Why do our children need to participate in such elaborate preparation to receive the Sacraments?
First, you would be (and I sure was!) surprised how many times I have been asked this question in my short tenure here. Second, our Sacramental Prep programs are pretty concise and reasonable in comparison to other parishes. Third, though we always defer to the parents’ wisdom here at CTR because they are the primary catechists of their children and the first and most powerful Gospel their children will ever read (Visit: http://www.familyformation.net/ChurchDocumentSupport.asp), here are my two cents….
We believe that our Sacraments have three parts to them: 1) Preparation, 2) Celebration, and 3) Living them out in our daily lives. Eucharist, Reconciliation & Confirmation are not things that "happen to" your child but events that we want them to actively participate in. Our Sacraments are fundamentally public in nature; deep communal experiences that bestow a certain kind of grace that all of us aim to fully receive and savor...to be fully present to…that are given by the community, for the community, and to the community. They are never a private event, but always a collective experience with the purpose of making Christ's presence more real in the world.
In other words, when we baptize our children into the body of Christ it is not just for the salvation of our child, but in a very real way for the salvation of the world. We are initiating them into a life of compassionate service to transform the world with the love of Christ…our membership in this body is what we celebrate each week at the Eucharistic table and affirm at Confirmation. This is the ambitious and stunningly beautiful dream and vision for our world that Jesus gifted to us…
The intimacy with God/Community that we parents so deeply desire for our children is the main aim of our Sacramental preparation process. Just as our child would never ask his/her coach if she could go to a competition without having attended any of the practices because she simply would not be prepared AND would not have that all-important "team" experience and all the relationships that make the activity such a rich, full and essential experience in her life, so too, to only partially or half-heartedly attend our preparation sessions and then have our children celebrate the Sacrament may not being doing them any favors. Sure we want them to be fully initiated, without question. But, we short-change our kids when we don’t whole-heartedly prepare them for these momentous milestones in our faith life.
We in the Office of Family Ministry really do our very best to listen, understand and accommodate busy families (most of our staff are living within them!). We don’t want to force any tough choices…but when our kid is swimming seven days a week, what can be done? And I wonder what we parents are teaching our children when hockey trumps going to Mass on Sunday?
We believe that our Sacraments give us a special strength for the journey when our lives get tough...and we parents (hopefully) know how essential our connection to God and our community is to our spiritual well-being as adults. In the end, we need to seriously ponder and prayerfully discern which choices are going to serve our kids best in their adult life.
First, you would be (and I sure was!) surprised how many times I have been asked this question in my short tenure here. Second, our Sacramental Prep programs are pretty concise and reasonable in comparison to other parishes. Third, though we always defer to the parents’ wisdom here at CTR because they are the primary catechists of their children and the first and most powerful Gospel their children will ever read (Visit: http://www.familyformation.net/ChurchDocumentSupport.asp), here are my two cents….
We believe that our Sacraments have three parts to them: 1) Preparation, 2) Celebration, and 3) Living them out in our daily lives. Eucharist, Reconciliation & Confirmation are not things that "happen to" your child but events that we want them to actively participate in. Our Sacraments are fundamentally public in nature; deep communal experiences that bestow a certain kind of grace that all of us aim to fully receive and savor...to be fully present to…that are given by the community, for the community, and to the community. They are never a private event, but always a collective experience with the purpose of making Christ's presence more real in the world.
In other words, when we baptize our children into the body of Christ it is not just for the salvation of our child, but in a very real way for the salvation of the world. We are initiating them into a life of compassionate service to transform the world with the love of Christ…our membership in this body is what we celebrate each week at the Eucharistic table and affirm at Confirmation. This is the ambitious and stunningly beautiful dream and vision for our world that Jesus gifted to us…
The intimacy with God/Community that we parents so deeply desire for our children is the main aim of our Sacramental preparation process. Just as our child would never ask his/her coach if she could go to a competition without having attended any of the practices because she simply would not be prepared AND would not have that all-important "team" experience and all the relationships that make the activity such a rich, full and essential experience in her life, so too, to only partially or half-heartedly attend our preparation sessions and then have our children celebrate the Sacrament may not being doing them any favors. Sure we want them to be fully initiated, without question. But, we short-change our kids when we don’t whole-heartedly prepare them for these momentous milestones in our faith life.
We in the Office of Family Ministry really do our very best to listen, understand and accommodate busy families (most of our staff are living within them!). We don’t want to force any tough choices…but when our kid is swimming seven days a week, what can be done? And I wonder what we parents are teaching our children when hockey trumps going to Mass on Sunday?
We believe that our Sacraments give us a special strength for the journey when our lives get tough...and we parents (hopefully) know how essential our connection to God and our community is to our spiritual well-being as adults. In the end, we need to seriously ponder and prayerfully discern which choices are going to serve our kids best in their adult life.
A quick shout out to
Nancy Clancy - her wisdom is reflected in this article. Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions"
to Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns
at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
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