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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.