About Jennifer Fitz

Jennifer Fitz is a writer and homeschooling mom of four, who sometimes does crazy stuff like accounting, or teaching religious ed. She's the author of a book on Classroom Management for Catechists, to be published in 2013 by Liguori Publications. She manages the Catholic Writers Guild blog, and writes at CatholicMom.com, NewEvangelizers.com, and on her personal blog, jenniferfitz.wordpress.com.

Gifts for Catechists: 4 CD’s to Use in Your Class

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Gift season’s upon us, and while I’ve never looked askance at that holiday favorite for catechists, the Gift of Chocolate, I’d like to share four of my favorite CD’s for use in teaching the faith.  Here’s a link to the local Catholic Store Finder, where you can support your nearest Catholic bookstore when placing your order.  Gift certificates and parish credits are always the right size!

This summer I received a gift copy of Marian Hymns of Ephesus from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Took me forever to break it open, but wow!  Stunning!  It is now my #1 CD to Bring Along on a Business Trip — exactly what you need to get your head on straight in between meetings.

What’s in it for catechists?  Gorgeous recordings of classic Catholic hymns and chants.  Most of them are better to listen to than sing-along, though a few are suitable for sing-along as well.  I e-mailed the sisters, and received assurance that catechists are welcome to enlarge and distribute copies of the lyrics for classroom use.  Here’s my article on meditative prayer in the classroom, to give you some ideas on how you might use a CD like this one as part of a class for elementary-age students.

Taking a look at the sister’s website, it appears that Marian Hymns is on back-order at this writing.  The Benedictine sisters do have a brand spanking new Advent at Ephesus CD just out, and it promises to answer the question of “How do I make my Advent classes more about Advent and not just The Three Weeks of Christmas?

 

 

For an accessible, easy-to-sing-along introduction to chant, I absolutely love John Michael Talbot’s Chant from the Hermitage.  I’m no technical expert, but I can say that having learned the genre via this simple and user-friendly CD, when I recently dived into The Parish Book of Psalms, it was an ‘Aha!’ moment — Yes!  Anyone can learn this! Yes! Anyone can sing this! Gregorian chant really is meant to be music for the masses!

The  CD contains Latin recordings of the Sanctus and Gloria, and the Greek Kyrie, and then a dozen or so psalms chanted in English.  This is an excellent introduction to chant and the Liturgy of the Hours for students, because the recordings are very down-to-earth, so students can easily follow along.  Very quickly students will get the knack for how chant “works”, and start chanting all kinds of silly stuff.  Brilliant recording.

 

A top-notch sing-along CD for classic Catholic hymns in English and Latin is the Sacred Hymns Collection from L’Angelus.  If the Benedictines of Ephesus win the award for ephemeral beauty, L’Angelus comes along and gives you the tracks the kids can use to learn to sing the Panis Angelicus and Tantum Ergo themselves.

English-language hymns include The King of Love My Shepherd Is, Be Thou My Vision, as well as an upbeat, folksy riff on St. Patrick’s Breastplate, This Day God Gives Me.  There is a smattering of Cajun French, Spanish, and Gaelic as well. Cool factor: Pictures of the kids who make the music.

 

My final catechist-recommended CD is a homegrown prayer collection (spoken, not sung) by a personal friend of mine, John Hathaway.  Hide Me in Your Wounds is John sitting at home in front of his PC, recording about 10,000 classic Catholic prayers, including quite a few you’ve probably never heard before.  The recording volume jumps from track to track, but within each track the sound is fine.  I recommend this CD because in using it in class, I have found the kids respond very well to it.

Why do I like it?  Three reasons:  1. It’s a pleasure for all of us to be able to listen to someone else’s voice for a change.  2. Lex orandi lex credendi – after learning about the clergy, the prayer for priests is a breath of fresh air, knocking out the pedestal and praying for our holy ministers, human faults and all.  3. I particularly like using the obscure and very powerful saint’s prayers in observance of various feast days throughout the year.

 

That’s my list.  How about you?  What’s on your catechist wish-list this year?

 

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Friends & Heroes Bible Story DVD’s

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I’m grateful to have received a review copy of episodes 1 & 2 of the Friends and Heroes adventure and Bible story DVD’s.  These are a fun series that my own children have enjoyed. While this is not a religious education curriculum in itself, it does provide a supplement that may be a fit for your parish, or for use at home with your own family.

What it is: This cartoon series is set in Alexandria, Egypt, under Roman rule, at the time of the early Church – prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.  Through their adventures, the friends (Christian and pagan children) learn more about what it means to be a Christian.  In each episode, at some point one of the characters tells a Bible story; there is a clear break in the animation for the Bible story sequence, which is told in computer-generated animation rather than traditional drawn-cartoon style, so that the contrast between fiction and fact is clear.

The style of the story-telling is very earnest, with clearly-enunciated moral lessons.  (If you are a connoisseur of children’s programming, the feel of the script is similar to the Redwall cartoons, or the Air Buddies series, only without the potty humor.)  Here’s a preview that gives you a feel for the type of storytelling, and lets you see how the break between fiction and Bible is handled:

Extended Clip, Episode 1, Friends and Heroes

Something I like: The convergence of cultures.  Most students will study history by learning about Egypt, Greece, Rome, and “Bible Times” as four distinct civilizations.  This series is excellent for showing the overlap of the Mediterranean cultures.  For this reason, even though I target this as “early elementary school”, I think the videos are worth watching for older elementary school students who have recently done their Ancient Civilizations unit.

A note about modesty:  One of my concerns in recommending the series is that one of the lead female characters does not dress modestly. I spoke to Tom Stilwell at Friends and Heroes, and he explained why that is so:

The character is Portia and she will be one of the lead characters for the rest of the series. Keep in mind, Portia is not a believer – as a matter of fact, her journey to faith is one of the themes running through all 39 episodes of the series. The different way she dresses as compared to Leah and Rachel (the other two girls) is actually a point for teaching about modesty in one of the homeschool unit studies.

The creators of Friends and Heroes continually worked to find the proper balance between being historically accurate and being proper and appealing to children. This shows up in small things like the colors of the characters’ clothing (working class people like Macky and his family would not have been able to afford much in the way of brightly colored clothes, but children find the colors appealing) to Portia’s attire.

In all likelihood, as an aristocratic Roman girl, Portia would have actually dressed considerably more immodestly than she does in the series. Again, both sides were considered and a decision was made. Most people are okay with the result, but a few do have reservations. (I am not trying to change your mind, just give you some background so that you know that this was one of innumerable  thoughtful and prayerful decisions in the making of the series.)

Given the serious problem with immodesty today, I would strongly support following F&H’s lead, and use this as an opportunity to teach girls about dressing modestly, while also cultivating a charitable attitude towards their peers who are immersed in the dictates of the fashion industry.  With the caveat that the parish needs to first deal seriously with setting standards for appropriate dress.

Catholic versus “Mere Christianity”: This is a general-market series written for Christians of all denominations.  Episodes 1 & 2 are set in everyday life, there are no scenes that show clergy or Christian worship.  As a catechist you’ll want to include some basic teaching on Bible words like epískopos and presbýteros.  Ideally, elementary-aged children should learn a few memory verses that show where to find the Sacraments in Scripture.

Target Audience: Early Elementary School. In my group of test-children, the first-grader was absolutely fascinated by the program, and has chosen to watch it over and over again.  The 3rd and 5th graders made varying amounts of noise about how they were too old for it, but both watched both episodes with total attention.  The 7th grader could walk in and out of the room and not feel compelled to sit and watch the show.

Boys or Girls? Both.  The opening credits include an action-sequence montage designed to trick restless 6-year-old boys into sitting down and watching.  There are strong male and female leads, and my test-group girls clearly enjoyed the show.

Where to fit in the curriculum?  These videos meet the “Let’s Decompress” part of the schedule.  In a regular religious ed program, I would put this after the traditional lesson, when the little brains are ready to unwind and digest what they’ve learned. This should not stand in place of the catechism lesson, but can be a good way to deal with lulling energy levels if the time slot for religious ed is a tad late for little ones with early bedtimes, or comes right after a long exhausting day of first grade.  Other possible uses:

  • The video segment of a half-day or all-day Vacation Bible School program.
  • To entertain kids so parents can attend Bible study, RCIA, or that sacramental-prep meeting.
  • For children of volunteers to watch during classroom prep sessions.
  • To show during drop-off or pick-up time, if some students are dropped off early or picked up late.

Because your young boys in the audience are going to immediately want to act-out their favorite scenes once the final credits start to roll, plan accordingly.  If you can’t release them directly to the playground or gym, head off the re-enactment of the smashing-pottery scene by having your next activity ready to go, and make it engaging.  Probably pretzel sticks are not the best snack for children who’ve just seen Roman soldiers with swords drawn.

A note on pricing and licenses: When comparision shopping, I found that the DVD’s typically cost about $10 for a single-episode or $20 for a two-episode DVD.  Pay attention when you purchase if the price seems lower than expected.  For use in the classroom, the most cost-effective way to purchase the series is to buy the DVD Series Pack, which includes a lifetime public display license with purchase.

The standard DVD series includes a Spanish track, as well as all these other languages as well.

***

Your Turn:  Have you used any off-the-shelf videos in your religious education program?  Which ones do you like, and how do you use them?

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Liturgy and Catechesis: The Blessing for a Child in the Womb

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“The kids don’t know anything!  They don’t go to mass!” Put two catechists at a table, and it’s a complaint you’re likely to hear.  Why does it matter? In addition to being one of the obligations of the faithful, and essential to the well-being of the soul, the liturgy is also an integral part of catechesis.  I want to take a look today at an upcoming event in my diocese, as a way of illustrating how our weekly formal religious education programs fit as one piece in the bigger puzzle of catechesis and evangelization.

1. We start with the Catechism

What does the Church teach about sex and marriage?  About the sacredness of human life?  Quite a lot.  Openness to children is one of the essential elements of a Christian marriage.  Abortion is always and everywhere a grave evil, because the innocent child in the womb deserves protection and respect. We teach this to our students at every age.  We lay the foundations with very young children by talking about how much Jesus loves them, how precious they are to God, and how important it is to show our love and respect for others.  As students mature, we fill in the details year after year.

2. We support the efforts of parents as primary educators.

Sex, contraception, abortion . . . these are sensitive topics, and we rightly leave parents to decide when each child is ready to learn which facts.  Organizations like Family Honor host “Catholic Sex Ed” courses that students can attend with their parents.  Parishes can use curricula such as Ascension Press’s Theology of the Body for Teens to teach purity and chastity to teens; a course or handbook for parents (as well as parental oversight and consent) is an essential part of these programs.

3.  We give students chances to act on our faith.

Do you take up a collection for the local crisis pregnancy center?  Does your youth group march in a local or national March for Life?  Is your parish tallying Rosaries for Life this month? Within the religious education program, and as part of the ministry of the parish and the community, even the  youngest students can have a chance to act on their faith.

How do you explain “crisis pregnancy” or “abortion” to a very young child?  Try these:

Having a baby is a big responsibility.  Some parents don’t have enough money to buy their babies the things they need, or to pay their doctor bills.  Some mothers don’t have friends and family to help them care for their baby.  The “crisis pregnancy center” is a place mothers and fathers can get help to take care of their baby.

When we go to the “March for Life”, we are showing that we want our government to pass laws that protect all children, even teeny tiny babies.  When we pray a “rosary for life”, we are praying that all babies will be well taken care of, and that nothing will ever hurt them.  We are also praying for parents, that they will have everything they need to be able to take care of their babies.

We can get frustrated at students who don’t participate in our programs and events as much as we’d like.  Remember that sometimes the reason the student is absent is because the family is in the midst of a crisis — the student is getting hands-on experience in living out the faith at home.

4.  Enter the Liturgy: Lex Orandi Lex Credendi

The USCCB has written an official Rite of Blessing for a Child in the Womb to be used within or outside of mass.  Here’s the heart of the blessing our bishop will be extending this Sunday at my parish:

God, author of all life,
bless, we pray, these unborn children;
give them constant protection
and grant them a healthy birth
that is the sign of our rebirth one day
into the eternal rejoicing of heaven.

Lord, who have brought to these women
the wondrous joy of motherhood,
grant them comfort in all anxiety
and make them determined
to lead their children along the ways of salvation.

Lord of the ages,
who have singled out these men
to know the grace and pride of fatherhood,
grant them courage in this new responsibility,
and make them examples of justice and truth for
these children.

The simple act of showing up and saying the blessing sends a powerful message from the bishop, priest, or deacon: Your child matters.  Parents, I support you.  I want you recognized for the part you play in the plan of salvation.

A friend shared that she had been present at a blessing for unborn children before she even knew she was pregnant.  Shortly after, she lost the baby to miscarriage.  She was greatly consoled to know the Church blessed and remembered her precious child, barely known to man, never for a moment forgotten by God.

5. And back to catechesis.

After our Mass for Expectant Parents this Sunday, there’ll be information tables for parents. (Also snacks, of course.) The diocese has lined up representatives to share information on Natural Family Planning, to support parents facing a difficult prenatal diagnosis via Be Not Afraid Ministries, and has invited the local Catholic schools and homeschooling groups to give parents information about their choices for Catholic education for their children.  We’re fortunate to also be able to giveaway four copies of Sarah Reinhard’s new book, A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy, a treasure-trove of catechesis.

Cramming for Finals?

As catechists, we can sometimes feel the pressure to teach the entire Catholic faith in twenty weekly lessons.  That’s neither possible nor desirable.  As a Church, do we say “Christian Formation” and think “CCD class on Wednesday night from 6:30-7:45″?  Do we talk about young people participating in the life of the Church, and reduce it to a special club for teens, led by the one person in the parish who “works with youth”? Our baptismal calling isn’t like a restricted driver’s license, limited to certain hours until we’ve reached the age of 18.

How does your parish integrate liturgy, service, and catechesis?  As we embark upon the Year of Faith, how would you like to see your students grow in their understanding and practice of the faith?

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We’ve Got a Sexual Abuse Prevention Policy, Now What?

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A friend in another state shared with me privately, and I’m going to paraphrase to guard anonymity: “My parish doesn’t do the background checks.”

I was floored.

I know child-safety policies vary from state to state, and I appreciate that paperwork can get lost or delayed.  But to blatantly violate your diocese’s procedures, and common sense, out of I-don’t-what-excuse?  No.  Let me start with Rule Number One for effective abuse-prevention policies:

You have to follow the procedures.

It does absolutely no good to write up a diocesan or parish safety policy, and then fail to follow it.  (Tip for parents: There is somebody in your parish or your diocese who keeps records of all the completed background checks.  You can ask to see the proof that your child’s catechists have a clean record.  The catechists themselves might also have a copy of their completed paperwork.)

All procedures and policies need to be explained in plain English.

Your diocese may have a set of official policies written up in impeccable legalese. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.  But imagine for a moment a confirmation-prep program that went like this:

Hey kids, we have this Catechism of the Catholic Church that explains everything you need to know about what Catholics believe.  You can read a copy for free on the Vatican’s website.  So you guys just sign this form saying, “I’ve read, understand, and accept all the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” and the bishop’ll be here next month to confirm those of you who’ve signed your form.

Nope.  Doesn’t work that way.  Just like your average teenager doesn’t whiz through the big Catechism and have it down pat, your average parish volunteer is not a lawyer.  If the official policies aren’t written in plain, easy-to-understand language, someone’s got to translate.  What are some ways you can do this?

  • Write up a handbook, hand-out, or set of slides that explain the policy in clear terms.
  • Create a FAQ page for answering new questions that arise over time.  No policy can anticipate every possible situation.
  • If in-person training sessions are used to explain the policy, record a video of the session and post it on the web, for review and for off-site training.

Have a designated contact person who is capable of quickly and authoritatively answering questions.  Make a procedure for documenting questions and answers, so that there’s no confusion.  For example, follow-up a phone call with a brief e-mail reviewing the answers to the questions posed on the phone.  If your contact person is getting flooded with questions, you need to go back to square one and improve your training materials.

Test out your procedures on-site.

Figure out exactly what you need to do to follow the policy. Here’s an example of a classic scenario that seems simple, but requires some on-site planning:

  1. An adult should not be alone with a child.
  2. “I need to go potty.”

During on-site implementation, figure out how exactly to handle this situation.  What’s your building look like?  What kind of restroom facilities do you have, where are they, and who has access to them?  How many adults are in your classroom?  How many working as hall monitors?  Are your students old enough to go the restroom alone? Or are you working in the nursery, the preschool, or with a special-needs student who requires assistance?

Take your all-purpose procedures, and develop specific methods for managing common situations in your building, with your staff, and with your students.  Then make sure everyone understands and follows them.  For the on-site training, physically walk your team through the processes you’ve created. Don’t sit in the parish hall talking about restroom breaks; go to a classroom, and walk step-by-step from raised-hand, to restroom, to all-done-and-back-to-class.

For policies concerning social media and other communications, plan to host technical sessions with a laptop and a slide projector, so that you can show your volunteers exactly what you mean when you say, “Facebook Page” versus “Facebook Profile”, or whatever it is that is essential to your safety procedures. Do not assume every member of your team is technically savvy.  Some volunteers may want or need one-on-one training to confirm they are using their social media accounts correctly, or to help them set up a separate e-mail account for communication with minors.

In the on-site plans, don’t overlook “invisible” students: Minors helping out in programs other than youth ministry; the kid that gets dropped off early, picked up late, or walks to church all alone; the teen-aged former student of your kindergarten teacher, who drops by each week to say hello before class.

This is a lot of work!  It’s one thing to write up a policy, it’s another to implement the policy in a way that actually protects children.  It’s essential that our abuse-prevention policies aren’t merely words on a page and a collection of signatures.  If a policy or procedure is worth having, it is worth understanding it correctly, and using it consistently.

 

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Just Tell the Police

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A child — perhaps your own — has come to you with disturbing news:  So-and-so was doing something that maybe wasn’t right.  His hands were in a private place, or somewhere close by.  She was taking weird pictures.  There was something on his computer screen that he said was okay and I shouldn’t tell anybody about it. . . . What should you, the adult, do with this news?  The answer is simple: Tell the police.

It is not your job to be investigator, judge, and jury.  If someone’s in immediate danger, of course you’ll dial 911.  When that’s not the case? Pick up the phone, call the city or county police office during business hours, and make arrangements to file the appropriate report.  It’s okay to call and say, “I’m not even sure a crime took place, but –.”  The police are used to getting these calls.  It is their job to sort through the information and figure out how to proceed.

If it makes you more comfortable, first describe what you know about the possible crime, and wait to name the perpetrator until you’ve determined the action was in fact criminal.  But call the police.  Not your friend who’s a cop, not your neighbor, not the lady at church whose kid is going to the police academy.  Call your police station, and make an official report.  Even if the particular incident is not one that will result in a conviction, it can become part of a collection of evidence that paints the complete picture.

Do you need to worry about traumatizing the young person?  No.  Not if you handle the situation in a discreet and sensitive manner.  There are steps you can take to ensure the youth is not scarred by the reporting process.  I can say this from personal experience.  I’ve been involved in two sexual abuse investigations.

In the first, as a child, my testimony was one of several that eventually helped convict a serial rapist.  (Unfortunately, not before he’d committed some very serious crimes.)  My part: To go down to the station with my mom, she had told the officer what I’d told her, I looked through a stack of photo albums to try to identify the guy, and that was it.  No drama.  Nothing scary.  Not even the need to answer 10,000 questions — it sufficed for me to tell the adult I trusted, and let the adult do the difficult talking.

In the second case, I was 18, and called in to give my opinion on what turned out to be false allegations.  I read the written statement given by another teen, gave the police my opinion of the facts in that statement, and answered some questions about what I knew about the alleged perpetrator.  And that was it.  Again, no drama, no pressure.  Share what you know, say, “I don’t know,” to what you don’t know, the police take it from there.  It’s their job.  Eventually the innocent man was exonerated, and the false accuser was given help and support to deal with her personal problems.

Reporting can be part of the healing process.  One of the traits of evil is the effort to make what is bad seem like what is good.  A sexual offender will tend to pass off the abusive behavior as “normal” or “no big deal”.  There’s in particular a tendency to minimize molestation that falls short of full-on rape or sodomy.  To have an adult confirm that what happened is not normal, is not the victim’s fault, and does constitute a crime?  It makes all the difference in helping the victim come to terms with the crime.

In the case of a false accusation, it is true that the process of being investigated is absolutely horrific for the victim.  But failure to report doesn’t undo the accusation, it just leaves the question hanging in the air indefinitely.  The seriousness of a police and social services investigation brings home to the accuser that this is not some game of cliquish politics, and gives the accused the chance to be proven innocent.  False accusations are a serious offense in themselves, and deserve to be documented, to prevent the false-accuser from harming others.

Can a cautious call go wrong?  Sure it can.  Working in law enforcement is not a guaranteed path to canonization.  I imagine that writing this post is going to bring out of the woodwork countless stories of lousy police and social work, the same way saying, “I love my priest!” seems to elicit 10,000 stories of not-so-wonderful priestly behavior.  But the price of not calling is way too high.  Call.  Let the police know what you know.  Let them take it from there.

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Teaching Techniques with Christian LeBlanc: The Bible Tells Me So

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Lisa Mladinich recently reviewed Christian LeBlanc’s new book, The Bible Tells Me So: A Year of Catechizing Directly from Scripture, and as I mentioned in her combox, I agree 100% with her.  Excellent book.  I wanted to mention today some of the reasons I think this is a particularly good tool for catechists, regardless of what grade you teach.

1.  Learn how to use the Socratic method.  The “Socratic Method” is code for, “teaching via discussion, by asking questions to the student that lead them towards what they need to know.”  And it’s easy to mess this up.  Have you ever tried asking a question that begins, “Who can tell me . . . ?” and the question totally bombs out?  Either the kids have no idea what you’re asking, or they are on a completely different track, or the question makes no sense . . . yeah, I’ve done that.

The text of Christian’s book is literally a walk through a year of 6th grade Bible History.  You don’t just see what he teaches, you see how he teaches.  In the introduction and in the conclusion, he offers some specific suggestions on how to use the Socratic method effectively.

2. See how to weave in side-topics.  The Bible Tells Me So is a Bible History course.  So why are his students learning about apologetics, the Theology of the Body, the sanctity of marriage — any number of “off-topic” topics?  Because everything is connected.  Just because your curriculum this year calls for students to learn just the Sacraments, or just moral theology . . . doesn’t mean you ignore everything else.  Christian shows you how to stay on-topic, but still tie in all the other aspects of the faith that students need to review.

3. Learn how to connect Scripture and Tradition.  In defending ourselves against the wider Christian culture, it’s easy to get boxed into a corner.  We unintentionally defend Tradition by downplaying Scripture, or fall for the premise that Tradition is only validated by Biblical text-proofs.  Neither of those are true.  A truly Catholic Bible study shows how Scripture and Tradition fit together.  Where do we find the seven sacraments in the Old Testament – and why seven? How does the miracle of the loaves and fishes connect to the priesthood?

I found that having the whole view of Biblical history in one place really helped me understand how Scripture fits together as  whole.  Though I’ve followed Christian’s blog posts for some time, the book was much more accessible, because I felt like I was getting the bigger picture at a more comfortable pace.

4. Use it as a refresher before teaching.  Who’s going to use this book? someone asked me the other day. Our curriculum doesn’t do the Bible in a year.  Well, no, most of us aren’t going to pick up a book like The Bible Tells Me So and decide that we’ll adopt it wholesale as our class for the year.  (Though you could.)  But I do cycle through all the topics that the book covers.  If I’m preparing a class on the Eucharist, or marriage, or the Ten Commandments, this is a great place to turn for ideas.  I wish I had read through the book the first time with a highlighter in hand a pile of sticky notes to mark it up for teaching.

I’ll be doing that this year and next as my 7th-grader and I work through his Bible History course for school.  And that’s my final reason for recommending this book to catechists:

5.  You need to know your Bible.  If you’re intimidated, this book is an excellent place to start.  Highly recommended.

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Ela Milewska and the National Initiative on Adolescent Catechesis

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Last spring I had the good fortune to attend a presentation by Ela Milewska from the National Initiative on Adolescent Catechesis.  I’m not what people think of as a “youth minister”, because for the last several years I’ve been teaching 5th grade.  But I work with teens all the time, and that was one of her messages to us: “youth ministry” is more than just the formal youth group.  It’s ministering to teens through mentoring and practicing the faith in every corner of the parish.

What is the National Initiative on Adolescent Catechesis?  It’s a think tank.  It’s a research organization that exists to figure out what’s going wrong in youth ministry today, and help parishes make the changes that are needed.  When you click around their site, a lot of the links are little hard to understand, because it’s so heavily research-oriented.  Ela Milewska is the translator:  Her job is to take the results of the research, and turn it into the plain English your ministry team can easily understand.

What are some of the findings of the NIAC?  Ela shared a number of the trends in youth ministry with us, and I’d like to mention just a few:

  • Teens and adults today don’t identify with specific theological truths.  God is seen as an all-approving deity who’s not a stickler for any particular viewpoint.
  • As a result, people attend church (or don’t) wherever they feel comfortable.  Whether or not a doctrine is true isn’t part of the equation. Whoever offers the ministry that makes you feel welcome? That’s where you’ll worship.
  • It’s no surprise teens and young adults don’t concern themselves with theology. An attempt to study high school parish religious education programs had to be cancelled, because the researchers were unable to find enough parishes with full 9th-12th grade religion programs to complete the study.

She also shared a few observations I think most youth ministers already understand quite well: That our culture is fragmented, that personal relationships with teens are important, and that teens today are living in a world technologically and socially quite different than the one we knew even ten or twenty years ago.

What impressed me about Ela Milewska’s presentation? The thoroughness.  No toe was left unstepped-upon, as she built up a view of what a complete youth ministry program looks like.  I could see areas where our parish was strong, and areas where we still had work to do.  I could quickly see that there were some parts of an ideal youth ministry program that would come naturally to me, and other areas where I was grateful we had leaders with completely different talents than my own.

Something I learned last night: We aren’t alone.  Sitting at the dinner table with an evangelical friend who is a professor in the youth ministry department at a protestant seminary . . . the problems are the same.  Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals are all struggling with many of the same difficulties.  Youth like our high school programs, and then they leave.  I know — I was one of the kids who left.

Is there no hope?  On the contrary!  Here’s a great profile of the new evangelization at the University of Maryland — where campus ministry is bringing back to the faith the kids who’ve just left.  We can’t overlook the work of the Cardinal Newman society, both in promoting campus ministry at non-Catholic schools, and encouraging those who can afford it to attend quality Catholic colleges.  And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the nationally-recognized vocations program in my own diocese; there are no young seminarians except where there are young Catholics.

When to bring Ela Milewska and the NIAC to your parish or diocese?  When you’re ready for change.  When you’re tired of doing what isn’t quite working, and you’re ready to take an honest look at where you are, and figure out where you need to go.

Here’s the updated NIAC document, when you’re ready to learn more.  And here’s the NIAC’s website.

And here’s a quick bio Ela sent me, so I’d have my facts straight:

Ela Milewska is passionate about ministry training. She has spent twenty years in ministry—first in parishes and the Diocese of Raleigh an then as a national trainer, speaker, and consultant with Cultivation Ministries. She currently works as the project coordinator for the National Initiative on Adolescent Catechesis. Ela is also a Ph.D. candidate in catechesis and religious education at The Catholic University of America where she teaches a course in Catholic youth ministry.

Email:                    ElaM@NFCYM.org

Website:              www.AdolescentCatechesis.org

Twitter:                PAC_NIAC

 

Read all posts by Filed Under: Catechetics, Evangelization, High School, Middle School 5 Comments

Meet the Amazing Catechist Team in Dallas, TX – August 28th – 31st

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We’d like to invite our readers to join us at the combined Catholic Writers Conference, Catholic Marketing Network trade show, and Catholic New Media Conference at the end of this month in Arlington (Dallas), Texas.  It is not too late to register!

About the Events

The Catholic Writers Guild is hosting a conference for writers.  There will be workshops, pitch sessions (where you propose your book idea to publishers), and opportunities to have your work-in-progress critiqued by the professionals.  You can see the whole schedule here.  The guild offers a discounted registration for students, and I highly recommend this event for young and aspiring writers.  There are very few writing conferences that offer the amount of personal attention as the CWG, in an environment that is clean-cut and faith-friendly.  The Catholic Writers Guild supports all Catholic writers, from the hobbyist to most accomplished authors, and the conference schedule reflects that commitment.

When you hear the name “Catholic Marketing Network”, it sounds maybe a little bit vague . . . but it’s code for the Largest Trade Organization of Catholic Bookstores in North America.  In other words: Reader’s Paradise.  This is where the bookstores come to shop.  Dallas-area readers, check out the schedule of evening events, which are alone worth the price of admission.

If you register for EITHER the Catholic Writers Guild conference OR the Catholic Marketing Network trade show, you get into the other event for free.  And the schedules are coordinated enough that yes, you can choose your events to hit your favorites from either one.

The Catholic New Media Conference is the third event being hosted at the Arlington Conference Center.  Registration is separate, but if you register first for the trade show or writer’s conference, you’ll get a discount code to use on your New Media registration.  There are several tracks for the New Media event, depending on whether you want the full plate of technical workshops, or just the blogger’s track on Friday morning.

–>  When registering for the New Media Conference (live or the virtual track) use the promo code: AMAZING to help support the Amazing Catechist ministry.  Thanks!

Where to find your favorite Amazing Catechist writers?

A few of us will be milling around as plain old attendees — just keep your eyes peeled and say hello!  (Look for me at the registration table for the Catholic Writer’s Guild.)  If you’ve been wanting to thumb through a book or two before you buy, check out the Catholic Writer’s Guild table, which will feature, among others, Sarah Reinhard’s latest, and Christian LeBlanc’s newly-minted The Bible Tells Me So.

Speaking this year from the AC team, look for:

  • Ellen Gable Hrkach, who writes, “I’ll be speaking about Marketing (and my success on Amazon Kindle) at the Catholic Writers Conference Live on Wednesday, August 29 11:00 am.  I’m doing a book signing at noon on August 29th (signing copies of all my books but in particular my newest novel, Stealing Jenny). And I’ll be speaking on Fiction and the New Evangelization at 2:00 p.m. Thursday August 30.”  She’s also one of the facilitators for the Friday morning critique sessions — ready to help you take your writing to the next level.
  • Dorian Speed.  She reminds us to look for her on at the Catholic New Media conference, where she says,  “I’ll be speaking on Friday afternoon in the highly sought-after ‘right after lunch, opposite Sarah Reinhard’ slot.” Dorian’s a Texan, so this is a great chance for locals to meet up and hatch plots for future events.
  • Sarah Reinhard.  She will will not only be speaking on Friday in the coveted opposite-Dorian-Speed slot at New Media, but she’ll also be teaching Blogging 101 at the Catholic Writers Conference on Thursday.  And be about everywhere else, too.

See you in Texas!

Read all posts by Filed Under: Catechist Training, Evangelization, Featured, Resources, Speakers Leave a Comment

Check Your Brain at the Door? “Submission of Will and Intellect”

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The Diocese of Arlington has made the news by requiring catechists to sign a profession of faith that concludes with the jarring-to-American-ears promise to “adhere with religious submission of will and intellect” to the teaching authority of the Church.  I don’t live or work in the Diocese of Arlington, and this forum is not the place to play backseat-bishop.  But it’s important for catechists to understand what such an expression means — and doesn’t mean — in light of Catholic teaching, because you can be sure sooner or later someone’s going to ask.

Imagine you’re invited to a dinner party.  We’re just pretending, I’m not going to make you fish out your one good shirt from under that pile in your closet.  But pretend you picked out your clothes, decided all on your own whether to bring flowers for the hostess, and whether to arrive on-the-dot or fashionably late.  You’re the picture of free-thinking autonomy.

So you arrive at the door, and your hosts invite you inside.  And from there?  It’s one big festival of obedience.

Oh, sure, they give you some choices — would you like root beer or seltzer?  Care to try the cheese plate? But in all, you spend the evening doing what your hosts dictate:  Sitting in the room they’ve chosen, eating the foods they’ve prepared, relieving yourself in the bathroom they lead you to, no matter how eager you were to find out if it’s true they really do have three sinks in the master bedroom.  Don’t care for the pasta?  That’s not your invitation to rummage through the fridge and heat up your host’s leftover carry-out.  Obedience is all so . . . normal.  So normal we don’t even notice it.

But there are limits, too.  Your hosts cracks a racist joke? You have every right to walk out — or to say you’re offended, or to refuse to laugh along.  They try to talk you into insider trading, or watching a sleazy slide show?  Off you go home.  Game over.  An illegal order is no order at all.  Still, no matter what absolute creeps your hosts turn out to be, you still don’t get to take a nip from their bottle of single malt unless they invite you to do so.

Legitimate authority always has boundaries.  We can obey God without question, because God is inherently good, always and in everything.  Men?  We take it as an article of faith that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know that every church official — lay or religious — from the Holy Father to the cleaning guy telling you keep your hands off the Lysol in the janitor’s closet — every single one is going to sin.  And there is always, always, a risk that this one or that one will try to draw you into his sin.

And when that happens?  We Catholics have an obligation to refuse.  It is a tenet of our faith.

So we know that whatever the Diocese of Arlington’s profession of faith means, it can’t possibly mean, “turn off your brain and obey like a robot.”

What does it mean, then, to submit your will and intellect to Church teaching authority?

It means we accept a very fundamental teaching of the Catholic faith: Our Lord chose His Church to be the means through which truths about faith and morals are revealed.

This is a hard teaching.  We know that human teachers err — not always, but sometimes.  Today’s scientific theory is tomorrow’s busted-myth.  The idea that God might possibly use human beings as the channel through which to reveal himself?  Bold.  That the process would be so clunky and obnoxious and amazingly sloooooow as the Catholic Church?  Preposterous.

We worship a God who thinks up stuff we’d never do if we were in charge, that’s for sure.

But ultimately it is a tenet of the Catholic faith that there exists this teaching authority, and that it has the ability to teach definitively on certain matters, in certain circumstances.

As a catechist, I’m free to hold any number of theological opinions on matters which the Church has left open (for now or indefinitely).  And the Church has no opinion at all on matters outside her realm.  But where the Church has the right to assert a definitive teaching — the way my party host has a right to decide what drinks to serve, or whether to move out to the patio for dessert — I do have to yield to that legitimate authority.

As a catechist, I have to decide: Do I believe the Church is who she says she is?  If yes, I need to act on that faith.  I have to choose (using my will) to accept (using my intellect) what the Church definitively proposes as our faith.

This is not an easy faith.  We who are comfortable with this kind of profession of faith should be patient with our fellows in the pews who don’t “get it” so easily.  The Catholic Church is a universal Church, and all are invited to participate in the practice of our faith as much as they are able — and not to be coerced into practices or beliefs they do not accept.

But it is reasonable for the bishops to ask that those who teach the faith in an official capacity believe and practice the faith, however uneasy at times that may be.

Read all posts by Filed Under: Catechism, Catechist Training, Theology 7 Comments

Class Planning: You Can’t Do Everything

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It’s time to start planning your class for the new school year.  My trouble in planning is never a lack of ideas — it’s having too many.  As a catechist, I’ve got to say No to 1,000 great ways to teach so that I can say Yes to a few good ones.  How to choose?

I start with three big questions:

What’s required?  When the students walk out your door, is there anything they absolutely must know?  Is it your job to make sure they know how to receive Holy Communion, or make a good confession?  Does your diocese have teaching standards for your grade that include the memorization of certain prayers or facts about the faith?  Sometime you have to set aside time for plain old practice and memory work.  There are fun ways to practice and memorize — just make sure the activity you pick will accomplish your goal, and not just be entertainment without results.

What’s needed?  What can you bring to the classroom that students aren’t getting at home, at Mass, or in their every day life?  What are parents trying to teach at home, that they need your help in reinforcing?  I’ve been impressed as I read through Christian LeBlanc’s new book The Bible Tells Me So by how he weaves in comments about chastity and the holiness of marriage into his Bible history course.  When our parish designed our own vacation bible school program last year, one of our priorities was the study of saints — a topic that is easy for Bible-belt kids to miss out on.  During the school year, our parish emphasized Bible-reading by having 5th-8th graders look up, read, and journal the coming Sunday’s Gospel at the start of each class session.

What am I good at? I wish I knew the Bible as well as Christian LeBlanc (I’m learning!), or had knack for theater like Lisa Mladnich with her fabulous collection of free puppet-show scripts.  Maybe that’s you.  I have a friend who is skilled at leading conversations. She can draw kids into  exploring and sharing their faith just by talking about the news and the Church year.   Another catechist has years of experience as a sacristan, and captivates her class with the details of liturgy and traditional devotions.  As you read about different teaching ideas, grab onto the ones that naturally play on your strengths.

Answering these three questions will help me come up with a general idea of what I want to teach and how I want to teach it.  Then I’ve got to do two more things: Organize and Prioritize.

Organize.  I’ve got my list of ideas — now what’s the natural order for fitting them into the class schedule?  In our VBS plans last summer, we wanted to include games.  (Of course!  It’s VBS!)  We also wanted to teach fun but serious Bible and saints stories.  The plan was obvious: Main course first, dessert second.  It didn’t matter too much if we did the saint or the Bible story first, so we experimented and  picked the most convenient classroom set-up.  But it did matter that we saved games for last, so that students had an incentive to work seriously, and so they wouldn’t be all wound up from freeze tag just when we wanted them to sit still.

Prioritize.  One of the cardinal rules of classroom planning is that you should always have a little too much material.  So as you write down your plans, put parentheses around the optional activities, and underline or circle the non-negotiables.  If you’re crunched for time, skip the optional items.  If you need to fill time, have fun with the extras.

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What does your religious ed or vacation Bible school class look like?  How have you picked what to include and what to skip?  Any insights you’d like to share?  Any planning problems you’re struggling with, that you’d like to discuss?

 

Read all posts by Filed Under: Catechetics, Elementary School, General, Resources Tagged With: , , 3 Comments
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