ILFF: Facilitating Lifelong Learning and Faith Growth

Remember last year when I went on and on about the Institute for Lifelong Faith Formation? Today I started part-2. This one is about tuning in to the different stages and needs of our parishioners across the generations. We know what we want to do: we want to lead our families in the formation of faith- we want to help them experience conversion and transformation. How do we do that? John Roberto, our facilitator and guru, said today (and I reckon he's quoting someone), "Learning is change- if it hasn't changed you, you haven't learned it." He's making a distinction between being taught and really learning- this, he points out, is how some people you may know can get through years and years of quality education and still be stupid. And it is how you and I got through years of religious education without becoming better Catholic Christians.
We talked about the four longings of the people we serve (including us!);
the Longing for Justice
the Quest for Spirituality
the Hunger for Relationships
and Delight in Beauty
... the best example I can think of as to why it is important to know these things is this: when I was in high school, I remember learning for the 3rd time how to write my name in hieroglyphics. I wondered why we never talked about things I thought were more interesting and more important, like WWII? In our catechetical programs, do we spend our time teaching and re-teaching the basics to people who long for depth? With significant longings like these in people's lives, what more do we need to know when we start to look at how to serve our parishioners?
It proves to be a thought-provoking week. The homework readings are deep and full of statistics and buzz words and head-spinning detail, but the discussions and activities at the course are fruitful and challenging. Are you still reading? :) I'll keep you posted.