As an instructor for a summer youth leadership program at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana (home to about eighty monks), I’ve often heard Brother Zachery explain to the teens the Liturgy of the Hours, the backbone of monk’s prayers for over 1500 years:
“Most people,” he said, “misunderstand why we pray. They think that monks stop to do something holy six times every day. That’s not the point. We pause and pray throughout the day not to do something holy in the middle of an ordinary day, but to sanctify the ordinary day. We pray in the morning so that when you and I have a conflict, we speak differently, more compassionately because we have allowed God to enter into the conflict. We pray in the afternoon so that when we get bad news about something we have more faith and less fear. We pray so that God is more a part of everything we do, not just the praying parts.”
There is something to learn from this. We are highly committed, as we should be, to the everyday job of educating young people. In a similar way, monks take great pride in the work they do. They are primarily not priests. They too teach and counsel, they make coffee and coffins. Yet, they are keenly aware that it is just the work they do, not who they are. Who they are, is an intentional Christian community, reflecting Christ and being Christ in the lives of everyone they encounter, themselves included.
That is also who we are.
The world is big on mission statements. They help direct our efforts towards a common goal, which is good. I’m sure many of you have one. On a deeper level, I’d say Catholic schools do not have a mission. The MISSION has Catholic schools. Just like the monastery, we do not exist in a vacuum, simply to accomplish our work. We are in fact, part of the much greater mission of the Church.
Many teachers have told me that they love working in a Catholic school because there is a difference in how we respect the individual and how we treat people. We often fail to trace that to the source and understand why it is this way. It’s not because we’re just nicer people.
It’s because we are part of the larger mission to be the Body of Christ in the world. We have the compassion of Jesus for those most in need. We have the joy of the Lord in our celebrations of life and faith. We are a face of hope for so many families that would not know where to turn without us. We all know families who sacrifice much to send their kids to Catholic schools.
I’d say Catholic schools do not have a mission.
The MISSION has Catholic schools.
We sometimes take this for granted. All of your school’s parents, even the ones that drive you nuts, live in a country with perhaps the finest free education system in the world. Yet, often at great personal sacrifice, they pay hard-earned money so their kids will be in class with you.
Why? Possibly because we have a better math teacher at our school, but more likely, because they want their kids to learn more than math in school. They long for their children to be part of an intentional Catholic community that places God at the center and lives faith in a vibrant way; a way that influences both the choices and outcomes of their child’s life.
Fostering faith community is our part of the mission, yet we too easily view it as a specialized mission. The greatest danger of Catholic school is that for staff and students alike, “faith” becomes simply a class. Theology is a class. Religion is a class. Faith is not a class. Fostering vibrant faith in ourselves and those around us is the call of every baptized person, not just religion teachers. Evangelization is simply a fancy word for living this call in a contagious way.
A fish could never describe water to you. He is so surrounded by it, he doesn’t even know it’s there. If you love working in Catholic schools, but don’t cultivate much of a personal faith life in yourself or your students, then you are a bit like the fish. You are most likely buoyed by the faith, love and encouragement of those around you without engaging in it yourself. With great conviction I say to you, everything we are about, you are missing it!
Here’s why it matters so much, and I’m certain your experience bears this out: We cannot catechize a child that has not been evangelized. Faith is experiential by definition. If a young person has no interest in learning about God, it’s almost certainly because he or she has had no meaningful experience of God. This experience will never come from a book. It probably won’t come from even a phenomenal religion teacher. They are still just one person of many in a child’s life.
To evangelize, we must be a community that embraces our place in the greater mission. A child is evangelized at school when Jesus is not just alive in religion class but in every class. Faith has to be intrinsic to our culture. Every teacher in a Catholic school ought to be willing and able to pray with their students. Don’t panic! You don’t have to be a priest or great orator to say, “Hey, let’s start today praying an Angelus for everyone who is suffering around the world.” The power of offering even a short prayer, in your own words, for a student who just lost a grandparent or a mom who is having surgery is immeasurable. Simply being unafraid for your personal faith to be seen by your students; a rosary on your desk, a blessing before you eat lunch, speaks volumes about who we are. Living the faith in simple, inviting and contagious ways is evangelization! It connects the greater mission of the Church to that of the school—not the religion class—but the school.
In a school where faith in God is more tangible and relatable, students become fish that can see the water, and that does alter life decisions and outcomes. The fringe benefit is that we are fish too. We need to see the water too. We have ups and downs and struggles that we likely tuck away each day but need God’s grace and healing as much or more than our students. Like the monks, what we share with others is for us too.
Living the faith in simple, inviting and contagious ways is evangelization!
Saint John Henry Newman said, “No one ever gave their life for a conclusion.” Martyrs don’t sacrifice their life for something read in a book, but for the tangible experience of God’s immeasurable love. Cardinal Newman’s motto was “Cor Ad Loquitor,” which means “Heart Speaks to Heart.” An excellent definition of evangelization and a perfect motto for Catholic schools! The most important things to be learned are not conveyed by a book, but from one heart to another. We must embody this before we can successfully catechize a child. Faith is not shared in what is learned, so much as what is lived.
Steve Angrisano
is an internationally recognized Catholic composer, presenter and passionate music missionary.www.steveangrisano.com
