J
JReducation
Guest
Aside from my main ministry, which is to work with Respect Life in our diocese, I also work with Life Teen and teach religious education to sixth-grade. I teach the Old Testament. My focus is to help the students see Christ in the Old Testament, so we go back forth between the OT and the NT. I threw out the catechism that I was given, because it just did not do Christology justice. But that’s a topic for another thread. But I want to share two separate events that happened in one week that have a great deal to do with this thread.
First:
On Sunday, our Life Teen Ministry held a food drive. The goal was to raise 500 cans of goods for the hungry. We (the adult Core Team) worked with the kids and they ran a two-week campaign prior to the collection itself. On Sunday night, at 11:30 PM I was still at the Church with two other Life Teen leaders and four teens who stayed laid to help put away the food. The kids raised, 3,600 cans of food. You have to understand that I wear a traditional Franciscan habit, like the one that Fr. Benedict wears, grey with capuche and chord. I was sweating from carrying these boxes. The kids know that I’m not supposed to carry the boxes, because I have cancer. But that’s another topic too.
After we were finished I sat with a boy who is about 15. Let’s call him JP. We were waiting for his mother to pick him up. We (another volunteer and I), we never allow one adult alone with any child. As we were waiting, JP asked me, “Brother, what’s the difference between a brother and a priest?” I explained to him that a brother stands in Christ’s place as the first-born of many brothers and sisters. He teaches, he serves, he heals, he leads and he encourages others to follow Christ and to love God the Father. I also explained that a priest stands in the place of Christ the High Priest who suffers and offers the ultimate sacrifice to the Father for the salvation of men. That like Christ, he is a mediator of grace between the Father and humanity. He brings men to God through the sacraments and the preaching of the word at mass.
He asked me several other questions about brothers and I answered them. He asked about celibacy and I explained that brothers are not simply celibate. That is the call of diocesan priests. Brothers are consecrated by a vow of chastity and through that vow we commit ourselves to having only love in our lives, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we see Jesus in every person, because when you love, you always look for your lover where ever you are, just like a young man who is in high school and likes a girl tries to be where she is as much as possible. We try to be where Christ is. Christ is in every person we meet. So we try to get to get a glance at Christ as we go through the world. To do so we give up everything: family, money, property, even our personal choices and we obey without questioning.
When I finished, JP said to me, “That’s really cool!. Why hasn’t anyone ever told us about what brothers are? I really like that. I don’t want to be a priest. But I really want to know more about the brothers.” I asked him why he was asking. He said, “I have seen you around in your habit and I was always wondering.”
Second:
On Wednesday, I was teaching religious education. Since Sunday is October 4, the Solemnity of St. Francis, I was teaching the sixth-graders how St. Francis saw Christ in the creation of Adam, the prophets and the psalms. We were paging through our bibles and I pointed out to some of the highlights in St. Francis’ writings that pointed him to Christ. After class a 12-year old boy, SM, was waiting outside for me. He said, “Brother, why did you become a brother?” I smiled and said, “God told me to do so.” He chuckled and looked at me. “Did you really hear God?”
“Of course I did,” I responded. “You see, God talks to us just like he spoke to the people in the Old Testament. Sometimes he uses other people, sometimes dreams, sometimes miracles, sometimes ordinary things. When I was thinking about my future, I saw Franciscan brothers and I knew that I wanted to live as they did.”
SM was quiet for a few seconds and then asked, “What do you have to do to become a brother?” I told him, “You have to love God more than you love anything or anyone else. You have to obey the commandments, go to mass, go to confession, love the Blessed Mother and pray to her, and you have to pray to St. Francis so that he can show you his little way on how to get to heaven.” After a few seconds, SM asked, “Brother, you’re always talking about taking care about the babies who are still in their mothers. Do you really do that?” I explained that my day is spent working with mothers and fathers who need help so they can have their babies. I told him about some of the ways that we help. Again he asked, “Why do you do that?” I went on to explain, “God made every human being, just like we read in Genesis. God wants every human being to be happy with him in heaven. But before we go to heaven, God wants every human being to get a chance to live on earth, to love other people and to be loved by other people. If we take care of these babies, they’ll get the same chance that you got to love other and to be loved by others. God will always love you, but others can’t love you and you can’t love others if you are never born.”
At this point SM opened his eyes very widely and said, “OH, I GET IT. This is why St. Francis looked at Genesis. He wanted to see how man was made by God so he could be like Jesus and take care of man.” I smiled and said, “You’re on the right track.” Then he blew me away when he said, “Brother, I think being a brother is pretty cool. What do I have to do to become like you?”
I explained to him that he needed to finish high school, go to college for four years, then go on to more school for six more years and then he could become a brother. He added the years using his fingers and said, “Oh, I think my father went to school that many years and all he got out of it was being a doctor. Being a brother is much more cool.”
I had to share this with you guys. I really believe that children are watching. I posted a piece of this story on another thread, but did not give all the details, because it was not the vocation thread. But I thought this is a good place to do it.
Both of these cases tell me that KIDS ARE WATCHING.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
First:
On Sunday, our Life Teen Ministry held a food drive. The goal was to raise 500 cans of goods for the hungry. We (the adult Core Team) worked with the kids and they ran a two-week campaign prior to the collection itself. On Sunday night, at 11:30 PM I was still at the Church with two other Life Teen leaders and four teens who stayed laid to help put away the food. The kids raised, 3,600 cans of food. You have to understand that I wear a traditional Franciscan habit, like the one that Fr. Benedict wears, grey with capuche and chord. I was sweating from carrying these boxes. The kids know that I’m not supposed to carry the boxes, because I have cancer. But that’s another topic too.
After we were finished I sat with a boy who is about 15. Let’s call him JP. We were waiting for his mother to pick him up. We (another volunteer and I), we never allow one adult alone with any child. As we were waiting, JP asked me, “Brother, what’s the difference between a brother and a priest?” I explained to him that a brother stands in Christ’s place as the first-born of many brothers and sisters. He teaches, he serves, he heals, he leads and he encourages others to follow Christ and to love God the Father. I also explained that a priest stands in the place of Christ the High Priest who suffers and offers the ultimate sacrifice to the Father for the salvation of men. That like Christ, he is a mediator of grace between the Father and humanity. He brings men to God through the sacraments and the preaching of the word at mass.
He asked me several other questions about brothers and I answered them. He asked about celibacy and I explained that brothers are not simply celibate. That is the call of diocesan priests. Brothers are consecrated by a vow of chastity and through that vow we commit ourselves to having only love in our lives, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we see Jesus in every person, because when you love, you always look for your lover where ever you are, just like a young man who is in high school and likes a girl tries to be where she is as much as possible. We try to be where Christ is. Christ is in every person we meet. So we try to get to get a glance at Christ as we go through the world. To do so we give up everything: family, money, property, even our personal choices and we obey without questioning.
When I finished, JP said to me, “That’s really cool!. Why hasn’t anyone ever told us about what brothers are? I really like that. I don’t want to be a priest. But I really want to know more about the brothers.” I asked him why he was asking. He said, “I have seen you around in your habit and I was always wondering.”
Second:
On Wednesday, I was teaching religious education. Since Sunday is October 4, the Solemnity of St. Francis, I was teaching the sixth-graders how St. Francis saw Christ in the creation of Adam, the prophets and the psalms. We were paging through our bibles and I pointed out to some of the highlights in St. Francis’ writings that pointed him to Christ. After class a 12-year old boy, SM, was waiting outside for me. He said, “Brother, why did you become a brother?” I smiled and said, “God told me to do so.” He chuckled and looked at me. “Did you really hear God?”
“Of course I did,” I responded. “You see, God talks to us just like he spoke to the people in the Old Testament. Sometimes he uses other people, sometimes dreams, sometimes miracles, sometimes ordinary things. When I was thinking about my future, I saw Franciscan brothers and I knew that I wanted to live as they did.”
SM was quiet for a few seconds and then asked, “What do you have to do to become a brother?” I told him, “You have to love God more than you love anything or anyone else. You have to obey the commandments, go to mass, go to confession, love the Blessed Mother and pray to her, and you have to pray to St. Francis so that he can show you his little way on how to get to heaven.” After a few seconds, SM asked, “Brother, you’re always talking about taking care about the babies who are still in their mothers. Do you really do that?” I explained that my day is spent working with mothers and fathers who need help so they can have their babies. I told him about some of the ways that we help. Again he asked, “Why do you do that?” I went on to explain, “God made every human being, just like we read in Genesis. God wants every human being to be happy with him in heaven. But before we go to heaven, God wants every human being to get a chance to live on earth, to love other people and to be loved by other people. If we take care of these babies, they’ll get the same chance that you got to love other and to be loved by others. God will always love you, but others can’t love you and you can’t love others if you are never born.”
At this point SM opened his eyes very widely and said, “OH, I GET IT. This is why St. Francis looked at Genesis. He wanted to see how man was made by God so he could be like Jesus and take care of man.” I smiled and said, “You’re on the right track.” Then he blew me away when he said, “Brother, I think being a brother is pretty cool. What do I have to do to become like you?”
I explained to him that he needed to finish high school, go to college for four years, then go on to more school for six more years and then he could become a brother. He added the years using his fingers and said, “Oh, I think my father went to school that many years and all he got out of it was being a doctor. Being a brother is much more cool.”
I had to share this with you guys. I really believe that children are watching. I posted a piece of this story on another thread, but did not give all the details, because it was not the vocation thread. But I thought this is a good place to do it.
Both of these cases tell me that KIDS ARE WATCHING.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
