Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, June 15, 2000
JFsdttlh A3air«l
The Southern Cross, Page 9
Principles for speaking to
youth about faith
*
By Tim Clark
Catholic News Service
Working with young people has
helped me understand that sharing
faith is often less about what we say
than how and when we say it. I’ve
found that a simple set of principles
can help us share the wisdom, encour-
I agement or healing we want for our
children.
—Principle No. 1: Any conversa
tion about faith has to be real. From a
are met with open and honest discus
sion, they find more than just an
swers. They find the kind of respect
that gives living witness to the trust
their parents place in them and in
God.
“When I was in seventh grade, I
really began to question religion,” said
one high-school senior. “I think it
bothered my parents, but they looked
at my grades and they were OK, and
they saw I was doing all right, so they
let me question.”
This young man said that being
CNS photo from Cleo Freelance Photography
young person’s point of view that
means it has to be about something
happening now.
One young woman told me that she
and her parents never talked about
“theology or big things like that.”
“So what did you talk about?” I
asked.
“Ethics, morals,
- *'>values,” she said.
“They were always
making us apply
faith to real life.
Like, if we wanted to
do something that
they didn’t want us
to, we would talk
about why it was
right or wrong.
“It wasn’t always just about us ei
ther. One time we were listening to
something on the news about whether
scientists should use information from
the records of Nazi experiments. We
had this long discussion on whether it
was right or wrong and why.”
It sounded like a college freshmen
class on moral theology to me, but to
her these were conversations about
the real choices she or someone else
was trying to make.
& —Principle No. 2: Questions are
good. Allowing questions can be diffi
cult. But questions open us up to
searching and dialogue.
When the questions teen-agers ask
able to question led him “to want to
see God in more than just one way....
But I know I am Catholic.”
—One other principle is the most
obvious: Actions speak louder than
words.
Describing how her parents shared
their faith, one se
nior girl put it like
this: “The biggest
thing about my par
ents is a consistent
way of living. Their
faith isn’t like, ‘I sit
down every night
and read the Bible
and I feel ...’ They
were just always
volunteering, and
we always went to Mass. We never got
to get out of going to Mass.”
“My parents’ faith,” she told me, “is
pretty simple: God loves us, and we
should love each other.”
For young people, as for most of us,
faith is about relationships. Sharing
that faith and talking about it are
ways of inviting others into it.
The stories we tell, the advice we
give, the way we listen and respond to
questions reveal to our young people
how we experience and understand
our relationship with God.
One high-school student in our
leadership group summed it up well.
Asked about the greatest gift her par
ents had given her, she said:
“They taught me unconditional love.
If my parents hadn’t done that for me, I
don’t know if I could have as much
faith as I do. I live my life in peace
knowing there is a God who loves me,
and my parents showed me that.”
(Clark is a youth minister at Pax
Christi Catholic Community in Eden
Prairie, Minn.)
or young people,... faith
is about relationships.
Sharing that faith and
talking about it are ways
of inviting others into it.”
FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE
Tell of a time when the meaning of a sacrament, of God, of
commitment or of justice was illuminated for you.
“The day I made my first Communion was the most important time for
me. I was a convert then — an adult — and my first Communion was very
special.” — Carolyn Fowler, Valley Station, Ky.
“I’d been away from the church for a long time. [Wanting to receive]
Communion is what brought me back. I missed the sense of communion
with God and with the community. I felt like I’d finally come home again.”
— Peggy Story, Greenville, Miss.
“A young person who was baptized 25 years ago and who had not been to
church since came back to the same church looking to reconnect with it.
To me, that was the working of the Holy Spirit.” — Deacon Walter
Corrigan, Seward, Alaska
Jh,
An upcoming edition asks: What key message of the Old Testament
prophets or of a psalmist is greatly needed by the world today? If you
would like to respond for possible publication, please write: Faith Alive!
3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100.
Showing how the story of
faith is “our” story
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
Catholic News Service
Jt^aith that is alive is like a smile.
But just as we cannot teach children
to smile, we cannot teach children to
believe. Like a smile, the faith is not
taught but caught from a faith per
son.
From the very beginning and
throughout the ages, the feast of Pass-
over was a special teaching moment
for the Israelites.
However, Israelite parents were not
simply to teach their children what the
Lord did for their ancestors in Egypt.
Instead, each parent was to say what
the Lord did for “me” personally.
In celebrating Passover, its story
became their story!
The Jewish community celebrates
the Passover of the Lord in homes,
with parents and grandparents sur
rounded by children and grandchil
dren. In the ancient assembly of the
Israelite elders, Moses had given this
instruction regarding Passover:
“When your children ask you,
‘What does this rite of yours mean?’
you shall reply, ‘This is the Passover
sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over
the houses of the Israelites in Egypt;
when he struck down the Egyptians,
he spared our houses” (Exodus 12:26-
27).
Thus, parents did not simply tell
their children that the Lord had
spared their ancestors. Instead, they
told them the Lord spared “our
houses.”
Parents told the story of the Pass-
over to their children around the
table. In the family environment, chil
dren joined their parents and grand
parents in celebrating the Passover.
Around the table, they “caught” the
faith from their parents.
In the family environment, and
through God’s grace, children catch
faith from their parents by osmosis.
From an adult point of view, we can
call the osmosis of the faith “pre-evan
gelization.”
Religious faith is transferred from
older generations to younger genera
tions on three levels, beginning at the
first level with faith.
The second level is participation in
the traditional faith and the liturgy of
the community.
The third level is articulating the
life of faith and the traditional faith of
the community with words, stories
and the creed.
This is why the celebration of the
Passover was very important for pass
ing on the tradition to a new genera
tion, transferring it on every level.
This is why the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper is very important. Each
generation takes bread, gives thanks
and breaks the bread in memory of
the Lord Jesus. The liturgy of the
Eucharist is a special teaching mo
ment, passing the tradition of the
Christian Passover to a new genera
tion.
When our children ask, “What does
this rite of yours mean?” we have to
answer, “This is the Passover of the
Lord!” And its story must become our
story!
(Father LaVerdiere, a Blessed Sac
rament priest, is a Scripture scholar
and senior editor of Emmanuel
magazine.)
Ina Nutshell
In their lives at home, faith tends to be “caught,” absorbed by
children.
Sharing faith with children can often be less about what the
adults say than how and when they say it.
The stories parents tell, the advice they give, the way they
listen and respond to questions reveal to young people how
the adults experience and understand their relationship
with God.