Namaste

Want to understand what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God?

Take inventory of the way you see and treat others.

Try this for a day: make more eye contact with people around you, wear a smile all day, when someone talks to you do nothing but listen actively (I have faith in you textaholics), spend an extra few minutes asking how your coworkers or boss are doing when you or they talk about something task related (i.e. you ask for information for a project and then ask how their weekend was...and actually care).

See if you feel a difference. Namaste

Monday, August 17, 2009

In the Middle

Part IV Up to now, we've shown why the Church should have a vested interest in the formation of youth. Last post, we looked at how family is the primary sources of catechesis (at least it should be, in principle). So why would the Church ever need Youth Ministry?

Last post, I mentioned that Baptism Prep seems to be the primary formation for parents to be able to fulfill their role as primary catechists. The problem is that Baptism isn't really sufficient formation because as kids get older, they start to have "deeper" questions that not every parent would necessarily be knowledgeable about, even in a perfect world. In economics/business, we see how specialization can make better quality and more efficient products and this theory applies in formation as well. The Catholic Church is blessed to have 2,000 years of intelligent and anointed men and women providing insight and lots of "food for thought" as well as teachings. That's a lot to try and be knowledgeable about. That's why we have people who are supposed to be well trained in knowledge of our faith and theology. So, there's a need for Catechists that are professional passers-on of the faith, so to speak. Many parishes offer classroom learning situations for kids.

Now, let's suppose we have a perfect world where every parent knows how to explain transubstantiation, habitual grace vs. actual grace, divine mercy, etc. Would we need professional passers-on of the faith? Yes. Why? At a certain age, kids seek to find identities outside of the influence of their parents and they think they can do this by listening to anyone but their parents. Whether parents actually lose influence is up for debate, but it's about the way kids think they are influenced...

The Middle School Factor
So, we can see why youth ministry is a necessity for the Church, but at what age do we start doing youth ministry? Well, if you're with me so far in this four part journey and you see that youth reach a point where outside (positive) influence and guidance is important for various reasons, then we really should look at the age that the outside world begins to have as much or even more of a tug on the minds and hearts of our youth than their families seem to.

In early adolescence, there's a social and hormonal shift in kids that propels them to figure out who they are as an individual and what they believe. Their brains can begin to think abstractly, and ultimately, they begin to make decisions about beliefs that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Does this mean they won't change? Not at all. However, middle schoolers today are faced with challenges and choices that weren't regular aspects of life when you or I were their age. Middle Schoolers today face what high schoolers faced 5 years ago.

So when should the Church start doing youth ministry? 6th grade, at least. Middle Schoolers and their parents need support, prayers, help, and professional passers-on of the faith. We need the relevance of relationships found in Youth Ministry in order to be effective catechists for our middle schoolers.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

It's All in the Family

PART III
The last two posts demonstrated discussed how the main priority of the Church is leading people to Christ. Then, we saw how people's beliefs and loyalties come from people deciding between competing systems, causes and organizations. The best way to be successful in having someone choose what you see as important, is to reach out to them before they've really solidified their world view. This means that society has turned its focus towards youth and if the Church wants to stay in the game, so to speak, we need to start young as well.

So what is the role of the Church in the formation of youth? Well, it all begins with the family. The Church sees the family unit as the primary source of catechesis because, well, your family shapes you more than anything or anyone else in this world, especially when you're a kid. Plus, the family unit is a symbol of the Blessed Trinity - love between two brings forth life - so it makes sense that a family would be life giving in the "this world" sense and the "next life" sense as well.

Baptism prep tries to offer formation so that parents and God parents can be successful in their catechizing of their children. This really seems to be the only formation that the Church offers to parents, though, to help them fulfill their role as primary catechists. So where does that leave the status of handing on the faith to our young people...

The Rise of the Youth Culture

PART II (Priorities)
Most people hold the view that the things they find most valuable and worth shaping one's life around are also worth handing down from generation to generation. Think about it, if someone comes up to you and says in all seriousness that the Earth is flat, you'd probably be a little bewildered and correct them. Now imagine if they held a view on a moral area such as cheating that you felt was clearly false and wrong in its very essence. You would probably try to persuade the other person to see the issue as you see it because "good" and "right" are always better than "bad" and "wrong." So we can say, then, that there are "secular" ideas and beliefs that most people would agree should be handed down.

Why do we hand things down? We value what is being handed down and want to see whatever is being handed down continue on through the future. Now, we certainly can correct false beliefs, like the example of the person that thinks the world is flat. It's more efficient to teach the correct or important beliefs at an earlier age, from the start, so to speak. When we accept this logic and this intuitive notion, the next step in our thoughts and actions become making education and formation of young people a priority; young people are still forming beliefs and gaining knowledge that they will decided to be true or false.

Society's focus shifts to youth, then. Everyone is trying to compete for young peoples' attention and loyalty to ideas. Consumerism tries to develop marketing strategies just for young people, television provides programming just to appeal to younger viewers, schools compete for students, sports teams use prestige to compete for youth. The list could go on because everyone wants buy in from young people because they want to secure their own future legacies.

The Church also "competes" for young people. We compete for their hearts and minds out of a belief that the prize is leading them to Christ (see my previous post for details about why evangelization is important). The Catholic Church (as does any other organized system of beliefs) feels strongly about sharing and handing on our faith and like I said above, it's easier to do when people are at an age that they're still in the early stages of forming their world view, rather than when they're already pretty set in their framework of looking at life. As a Church, we should and actually do continue to review our efforts to form young people in the ways of growing a relationship with Christ.

So where are we at with the end of Part II? The Church, if she really believes in Her number one priority, has to make youth a top priority, specifically faith formation for youth. What's the best way? We'll begin to address that one next round. Until then...

Where's Your Priorities?

PART I
Okay, so not literally your priorities. I think that every person and every organization should ask themselves this simple, yet profound question. I'm going to use a simple If, Then logic premise:

If you don't know and clearly define your priorities, you can't follow said priorities well.

Basically, it's easier to go from point A to point B if you know that point B is where you want to go, have a map, and the trails are relatively well-marked.

The Church's Priorities
As a Church, our number one priority is handing on the faith. Because of the tenants of our faith, this is the equivalent of saying that our main priority is leading people to Christ. This is scriptural, apostolic, and logical.

Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep; Jesus commissions His Apostles and disciples to go out and share the Good News; The Apostles and disciples actually go out and share the Good News; They are told to do likewise; all the Baptized are called to share the Good News; Church teaching and scripture say not to hold on to something so good and be selfish (don't hide a light under a basket); If you love God, you love all that is God's, this includes everyone else in the world - and to love them is to share God's love with them, in the most simplistic view of reality.

So how do we accomplish our main priority? Tune in to the next post for more...

It's Comical

Usually I try to write about things that my brain is working through or that might give anyone reading some thoughts to gnaw on and digest or spit out (it's up to you). Tonight, I'm just sharing that I'm pretty excited that my new laptop came. Now, I can start recording music (albeit low quality). However, I think this opens up a new dimension to my bloggingness.

In other news, this Friday is the EDGE Dance. Pressure, stress, apathy, hope, all good words to describe me+this dance. Ultimately, it's an evangelization tool, I guess.

Lastly, I've decided that the 20's are more fluctuating and inconsistent than any other period of life (so far). The tumultuous teen years are all just preparation for the continuous transitions taking place in your 20's - whether it be you or your friends. Am I going to assign any values to my statements about this subject? No. Not really. It is what it is, regardless of whether I think it's good bad or in between.

Pro-Choice

An interesting acerbic thought came to me today in the car, inspired by some bumper stickers I saw - though I imagine they've had the opposite effect than what they were hoping for.

So, if pro-choice people are about choice rather than pro-abortion, why do I not get a choice as to whether or not I want my tax money going to fund abortions? Money that I have earned goes to the government which then provides funding to resources that offer and/or promote abortion (if you think Planned Parenthood just offers abortions but doesn't promote them, come talk to me) - that means that I am helping abortions happen.


If people are really pro-choice, they can choose to support abortion, but please, don't force me to support it (which is what the government is doing)...

I wonder, how did our society go from a few judges saying the government has no legal right to stop abortions to a society that allows our law makers to fund and promote abortion? Those are two different levels of involvement and commitment...

Sunday, March 1, 2009