Monday Message, October 2, 2023

KNOW

A giant thank you to all who participated in Ministry Day 2023. More than 300 gathered for workshops, visited the exhibitors, and shared in the day’s events. Thank you to our speakers, our exhibitors, our bishop, Deacon John, Maria, Bill, Nancy, Caesar, Carmela, and all those who made the day such a great event.

Tomorrow is our Parish Leader Check In #63. For our prayer, be sure you have read the introduction to Seasons of Your Heart. The link is here.

This Friday, join us for the first of what I hope will be the first of many Formation Labs. Our first lab will welcome Amy McEntee to discuss how we can pastorally respond to those who show up out of the blue every few years – suddenly anxious for a sacrament or two. Please note: Amy will discuss the topic first, but then we want to hear from you. Be sure to bring questions and ideas and, if you have them, resources you are already using. The labs are intended for us to share our recommended practices with each other. Registration is here.

We have added all of Fr. Joe Gill’s Restless videos to LEAD. Check them out.

Resources on the Directory for Catechesis are coming this week.

Just a quick reminder: if a family wants to join your faith formation and they belong to another parish, welcome them as you would any newcomer. If, however, the family wishes to join your faith formation specifically for a sacramental year, a note from their pastor is required.

REFLECT

Over lunch the other day, I was reminded of the many gifts our formation leaders bring to the table. You are kind, compassionate, and patient. Many of you work for very little compensation and have for years shared in the great opportunity of passing on the faith to others. I am grateful and I want you to know that.

In the midst of the conversation I was having, I overheard a few things that troubled me and I wanted to share them with you. One person at lunch quoted her parish leadership this way, “My DRE told us that if we have kids in the class that don’t want to learn, we should tell them to leave.”

Another said families in their parish were being told that if they missed the registration deadline, the family should find another parish.

And still a third said that no formation for catechists was needed, just a breathing, warm body was enough.

I know that for most of you, being appalled does not even come close to covering it.

We are a human group, prone to speaking too quickly and reacting too much. For now, I just wanted to make you aware of the conversation and let you reflect upon those comments. My hope and prayer is that they were taken out of context or spoken in haste.

There is no place in faith formation for leadership like this, if you could call it leadership at all.

Let us work together to raise the tide of that which we expect of our faith formation opportunities – and let us speak clearly, with one voice, moving forward to a better day, more engaging catechesis, and, for our young and their parents, more fervent encounters with the person of Jesus Christ.

LAUGH

Note: As a father of three girls, I am confident in their ability to throw!