Christmas & Epiphany

(Yes, that Christmas; but no, not that Epiphany.)

Christmas:

Years ago the mother of one of my students (Abby) made me a terrific little thank-you note which still sits on the base of my computer screen. I should mention that Abby was a Very Good Student. She must be about 19 years old now, a young woman.

This year I am teaching Abby's younger sister, Katie. We're getting close to Christmas, and before Wednesday night's class started, I received another thank-you from their mother; this time in the form of a Christmas-tree ornament. I'll have to tie it around the base of my computer screen.

G.K. Chesterton fans, eat ya hearts out...and uh, Merry Christmas!

Epiphany:

In class we we covered bits of prophecy by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Zechariah, and Malachi. I read each passage and the kids figured out what each one prophesies. Mostly they anticipate something about Jesus, but not always. This is the bit I read from Daniel:

"...lo, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him... Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads stood before him."

The kids will readily connect this to the Second Coming. I'll say a bit about the 'son of man,' and tell them to look out for Jesus quoting Daniel after he's arrested. ("I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy.")

But before I could get to any of that, Abby's-younger-sister-Katie blurted out, "That's the same as the song at church last Sunday!" And I'm looking at her: huh? what? Last Sunday we had that song! Umm...ok...yes, yes, we did, genius daughter, this one!" and I sang the opening verse, more or less:

"Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
something-something of his train:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign."

"That's an Advent hymn! Yes daughter, we just started Advent last week! The words are based on Daniel’s prophecy! You are too smart! By the way y'all, lots of hymn lyrics are taken from the Bible, so pay attention, you may recognize stuff from class in the hymns. And if you do, you will of course point it out to your parents."  

I should mention that like her sister Abby, Katie is a Very Good Student.

New Evangelization 1999

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Originally posted at New Evangelizers on Nov. 8 

Some might say: Yes. This.

Right now I'm about 2/3 of the way through an interesting book, Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell. I'll call it a blueprint for kickstarting the New Evangelization at the parish level. Just a few minutes ago I was on page 167, and read this bit: "...Doug and I went through our old RCIA outlines, and basically threw almost everything out...We began asking ourselves, "Where do we want people to be spiritually when they are baptized or making a profession of faith?"

Which reminds me of my wife and myself in 1999.

I've been teaching 6th-grade Catechism for so long that I forget that my wife & I taught RCIA and Adult Ed back around the turn of the century.  In the late '90s we had been running a topically-driven adult class. In covering those assorted topics, time was spent on learning how to respond to all the odd questions Catholics here in the Bible Belt are regularly asked: why do y'all worship Mary, the Pope, saints, statues, and the "wafer god"; where is x, y, and z in the Bible; why can't priests get married; why can't you contracept; annulments are just Catholic divorces, etc. For a given topic our usual system was to find some useful content on the internet. We'd hand it out a week ahead, and everyone would read it before the next class. We would prepare a 30 minute lecture. The next class would combine the lecture material and the handout into an hour's worth of learning and informed discussion. It was a terrific system, and class prep had us reading all sorts of things: the Bible; the Catechism; the Catholic Encyclopedia; encyclicals; Ecumenical Council documents; Jack Chick tracts; books and articles by David Currie, Steve Ray, Scott Hahn, Karl Keating, Robert Sungenis, Jimmy Akin, Mark Shea, and the like; and the famous/infamous Roman Catholicism by Loraine Boettner.

Then after 2 years of Adult Ed, the pastor asked us to do RCIA starting in the Fall of '99. We said sure; we'd combine the RCIAers with the adult class crowd, which'd be good for both groups. We took the RCIA program materials home and started to compose a syllabus.

But we soon decided that the diocesan RCIA program wasn't well-suited to Bible-Belt catechumens and candidates. The typical adult converts here were Evangelicals or Fundamentalists. The Bible had persuaded them that the Catholic Church just might be the one true church which Christ had founded on Peter; and they were in RCIA to learn more about Catholicism from a Scriptural perspective. The RCIA materials were orthodox, but were sourcing faith more from Vatican 2 documents and the Catechism than the Bible. That's fine as far as it goes, but these folks were going to be defending and explaining their conversion to friends and family who'd reject Catholic sources out of hand. So like the people on page 167, Janet and I asked ourselves, "Where do we want people to be when they are done with RCIA?" And our answer was that they should be able to evangelize their non-Catholic friends and family, even if that evangelization were limited to the kitchen table.

Outlining our RCIA vision to the pastor, we got the go-ahead.  That Fall we ran RCIA like Adult Ed but with a bit more organization. At the first class meeting, everyone received a red 3-ring binder, empty except for the 26-class syllabus, a Table of Contents, and 10 tabbed dividers corresponding to each section, which were:

1. Faith and Reason/ Revelation: Scripture and Tradition

2. The Bible

3. Jesus and the Pope

4. History of the Church

5. The Sacraments

6. The Commandments/ Morality and Conscience

7.The Mass/ Church Calendar/ Vestments and Vocabulary

8. Mary, Prayer, and the Communion of Saints

9. Modernism

10. Catholic Evangelization/ Catechism and Apologetics

Then each class worked like Adult Ed: one or more handouts to read the week before class; and a lecture and discussion based on the handout. Class discussions often included what had been talked about around a water cooler or a kitchen table the week before. There was a lot of energy and excitement. And the cool thing was that the hole-punched handouts would go in a particular section of the red binder. We had 26 class meetings, so each tabbed section would accumulate handouts for more than one class, e.g. we had three classes on the Bible, and 8 handouts (some were only a couple of pages). By the end of the year each person had a customized sourcebook that they were familiar with.

Anyway it was only in reading that bit on page 167 of Sherry's book that it occured to me that our RCIA class was a good example of the New Evangelization. Major 1999 New Evangelization concepts included:

1. The explicit goal of evangelizing.

2. Action. That is, we didn't talk about the need for an effective RCIA program; we made one.

3. A nimbleness and responsiveness to what people wanted/ needed to know.

4. Using new media/ no textbook/ multisourcing.

5. Content offered in vernacular language spoken by a non-scholarly audience.

6. Lay initiative and responsibility. This strikes me as the most important.

Recalling those years, and turning the pages in my old red binder, I realize now more that I did then what a substantial evangelical project that first year of RCIA had been; how it didn't seem like a lot of work, but it was; what a little (well, big) family we all became, and still are when we see each other; and how the Holy Spirit moved within that class in a lovely way that I notice for the first time even as I write this.

Geniuses at Work

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets 

Tonight the kids were on a tear. Sometimes they get up on the wave and ride it 'til we have to go home.

Class ran from the death of David's firstborn son and the birth of Solomon, through Elisha taking up the mantle of Elijah. As usual I established the idea of Solomon being the Son of David, which then became a Messianic term which people living centuries after Solomon applied to Jesus. I drew my usual cartoon of Solomon on his throne, with a vacant throne at his right. The kids figured who would be sitting beside him: his Momma, not his Wife Posse. I add Bathsheba, and a B and an S over the Royal Heads. We then reviewed 1Kings2 to see how Bathsheba interceded for Adonijah, and how her son honored her:

"Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon./ I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me." She said to him, "Say on." 17 And he said, "Pray ask King Solomon--he will not refuse you--to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife." 18 Bathsheba said, "Very well; I will speak for you to the king." 19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother; and she sat on his right. 20 Then she said, "I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me." And the king said to her, "Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you." 21 She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife."

The kids sussed out why Adonijah got Bathsheba to intercede for him (e.g., as Moses interceded for the calf-worshiping Israelites). I mention that Queen Elizabeth's mom was also a Queen Mother, the Queen Mum. In prior years I'd jump ahead to Cana at this point, and they'd connect Jesus'n'Mary to Solomon'n'Bathsheba; and check out the last lines of the Hail Mary. But this year I did not make that jump.

Instead we moved along, getting to how Elijah fled King Ahab and Jezebel, and was Hungry in the Desert. Being Hungry in the Desert like the wandering Israelites of old, who received Miraculous Bread and Flesh in the forms of manna and quail, Elijah likewise received Miraculous Bread and Flesh (from a raven). Then we covered Elijah's bread miracle at Zarephath: "And she went and did as Elijah said; and she, and he, and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elijah."

At this point we jumped ahead to Jesus: "Y'all tell me the first time Jesus worked a miracle like this. When he did the loaves and fishes! Yes! More Miraculous Bread and Flesh! People were so impressed with Jesus' food miracles that when Jesus asked "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" [T]hey said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Now tell me about a Jesus food miracle before the loaves. Well, at the wedding he made wine...yes, good, wine counts as food. Tell it." And the Cana story tumbles out of the fired-up children. I interrupt to ask why the stewards talked to Mary about their problem. They stop: one child looks at the Solomon/ Bathsheba cartoon, and yells "cause it's like Solomon and his mom! Genius, yes! Somebody tell me, what's like Solomon and Bathsheba? Jesus loves his mom and wants to help her! Yes again! He honors her like Solomon did; and what Commandment says to do that? The...the fourth! Yes! Y'all are too smart!

Then my Magic Finger rubs out the B and S over the cartoon royalty. "Y'all tell me what initial goes here now. J for Jesus! Yes, he's...King! Of...Heaven! Yes. And- M for Mary! Yes, ya too fast! So she's...the King's Mom! Yes. How come her chair is little? Well, Mary is God's Mother, but she ain't God, is she? No! Now remember in the Creed we say "He is seated at the right hand of the Father" so who do I still need to draw? The Father! Yes, here we go...so Jesus sits...at his Father's right hand. Yes, and Mary...sits at Jesus' right hand. Good children! Yes? How come God isn't the King? God? Which flavor? The Father...why isn't he the King? Well, which person is called the Son of David? Jesus. Yes, and the Son of David was...Solomon. Yes, so Jesus is like Solomon; not God the Father. Jesus was mashia'd, anointed like David. Not Jesus' Daddy. So tell me about it. Jesus is the King. Yep. Is the Father jealous of his son? No, he loves him! Yes!

Just another night of Catechetical Bliss.

Page 94

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

There's your problem

I recently finished reading Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell. It's a how-to book on Newly Evangelizing yourself; then your parish; and then the world. I mark up books like this and later go back to re-read the marked-up bits.

I was Confirmed in 1968 or so. I was also Baltimore Catechized, and understood that Bishop Unterkoefler was going to lay hands on me and I would receive Gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as...well, I forget. I was 11. Anyway, when you're Confirmed, you get 'em: charisms. So I got Confirmed but never did feel any different, like I had gotten some ka-riz-um. (Chaucer! Rabelais! Balzac!)

Living in South Carolina can be bracing for Catholics. Partly because one might not have at any given instant the best answer to a polemical question; but also because dialogue seems to give way so quickly to argument and uncharity. Is uncharity a word? It is.

One afternoon in 1998 I was at home around lunchtime to let the bug-killer spray the house. Nice young man, mid 20s or so, comes in with his gear, starts spraying. Notices the Jesus 'n' Mary statues; the Crucifix; the palms. He says, I see you have statues of Jesus and Mary...are y'all Catholic? "Yes, we are," and I'm gettin' stressed for the usual grind. Well, can I ask you some questions about that? "Sure, go ahead." And it's mostly the regular questions- but some were deeper, more informed, more inquiring, more than just boilerplate. I was really having to think and respond to particulars, and consequently feeling more tense than usual.

Then all of a sudden I was perfectly calm and relaxed. I seemed to have no involvement with the engaging responses that came out of my mouth. I was in an evangelical flow state, being lifted up and out, thinking and conversing in this weird, effortless, liberating, charitable, open way. And I thought, "Wow...could this be a Confirmation Gift of the Holy Spirit? A charism? Who'd'a thunk it after all these years?" I continued to accompany the bugman as he walked around the inside and outside of the house for the next 30-odd minutes, answering questions, asking a few, having a pointed yet pleasant conversation. Then we sat down while he wrote up his bill, which took the rest of the hour, as we were still talking. Only once did things get a bit tense, I think it was over good works in this bit by St. Paul:  "For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life...glory and honor and peace for every one who worketh good." But neither of us felt compelled to beat the other up over it, to win. Before he left, I learned that Mr. Bug Killer was only part-time, and was studying at Bob Jones for his divinity degree. He said he enjoyed our Christian dialogue; and while I hadn't persuaded him of anything it was interesting nonetheless. I agreed, and he left, both of us grinning like Cheshire Cats.

Page 94 of Sherry's book is in a section titled "Discerning Charisms." Like me, everyone has them, but we don't all get identical doses. And also like me, people often don't know what their charisms are. Sherry writes:

"...charisms almost always manifest after the point in our life when our faith becomes personal..."

Which was true in my case. But more specifically, she adds:

"They may also manifest for the first time when we meet a person or situation for which that particular gift is needed."

Which perfectly describes my experience...how'd she know that?

I marked up the rest of page 94 with additional underlining, brackets, and comments such as: Yes; Yes; Absolutely. A whole page of remarkable observations about my own experience of charisms. I could say more, but it's better if you read page 94 (and the rest of the book) yourself.

Order direct here.

I Already Know About the Bible

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets 

 ...and they followed the North Star to Baby Jesus' igloo.

I remember the time one of my kids came up to me after class looking serious.

"Hey, Stratopops? Hey, what? I...I want to be moved to 7th grade. Oh yeah? Why's that? I'm in 7th grade in school, but I went to a Christian school last year, so this year I got put in your 6th grade class. Besides, I already know what you're teaching. Oh...what am I teaching that you already know? The Bible, we learned it in Christian school. Hey, that's great, you have a head start. So you already know what Melchizedek has to do with Mass? Well, we didn't learn about Mass. Oh. How about Melchizedek, you already knew about him before we covered him a couple of weeks ago? No we didn't have that. Oh. How about Isaac and Abraham? I know about them. Do you know what they have to do with Mass? No, we didn't talk about Mass! Oh yeah, that's right. How about Manoah and the angel? What? You know, Manoah, Samson's daddy, and the angel? Y'all didn't cover them I guess. Umm, no. Or how that angel is part of Mass? Uh-uh.

How about Passover? Yes! And what does Passover have to do with Mass? I don't know. That's ok, we'll cover that later. And Moses and the bread and flesh in the desert? Yes! And how that fits in with Mass? We didn't have that. Oh..how about sprinkling blood on the people, and mixing it with water and all that? We didn't have that. Huh...we were learning about the Meeting Tent last week, didja know about it? Yes! Good! Do you already know how a Catholic Church is like the Tent? Huh? Never mind, we'll get to that next week. Look, it's ok with me if you move to 7th grade, it's not my call anyway. But there's a whole lot about the Bible and Mass and being Catholic that we'll learn this year that you wouldn't get in Christian school, and because you already know a lot of Bible stuff it'll be interesting for you. So I think you oughta stay in my class."

So- did this child stay in my class? Umm...I don't remember.

Not in the Book

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets 

Last week one of the kids asked how old God is. This is one of a batch of God-questions, including: what created God/ when did God start/ what did God make the universe out of/ how can he know the future if it hasn't happened yet/ how big is God/ how do we know there's a God/ how can he know everything, etc. I get asked one or more of them every year, and this is a flexible model for how I answer them:

"Honorary son, that's a great question: how old is God? The short answer is that God has no age because He created Time just like he created a tree, a camel, or the Sun. How did he create those things? He just thought about them! Yes. Can the Sun burn God or give him a tan? No, that's silly. Right; stuff God thinks into existence can't control or limit him; so like the Sun, Time has no effect on God...see? But if he's been alive for millions of years isn't he old? [Sometimes this pitch works on 6th-graders, but not this time.] Well, no. But let's try something else.

Who knows who JK Rowling is? I do, she wrote Harry Potter. Yes. Any of y'all read any Harry Potter books? A couple of you...anyone seen the movies? Everybody, good. Are those characters real? No. Right- but in the books are they real? Yes! No! Try this: do any of the characters realize they are in a book? No! OK. Now those 7 books each cover a year in Harry's life. Did the author need a year to write each one? What? If the time in a book covers a year in a character's life, does that mean the author wrote it in a year? No, that's silly. Why is it silly? Because the person who wrote the book isn't in the book, they wrote it! Yes. But suppose I wrote a book about a real year of my own life, so I was in the book: would that take me a year to write? No, the time it takes to write it doesn't have anything to do with how much time is in it!  Right. But how about if you read a book: does the time you spend reading it match the time-span in the book? No they don't have anything to do with each other either. Yes. How about if the story is in the desert...would you be hot? No! And if it were in a blizzard? I wouldn't be cold. Right. And if you were an author, could you write about England while you lived in America? You can write a book about anywhere! You don't have to be there! Uh-huh. So can the world in a book affect the author or the reader in any way? Just how they feel. Yes. And if we sin and ignore God...he feels sad. Yes. So tell me about God and the Universe he created: does it make him hot? No? Cold? No! Hungry? No! Does gravity pull him around? No! Does time make him get old? No! Is he tall or short? No! Fast or slow? No! Sleepy at night? No! Right. God's the author of the Universe: the stuff he created doesn't control him or limit him, not even gravity or distance or time."

If time permits I might expand the discussion to preemptively answer other similar questions. It's usually better to cover related bits comprehensively rather than piecemeal. For example, this is how I would typically extend the subject into God's omniscience:

"Now remind me how God creates. He just thinks of stuff and that makes it real. Right, like when God thought, "let there be light"...there was light. Yes. How long did God need to imagine light? Well, he just did it, I don't think it took any time. Yes, it was instantaneous. And how did JK get the idea for Harry Potter? She just thought of it? Sure. That's usually the first step for humans to create something, too: to think of it. We often do things in a God-way because in Genesis, God made Adam from...dirt! Yes, and...he breathed into Adam's mouth! Yes so we've got God's creative spirit in us in a way that animals don't. But if JK imagines Harry, is he real? No. Right. So her creativity isn't equal to God's. They're related but not comparable by any means. But still, she may have created her first idea about Harry instantaneously, like the way God creates.

So tell me what Harry knew about himself when he was little. He knew he was a wizard and his parents were dead. Yes. Did he know his future? No. But did the author know about Harry's future? Yes. In fact, who knew everything about Harry...Harry? No, the author! And about the whole world of the books: who knew all about it? The author! Yes. Because if she hadn't thought of every single person and thing and detail in the books, including Harry's past and his future...then none of it would be there. Right, the only reason any of it exists is that she imagined it, created it. So, who knows my future? God? Yes, why? 'Cause he made you. Yes, God's my author, so to speak; and what else did God make? Well, he made everything. Yes, and to create everything is to...know everything? Yes."

Or our knowledge of God:

"What does Harry know about JK Rowling? Nothing. Right. But suppose he got the idea that his world was created by something or someone...then could he determine who or what it was? I don't think he could figure that out. Right. But suppose JK wanted Harry the character to know about her, the author. How could she do that? Well, she'd have to get into the book and tell him I guess. Yes. She'd have to reveal things about herself in the book. Maybe Harry would find an old, mysterious note about the "Author"; or she might even appear in the book as herself, JK Rowling. That sounds weird. Maybe; but how has God appeared in our world? The Burning Bush? Yes, but I'm thinking about a person. Jesus! Yes. So what's the only way Harry could really know anything about JK Rowling? She'd have to tell him. Yes, tell him where? In the book! Yes, in Harry's world which she created; kinda like how God reveals himself to us in our world, which he created."

BTW, I don't have any compelling opinion about Harry Potter one way or another; it's just a series all the kids are familiar with. Probably a computer role-playing game would work better as an analogy, but I don't think enough of the kids know what they are.

Greenville-Ephrathah 9: Organic Gravity

Little Ephrathah 

My Fabulous Wife & I had Sunday lunch with a Priest Acquaintance of ours; his Wife; a visiting Catholic Author; and a Deacon Acquaintance, who commented on the burgeoning Catholic Gravity of another Bible-Belt American City Which Shall Remain Nameless. How does its gravity compare to Li'l 'phrathah's?

That's a good question. Li'l 'phrathah is about one tenth the size of Gargantua; obviously 10 kilos has 10 times the gravity of 1 kilo. And any Southerner or Stalinist can tell ya [although from opposing viewpoints] that quantity has a quality all its own. But still, here's a case where quality has a quantity all its own. What quality? Why, the quality of...organicness. Or organicity; or both. See, while Gargantua does have Catholic Gravity, it's mostly Institutional. Top-down. Cathedral. Higher Education. Seminary. Big Numbers. And there's nothing wrong with that, y'know? But 'phrathah's gravity is bottom-up, lay-driven, informally-structured, self-organizing, self-motivating, self-energizing, diffuse, nimble. A Catholic Swarm Intelligence transcending local parish boundaries and other geographies.

Of course, a bottom-up approach isn't unique to the Upstate. Check out these Cascadia guys, they get it too. Put in more familiar terms, what we are seeing are evolving, living models of the New Evangelization.