Category: Spirituality

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A Teacher Is Like a Crazy Bowler

Bowling PinsAn old Russian proverb says that God writes straight with crooked lines. Anyone who has taught in Catholic schools knows the truth of this. You can spend hours and hours on a lesson, only to have it fall apart in front of you in the classroom. And then the next day, after a lesson which you quickly pulled together with string and baling wire, a student will come up to you and say, “That was a great class. I never really thought about God like that before.”

It’s like trying to bowl a strike, but ending up doing what this guy did on his third throw:

You just never know what you’re going to hit. It may not be what you were aiming for, but with God’s grace, you’re going to hit something.

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Poll: How Willing Are You to Make Advent More Meaningful?

Tree of Jesse
Tree of Jesse, 16th Century Athens

Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City and Deacon Greg Kandra of Brooklyn have recently challenged us to not lose sight of the importance of the Advent season. Bishop Wester even went so far as to make it the subject of his first pastoral letter to the people of Salt Lake City. Titled “Waiting in Joyful Hope,” Bishop Wester suggests several ways to celebrate Advent more fully:

  • “Schools should not decorate for Christmas, but can decorate with simple wreaths and greenery.”
  • “I encourage each home to display and bless an Advent wreath…”
  • “I urge you to hold-off on displaying a decorated Christmas tree until the season of Christmas begins.”
  • “You may want to incorporate a Jesse tree in your family’s observance of the season.”

What do you think? Can we as Catholics be counter-cultural, the way some denominations are counter-cultural? Jehovah’s Witnesses do not participate in Halloween. Seventh Day Adventists rest on Saturday rather than Sunday. Can we reclaim Advent from secular culture? Is it possible for Catholics to resist the pull of our society and wait until Christmas Eve to celebrate, and then to extend that celebration until the Epiphany?

How far would you be willing to go? Take the poll below and/or leave a comment.

[poll id=”4″]

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Catholic Educators: Great Hope for the Church

I’m currently reading Dante’s Divine Comedy, which begins with these somber words:

“Midway along the journey of our lifeThe Dark Forest
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.”

I think there are a lot of people who feel this same way today. We can feel lost and blind, like the narrator at the beginning of this video:

As Catholic educators, our mission is to help our students see that Christ is present in their lives. It is through knowing Christ that they will be able to experience fullness of life. As the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education puts it,

“Lay Catholic educators in schools, whether teachers, directors, administrators, or auxiliary staff, must never have any doubts about the fact that they constitute an element of great hope for the Church. The Church puts its trust in them entrusting them with the task of gradually bringing about an integration of temporal reality with the Gospel, so that the Gospel can thus reach into the lives of all men and women. More particularly, it has entrusted them with the integral human formation and the faith education of young people. These young people are the ones who will determine whether the world of tomorrow is more closely or more loosely bound to Christ.” – Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith

Christ is waiting. Let’s help our children see Him.

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Advent as a Time of Perseverance for Teachers and Students

WinterAs always, the latest issue of iCatholic magazine has some excellent articles. I especially liked Bishop Trautman’s article on Advent, featuring this gem for Catholic educators:

“Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical year, so it is full of joyful expectation….Advent tells a student to go back to the books and try again. Advent tells teachers, try once more to reach that student.”

By the middle of November, both students and teachers need to hear a message of perseverance–at least this teacher does. Fortunately, I’ve been hearing it a lot lately. Yesterday’s gospel reading ended with these powerful words from Jesus:

“You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

In the midst of our daily struggles and sufferings, we are called to persevere, keeping hope alive. As the days darken and the cold creeps in, it’s comforting to know that Advent is just around the corner.