So many of my friends, family and neighbors don’t attend Mass anymore. Finding Godparents and/or Confirmation Sponsors is a struggle because I know so few genuinely “practicing” Catholics. Any thoughts?
In a recent PEW research study, Americans who rarely or never attend religious services were asked “Why?” Only 28% of U.S. Adults said they don’t attend because they don’t believe in God. Another 37% responded that “they practice their faith in different ways” and 23% said “they haven’t found a church they like yet.” So, close to 60% of believers who don’t attend church cite the main reason to be that they have difficulty finding God here among us. That should give us pause or at least be fodder for some conversation.
Perhaps we can learn something from the creators of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
Dr. Sofia Cavelletti and Gianna Gobbi would sometimes spend weeks and weeks developing lessons and building the special “works” (manipulatives/figures/diaramas, etc.) to accompany them. After introducing the new lesson and “work” in the atrium, they would observe the children’s response. If the children did not gravitate towards the new piece during their self-directed time in the atrium, Sofia & Gianna would remove it; they decided what “works” to keep in the atrium by watching what brought the children joy.
I would have never believed that children could so enjoy catechism (as it was called in the old timey days) but I have witnessed it with my own eyes and ears, and frankly, it’s a damned miracle. I serve as a catechist on Tuesday afternoons in our screen-free, quiet space of the atrium where our children are invited to commune with God and ponder the mysteries of our faith with their friends. Last week one of the 4th grade boys asked me, with great joy in his voice, at the end of our two-hour session, “When do we get to come back? I love it here.”
My own 9-years-old is genuinely disappointed if she misses an atrium session due to illness or snow days and even my 14-year-old, a self-possessed and intense contrarian who is actively searching for ways to disagree with me on just about everything these days, requested (with no prodding from me) to be enrolled in the CGS catechist formation classes. Now, if anyone’s kids should be “all Jesus-ed out” it should be mine, and yet my teenager freely chose to give up one full Saturday every month this year, 9AM-5PM, so she could train to be a lead catechist in our atrium. Don’t tell her this, but I never in a million years thought she would hang with it! In fact, I gave her every out and didn’t pay the whopping $400 tuition until the 4th class thinking she was going to drop out. But, she loves it. LOVES it. Forever the skeptic, here I sit, scratching my head in amazement.
So maybe we would do well in asking what brings our adults joy? Celtic spirituality speaks of “thin places” in our world where the distance between heaven and the earth is worn thin; places that we return to often to experience what is sacred. For a myriad of reasons, the institutional church seems to be a rather “thick” place for many people right now. So, what is feeding them? Where are they finding joy and nourishment in their spiritual lives? If they aren’t coming to church on Sunday, how are they keeping the Sabbath holy?
I think the advice from Sofia & Gianna would be for us to become keen scientists – observing and listening to what brings people joy. What will we find out? What will we respond? I really don’t know. But if we continue on the road we are on, we are sure to get where we are going. “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” (Maxwell).
Send your Crazy Catholic Question to Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at www.crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
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