Beloved parishioners,
It is with sorrow that I write to you about fulfilling baptismal promises to educate children in the faith by example of how we live. What concerns me is that many seem to have an idea that teaching children the faith means Sacramental Preparation classes for First Communion and Confirmation. We experience great joy in seeing beautiful children at First Communion, but they disappear from Mass and Religious Education. About eight years later they return for Confirmation Class without knowing how to pray and little understanding of moral law, Catholic prayer, and the meaning of the Mass.
Educating children in faith is not Sacramental Preparation. Growing in the faith is a life-long process. We are depriving our children of the support they need to grow in holiness. The Catholic way of life is to live in communion with God. St. John Mary Vianney, patron of parish priests, said of this: “Prayer is nothing else but union with God. When one has a heart that is pure and united with God, he is given a kind of serenity and sweetness that makes him ecstatic, a light that surrounds him with marvelous brightness. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.” To stop Faith Formation after First Communion robs children of the opportunity to grow in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This keeps the faith of the parish at the level of an eight year old child.
The Sunday Gospels and homily tell the story of Jesus leading us to peace with the Father. The Catholic way of life about the victory of Christ over “the daily worries of eating, dressing, success or a career.” Every person has a hunger for meaning and eternity. Jesus satisfies our hunger with the gift of himself on the cross and in the Eucharist. Pope Francis said, “Jesus does not eliminate preoccupations and the search for daily bread, Jesus reminds us that the real meaning of our earthly existence is the end — eternity — the encounter with him, who is gift and giver.” The pope said our mission is: “that we, in turn, satisfy the spiritual and material hunger of our brothers and sisters by proclaiming the Gospel everywhere.” For us this means that we are to pass on the joy of the Gospel to our children, so that they too may receive the rich blessings of living in communion with God through prayer at home and participation in the Mass every Sunday.
I feel discouraged by the forces of habit and culture that contribute to this deprivation of Faith Formation for children and for Adults. Growing in the faith is our conversion to Christ. We are not to remain spiritual children. We must grow both physically and spiritually. We must fall in love with Jesus and see God as our merciful Father who protects us and heals us through his Church and the moral law. If we don’t see Jesus and the Church as instruments of love, we resent Church teaching and God’s moral law.
The school year is almost here and we need teachers and aides for Religious Education/Faith Formation. I dream that we will have teachers and aides for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, plus aides for the Middle School and High School Youth groups. Our children need to be helped to know that God loves them and expects great things of them, yes, holiness is what we are called to. If you have helped RCIA, religious education or youth group, you know that we also grow in our own faith and learn new things. Bonnie Gilovich needs assistance in helping adults come into the Catholic Church.
I invite you to fall deeply in love with Christ through life-long Faith Formation as a parent, a teacher, an aide or as a student of the Church and the Bible. The Bible is the book of the Catholic Church and we need to be familiar with it, so that we can know Jesus and share our love of him. Our parish is in the process of catching the fire of love of the Sacred Heart as the Holy Spirit touches souls, please come journey with us.
Your servant in Christ, Father Paul