado en estos momentos con exceso de frecuencia, pero a lo largo de los años, seguí preguntándome si hubiera algo que pudiera yo haber hecho para impedir que algún niño se portara mal o se cerrara cuando yo le instruía.

Sí, he aprendido, y sí, ha habido algo.

Hace unos años, mi esposo y yo nos convertimos en padres de crianza. Entre capacitaciones sobre la disciplina y la importancia de visitas regulares al dentista, ésta es una lección que ojalá hubiera aprendido antes de comenzar a trabajar con niños.

Aprendí cómo afecta el trauma al cerebro.

A pesar de haber leído uno que otro artículo y asistido a algunos talleres, mi comprensión de cómo la experiencia del trauma que tiene un niño afecta su comportamiento se quedó al nivel rudimentario. Sin embargo, esta capacitación incluía explicaciones en profundidad del cerebro y del comportamiento. Al comenzar a trabajar con comportamientos específicos de niños en nuestro propio hogar, me di cuenta de lo esencial que es este conocimiento dentro del ambiente catequético también.

They are not my “glory stories.” They are the children that I think about at 3:17 a.m. The faces of children that, to the best of my knowledge, I failed to reach. In the middle of the night things I said and did—sometimes with the best of intentions and sometimes from a place of absolute frustration and desperation—replay in my head.  What had I done that seemed to completely close a child off to the message of Christ that I desperately wanted to share with them?

Hope and the Sacrament of Confession mercifully keeps me from dwelling on these moments too frequently, but over the years, I continued to wonder if there was anything I could have done to prevent a child from acting out or shutting down when I was instructing them.

Yes, I’ve learned. There were.

A few years ago, my husband and I became licensed foster parents. Between trainings on discipline and the importance of regular visits to the dentist was a lesson I wish I had learned before I ever began to work with children.

I learned how trauma affects the brain.

While I had read the occasional article and attended a few workshops, my understanding of how a child’s experience of trauma affects their behavior remained rudimentary. However, this training included in-depth explanations of the brain and behavior. As I began to work with specific behaviors of children in our own home, I realized how essential this knowledge was within a catechetical environment as well.

La familia tiene un lugar privilegiado en la catequesis. El Catecismo declara que “los padres han recibido la responsabilidad y el privilegio de evangelizar a sus hijos”, refiriéndose a ellos como los “primeros heraldos de la fe” (2225). La familia es llamada “iglesia doméstica” – la iglesia del hogar (CEC 2224). Por esta razón, los padres son los primeros y más importantes maestros de la fe para sus hijos. En décadas recientes, sin embargo, ha sido difícil para las parroquias y escuelas católicas cambiarse a prácticas consistentes con esta comprensión. Los padres de familia han llegado a pensar en la parroquia y en la escuela como los lugares donde se les enseña la fe a los niños, y muchas familias han dejado casi por completo a estas instituciones la responsabilidad por catequizar a sus hijos. Sin embargo, recientemente, la cuarentena consecuente de la pandemia de COVID-19 nos impulsó hacia una nueva realidad – una en la cual, por necesidad, los niños estaban aprendiendo todo, incluyendo a su fe, en casa. ¿Cómo podemos utilizar el ímpetu y las oportunidades que se han adquirido en este momento para diseñar un enfoque a la catequesis que involucra a la iglesia domestica de nuevas maneras? Aquí hay algunas sugerencias para la colaboración con los padres de familia.

Dar a las familias maneras para relacionar la fe con los momentos cotidianos de la vida familiar.

Cuando escuchamos que los padres de familia son los primeros y más importantes catequistas de sus hijos, nos entra a veces la tentación de fomentar una sesión catequética estilo didáctico en la casa. Es ciertamente maravilloso que los papás conduzcan clases completas para sus hijos, especialmente lecciones acerca de su fe, hay una variedad de razones – entre ellas el tiempo, la confianza en sí y las competencias necesarias – que pudieran hacer dudar a los padres de familia al momento de echarse un clavado dentro de una sesión catequética de larga duración en el hogar. Ciertamente, los papás son los principales catequistas, pero la parroquia es también el locus privilegiado de la catequesis. La parroquia ayuda para que la catequesis sea sistemática e integral, equipando a los papás en su papel de darle vida a la fe por medio de las experiencias cotidianas.

Si, en lugar de intentar convertir a cada hogar en un tradicional salón de clases, les diéramos a los padres de familia las herramientas para conectar la fe con la vida en los momentos ordinarios, podemos ayudar a las familias a que desarrollen una identidad y cosmovisión verdaderamente católicas. En lugar de ofrecer una hoja de trabajo para completar juntos en familia, considere mejor ofrecer una manera para vivir el contenido presentado esa semana o para reflexionar sobre la relación que tiene con nuestra vida diaria en el hogar. Por ejemplo, si un niño de segundo grado de primaria acaba de completar una lección que incluye el Evangelio en el que Jesús dice que Él es el Pan de Vida, ofrezca a los papás esta instrucción: “Esta semana, cuando les sirve pan a sus hijos (por ejemplo, un sándwich o un bolillo con la cena), recuérdeles que Jesús dijo que Él es el Pan de Vida. Pregúnteles, “¿Que quería decir Jesús con esto?”

The family has a privileged place in catechesis. The Catechism states that “parents receive the responsibility of evangelizing their children” and calls them the “first heralds” of the faith (2225). The family is called “domestic church”—the church of the home (CCC 2224). For this reason, parents are the first and most important teachers of the faith for their children. In recent decades, however, it has been difficult for parishes and Catholic schools to make the shift to practices that are consistent with this understanding. Parents have come to think of the parish and school as the places where children are taught about the faith, and many families have left it almost entirely to these institutions to catechize their children. Still, recently, the quarantine that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic thrust us into a new reality—one in which, by necessity, children were learning everything, including their faith, at home. How might we use the momentum and opportunities that have been gained in this moment to craft an approach to catechesis that engages the domestic church in new ways? Here are a few suggestions for partnering with parents.

Give families ways to connect faith to everyday moments of family life.

When we hear that parents are the first and most important catechists of their children, we are sometimes tempted to encourage a didactic-style catechetical session in the home. While it’s wonderful for parents to conduct full lessons with their children, especially lessons about their faith, there are a variety of reasons—including time, confidence, and competency—that might make parents hesitant to dive into a full-length catechetical session at home. Sure, parents are primary catechists, but the parish is also a privileged locus of catechesis. The parish helps to make catechesis systematic and comprehensive, equipping parents in their role of bringing the faith to life through everyday experiences.

If, rather than trying to turn every home into a traditional classroom, we give parents the tools to connect faith to life in ordinary moments, we can assist families in developing a truly Catholic identity and worldview. Rather than offering a worksheet the family completes together, consider offering one way to live the content presented that week or reflect on its connection to our daily lives at home. For example, if a second grader has just completed a lesson that includes the Gospel in which Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life, offer parents this instruction: “This week, when you serve your children bread (e.g., a sandwich or a roll with dinner), remind them that Jesus said he is the Bread of Life. Ask them, ‘What did Jesus mean when he said this?’”

Recently, I spoke with a graduate student in one of my courses on Catholic schools. Because she is not a religion teacher, she struggled to understand how she could carry out the mission of Catholic education. This faith-filled woman knew she was serving the Lord by fulfilling her duties conscientiously, but she did not recognize how her work could foster her students’ spiritual lives. She needed a vision for carrying out her educational activities in a way that leads her students to God. I illustrated for her how she could teach her subject area so that her students learned from it more about who God is and how He wants us to live. By teaching this way, I told her, they could not only prepare for the next grade level or their future job but they could also live in greater union with God and in preparation for Heaven. Her teaching, I explained, had the potential to impact students eternally. When she heard this she exclaimed, “You make me sound important!” We ended our call with her excited to tackle her upcoming tasks with this entirely new focus.

Unfortunately, this woman is not unique or even unusual among Catholic educators. Typically formed by secular educational programs that do not address the spiritual dimension of education, Catholic educators find themselves at a loss as to how they are to help students cultivate their relationship with God or recognize the eternal purpose to their studies. When teachers understand how to carry out their teaching duties with a “supernatural vision,” they experience excitement about enriching their students’ lives beyond just the next 70-odd years.[1] They begin to sense their value and importance to the Catholic educational endeavor. The result is a more effective mission implementation that bears fruit in time and eternity.

The Goal of a Catholic Education

Above all else, a Catholic education directs students to God. A Catholic education resembles a civic education by providing an integral formation for students, addressing not just the intellectual, but also the social, emotional, and (to some extent) physical growth of its students.[2] But unlike secular education, every Catholic educational effort should begin and end in Christ, with Gospel principles serving as educational norms.[3] This orientation directs students to their ultimate goal: eternal communion with God. In short, a Catholic education should help students get to heaven. It forms the student spiritually, teaching them to know God ever better, to have and develop a relationship with him, to recognize him in everything, to live so as to become closer to him and more like him—all so that they can spend eternity in a loving, blissful union with him.

A Catholic school can explicitly orient to God the myriad of activities that make up “school.” For this reason, it can be said that all teachers in Catholic schools are catechists. It can feel daunting to teachers who do not teach religion to hear that they are expected to be catechists because they believe they are expected to answer doctrinal questions that are beyond their capability. Certainly the better the teacher can accurately respond to doctrinal questions the greater the benefit to the students. But a teacher does not need a degree in theology to carry out teaching responsibilities with the intention that those activities form students to live as disciples of Jesus. The very activities that constitute the nature of a school, when imbued with a focus on the student’s eternal destiny, form and prepare the student for that destiny.

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