inform-form-transform

Tonight on my way home from work, I treated myself to an old time radio show. I listened to Lucille Ball's "My Favorite Husband" and the episode was called "Liz learns to swim." The basic premise was that Liz wanted to go to the beach for Summer vaca, while her husband wanted to go the the Weeping Willow Dude Ranch. (She explained that after one meal at the "chuck wagon", she knew why the willows were weeping_ good line!)
Her husband said he'd be willing to go to the beach if Liz would learn to swim. (We'll ignore the sexism that riddles these old radio shows and instead talk about the cool insight I got from the show. Hang on, here it comes!) Liz called her next door neighbor, who comes to her house, explains the physics of water displacement, has her try the swim strokes on the floor of their living room, and tells her proudly that she can swim.
It all made me think about the conversations we've been having at school about the primary goal of faith formation/catechesis/religious education. I read tonight that the goal of catechesis should be "spiritual maturity." However, for years our education programming has not been developed to reflect a goal anywhere near that. Today my professor described it as "pouring from a jug into a mug."
I'm thankful to be working at a parish which takes this idea seriously. I'm thinking particularly of education toward Confirmation. Work has been done in the past several years (by the brilliant youth minister) to broaden the scope of "sacramental prep" from just preparing for the sacramental moment of Confirmation day, to a lived way of life in faith that much more accurately describes the life that a Confirmed Catholic should be living. It makes a difference in the faith and development of young people and it makes a difference in the parish as a whole. It's a good difference.
The saying goes "sitting in Mass doesn't make you a Christian, any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car." You can't learn to swim by studying physics on a living room floor- it may help, but it is not the same as actually getting in the water and giving it a go.

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.

New Job, fresh start

I've started my new job, which promises to be wonderful. Everyone so far has been so friendly and helpful- I share a kind of office suite with two other women, lovely women who are very professional and friendly and helpful. We've all been moving and sorting this week, because not only am I moving in, but the other two have been displaced from their offices because of an asbestos removal project in the basement of the rectory, which is where our offices are. I've noticed that we share this quality- we want to be helpful, but we don't want any help. We have been sneaking past each other with our boxes so as not to incite a helpful gesture from each other. "noo no, I've got it!"
In fact most of my first week has been hunting for furniture, dusting and unpacking. My computer is now set up and I have email and the internet and all the accouterments.
(yes, I did need spell check for that.)
Next week I'm off to part two of the Institute for Lifelong Faith Formation, the first week of which I loved and raved about here on TBIR last year. I can't wait!
Tonight on my way home, I took a detour that led me all over a new town, past a water main break, through a neighborhood, by a man wearing a large sign that said "GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOUR BABY" (hmmm...) and over the river and through the woods. It was a nice little side route. I'm all about new routes these days, and stepping off the trail. Let's go!

hold on loosely

Last week I was driving to Maine up route 95 in a gusty wind storm. Generally I like to hold onto my steering wheel with one hand, usually just to the left or right of the bottom section of the wheel. Sometimes I hold on at the bottom but find there's not much control there. I noticed that when the wind began to gust and my car was being tossed a bit, I reflexively (is that a word?) moved my hands to good old 10:00 and 2:00. Driver's ed was not wasted on me! You really do get more control of the car with your hands there.
I noticed, too, that the car designers had made a move to encourage drivers to hold on to the wheel at those spots. On my steering wheel, those spots are thicker, with little contoured finger bumps that my hands fit into very comfortably. So, even though I grip the wheel in different spots, at different times, I do know that if I want to be doing it right, if I want to be in control, if I need to feel safer, I go back to the 10 and 2 grips.
It made me think about Church, and faith formation (natch). There is finally a lot of talk out there about the idea that Sacraments are not rewards to be earned but rather gifts, freely given. D Scott Miller, on his blog
( http://www.dscottmiller.com/blogcat/ym.htm look for "a mandatory rant"),
mentions that there is a big pow-wow going on with Bishops about how to remove the idea of "mandatory" from the Confirmation process. D Scott himself says that "Relying on the power of 'mandatory' is lazy ministry and not within the style of the One who washed the feet of his disciples." Amen, brother!
It's taken American Churches a long time to realize this truth (and we're not even close to seeing it really embraced by parish RE programs), but it's SUCH good news to see it even mentioned and noticed by Bishops. Hurray!
Maybe we, as Church, can take a tip from those car designers- instead of shackling the hands of our drivers, why don't we show them the comfort and benefit of coming home to 10 and 2? Let's let them experience the joy of Church, and know that it can be good enough to make them stay... rather than lock-stepping them through hoops and having no trust that what we have to offer is GOOD?
Andrew Greeley's phrase, that every program we offer should be "optional and excellent" rings through my head every day at work. You can't JUST make it optional, without making it excellent.
Who's ready? Let's go for a drive!!