Frequently used Abbreviations
Preface to this Creativity House edition
Introduction to the Wormwood Scrubs edition
1. Prayer during class
2. Discipline
3. Preparing for class
4. The catechetical talk
5. Introduction to Holy Mass
6. Narratives and audio-visual aids
7. Memory work
8. A questioning attitude
9. Learning by doing
10. Group research
11. Debates
12. Questionnaires
13. Interviews
14. The personal journal
15. Fives to nines
16. First Holy Communion
17. First Confession
18. Confirmation
19. Nines to twelves
20. Teenagers
21. Dimensions in religious education
Appendix 1: A spiritual classic for our times - Meditations on the Tarot
Appendix 2: Brief statement on your development to fullness and maturity of person
Appendix 3: The teaching of Pope John-Paul II
Appendix 4: Discernment I+N Primordial Faith
* Reading-list and initial set of teachers' work-sheets...
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Exaudi nos, Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens æterne Deus, et mittere digneris sanctum Angelum tuum de cælis, qui custodiat, foveat, protegat, visitat atque defendat omnes habitantes in hoc habitaculo…1
In this edition the tables of abbreviations and the appendices are new, the reading-list has been revised and extended, and footnotes have been added to the main text. This remains that of the Wormwood Scrubs edition, which sometimes amplified but in all other respects remained faithful to the no longer available Beckford edition of 1968. However, the punctuation has been improved and a more generous use made of capital letters in order to highlight important dimensions of meaning that otherwise might escape attention.
According to Father Bernard Lonergan SJ (1904-1984), “method is about surmounting differences in history”. He clarified helpfully in 1958 that “the heuristic structure in itself is a content”, but only much later did he make explicit “the two directions in which one might move along the structure. There is the way up from the presentations of experience, through ideas and judgements, to values and responsible action; one might call this the way of achievement, of self-taught learning, of progress for the human race. And there is the way down through values handed on in family and society, judgements imbibed in a community of love rather than formed in personal acquisition, understanding that comes tardily to the support of this set of judgements, and the experience made mature and perceptive as a result; one might call this the way of tradition, of heritage, of learning by osmosis, of handing on what previous generations had achieved… We must become personally involved, laying our own foundations, affirming our own positions, and understanding them in our own systems, communicating with others in the intersubjectivity of our own situation… From this perspective it becomes clear that one cannot specify categories for research; one goes rather to a master and becomes an apprentice”.2
Jesus IS The Master and along The Way I have already been blessed with several masters and mistresses, from among whom suffice it here to name in addition to Mary Most Holy Help of Christians, my Angels Guardian and Levi & Edna Hamer (1895-1962 & 1904-1973), my parents, together with my Patron Saints Nicholas of Bari & Boniface of Crediton (673/5-754): Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) whom, in 1988, Pope John-Paul II named Master in Education, Saint Francis of Sales (1567-1622), Doctor of the Church, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), Father Terence O'Brien SDB (see Appendix 2), Carl Jung (1875-1961), Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976), Father Bernard Lonergan SJ, Academician Doctor J. D. Solomon (1906-…), Joan D'Arcy Cooper (1927-1982) - lay-reader in Culbone Church and an inspired exponent of ancient Sumerian Yoga, R. A. & Isha Schwaller de Lubicz, Zecharia Sitchin, and the anonymous author of the only posthumously published spiritual classic of the 20th century: Meditations on the Tarot - a journey into Christian Hermiticism (Element Books 1991), a few salient extracts from which feature in Appendix 1.
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1. “Graciously hear us, Lord, holy Father, almighty eternal G-d, and deign to send your holy Angel from heaven, to guard, cherish, protect, visit and defend all residents in this little dwelling-place…”
2. Cf. F. E. Crowe, Lonergan (Geoffrey Chapman,1992), pp. 109-13, and C. Hamer, “Aquinas today - tradition and innovation” in I, a Catholic: Primordial Wisdom I+N The New Millennium - An essay in contemporary Catholic Existentialism (currently available from Creativity House in a limited extra-commercial edition supplement to Voice In The Darkness, 1978, or as a WINDOWS *.WRI file on disk).
Now and again I find it helps if I pause for a moment and remember that I can be myself. I can make it without being perfect. I can feel like I feel, and don't need to be strong. I can finish or stop without finishing. I don't need to try hard. I can please myself and go where I like. I am not in this world to shield others from themselves. I can take life at my own pace. I don't have to hurry. So long as I stay in touch with myself, I am always where I belong.
Today I want to write something about Christian education. For me a commitment to Catholicism means a desire to love others as Christ has loved me. Christian education as I understand it has mainly to be the human experience of learning to love.
In 1975 I cannot say that without horror. Love is, I believe, the human vocation, but Jesus was crucified by Roman soldiers by the authority of Pontius Pilate who had judged him and found him innocent. Men and women whose love of Christ inspired them to share all they had with the poor were thrown to the lions in the Colisseum for refusing to pretend that the Roman Emperor was God. Muslims were put to the sword for refusing baptism or any show of lip-service to the mascot-religion of violently Christian soldiers. In Northern Ireland Catholics and Protestants are fighting in the streets. If love is a lesson, when and how can we really learn it?
Many other human abilities are no longer improved merely by trial and error, going through an apprenticeship under a master, or simply relying on chance individual genius. Instead, procedures are rationalised and collective living is in some ways highly organised. Man is encouraged to consider himself in his bodily living as the launching-site for ever more ambitious projects which he himself has freely chosen. The landing on the Moon is hailed as a wonderful achievement. All things seem possible to man, but nations are still at war, murder and crime undermine the foundations of society, and private greed turns a blind eye to the sufferings of the many.
The Christian commitment implies that one is involved in and concerned about this situation, just as G-d was involved in the whole life of his Chosen People in the Old Testament, and Jesus showed so much concern for the sufferings of his fellow countrymen, giving them bread, curing their diseases and telling them to weep, not for him, but for themselves and for their children.
Christ showed compassion by becoming like his fellow men in all things save sin, sharing the language, the hopes, the mode of development and the insecurities of his own contemporaries. The Christian is not an élitist, not even an anti-élitist élitist; he is simply a fellow human being. To follow Christ means to go beyond externals, to sympathise with the innermost yearnings and aspirations of one's fellows, to share their anguish, insecurity, hopes and projects, to travel with them along the same road.
A Catholic school is not an Ivory Castle insulated against the sufferings of the world. We all share a common need of salvation, and can learn to put our own existence constantly into question in G-d's presence, using the language of those with whom we live, learning it from them, their books, films, records and ordinary conversation, sharing their life as we ponder afresh the timeless message of Jesus Christ.
Christian education hinges on this living contact between G-d's Word and man's situation. The aim is to grow to trust Jesus Christ, to become more united with G-d, to live in the Spirit of the new commandment, preaching by example the Gospel of Love.
The Christian mission is not to explain a theory, but to announce an event in which G-d acts, to proclaim one's personal commitment to the values for which Christ stood, to share his mentality, to relate to other persons as brothers and sisters in Christ, so fulfilling the prayer of Jesus: “that they may be One even as we are One, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly One, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me” (Jn 17:22-3).
The Catholic Church exists to fulfil this Christian mission by its interior life of prayer, by Faith, by the practice of True Charity and in the liturgy of divine worship. The individual Christian shares in the Church's mission when he believes, meditates, prays, opens himself to G-d's presence in the persons, things and events of life, penetrates the signs of the times, involves himself in his own situation, and places his freedom at the service of the ever-evolving needs of Love.
That is why religious education is not like teaching an examination subject. To be a Christian does not mean to have objective information about Jesus in one's possession, nor even simply to have learned how to think and feel as Jesus thought and felt; it means to share an identity of life with Jesus and with all those who have involved themselves in the mystery of his indwelling Spirit of Love. In other words, to be a Christian is to share in a very special relationship, to encounter Christ daily in one's fellow men, to sense that this life is the sacramental anticipation (focussed in the liturgy) of the Eternal Life that is to come. To bear witness to Christian values is important, and there are some specific Christian truths it takes time to explain, but without a genuine initiation into Christian community living-I+N-Love, no real religious formation is possible, while instruction in Christian doctrine may have no more value than a recipe-book to a starving family. Harden not your hearts like stone but share with the poor and hungry the bread of Love!
Prayer is fundamental to Christianity, and moments of silence and prayer have a place at the heart of every Christian gathering. The Holy Spirit alone can open us increasingly to Faith, trust, adoration, humility, meekness and Christian courage. Only he can teach us the goodness of the Gospel message, fill us with the joy of Christ, enlarge our hope of infinite happiness in G-d and True Peace on Earth with G-d's help.
Thus, religious education is not book-learning, but Believing, Hoping and Loving. How can I share in the life of Jesus who gives himself to us in Holy Communion? Only if I am working personally at my own conversion by self-control, application, enthusiasm for the things of G-d and True Love can I hope to understand the Gospel and accept Christ's message. I choose to be free from attachment to other things in order to be free to give myself to a life of Christian Love.
We learn from each other, and both in childhood and throughout adult life our continuing religious education is influenced by a great variety of persons. To the extent that parents, teachers, youth-leaders, clergy, relatives, friends and neighbours not only profess the same faith and adopt common moral standards but also share in a community of Christian Love and welcome growing children into their community of life, Christian education can be authentic. The parochial life of a country village in a 100%-Catholic country hardly seems a possible ideal today, and Christ himself lived with his disciples under the hostile eyes of the Jewish authorities and never aspired to establish a perfect society in this world where thieves break in, tools go rusty, or clothes are devoured by moths. Hence, the Christian community in which religious education takes place is not a Utopia (either moral or technological), but Faith tells us it is in G-d's providence simply our present, concretely existing situation - the world of 1997, the street where we live, the school across the road.
This does not mean that the Loving Way of Life reduces to a mindless conformity with the customs of the age, or that good human relationships are all important. The Christian community comprises the three divine Persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the angels and saints of G-d, as well as all those whose Life of Faith, Hope and Love opens them to the all-pervading influence of Grace. My fidelity to my trusting commitment to this community can sometimes oblige me, as it obliged Thomas à Becket (1118-1170) and Thomas More (1477-1535) in the past, to resist the pressures of the immediate situation, to disavow current values, to withstand the illegitimate demands of those in authority and rest content with the knowledge that Jesus Christ also knew what it was to be persecuted by enemies and abandoned by friends, to suffer pain and humiliation alone and in silence without losing any of his compassion or his Love - “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This day thou shalt be with me in paradise”.
The historical Jesus of Nazareth is the centre of Christian education, which aims to promote a personal rejection of evil and a commitment to good for the Love of G-d and one's neighbour in the Spirit of the Gospel which teaches that we are all children of the heavenly father and brothers and sisters in Christ: “I am the vine; you are the branches”.
Historically G-d's Revelation was made in the context of the biblical events, but its inner reality is expressed in the dynamic symbols of the Church's liturgy, while its essential meaning shines forth in the authentic Teaching of the Church. The individual, of course, can only understand and relate to Revelation from the standpoint of his own personal situation. Hence, Christian education, though it centres on Christ, starts from everyday human realities, especially personal ones within each individual's horizon - birth, death, euthanasia, atomic energy, war, a career, engagement.
In other words, Christian education does not confine itself to theology. We may need psychology to understand human activity, sociology to penetrate situations and philosophy to help us appreciate values. If we wish to read the signs of the times aright in order to relate our times to G-d we shall do well to remember this rule: Be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible, develop and, if necessary, change!
Development is rarely easy, but friendship helps a lot. If the educator is one with his pupils, he can promote their growth from within. Today dialogue and activism are needed more than ever before, because society is no longer paternal or authoritarian, but pluralist, liberal and democratic. Religious education must be constantly relevant to young people's real needs and abilities. This is possible if the teachers know their pupils, welcome dialogue with them, foster self-awareness and self-expression, leading them gradually to assume responsibility for their own ongoing religious education.
A teacher is unlikely to succed by presenting any prefabricated or stereotyped sort of catechism, so that it would be foolish of me to attempt to provide any rigid or detailed guide-lines. He is involved in a living dialectic and needs to link himself to the group, unsettle its members, ask questions that uncover the limits of human experience and attainment. This allows him to announce the Good News as partly answering and always going beyond man' questions.
Human life and activity is a prolongation of divine Revelation. The teacher's approach will naturally be varied, now traditional, now group-centred, here deductive and there inductive. He is educating not individuals merely, but persons who are involved in group relations and will, therefore, have recourse primarily to those techniques and attitudes which best foster relationships of authentic Freedom and genuine Charity within the group.
Some adults complain that children can't pray, just because they say, perhaps, “Hail Mary, full of grapes”. Prayer, however, is not a question of knowing a formula; it is being in G-d's Presence, meeting in friendship with G-d.
The teacher can invite the children to pray when they are ready, not in the sense of just waiting, but of preparing a moment, while anticipating it if they are ready earlier. The welcome, or something occurring in a child's family, may make the start of class suitable for prayer. The end of a religious conversation can be a good moment, provided the children are not over tired. The middle of the lesson is sometimes best. Respect is needed, not an off-handed approach. The posture may be standing, kneeling or sitting as appropriate, but should always be decorous. The teacher's own good example and his steady insistence on a fitting posture for prayer will achieve more than any amount of talking about ‘respect’. The teacher prays with the children as one who shares a common need; he is not apart from them nor above them.
If a disorder occurs, he may, in an extreme, firmly ask those who don't want to pray to sit down and leave the others free to do so undisturbed. It is not easy to pray with a disorder on. As well as praise and thanksgiving, prayer expresses submission to G-d and concern for others. Prayer aims at our spiritual good, and expresses filial trust in G-d our Father. It is not artificial nor sentimental.
The teacher can use formulas, either read or known by heart, but should both vary and go beyond them. Their use saves one from self-centredness, and the class can provide an opportunity for a fresh discovery of their meaning.
Liturgical texts, seasons and gestures deserve first place and are the nourishment of private prayer, which otherwise may be egotistical, sentimental or falsely mystical.
Prayers can be sung as well as said, though this seems appropriate only if the children can sing properly, and if good music is available to fit the words.
Prayer can be short; its preparation needs to be long and patient.
Discipline is a way of serving children by helping them to master their instincts and creating a situation favourable to the development of their reason and will-power. This interior attitude of service has to be constantly purified. Every class needs a good atmosphere, a certain amount of silence and calm. The teacher of religion is not there to dominate nor just to increase knowledge, but to provoke, encourage and foster a meeting with Christ. The child deserves an atmosphere of respect, admiration, confidence and joy in which to make his personal response to G-d's Word. The teacher's attitude and tone of voice can make a great deal of difference. He should respect and be just to all equally.
The domineering teacher must learn to unbend. If he is timid, he must become a source of security. If he is popular, he must not distract the children from G-d. The untidy teacher has to show foresight. When he is undecided, he needs to remember that only authority can give the children the freedom to make safe decisions themselves.
The study of individual and group psychology can help. Children need scope for initiative. Discipline may begin with rules from outside, but must become more and more interior. Orders should be few, precise and positive, rather than negative. Firmness and constancy are needed. The teacher has to do his best to keep calm, especially if the children are nervous. They should never be left with time on their hands, but given plenty to do.
The size, furnishings and arrangement of the class-room, the time of day and the weather all have an effect on discipline. In religious education Faith I+N G-d is the heart of good discipline. Care is needed in giving such rewards as holy cards, sweets, etc. The valid reward is the joy of discovering something new and of doing good work. Sweets when some child has a birthday are a community joy, quite distinct from reward and punishment. Punishments should be just and adapted to the individual child; they should be acts rather than lasting things - good drawings are kept, but bad ones torn up. Classifying children is unhelpful. Appeals to their emotions should be rare and never primary. Reasoning things out is valid. The teacher's task is to educate for personal freedom. Patience is needed, and each teacher must learn from his own experience which points to insist on.
The religious educator needs to immerse himself completely in the reality of the class-room situation, so that he can bring G-d's Word to the whole group. From what angle should he begin? From what text or episode should he make the approach? In some cases he can arouse the children's desire to understand, their dynamic desire to know; in other instances he has to touch their hearts first, making the theme relevant to their psychological attitude and personal approach to living.
When a teacher has decided what doctrine he wants to get across, for example, he can try and find out what problem or interest of the children in his class ties up with it. This will help him to discover which is the best analogy to use and what is the best line of development. He has to make himself a master of his subject in an interesting way.
Similarly, he must be conscious of the message he has to offer, and realise how precisely it is their concern. He has to understand their attitude, to grasp how they are already implicitly involved in the message. He will ascertain what experience they have of it, find out what questions of theirs are related to it and, on the basis of his own perception of what it feels like to be a member of their group, he will see how the message concerns him as co-involved with them, what it reveals to him, and what impact it has on his own life. These two approaches are complementary.
It will be obvious that the course has to follow a pedagogical rather than a strictly logical order. At the beginning of term the teacher can have a general idea of the lines development will take, but will know how to depart from these when necessary. Interest in each theme needs to be aroused before there is any actual attempt to tackle it. The pressure of straightforward religious teaching needs to be eased by interposing lessons of further explanation, discussions, religious culture classes, group reflexions on events, etc., appropriate to each age-group.
A new teacher may need three hours of preparation for one hour of class. The time actually available may be less and, whatever it is, needs to be divided between research, reflection and assimilation. If he is very pressed for time, he should prepare at least the key-section well, and then just follow a manual for the rest. As well as studying books that use modern categories, he should read the Gospels, seizing on those aspects most likely to strike his audience, even if they don't appeal very much to him. Each class should be written out in full, even if it will be given differently in practice. Improvisation is rarely the secret of success. The right-hand page can be used for texts, explanations, notes and references, the left-hand page being reserved for 10-12 lines of dictated summary to each hour's class in the case of teenagers or for some corresponding equivalent passage or diagram for younger children. In going over his notes, the teacher must cut out all that is superfluous, making the development more rigorous and its dynamism more limpid and strong.
Anyone who is really alive always has his attention turned to this or that as a means or an end, as relevant or irrelevant, interesting or indifferent, private or public, in daily demand or startlingly new. Aspects of such objects of consciousness to which one is attending, but which are not themselves directly intended by acts of consciousness, though they are recognised as pertinent by recall or anticipation, constitute one's horizon, and it is part of education to broaden one's horizons. That towards which someone's attention is turned is thematic, but special motives are needed before the whole world can become thematic and the religious educator, therefore, has to decide what facts to make use of in his class and how to handle them. Facts outside the children's horizons cannot be the starting-point, but he can choose hitherto unthematic aspects of realities within their experience and make them thematic. These include international, national and cultural facts, facts in the life of the Church, in daily life and in the actual class-room situation. The teacher can use such facts as analogy, proof, witness or illustration.
Whatever fact is selected should be capable of interesting the whole group. It should not play on the emotions too much. It should allow of a transition to the mysteries of the Christian life. It should be lived by the teacher from within so that he can present it alive, presenting it totally in all its aspects, in all its human richness, not as something objective and cold but from an angle that permits a link-up with the deep needs of the group.
Facts in the life of the Church are to be related to other aspects of the Church's life. Facts should not be exaggerated nor distorted for one's own ends. The teacher must respect his student's freedom to adopt their own attitude towards the facts. He should not take too long to arrive at the Christian message to which the selected fact is relevant and, wherever possible, he should at some stage insert the fact into a biblical context.
As I have already mentioned, the teacher has to link himself with his students, using inductive existential logic and not only abstract deductive logic.1 All realities and values need to be situated carefully in relation to each other and none of them excluded. Youngsters often wonder how they can know if their religion is the right one. Like some adults they may feel that all religions are pretty much the same, that nobody can possibly know whether even one of them is true and that everybody will be all right as long as he is sincere, as long as he ‘believes’ in G-d or as long as at least believes in ‘something’… The teacher has to call into question such ways of thinking and reacting, to announce the Christian Message, to unfold its many facets, using photographs and illustrations, quoting slogans, episodes and popular sayings.
Through his pupils' accounts of stories they have heard and their underlying emotional tensions the teacher will attempt to perceive the extent to which the instinct of sympathy or of aggressiveness, defence mechanisms or feelings of superiority, a mere impulse of passing curiosity or the deep desire to know and to understand are at work. At the level of Faith he should be able to perceive disquiet or indifference, the Spirit of welcome and the desire to share their Faith with others. He has to lead their minds from the plane of emotional reasoning to that of true interiority and objective listening, getting them to make summaries, using the blackboard a lot, giving them tests, having them compile a religious dossier of dictated summaries, personal reflections, notes, quotations, pictures, etc.
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1. Cf Donald D. Evans, The Logic of Self-Involvement - A Philosophical Study of Everyday Language with Special Reference to the Christian Use of Language about G-d as Creator (London: SCM Press Ltd 1963).
Each catechetical talk in class should be centred on one idea only. The message the teacher gives should be one that calls for a response, a decision. It is not for him to say whether this will be in each child praise, admiration, regret, thanksgiving, etc., but he should have a general idea of the direction attitudes will take. The part of the Christian message than an individual lesson gives must never be separated from the whole, but related to the year's program and to the course as a whole.
The teacher who is following a ready-made course, e.g., a text-book, needs to find out the key-ideas involved and see how the whole strucure radiates from them. It is not enough just to go from page to page. This does not mean he has to say everything every class. While his knowledge of the links between classes is explicit, he will usually leave them implicit for the children. If he does this, they will find he seems to be following a natural sequence. He must overcome any desire to say everything all at once.
It is good to use a few well-chosen and carefully prepared biblical and liturgical texts to drive home and clarify the central idea. Examples and comparisons will make his talk more concrete. A few key-words, written perhaps on the blackboard, should run through the lesson. Audio-visual material of some sort is indispensable to avoid dullness and achieve unity in diversity.
The catechetical talk is important (“Faith depends on hearing” - Rm 10:17.) and involves two movements: from a concrete reality to the spiritual mystery, and from an individual or particular case to a general law. The successive phases are description, interiorisation, explanation, contemplation, prayer and the finding of a practical application.
Before beginning his talk the teacher will say “Hello” to each child in the case of younger children or to the group as a whole if they are older, making everyone feel welcome by chatting a little. This relaxed approach links the class with ordinary life and fosters an atmosphere of simplicity and warmth. The children need to feel they are loved, that the teacher has been looking forward to meeting them again, and that he likes to be with them.
The talk itself will take from 10-20 minutes according to the age and circumstances of the children. A talk to teenagers can last as much as half an hour, but no longer. A story, map or photograph can be a good beginning, so long as it does not distract from the main theme. Hard words should be avoided and possible ambiguities clarified. The teacher is dealing with spiritual rather than material facts, e.g., with ‘disobedience’ rather than with ‘spilling ink’ as such. He must avoid referring to G-d in a misleading way as ‘resting on the altar’ or ‘hidden in the host’.
The children need to be involved actively in the story and not left outside it as mere spectators. They can read a page about it in their own book or missal: “Yes, Jesus really is our Saviour”. In this context the 9-year-old can say: “I know how to keep a neat work-book without erasing or scratching it and I will do it, because I'm writing G-d's Word and working for G-d”.
The teacher will try and enrich the children's religious vocabulary: “adoration”, “state of Grace”, “Salvation”. However, he should introduce new words only when they know the meanings to which these correspond, avoid compound sentences, and prefer a simple and natural style. Association and simple assertion will be more prominent features in his talk than logical deductions.
In the setting of the catechetical talk prayer can vary in content and form: singing, recitation, litanies, periods of silence, gestures of prayer, the “Our Father” or the “Hail Mary” - but never in a mechanical way. The official long Act of Contrition is grammatically too complex for class use.
The teacher should speak softly and stop talking as soon as a child's voice is heard. He should not shout nor make wild gestures, nor allow the children to do so. He should speak slowly and repeat often. For the Bible a low respectful tone is good, with different tones for events and for the Word of G-d: not a mysterious voice, yet one that communicates a sense of mystery, inspiring wonder and awe while it does clearly instruct.
The application of the lesson should not be artificial nor moralising, but chiefly consists in preparing to open oneself more and more to G-d's Gift of Salvation.
A child's introduction to Holy Mass is the high-point in his Christian education. The teacher's references to Mass should be constant and should take place in depth. They should not merely consist of such remarks as: “This passage is used at Mass”. The major relevant themes are the paschal covenant, the mysteries of the life of Christ, of the Church and of the Christian fellowship. The fundamental attitudes to inculcate are praise, thanksgiving, repentance, confidence, petition and offering. The teacher should impart to the children a sense of sacred persons, gestures and attitudes. They should appreciate that the Christian community is a group of holy people led by Jesus Christ.
A collection of historical material or other curiosities is not educative. A comparison of the priest's washing his hands during Mass with Pilate's washing his hands, or a long disquisition on the meaning of the stole may even be harmful. The teacher should avoid any piecemeal or analytic presentation and take care to preserve a sense of unity and movement in depth. Children shouldn't think the prayers at the beginning of Mass are more important than the words of consecration. The Mass should be linked to the Last Supper and to Christ's death on the cross. Christ's offering is not limited to the offertory. The teacher will link the teaching on the real Presence of Christ I+N The Eucharist with Jesus's desire that we all share in his Sacrifice. Christ offers himself today I+N his Church - I+N us… The Eucharist is a sacrificial banquet. The meal is not to be separated from the offering. By sharing in the Eucharist Christians grow in union through Christ with the Father and with one another. The teacher will indicate the various visible signs of this. Thanksgiving and praise are also integral to the whole Mass from start to finish. Christian union is only complete in the Glory of heaven and this aspect, too, should not be passed over. The teacher needs to make sure the children connect what they learn with what they do, see and hear1 at the Parish Mass each Sunday.
There should be a unit of lessons on the Mass each year. The liturgical cycle should inspire the catechetical programme and each week's teaching should be referred to it. The missal should be used sufficiently for each child to become familiar with the Ordinary of the Mass. Mass itself is the best introduction to the Mass.
Outmoded, slipshod, rushed or unliturgical Masses or Masses with poor singing are not good for the children. They should be encouraged to go to Mass and told when they should go, but it is unwise to say that this is a duty to be fulfilled on pain of mortal sin. The idea that there is some severe punishment in store for those who do not go to Mass may only serve to convince the children that Mass is boring! Instead, they need help to see the fullness of the mystery and to grow in their own spiritual life. This will enable them in time to accept their full personal responsibilities and obligations. The teacher needs to go very gently with the children of certain families or he may stop their ever understanding the value of Sunday Mass. On the other hand, he certainly ought to notice whether or not they go. Children should often be reminded of Sunday Mass. Their attendance should not be verified by a roll-call but by questioning them discretely and keeping in contact with their other teachers, their families and friends. Someone should see and talk with any parents who actively or passively obstruct a child's going regularly to Mass.
A para-liturgical celebration in class of parts from the Mass can be useful, but should be recognisable as such and not allowed to distract from the Mass itself. Weekly Masses for all the children are favoured by some experienced teachers, while others believe their provision leads to carelessness in attendance at Sunday Mass itself. Group Masses for particular classes or age-groups are certainly a good idea from time to time, especially if they are well prepared. It is hard to see how religious education in the Catholic sense can exist without a genuine love of Holy Mass.
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1. And, hopefully, see and hear.
Because they are concrete, true or invented stories are easier for children to understand than a theoretical presentation. In any case, G-d's Message came to man in history. The source of Christian teaching is the Bible, which the Church explains in G-d's name, as well as helping us with the Sacraments and by means of personal guidance. The teacher can recount the major events of the Old and New Testaments, the history of the Church, the lives of the Saints, and the Church today. The Church is not an abstraction but is living and active in the Saints, in Christian living and in the sacred liturgy. It is good to use liturgical language in the class. Events close to the children's own experience can provide analogies, comparisons and examples, but G-d's Revelation is more important than the external event. Although concrete, stories remain spiritual, moving the children from objects through actions to the intentions, thoughts and feelings of the actors, and thence to the thoughts, intentions and desires of Jesus. The teacher has, therefore, to avoid mere stories, forced comparisons, or moralisations of any kind.
Drawings, photos, paintings, comparisons, parables and analogies should be used. Children love pictures, including pictures in words. These make things present and express their meaning. Contact with facts gives solidity to belief. Documentary images that reproduce reality are useful from nine to twelve and can be continued in later years, but are of little interest before nine. Suggestive, inspirational language can be used. Correct ideas and sound judgment are helped by a wise use of images. Different images are true in different ways and are understood differently by different people. Images are always false if they contradict dogma, are too materialistic or attract attention to themselves. Artistic, simple images are best. Explanations and questions about an image are needed to exploit its value properly. Images should be used in conjunction with other approaches in a balanced way, since the more there are available, the more the children want, and sometimes with less profit from their use. Images prepare for interior work but are not a substitute for it. This is also true of the many excellent televised broadcasts on religious subjects which are nowadays increasingly available and provide a valuable service.
“Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children” (Dt 6:6-7). Memorisation is only a means to an end, but retains its value today. A common language is a social need of the Christian people, and our religion is historical and dogmatic. Thought is impossible without memory and all teaching requires a certain amount of learning by heart. Knowing and believing are not opposed.
Some things need to be taken to heart, and children can beled to perform related religious acts when they talk about these things, or can refer them to certain liturgical rites.
Sometimes it is enough if the children remember the general meaning and are able to give and explain this in their own words. The teacher can check their accuracy by constant reminders and comparisons.
Anything set for actual memory work should afterwards be recalled regularly; otherwise, it is only lumber. Traditional prayers, doctrinal definitions, important biblical and liturgical texts can be learned by heart. Any formula to be learned should come at the end, not at the start of a talk. Even those who do listen to the teacher's explanation when it comes afterwards instead of before, tend to do so intellectually and not spiritually.
Younger children can learn catechism questions and answers, etc. Teenagers can be helped to write their own formulas and encouraged to learn these. They can also collect and learn interesting poems and the words of saints and heroes.
Recitation from memory should be short and calm. Each child should have something to keep him occupied before and after his turn. There should not be too many written tests, since children lkke to recite out aloud. Besides, the other children hear their companion and by so doing learn better themselves. Marks or words of praise and appreciation noted down in the teacher's register can be used to emphasise the value of this effort on the children's side. Marks of this kind are, of course, no indication of the child's religious progress, since even good children can have problems with memory, but they provide an introductory topic for discussion with a child's parents. Laziness needs to be checked. The teacher should insist on good work, and also make it very clear exactly what is to be learned.
Grace perfects but does not substitute nature. The intellect and will are essential to the life of Faith. Intelligence offers an important entrance to the soul. Reasoning, which is not to be straitjacketed into computer-thinking, needs to be developed. Explanations of the Faith should not stop suddenly when the mystery is reached, but show how the mystery is there right from the start, linking ordinary daily experience with the persons and events of Salvation History. The child's intelligence needs help to accept the Message, enter into it and grow to appreciate its practical implications.
Machines don't ask questions, even if they answer them, but men do. The question is an important element in mental growth. All understanding is the answer to inquiry. Questioning is also the first form of self-expression, the first exercise of personal liberty, the first conquest of timidity. To ask a question is to commit oneself socially to accept the consequences of a reasonable answer. Christ's own words were often spoken only in answer to questions. He often asked questions himself. G-d's action stimulates man to humble inquiry. Questions are signs of the Presence of the Holy Spirit.
It is not necessary to have a swift answer for all questions, but to show one appreciates the nature of the question, understands its significance and is ready to listen, respectful of others, open to dialogue.
In welcoming questions, the teacher will bring out their content and underline their positive aspect. If necessary he should seek a further clarification of the question itself. He must uncover all the fundamental problems involved. Some questions are mere puzzles, others raise problems, and others touch on mystery; some questions come merely from lack of interest, boredom, misunderstanding, etc. Problems call for competence; mysteries require a sense of perspective.
The teacher will answer only those questions which interest the majority of the class and serve to deepen their appreciation of the Message. Individual points should be taken separately. In class the children should be taught to ask questions of general interest in a way that takes into account the person addressed, and after careful reflection - they should not just be thinking their private thoughts aloud. It is unwise to allow too many questions, but if a good question seems off the point the teacher can either defer it till later, give an individual answer privately, or make it a fresh topic for the whole class.
All real learning includes practical exercise. The activities connected with religious education are based on and directed towards growth in Faith. In this sense copying, colouring and re-tracing are not activities, because they are not creative. All activities should contain a margin of liberty for creative personal effort. There is no assimilation without self-expression. Activities should call into play as many faculties as possible. From this point of view filling in missing words is not good; it calls only for memory and perhaps intelligence. Looking at and commenting on circumstances or documents is better.
Activity shoul be linked to the them of the lesson and help to strengthen and deepen the impact of the Message. It should not be a device for covering two lessons in one period of class. On the other hand, it should not be mere repetition. Interest needs to be aroused, and not merely the superficial interest involved in collecting, classing, colouring, cutting out. These interests may, of course, be used to touch deeper ones.
Before the age of 10 or 11 teamwork has little interest, and at this age drawing becomes less interesting in many instances. Nine to 12-year-olds take to liturgical activities quite well, but teenagers often seem allergic to them.
Activities have to be the child's response to the instruction and Call coming to him from G-d. They should summon forth his understanding of G-d's signs, leading him, for instance, to judge some story or action as either Christian or non-Christian.1 Activities accelerate assimilation. They can partly be done at home where they may also have a good influence on the parents.
If a book needs to be consulted, the teacher should give the exact page reference. All hard words should be underlined and explained. If cards are to be used, they should be given out first and then read afterwards. Directions should always be repeated at least once. Examples should be given and possibly the answer to the first question. All materials needed should be within easy reach of the children. They should be helped to realise the activity is spiritual in purpose, and not just something to keep them busy. It should be attractive and joyful. Silence is needed for some spiritual activities, but if the children want something, they only need to raise a hand. They can learn to borrow and lend things without noise. This sort of atmosphere can be established at the start of the year and made habitual.
Children need continuous encouragement. A look or sign for silence is to be given, if it is needed. The teacher should explain difficult words or hard parts of a drawing or else show how to miss it out, or he may simplify the question. He should not rush but aim at as full results as possibe: “That's fine, but don't you think that… Have you thought about what I said a while ago?…” The teacher should be present not as a supervisor, but as a friend and counsellor. A word or question is usually enough to bring back the day-dreamer. The teacher must not force his own viewpoint on the child. The child, especially if under nine, or whenever he is feeling emotionally strained, needs to know that his Faith can lean on that of his teacher.
Doctrinal errors are to be corrected, e.g., by helping the children find their own mistakes in a rough draft. Deliberately spoiled work must be redone, and the gravity of this can sometimes be emphasised by tearing the spoiled page out, or by sticking paper over it. If spelling mistakes take up too much time to correct, there is a danger of exaggerating their importance. It is easy to give marks for neatness, but it is difficult to assess the degree of effort. The results cannot be judged, since we cannot measure Faith. Marks are not the main thing.
Asking the children questions is a good activity, but too many questions change the class into a guessing game. Children can't be expected to find out everything for themselves. In any case, the Message comes from on high and is not a human invention. Questions in moderation stimulate interest. Yes-or-No questions are too easy and encourage guess-work, since there is always a 50% chance of being right. The wording of questions should not be complicated and they should never be asked in a confusing way that points to the wrong answer. All and not just some of the children should be questioned. It is best to address the questions to the whole group and, when all have had time to think, ask one to reply. If no answer comes, the teacher should wait patiently, since the child may know what to say but not how to say it, and needs to be helped with this. Sometimes it is the question that has been badly put. No teacher will ever make fun of well-intentioned ridiculous answers. It is better to ask for personal rather than general examples: “When did your supernatural life begin?” Dispersion is to be avoided, and questions should be confined to the central theme of the class.
Composition is another suitable activity. Classing games are good only if they call for inventiveness: “Put the examples from the list by the corresponding Beatitudes and add to them eight examples of your own”. After 11 or 12, tables of comparison and opposition can be used. Reflection on documents is useful. The children can be asked to find some relevant documents. Various bible and missal activities can be devised.
Activities can be presented on the blackboard or with the help of activity cards. There is some danger that children will try only to get the ‘right’ answer.
6-9's draw a lot. After 9, some children begin to realise they are not good at drawing and may like it less, possibly even refusing to draw human beings. The teacher can still give them silhouettes or models to copy, but drawing is no longer the main activity for many of them. Models stilt the style of younger children but may help older ones to express themselves. They should always have real artistic and religious value and be given only as a conclusion to some more important activity. Towards 11 or 12, children can appreciate symbolic drawings and designs, such as fire, the cross, etc. These are not to be confused with schemes. Colouring and cutting-out are less expressive as activities, but are occasionally useful, as they give the child a beautiful page in his workbook to go back to. Special attention needs to be given to the representation of persons, which should be sober and meaningful in attitude, avoiding minor details which distract from the essential.
Conversations and discussions call for small groups. The teacher must always show a sincere respect for persons, cordiality, dialogue and a democratic spirit. Leaders can be formed to act as relays of the teacher to the various groups in the class. The teacher should ask as much as he needs in order to be sure that he has understood a child's meaning. He should take each one seriously, but he must not be led off at a tangent too easily. Children love digressions but, as a rule, nobody gains from them. The teacher should plan well ahead what questions to ask, what mentality to explore, what objections are likely and what seem to be the big mistakes to avoid. Discussion goes well with the very young who are spontaneous, and with young teenagers who prefer it to drier written work.
Poster work is a good group activity for from 9-14-year-olds. They can search out what is needed outside class time. Everyone should be given something to do. Once it has been completed, a poster keeps a point in mind for weeks. Collective albums can also be made, with each pupil responsible for a page. Background paper, coloured papers, pencils, crayons, paints, lettering pins, coloured chalks, glue, scissors and documents should be prepared before the class.
In most cases, despite its 3-dimensional value, clay-modelling becomes just amusement after the age of 9, though it can be a useful activity for adult groups to learn more about themselves. Three-dimensional maps and dioramas remain as alternative possibilities, but the material work involved absorbs all the children's interest. A number of kits are available in the shops that can be used in a religion class, and it is worth investigating what can be had locally.
Singing allows attitudes to be expressed. Song should be linked to the theme of the lesson, explained, sung once or twice by someone who knows it well and learned thoroughly, never badly or sloppily. Verses are sometimes better done solo by someone with a good voice. Well-know and well-loved songs can be used often, so that the different aspects of their value are brought out. If circumstances allow, it may be a good idea to mime the words or dance to the music. The whole body plays its part in prayer and worship.
Instead of simply telling the pupils to read certain pages or chapters before the lesson and providing questions to guide this reading in a way that will benefit their understanding of the lesson itself, he can give a small group some subjects to choose from, fix a date for the completion of the work, indicate magazines, books and persons to be consulted, and leave them to share out the project among themselves, while remaining available to help when called upon. A summary of the results is later given to the whole class.
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1. Origen, Hans Urs von Balthasar, the anonymous author of Meditations on the Tarot (which contains a most helpful meditation on various aspects of this problem) and I believe - not as an article of Faith but as a consequence of our Christian Hope that, although Hell is certainly eternal, Satan, whom the Old Testament mentions as conversing with G-d, will - unlike the many temporarily very real but ultimately illusory demons of our sinful human creating - eventually share I+N the Salvation that Jesus Christ came on Earth to bring to all. Clearly, discernment is needed and to this chastity, obedience, poverty and humility are the indispensable key.
Group research proper presupposes a certain minimum knowledge already in all the members of the group. The question can be theoretical, factual or interpretative. Its good formulation is only possible if the teacher has a precise answer already in mind. It should appeal to their interests, and he can get the class to help in its formulation. Sometimes a group of questions is needed rather than just one, the better to orientate the research accurately. Ideas can be shared in sub-groups. Then a general discussion can be held along with the teacher in the class as a whole. There should be no useless repetition in the group reports prior to the general discussion. The teacher will give a final summing-up: asking further questions, approving the findings or pointing out the need for further facts, possibly giving some clear doctrinal statement. Each must be taught to express himself for the benefit of all. Before any opinion is discussed, the one holding it must clarify it as clearly as possible. Before anybody asks a question, he should make sure it is of general interest. Each should think before he speaks. If the discussion is sluggish or seems too general, the teacher can introduce some relevant concrete facts.
This method can be used all the time, provided one moves slowly and works methodically towards a clear result, with 16-18-year-olds. At this age, they want to learn and are used to individual pupil-teacher relationships. This method is inpracticable with 13-15-year-olds, except with very small numbers, because of their instability and more evident self-centredness. The advantages of the method are that it commits each one to a position he must defend and evaluate before his companions. The deepening of the inquiry through the teacher's influence is good, and so is the light his final clear statement is likely to bring to a now prepared and receptive audience. Group research opens the participants up and they learn to listen. This educates them to Charity and dialogue. It builds up the Church. However, it is also difficult and calls for a lot of patience.
A panel of personally committed experts can be invited to discuss some subjects from a diversity of useful viewpoints. The class should be free to intervene. This connects Catholic doctrine with personal options. The teacher should explain to the ‘experts’ what is involved a few weeks beforehand, getting them to reflect personally on the point of view they are to represent. They should be able to support it with concrete facts. Six to eight experts is the ideal number. A chairperson can be appointed to keep order, but not excessively. He has the first 5 minutes in which to present the theme to the rest of the class. The experts then hold a 20-40-minutes discussion. The discussion is thrown open to the house for 10-15 minutes. The chairman sums up for 5-10 minutes. The experts should not be arranged in a straight line. The conclusion should summarise the value and limitations of the points of view expressed, and it should bring out clearly the underlying doctrine.
A short sketch can be presented showing a problem, or a suggested way of tackling a problem already supposed to exist. There should not be more than five actors. The décor should be sober. The sketch will last 5 or 10 minutes. The teacher must plan out and explain the purpose and subject of the sketch, and the actors will need to plan carefully how to communicate the main idea. After the performance a debate is held to see what the sketch involves, what mentality it expresses, how other actors might have presented it. Another group then re-interprets the same theme in the light of this discussion. The value of such sketches is that they come closer to real life, stimulate research, discussion and reflection, and allow an opportunity for putting a complex point across.
A mock ‘court in session’ is a good idea for 15-year-olds. The theme may be, e.g., does the press always tell the truth? was Jesus guilty? After the prosecution has presented its main case and the defence counsel has submitted arguments against it, there can be ¼ hour's recess to study the relevant available evidence and documentation. Witnesses are then called by both prosecution and defence. The judge makes a summing-up. The class deliberates as a jury, and a vote is taken. The judge pronounces sentence. The teacher may issue a summary statement to the press!
If he is to speak to each “in his own tongue”, the teacher must keep in close contact with his class and learn their preferred mental categories. Hence, the value of questionnaires to enable him to discover the day-to-day experience of the group, see what approach chimes in with their aspirations and learn to which things they are allergic. Freedom for them may be ‘creative power’ rather than just ‘the ability to choose’. The Sacraments may be ‘saving gestures in which Christ acts on us today using the Church as a relay-station’. The anointing of the sick may express to them the truth that Love is stronger than death.
Questions should be few, varied and stimulating. There are five kinds: (a) direct - what does G-d mean to you? (b) objective - failure to tell the whole truth is never justified: true or false? (c) projective - why, in your opinion, do so many young persons find it hard to make a good Confession? (d) situational - imagine a beggar stops you in the street; remember, if you can, an actual occasion when a beggar has stopped you: what was your reaction at the time? how do you feel about it in retrospect? why? (e) verbal - say in a few lines what the following words mean to you: death, Sacrament, Love, maturity.
The questionnaire needs to be presented with care: “I know you want this class to be as successful as possible. Now I can help you in some ways, but in others I need your help first. Are you willing to co-operate?” It may be that someone else has circulated this particular questionnaire: “Jesus Christ in his day made contact with his contemporaries. Priests would betray him if they didn't do the same. They are trying to do this. Can you help?” If the pupils are not keen on questionnaires, the teacher may need to explain why G-d's Word bears no fruit on the stony ground of a mind without questions, emphasise that the questionnaire is anonymous, that they are free to answer it or not. Questionnaires should not be given at the end of the year or when exams are uppermost in the pupils' minds.
In analysing the replies, the teacher should work through one question at a time, underlining phrases typical of the group. He should avoid preconceptions and sink into their feelings, ideas and problems, finding out the exact sense of their key-expressions, utilising both the findings of psychological and sociological research and the results of his own talks with the pupils, being careful to avoid jumping to conclusions. Death, for instance, may prove to be for them ‘the frustration of a boundless will-to-live’.
The teacher will make known the results of the questionnaire, and highlight their positive value. Unless the students wish otherwise, anonymity should be preserved. The teacher will afterwards be better able to use the chidlren's own categories and expressions in his own presentation of the Faith.
Today values are fixed by opinion rather than tradition. Interviews give practice in feeling the pulse of opinion, sifting it objectively, and develop one's freedom to think for oneself. They are an occasion for dialogue. They may stimulate some children to become teachers themselves.
Interviews and surveys can be a basis for class discussion, or for questioning the teacher more closely on the subject, or can pave the way for a scientific presentation of the whole theme.
The pupils can interview each other, some public figure, persons from different walks of life, of various backgrounds and ages. Before actually asking any questions, they should make the scope of their inquiry quite clear. The questions themselves should be personal, clear and properly articulated. Answers can be written down or recorded on tape. They will then need to be sorted out, classified, co-ordinated, compared, interpreted and evaluated, a note being made of the reason for this evaluation. The results thus arrived at can then be presented in class.
Each child can, like the teacher himself, keep a personal journal in which feelings and thoughts are expressed rather than simply recorded in objective language. Provided the privacy and freedom of each one is at all times truly respected, it is most valuable for such journals to be used as a basis for community sharing in a Christian class. This can be the most rewarding activity of all.1
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1. Cf Colin Hamer, Voice In The Darkness (Zennor: United Writers 1978) pp. 32-33 for more detailed practical suggestions about how best to go about keeping such a journal. (These suggestions and various others which - especially in today's pressurised and rapidly changing world - teachers, youth-leaders and counsellors may find helpful are also available as WINDOWS *.WRI files on 3½"-disk upon specific application to the author at Creativity House, Exeter.)
When a child starts to go to school, he enters actively into the Parish community, although his family remains the dominant influence until he is about 14 or 15. The teacher of religion should learn each family's living conditions, educational ideas and religious values. This knowledge will enable him to adapt to the children better and help them more. Parents should ensure that children learn their lessons, attend school regularly and arrive on time. The class should have good discipline, a creative atmosphere, attention to the here and now, a clear aim and firm authority.
Although a religion class is not a series of prayers, it should be prayerful, and prayer is essential to it. The years from 5 - 9 can be used to learn prayers of praise and thanksgiving, which should always have first place. Gesticulated prayer is excellent for the under-7's. The same simple gesture can be maintained for several sentences or verses. Not too many gestures should be used. The teacher should encourage the children by his own example, avoiding empty gestures or any emphasis on mere technique. Liturgical gestures, such as the sign of the cross or the genuflection, should be made meaningful to the children. Mimes are good, if they are sober and religious in both content and atmosphere. The way of acting them should help children interiorise their Faith. It is good to turn towards some religious object.
Young children are active, but with the growth of reason they become a bit dreamy and pensive and can be absorbed by a brief mention of something in past experience. The thoughtful child likes to place himself at a distance from the world and think things out, organise his world for himself. He comes to realise that objects are separate and distinct from himself. At 10 this will turn him away from himself to a pragmatic study of objects, but his earlier interest is in the discovery of form and colour. If flowers are picked, they are for mother - at 10 or 11, they would be for a collection. At 7 the focus is on meditation of the interior repercussions of actions and discoveries. The interior rhythm is slow.
Collective work does not appeal to the under-9's. Silent prayer is good for 7-9-year-olds. Sentences interlaced with silence are a good idea. These children can learn short simple texts from the Bible accompanied by expressive gestures that help to convey the sense, the flavour of the passage is more important than its precise verbal meaning at this stage.
They enjoy memory work and repetition, even when the teacher feels he has had too much of it. Each child needs time to drink his fill. He is capable of marvelling, and admires beauty easily, appreciating the mysterious and poetic. The psalms are well adapted to this stage in his development. He can be silent and respectful. His personal spiritual life is beginning, and he is no longer just adopting the adults' attitudes he has encountered. Earlier on when the child asked Why, he wanted to know For and So That, but now he wishes to be told Because.
Though the child is still without abstract ideas, this is the time for the awakening of his moral conscience, his first Yes or No to G-d. A certain reserve and bashful secrecy comes on. He feels more responsible and doesn't want to be talked about. He begins to make objections when he is asked to do something; he wants to know why. This is a very slow awakening. There is some danger of scruples if things are rushed. The teacher should be a respectful witness to and an enthusiastic support in the child's awakening in liberty and Grace. His companions, especially adult companions, were previously those he needed in order to do certain things; now they are persons with whom he wants to be in harmony: “Is that the way it should be?” The child wants to be in harmony with G-d, to know the intentions, ideas and desires of G-d and of significant adults in his environment. He needs confidence and affection, and is very sensitive to his teacher's spiritual qualities.
This period of religious initiation is the time to teach the essential truths of Christianity so that the child can live his Faith. The teacher should have a unified programme: G-d is great, almighty, knows us perfectly, and is interested in each one of us. The teacher has to develop the child's sense of G-d, his Faith in Jesus Christ our Saviour, his obedience to the Holy Spirit, his sense of fellowship I+N the Life of the Church.
From 5 onwards the children will have been learning about the home life of Jewish children at the time of Jesus, and will have explored such implicitly religious themes as colours, hands, babies, homes and families, parties. From 7-9 they can consider feet, journeys by night and by day, growing up, and can learn about the Synagogue schools at the time of Jesus. They can be introduced to the Hebrew Scriptures - poetry, history, stories, laws, etc. The biblical theme of the Shepherd can be brought in at this stage, together with biblical ideas and feelings about clothing.
It is important not to teach too much. The same things needs to be repeated in several ways. Interior intentions and attitudes of persons are central. Interiority is the key. Pictures should be few. The children need to feel they are not alone in their activity. They must be helped and asked questions. Modelling, songs and gesticulated prayer are suitable for this group, and they can be asked to memorise simple, poetic, rhythmic sentences, e.g., scriptural phrases, but not complicated formulas.
Collective posters are not good for the 7's-9's, but it is useful to have a set of their drawings or even of photos arranged round a coloured sentence. They will spend time looking at it, and easily pass into prayer. The teacher should introduce the children to the Sacraments and the life of the Eucharistic community as an expression of their own developing personal Faith, rather than as an addition to it. Drawing is the main activity, and colours should always be used.
There can be silence exercises from time to time, and there should certainly be periods of silence - the teacher joining the children in listening to the silence, teaching them to appreciate it, especially in today's nervous, noise-ridden world. What needs to be said, should be said quietly yet clearly. The children need direction towards interior silence, and help to become aware of the riches within them. They need time for reflection and meditation.
The teacher should stand, walk, speak and gesture in a way that constitutes an invitation to prayer, keep the class-room neat and clean, and treat the bibles and statues, etc., with the greatest respect. Personal, well-adapted teaching introducing the liturgical language the children need to know helps to encourage real prayer.
Pope Saint Pius X decreed that for Communion and Confession the age of discretion is when the child begins to reason, normally round the age of 7; from this time on, he should fulfil the double precept of Confession and Communion.
The children need to learn that Jesus is not hidden and helpless under or behind the host, but active and living. Christ Calls us to himself at Mass, and when we come to him in response, we receive help. Any undue emphasis on merit is to be avoided. The children should not think of Jesus's Presence in the host in a purely material way, nor imagine Jesus is hurt when the host breaks.
They need to develop their sense of what is sacred. It will be easier for them to appreciate the meaning of “this IS Jesus” if right from infancy their parents have taught them to hold their hands reverently, make the sign of the cross and genuflect devoutly, respect holy places, objects, times and persons, appreciate the value of silence and exercise mastery over their own bodies.
The teacher should not usurp the parent' rôle in the immediate preparation of a child for First Communion, but he can arrange parents' meetings in the preceding weeks to help them in any way required and invite them to attend. A 2-morning or whole-day retreat can also be useful at such a time. The focus in the preparations will be on the desire to receive Jesus, the spirit of thanksgiving and the practicalities of the occasion. Hosts can be used, provided the teacher makes it very clear that they are not consecrated, but there should not be a formal rehearsal, and there is certainly no need to tell the children to avoid touching the hosts with their teeth!
The ceremony itself should be simple and prayerful, but a family and parish holiday, not a private occasion. It is a quiet and intimate event, not the dramatic profession of Faith suitable for older children. It is best if the children receive Holy Communion accompanied by their parents and placed next to them. A friend or neighbour can be asked tactfully to stand in if the parents are non-communicants, provided the parents are agreeable.
Jesus's invitation to Communion will be recalled afterwards as the big feasts come round, and children will be helped to grow in Faith and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and encouraged to pay visits to Church and to attend the Sacraments regularly. Every Mass is an invitation to receive Communion.
There is some danger of formalism and so a depreciation of the Grace of the Sacrament if First Confession is linked too closely to preparation for Communion. By realising G-d's Love and the poverty of his own answer, a child gradually becomes aware he is a sinner. Every aspect of the Christian message should make us aware of G-d's greatness and our own weakness. G-d is Faithful, Calling us continuously, and we refuse more than we like to admit. We know and believe G-d wants to help and pardon us. A sense of sin and a sense of G-d's forgiveness should grow together. Jesus prayed that we might BE One; yet we are divided because of our sins. G-d's pardon comes to us through Jesus, and this gives True Unity.
Sin should not be confused with giddiness, even if the latter is, of course, punished by grown-ups. Neither should sin be identified with ignorance, though not knowing the adult law and breaking it does seem evil to children. Moral defeatism is to be avoided. Here, as elsewhere, the priest's rôle is to accomplish Jesus's desire, which in this case is a desire to forgive. When the child understands the priest's rôle in Confession, the teacher must make it clear that the Sacrament is not just an exterior gesture, that penance implies interior ‘conversion’ and is not just wiping past sins away, and that the quality of sorrow and Faith I+N G-d's forgiveness are more important than a detailed examination of conscience. Later in life children will need to be helped not to read their subsequent knowledge into their prior actions. Lists of sins are harmful because they are superficial, external and not adapted to individuals needs. Better reference-points are G-d's Love, Jesus's words, certain virtues, and the persons and places in one's life.
It is not good to make children wait for long, and so they can go to Confession in small groups with an adult present to help each group prepare, possibly singing or reading certain Bible passages together. Moments of silence for individual preparation are also needed. The examination of conscience should not be too long, and some guidance may help. The mechanical regularity of Confession every First Friday, every second Saturday, etc., is not always the best idea, since it easily dwindles into every Easter only. Important feast-days and other special seasons are very suitable times for Confession. Each child needs help to find the best frequency suited to the individual need. Children are to be reminded often that they can go to Confession, but never obliged to do so. Near the big feasts, Confession can be recalled both individually and collectively, but must not seem an imposition. Children benefit by good adult example. The teacher should go to Confession often himself, and can offer to accompany a group or two of children, encouraging parents and others to do the same. If Confessions are to be well made, the teacher needs to provide a lot of help in this direction right through the child's schooling.
Those to be confirmed need a sense of G-d, a sense of Jesus Christ, a sense of the Holy Spirit and a sense of the Church.1 The Come Holy Spirit and the liturgical hymn Come Holy Ghost are both simple enough to be understood even by young children. The Holy Spirit who always has an important place in the children's interior life, should also be perceived to do so from 7-9 onwards…
Before they receive Confirmation, the teacher should deal with sin and penance, the Sacrament of Baptism, the bishop and Pentecost. A retreat beforehand in which parents and sponsors can be invited to join is a good idea. This should highlight the attitudes already mentioned, the desire to follow Jesus and Live in the Spirit of the Gospel, and the words of Jesus himself. Other preparations for the ceremony should give the children a deep appreciation of the different ritual elements, and help them to Live fully this moment of Grace.
Comments during the rite itself are needed to recall previously explained attitudes or to invite the children to prayer, but this is not the time for detailed technical explanations. Comments are a help only if a good explanation has been given well in advance. The main gestures are to be presented with their real meaning, and not with some invested spiritual or pious accretion. “The bishop will lay his hands on each one of us; that shows that he is asking the Holy Spirit to Come to us. He will put his hands on our heads and say our names: John, Alice,… Jesus knows each one of us; he knows our name. Jesus Loves and protects us. The bishop will make the sign of the cross on our foreheads with consecrated oil. That shows that we are Christians. We know that Jesus has saved us by his death on the cross and that he is risen. We too should be ready and willing to suffer in order to do G-d's will. The bishop makes personal contact with each of us. When he does this, he also says: “Peace BE with you”. From then on we will BE Christians totally; we will belong completely to the Family of G-d's Children, not like babies but as grown-ups. We will try to serve our Church as best we can; we will obey our bishop and follow his guidance and leadership in the diocese”.
The children should know what will happen at the ceremony, the order of the rite, what to do or say, the responses, hymns, bodily attitudes and procession arrangements. They should be helped to interiorise their attitudes and responses, giving special attention to the collective “Amen”, and to the individual “Amen” each child makes to the words of the bishop. Before the ceremony the children should know something about the bishop, his name, where he comes from, where he lives, what he looks like. The teacher will also talk to the children about the bishop's episcopal mission and his preoccupations as a bishop. He can show and explain the meaning of the bishop's crozier, mitre, ring and pectoral cross.
The sponsors, especially in the absence of good parents, should be able and willing to encourage the child's spiritual growth for the remainder of his life by their affection, good example and advice. Last-minute choices, choices of prestige and collective sponsoring are not good. It may be useful to seek the help of Catholic societies and youth groups. The ideal is one sponsor for each child, young enough to understand him but not under 13 and preferably a person he meets in his daily life. There are always some sponsors who are ill-equipped for the rôle. Individual visits allow this to be explained and the personal history, family situation and good and bad qualities of each child discussed. Sponsors' meetings allow the teacher to bring up points that cannot be got across individually, perhaps not even mentioned individually. For the sake of sponsors not visited individually, these meetings should also include a review of all fundamental points. Publications can prepare for and complement these meetings but are no substitute for them. For the run-of-the-mill Catholic to become a sponsor can be a real moment of Grace and a valuable challenge to his Christian sense. The teacher should afterwards keep up contact with sponsors for as long as their G-d-children are attending his class. Visits to sponsors can be renewed before a child's First Communion or before he makes the Scout promise, etc.
Parents' meetings need to be arranged early in the Confirmation year. They should be told the date of the meeting as soon as it is fixed, so that they can arrange to be free to attend. They should be made familiar with the general lines of the religious curriculum, understand how it is preparing their child for Confirmation, and show an interest in his weekly progress. He has to be helped to grow into a well-intentioned, upright, public-spirited Christian with real personal freedom. Parents should be required to request the child's confirmation in writing. A family feast on the day itself is a good idea. So, too, is a retreat in preparation.
Confirmation day should also be a Parish feast, held on a suitable day with a moderate number of children being confirmed together. The bishop can come twice if necessary. This is less tiring and gives room for the adults to see what is going on. A welcoming committee can provide printed sheets or booklets. It is best to have each child seated by his sponsor, to help him feel spiritually adult. However, if the children sit together it is easier for the bishop to speak specially to them and ask for their profession of Faith.
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1. It is important to understand that the word “sense” here means neither any kind of ‘meaning’ nor some sort of ‘feeling’ - though ‘feelings’, when “feeling” is used analogically - are sometimes associated with the life of each of these spiritual ‘senses’, which enable us, e.g., to see and to hear, and not merely to see and hear. In The Glory of The Lord - A Theological Aesthetics, Volume 1: Seeing the Form (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 1962, pp.421-2) Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote: "No less evident to the Catholic believer [is] the continuity between Mary's spiritual experiences in the body and the Church's maternal experience. A mother explains the world to her child; she shows him what there is to be seen and how it should be regarded; she not only teaches him the words of the language, but infuses reality into each word so that the word will emerge from the image and lead back to it. In the same way the Church, basing herself first and last on the experience of the Lord's Mother I+N The Flesh, who was the Believer pure and simple, can teach her children the Word of G-d and communicate to them from the heart of her motherly and bridal experience not only its meaning, but its taste, its smell, and its whole incarnational concreteness. The terrible havoc which the ‘historical-critical method’ is today wreaking in the world of Faith is possible only in a spiritual sphere from which the Church's Marian dimension has been banished and which has, therefore, forsaken all spiritual senses and their ecclesial communication. This devastation is spreading not only over the whole theological realm; it is penetrating even the area of philosophy. Here the world is becoming imageless and valueless; it is a heap of ‘facts’ which no longer say anything and in which an equally imageless and formless naked existence is freezing and anguishing unto death…”
The orientation of each year's teaching has to meet the needs and interests of the age-group. The start of first adolescence comes at 11 or 12, and the period from 9 to 12 is one of stability, a positive, objective period, in which children can make sustained physical effort, maintain interest and work regularly at school. They like to do things in groups or gangs. All they see interests them and arouses questions: What's it for? How do you make it? Cabins and dolls' clothes are in. Rules are very important in their games. They are attracted to the outside world perceived with the senses and want to take possession of it. Their intelligence is practical rather than theoretical. They learn by doing and observing. They like to watch adults at work and enjoy building things, e.g., with construction-sets. They admire engineers, inventors, scholars, aviators, explorers. They cannot abstract or generalise but are able to recognise abstract justice in its concrete embodiment. They need ideas for possible action. They no longer accept the unreal fairy-land world, but prefer the real though extraordinary one of Superman, Superwoman, Tarzan, Calamity Jane, the Lone Ranger. Interest in picturesque detail replaces the earlier emphasis on tender, poetic, emotional situations. Adventure fascinates them now because of the hero's or heroine's words and deeds, not on account of their interior feelings. Cheating is regarded as the worst of faults. Rules in grammar, arithmetic and games become important to them.
These children need to encounter the religious mystery in concrete acts. They have little time for contemplation and need scope for active religious self-expression according to clear rules. They want to be told how to make a good Confession and a good Communion. They show a marked tendency to form habits. They love routine, time-tables and formulations. Their memory is very active, but they acquire knowledge more easily than convictions. Their religious ideal will be the practising Catholic and only rarely do they manifest any sense of an interior urge for perfection. What exists concerns them, not what ought to be. They don't need adult affection and protection quite as much as before. Their friendships are less sentimental. They place less importance on others' intentions and concentrate instead on what others can get or bring for them. They are influenced by their environment and have a strong feeling of group solidarity. They accept the prevailing judgments and values without question. They have no critical sense. Leaders emerge among them who owe their prestige to something superficial - strength, dress, hair-style, scholastic or sporting success. Only what is seen is taken into consideration. A discrete and friendly adult presence among them is needed. Moral ideas are only perceptible to them if they are represented within the group. Hence, the importance for them of the adult community in the liturgical assembly and in daily living as a source of living, concrete, spiritual values.
The teacher must present the Paschal Mystery in the events of the history1 of Salvation and in the people who lived that history. He can deal with creation myths, life in biblical times, the patriarchs,2 Solomon, Jesus seen through the eyes of Peter, the story of the translation and transmission of the Bible, the signs and symbols of communication, sacred places in the ‘secular’ sense, places of worship and pilgrimage, Qumran, Masada, biblical archæology, the Church in action - e.g., Coventry cathedral, Christian Aid, the secular and religious celebration of festivals, the examples of Father Damien, James Evans, Theodore Pennell, Mario Borrelli. The themes of bread, water and light can be explored. The children will learn something about courage, about sight and about who they are, including elementary physiology and psychology. The concept of barriers can be made explicit. The teacher should present the Law of the Kingdom, helping the children to examine their conscience to see if that Law of Love has been obeyed, helping them to acquire good habits. The children need to be placed in some Christian group. The child must be taken into the inside of stories and persons, so that he can accept and relive with Faith these events and these attitudes. The Law of the Kingdom has to be presented as the Law of Love asking us for ever more generosity. The teacher needs to find ways for them constantly to revitalise, renew and bring home to themselves the meaning of their religious acts, formulas and gestures. Each child needs to be encouraged to take a personal position in the group. The teacher should present the liturgical cycle and the history of Salvation and, if the earlier years have gone well, can be a bit systematic in his approach with the 11's-12's. There children have no sense of the past, so that chronological connections are not very important.3
Narration is fundamental and should be vivid, concrete, accurate, spiritual, doctrinal and relevant to present-day living. With the 11's-12's a dogmatic truth can also be expounded in the concrete in a simple fashion, keeping close to living experience. Songs and hymns with strong rhythms, preferably ones used by adults, are good with this age-group. They like to use the Bible and their missals, but tend to skimp their answers: “Don't you think you could do even better?” They can profit from being asked to copy a good picture, and prefer to draw landscapes, objects and models of human beings. A personal notebook on some theme, such as the Mass, can be gradually filled in by each child. Group posters and albums are also good, with the teacher encouraging them to deepen the treatment and keep to the point. Prayer with gestures is no longer understood by many and makes them laugh, but they can be taught grown-up liturgical attitudes and their meanings. Collective quasi-liturgical celebrations with longer texts and group acclamations and formulas can be arranged for them, and the periods of silence will need to be shorter. Group prayers, litanies or sentences interlaced with silence are good at this stage. In prayer, petition is now preferred but should be centred on G-d, not self, so that it expresses dependence on him.
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1. Notice that the Hebrew word for ‘history’ also signifies ‘childbirth’.
2. When he was in London in October 1994 as a guest of the Benedictines of Cockfosters, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was invited to specify which particular question he personally would like to put to Jesus Christ, were the latter to grant him an audience. Tenzin Gyatso replied that he would seek an explanation of the nature of the Christian Bible. Zecharia Sitchin, introducing himself on screen in 1992 to viewers of Paradox Media Ltd. & Why Not Productions of Switzerland's 1-hour video-film, Are We Alone? (In the Universe), stated: "I am Zecharia Sitchin. I devoted a life-time to the study of ancient civilizations, ancient languages, their art, their beliefs, and the knowledge that they had, and the question is, when you study, when you look at all that: Is it myth? Is it mythology? Or did it really happen? I believe that it all really happened." In Genesis Revisited - Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge? (New York: Avon Books 1990; Santa Fe: Bear & Company 1991) he seeks to show that, notwithstanding today's "confrontation between Evolution and Creationism," "the Book of Genesis and its sources reflect the highest levels of scientific knowledge”; in other words, "the conflict is baseless" (Foreword, p.1). Genesis Revisited is a companion volume to The Earth Chronicles series (also available in paperback from Avon Books, and in hardback from Bear & Co.) which comprises six volumes: The 12th Planet (Stein & Day, 1976; Avon Books, 1978; Bear & Co., 1991), The Stairway to Heaven (St. Martin's Press, 1980; Avon Books, 1983; Bear & Co., 1992), The Wars of Gods and Men (Avon Books, 1985; Bear & Co., 1992), The Lost Realms (Avon Books, 1990; Bear & Co., 1990), When Time Began (Avon Books, 1993; Bear & Co., 1994), The Cosmic Code (Avon Books, 1998). Sitchin's most recent companion book, Divine Encounters (1996) does not detract from the spiritual value of explanation in the Zohar (50b) for the Torah's beginning with the letter Beth, but by restoring the original initial Aleph to the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1, arrives at the important new translation: “The Lord of Beginning created the Elohim, the Heavens and the Earth". In the light of these and various other relevant specialist studies I am nowadays available to explain how Earth broke away from Tiamat about 4,000,000,000 years ago, to review Adam's creation some 300,000 and Noah's Flood about 13,000 years ago, to discuss the importance of Abraham's significant defence of the Sinai space-port in 2,041 and its subsequent destruction as a consequence of several atomic explosions in 2,024 B.C., and to facilitate the development of a more balanced and integrated understanding of human development. Works mentioned in the reading-list are, I believe, likely to prove helpful.
3. Derek Lance's 11-16 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd 1967) contains several hundred excellent suggestions regarding religious teaching-materials for both the 9's-12's and the teenage age-groups. Saint John Bosco's book of prayer and guidance for young people, The Companion of Youth, was originally written for this age-group and, although the updated version of it edited by Terence O'Brien SDB & me (Bollington, Saint Dominic Savio House 1961) is also itself now very much in need of revision, it certainly contains much of value and still merits attention.
Religion can easily become less important in school-life during these years. Having found their feet in a new school, children feel they don't need religious teaching any more. It is more difficult to interest them. There is also more about them to be understood. The teacher has to find something new and dynamic as the key to their heart. Their lack of discipline, agitation, instability is all a sign of a new liberty in process of maturation. The teacher must confide in them, and be content to guide the forces and aspirations they manifest. This is a unique transition period. It is not easy for the child to give up his past dependency, nor easy for him to assume personal responsibility to and for himself. His behaviour is new, strange, unpredictable. These children are dreamers and sentimental idealists. Keeping a diary is common, and he may show them how to keep a journal. They will do anything to be different from the other children. Their opposition to others is a clumsy attempt at self-assertion and they need guidance. They are unstable. Smoking, lipstick and high heels are in vogue. The psychological differentiation of the sexes becomes clearer. Boys now prefer exterior active values, courage, strength, work and creative self-expression. Girls are more interior and value love, sentiment, a personal viewpoint, generosity and self-sacrifice. Puberty brings a marked interest in the body and the facts of life. The girls can be quite coarse in their conversation. Boys and girls alike tend to be emotional dreamers, somewhat unbalanced in their sensibilities, rather uneasy, pessimistic, worried and frightened of responsibility. They take refuge in childish attitudes, discover evil in themselves and others, want to be what they are not, get discouraged, and suffer at the difference between their dreams and reality. Their idealistic aspirations make them attractive. They are capable of generous effort, and need help against discouragement. Adults should believe in them and have confidence in them, thus leading them to the virtue of Hope.1 They are easily influenced by the examples of heroes and saints, since they are in quest of moral beauty and greatness. The teacher's living example is more important than his recommendations and prohibitions. Use of their heroic dreams is better than trying to enforce discipline or appealing to their personal pride.
Young teenagers basically are still law-abiding, casuistic moralisers, but their need for moral freedom is growing. They reject a law imposed by others. The Commandments have to be presented not as categorical orders, but as the means towards greater liberty and happiness, as obligations I+N and for Love. Naturalism should be avoided. G-d's Law is not just a means of personal, human development. The sense of a protecting G-d, present in childhood, now all too easily fades out. A consciousness of G-d as law-giver remains but is no longer as strong and is not the only thing. G-d becomes more personal - helps our liberty, helps us to greatness, is almost identical with our ideal.2
The teacher has to help the children to realise what Salvation IS, and orientate them towards Hope. They know fear and can explore the question: what is man? They need to be helped out of their cowardly weakness and encouraged to keep up their efforts. The teacher has to assist them to adjust socially and to fit into some suitably understanding group. With rare exceptions, they have as yet still no idea of a disinterested G-d-centred religion. Prayer of petition and recourse comes most naturally to them. They want their religion to be effective. They will accept the Church if they see it understands saints and other courageous, generous lay apostles - Danilo Dolci, Toyohiko Kagawa, Mother Theresa. The teacher must avoid presenting a legal, legislative Church, to which they are allergic. Most of them do not like liturgical acts, because they both want and need to assert their own independence.
These children need new programmes with new project interests, e.g., the theme of ‘fire’. They need real religious instruction about the nature of the biblical literature, the Christian use of the Jewish Scriptures, the early Church's experience of Jesus and its interpretation of it, the creation of the New Testament, the questions of belief and Belief, the relationship between belief and life, between Belief and Life, instruction, too, about questioning in ordinary matters of fact, in moral matters, in the field of æsthetics and religion. Personal research in scientific documents is now good.3
Actions speak louder than words, and Revelations Begins I+N the events of the Bible. The teacher's problem is how to bring out their Truth and meaning. He must avoid anything false or artificial. Authenticity is the key-note. The events need to be seen in their proper historical, literary and anthropological context, e.g., the “image” of G-d I+N which Man IS made is not one of ‘form’ but of ‘function’4 - viz., propagating life and keeping order, not “I am a pure spirit” but “Increase and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it”. The teacher will distinguish the particular from the general historical context and bring out the relevance of the events to the life of himself and others in the Church today.
The custom of holding and shaking hands may prove a good starting-point for a better appreciation of liturgical symbols. The liturgy is historical, actual, expressive and efficacious. Liturgy is participation, prayer expressed as rites, gestures, words. The biblical events have to be related to these words, gestures and rites to foster the spirit of prayer.
Christian doctrine should be seen first in a vivid and preferably biblical example, and after this has been explained and related to present-day life, it can be summarised in some abstract formula if this seems useful. Real events can be connected with doctrinal formulations, picking out complementary expressions of the same truth, focussing the advantages and limitations of each horizon and pattern of experience for people of today or of other places and times, and moving beyond the words to a Living Encounter with the Living G-d.
The children's own discoveries need to be linked to the Message: “How should we look at human love? What does G-d think of human work?” The Church's teaching should be seen as encouraging development and growth. The teacher can discuss the children's own problems. He should be seen to be up-to-date, well informed, ready to listen, open to many different approaches and, above all, a man of Prayer and True Christian Faith. He must not become a slave to any one method but exploit his own personal gifts and ask to be put where he can use them to the best advantage. When he has mastered his own line, he can make himself as polyvalent as possible. He should never be afraid to ask for clerical and lay help, and can invite others to come to his class from time to time.
Christ reveals the greatness of both G-d and man. The lives of the saints and other lay-apostles show us how to live the Beatitudes today. Saint Paul's “I do not the good I wish and I do the evil I wish not” can be illustrated with concrete examples. Old and New Testament heroes and saints should be presented as witnesses to Christ, but also as persons of their own century and civilisation. The teacher will highlight the positive aspects of Christian holiness: happiness and fulfilment. Boys especially should be shown the sociological dimensions of Parish life through priests, nuns, lay-apostles, Catholic Action groups. The relevance of the liturgy to daily living should be explained. Daily events need to be appreciated from the inside and confronted with the Christian Message.
The style of the class should be that of encouraging an exchange of ideas in a serious but relaxed atmosphere. The journal can be a great help. It is not yet time for real study groups, but there should always be a free dialogue instead of exposition according to a prepared plan. Adolescents will not accept things they have not discovered personally for themselves. The Message must not be separated from their mentality. Documentary visits and surveys are good. Let them collect information and prepare files or records for later discussion. Suitable people can be invited to talk to them about their work and apostolate. Collective posters and albums are also good. Individual and group research on documents is to be encouraged. They need to widen their horizons. They can be encouraged to take part in some practical Christian group activities, joining Task Force, taking an active part in the life of the Parish, etc. Natural leaders should be given special responsibilities, and outings and parties from time to time can foster good feelings between teachers and pupils, but there should be no favouritism.
Before leaving school pupils should appreciate what religion is and what it means to take a religious seriously. They can consider conflict, suffering, life after death, life as a pilgrimage of G-d's People, miracles, creation, providence, evil, the nature of religious language, science and religion, biblical criticism, the Church and the Churches, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, the lessons of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the anthropological, sociological and psychological conditions of the worshipping community's actual historical situation. At least a start can be made and an orientation provided.
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1. It is most important to develop some awareness of the radical distinction between Belief and belief, between Christian Faith, Hope & Charity and ‘secular’ or everyday faith, hope and charity. Cf Karl Rahner, “Towards a Theology of Hope” in Concurrence - A Review for the Encounter of Commitments (No. 1, Spring 1969, pp. 23-33). By G-d's Grace and with Saint John Bosco's friendship and guidance to support him along the Way, Saint Dominic Savio attained to full Christian maturity prior to his death at the age of just less than 15. Clearly, therefore, G-d Calls us all to BE Saints “to-day”. Holiness is not something to be postponed until later!. Cf Terence O'Brien, SDB, Being True to yourself, your friends and G-d: a Book for Youth - Under the Inspiration of Dominic Savio, Teenager and Saint and Growth to Maturity of Person & Love - the Fullness of Christ and the Fatherhood of G-d (Guild Publications, 49 Surrey Lane, London SW11 3PN, 1985).
2. Truth to tell, in the East many deeply religious individuals appear never to transcend this mistaken identification; in the West many more appear never even to attain to it…
3. Like it or not, because of the world-wide web computer network and almost instantaneous world-wide communications via satellite television teachers may be asked by their pupils to comment on such controversial studies as (to name but two) Barbara Thiering's Jesus The Man (Doubleday 1992) and Laurence Gardner's Bloodline of the Holy Grail - The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed (Element Books 1996), both of which are manifestly much more thoroughly researched than several religious text-books for school use, but both of which also exhibit a profound ignorance of, e.g., Frederick Bligh Bond & Thomas Simcox Leigh's Gematria: a preliminary investigation of the Cabala contained in the Coptic Gnostic Books and of a similar Gematria in the Greek text of the New Testament showing the presence of a system of teaching by means of the doctrinal significance of numbers, by which the holy names are clearly seen to represent æonial relationships which can be conceived in a geometric sense and are capable of a typical expression of that order, and Thomas Simcox Leigh & Frederick Bligh Bond's Material for the study of the Apostolic Gnosis, Part 2 (Research Into Lost Knowlege Organisation 1977 and 1985). Complacency in regard to the status quo is rarely praiseworthy, and I am always happy to be of whatever assistance I can when problems of this sort require attention. However, to the extent that an atmosphere of interior Prayer has been established in a person, external challenges of this sort are less likely to have a negative issue; such problems are never the problem…
4. Meditations on the Tarot (Element Classic Editions 1993) corrects my over-simplification and prayerfully explores the difference between the ‘image’ and the ‘likeness’ of G-d, avoiding any risk of understanding ‘subdue the Earth’ as a license for ecological devastation.
There is a doctrinal system of Catholic truth for the pupil to assimilate and learn to re-express alone or in a group. The teacher needs to present the basic notions inductively, explain them, illustrate their applications, and deduce the consequences.
There is the accepted life-style of the Catholic community which the learner has to be trained to adjust to in a competent way. The teacher's good example can show him how things are done. The reasons behind this behaviour need to be explained, and the pupil needs practice in living the Catholic life.
There is a Catholic scale of values, expressed vividly in Jesus and the saints, and the teacher has to enable the pupils to recognise their own vocation to acknowledge the worth of these values, to express their own personality by responding to them from within their own situation, and to discuss among themselves the experiences from which they emerge and to which they give rise. Psychological desires have to be awakened, a confused experience clarified, ambiguous orientations distinguished, the conditions of self-realisation discovered and a personal choice made with wisdom and discernment.
The Church has a history and is developing through time under the charismatic impetus of outstanding Catholic leaders. The pupils needs to explore and discuss the forces at work in the Church's contemporary situation and the social structures that modify Church relationships with the world. The teacher is the herald of Christ guiding his pupils in their research into the data supplied by experience, encouraging them to judge how situations can be modifed, and fostering a development in which they decide for themselves on what transformations to try and bring about in Church life both collective and individual.
The teacher can bring these dimensions to a common focus by taking a particular theme, showing its value and highlighting the central importance of the encounter with G-d. Thus, in the story of Abraham a land flowing with milk and honey was something to look forward to, but the main thing was Abraham's fidelity in striving to come closer to G-d.
I have already prepared and made non-commercially available a 56-page Index (tarotdex.htm) to Robert A. Powell's 1985 English translation of this posthumous and anonymous work, identified by the Review for Religious in 1987 as “destined to become a 20th-century classic in spirituality”. Originally written in French, Aubier Montaigne published an edited version of this profound study of Christian meditation in 1980 as Méditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du Tarot, and issued a second, revised and complete edition of the author's original text under the same title in 1984. Anton Hain of Meisenheim had published a first German translation in 1972 (the author completed his manuscript on Trinity Sunday, 21 May 1967, and died shortly afterward), and a second, completely revised rendering of the original French manuscript was published as Die Grossen Arcana des Tarot by Herder of Basel in 1983 with a Foreword by Hans Urs von Balthasar from which I quote: “A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us the Symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of Mysticism, Gnosis and Magic, taking in also… certain elements of Astrology and Alchemy… by way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to lead mediatively into the deeper, all-embracing Wisdom of the Catholic Mystery“.
The work is dedicated to Our Lady of Chartres and the back-cover of the 1985 Amity House & the 1987 Element Books edition (but not subsequent editions) reproduce the following review-extracts: “Breakthrough realization that, in Christianity, the esoteric and the exoteric cannot be separated, because the spiritual world is essentially moral” (Stratford Caldecott in The National Catholic Reporter). “Had this book been available when Richard Hutchins founded the Great Books Program at Chicago University, it might well have been the core of his course” (The Canadian Messenger). “Where could you find the kind of guidance that is manifest in every chapter of this book?” (Theophane Boyd in Commonweal). “It is such a rich collection of wisdom… Besides the Bible we find the Upanishads, the Cabbala, the Hermeticists, and men as diverse as Origen and de Chardin, Plato and Bergson, Jung and John of the Cross, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche… it is without doubt the most extraordinary work I have ever read” (Basil Pennington O.C.S.O.). Current editions also quote that last sentence from Basil Pennington's endorsement and Abbot Thomas Keating O.C.S.O.'s judgment: “The greatest contribution to date toward the rediscovery and renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition”. So far I have with increasing profit read the entire work eight times, and I certainly hope I shall be able to read it again.
The Primordial Tradition, the anonymous author confided in 1965, in entrusting to us, as his Last Will & Testament, the joyful task of freely transmitting that same Hermetic Legacy to future generations, “lives not thanks to organisations, but rather in spite of them” (cf Meditations On The Tarot, Element Books 1991, p.569). Rudyard Kipling was also sensitively attuned to this essential truth of daily experience (cf his poem, “The Disciple”, in The Church that was at Antioch), and a deep and concerned appreciation of its ever present importance obliged the Anglican lay-reader and inspired exponent of ancient Sumerian Yoga, Joan D'Arcy Cooper (1927-1982) , shortly before her own death orally to express real reservations about the value of any written documents - particularly those which she herself had written (four privately printed works: Culbone - A Spiritual History, 1977; The Door Within - Some Meditations on Illness, Pain, Ageing and Death, 1979; The Ancient Teaching of Yoga and the Spiritual Evolution of Man, 1979; Corner-Stones of the Spiritual World, 1981 and the still readily available: Guided Meditation and The Teaching of Jesus, Element Books, 1982, 1985). Cf Plato's Seventh Letter, translated by R. S. Bluck, in Plato's Life and Thought, London, 1949 and the quasi-parallel remarks of Thomas Aquinas, shortly before his death, cited in P. Mandonnet “La Canonisation de S. Thomas d'Aquin”, in Mélanges Thomistes, 1923.
The author of Meditations on the Tarot throughout his life consistently respected and honoured both established science and established religion, and all his words were - and still are - inspired by, spoken in and addressed directly to each prepared Individual in the private forum of that person's conscience… “Resurrection is not an all-powerful divine act, but rather the effect of the meeting and union of divine love, hope and faith with human love, hope and faith” (Ibid., p.571-2).
“You mature as a person through growth. Growth is not just progress or change. Progress and change takes place at the conscious level only; they result in better behaviour, but not in maturity of person.
Growth is the development of the total person, conscious and unconscious, into unity. Growth begins at the deepest level. It is only when you are in the unity of yourself that you can be in charge of yourself, your total self - conscious and unconscious.
The first step towards maturity of person is to accept that it is a growth process. The second step is to be open to grow and, increasingly, more open to grow.
There is within you the principle or agent of growth, your psyche. The third step is accepting your psyche and its wonderful work of inner growth.
You have also within you the supreme obstacle to your growth, your ego. This ego is the Principal or Agent that prevents your growth, keeps you fixated in immaturity, and is out to destroy you completely if possible.
Important principle: this ego1 has no power unless you give it power. You have, therefore, to be open to your psyche and closed to your ego.
I am more and more open every day to grow into the fullness and maturity of myself as a person…
I am open in friendship to myself and everyone else without exception…
I refuse all power to my ego…
I let all negative feelings evaporate, the positive forces working freely in their place…”
In general:
An inner movement or feeling is neither evil nor good. Only acts can be evil or good. A movement is either negative or positive. If you feel anger, impatience, hatred, rebellion, lust or whatever moving within you, let it go - evaporate, and let a positive movement come in its place.
Don't fight it. If you fight someone you have accepted that they have the power to attack you. The positive movement is the opposite of the negative one: e.g., fear - courage, anger- calmness, inferiority - confidence, blame - praise.
Try to be a total person in everything you do including going to sleep at night. Pause for a moment before doing anything and let yourself flow together into unity and totality. Say: ‘I am one total person - mind, body, soul, conscious and unconscious, with the total person in command’.
Any time you are upset and things not going well say: ‘I accept the person which is me in love and friendship’.” *
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*Quoted from Father Terence O'Brien, SDB, Being True to yourself, your friends and G-d: A Book for Youth - Under the Inspiration of Dominic Savio, Teenager and Saint and Growth to Maturity of Person & Love - the Fullness of Christ and the Fatherhood of G-d (Guild Publications, 49 Surrey Lane, London SW11 3PN, 1985)
1. Notice that both “psyche” and “ego” are used by Father O'Brien in a way that, although perfectly straightforward, differs very considerably from the many different ways in which these words have been used by, e.g., Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alice Bailey, etc.
‘The Church has in fact an intense love for young people: always, but especially in this period so close to the year 2000, she feels invited by her Lord to look upon them with a special Love and Hope, and to consider their education as one of her primary pastoral responsibilities… Education consists in fact in enabling man to become more man, to ‘be’ more than just to ‘have’ more and consequently, through everything he ‘has’, everything he ‘possesses’, to ‘be’ man more fully…
For St John Bosco, founder of a great spiritual Family, one may say that the peculiar trait of his brilliance is linked with the educational method which he himself called the “preventive system”. In a certain sense this represents the quintessence of his pedagogical wisdom and constitutes the prophetic message which he has left to his followers and to the Church, and which has received attention and recognition from numerous educators and students of pedagogy.
The term “preventive” which he uses is to be understood not so much in its strict linguistic sense as in the richness of the characteristics typical of the Saint's educative skill. It implies in the first place the intention of foreseeing and preventing anything that might give rise to negative experiences which could compromise youthful energies or commit young people to long and distressing efforts at recovery. But the term also includes deep intuitions, precise options and methodological criteria, all lived with particular intensity; examples are: the art of positive education by putting forward what is good through appropriate experiences which call for the involvement of the pupil and are attractive because of their splendour and lofty nature; the art of producing growth in the young persons “from within” by appealing to their inner freedom to oppose external conditioning and formalism; the art of winning the hearts of young people so as to inculcate in them a joyful and satisfied attraction to what is good, correcting deviations and preparing them for the future by means of a solid character formation.
Evidently this pedagogical message supposes in the educator the conviction that in every young person, no matter how far he may seem to be from the straight and narrow, there are hidden sources of good which if properly stimulated can lead to an option for Faith and honesty…
The practice of the preventive system is wholly based on the words of St Paul who says: ‘Love is patient and kind; it bears all things, but hopes all things and endures all things’… It leads to intuitive understanding and gives strength to what the Saint summed up in the well-known threefold formula: “Reason, religion, loving kindness”…
“Reason” invites the young to an attitude of sharing in values they have understood and accepted. Don Bosco called it also “reasonableness” because of its necessary accompaniment by the understanding, dialogue and unfailing patience through which the far from easy practice of reasoning finds expression.
It is true that all this takes for granted at the present day an updated and integral anthropology, free from ideological oversimplification. The modern educator must be able to read closely the signs of the times to glean from them the emerging values which are attractive to youth: peace, freedom, justice, communion and sharing, the advancement of woman, solidarity, development, and urgent ecological demands…
“Religion”… is evidently not a question of a speculative and abstract religion, but of a Living Faith rooted in reality and stemming from Presence and Communion, from an attitude of listening and from docility to Grace…
Loving kindness is expressed in practice in the commitment of the educator as a person entirely dedicated to the good of his pupils, present in their midst, ready to accept sacrifices and hard work in the fulfilment of his mission. All this calls for a real availability to the young, a deep empathy and the ability to dialogue with them. Typical and very enlightening is the expression: “Here in your midst I feel completely at home; for me, living means being here with you”. With happy intuition he specified: what is important is “not only that the boys be loved, but they they know that they are loved”…
St John Bosco is relevant to the present day… He teaches us to integrate the permanent values of tradition with “new solutions” so as to meet in a creative fashion the newly emerging requests and problems; he continues to be our teacher in the present difficult times, and suggests a “new education” which is at once both creative and faithful
Don Bosco ritorna (“Don Bosco returns again”) is a traditional hymn of the Salesian Family: it expresses the fervent hope and desire of a “return of Don Bosco” and of a “return to Don Bosco”, so as to be educators able to preserve our fidelity of old, and at the same time be attentive, as he was himself, to the thousand and one needs of today's youth, so as to find in his legacy the starting-point for a present-day response to their difficulties and expectations…
It is useful to recall those striking words of Don Bosco to his boys which form the genuine synthesis of his basic choice: “Remember that, whatever my worth, I am here every moment of the day and night for you. I have no other goal than your physical, mental and moral welfare. For you I study, for you I work, for you I live, for you I am ready even to give my life”…
At the present day young people are exposed to dangers and temptations unknown in other ages, such as drugs, violence, terrorism, the pornographic element in many films and television programmes, and obscenity in words and pictures. All this means that in the care of souls the necessary education of youth be given pride of place with appropriate methods and adequate initiatives. The mind and heart of John Bosco can suggest to priests the proper means to this end… I am well aware, worthy educators, of the difficulties you meet with and of the disappointments you experience at times. Do not be discouraged as you follow the privileged way of Love which is education. Be strengthened by the inexhaustible patience of G-d in his pedagogy towards humanity, the unfailing exercise of Fatherhood revealed in the mission of Christ, Teacher and Shepherd, and in the Presence of the Holy Spirit, sent to transform the world’.
"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."
Pope John-Paul II quoted in The Tablet (14 October 1995, p.1305).
"Do not be disarmed by malice; disarm malice with kindness."
Romans 12:21.
"G-d gave him largeness of heart as the sand that is on the sea-shore."
I Kings 4:29.
Psalm 81:1-3.
"Now when the seventh month came round - the Israelites being in their towns - all the people gathered as one man in the square in front of the Water Gate, and asked the scribe Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses which Yahweh had prescribed for Israel. Accordingly, on the first day of the seventh month, [i.e., on New Year's day] the priest Ezra brought the Law before the assembly, consisting of men, women and all those old enough to understand. In the square in front of the Water Gate, in the presence of the men and women, and of those old enough to understand, he read from the book from dawn till noon; all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden dais erected for the purpose; beside him stood, on his right, Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; on his left, Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. In full view of all the people - since he stood higher than them all - Ezra opened the book; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great G-d, and all the people raised their hands and answered, 'Amen! Amen!'; then they bowed down and, face to the ground, prostrated themselves before Yahweh. And Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabab, Hanan, Pelaiah, who were Levites, explained the Law to the people, while the people all kept their places. Ezra read from the book of the Law of G-d, translating and giving the sense; so the reading was understood.
Then His Excellency, Nehemiah and the priest-scribe Ezra and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people, 'Today is sacred to Yahweh your G-d. Do not be mournful, do not weep.' For the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law.
He then said, 'You may go; eat what is rich, drink what is sweet and send a helping to the man who has nothing prepared. For today is sacred to our Lord. Do not be sad: the joy of Yahweh is your stronghold.' And the Levites calmed all the people down, saying, 'Keep quiet; this is a sacred day. Do not be sad.' Then all the people went off to eat and drink and give helpings away and enjoy themselves to the full, since they had understood the meaning of what had been proclaimed to them."
Nehemiah 8:1-12.
"It is impossible that a pupil should be his teacher's superior, or a servant be his master's superior. A pupil should be satisfied with becoming the equal of his teacher, a servant with becoming the equal of his master. If Beelzebub is the name they have affixed to the master of the house, how much more will they be ready to affix it to the members of his household!
Well then, do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing, however carefully hidden away, that will not be revealed, nothing kept concealed that will not be made known. Indeed, as regards yourselves, you must tell in broad daylight that which I say to you in the dark, and that which is whispered into your ears you must proclaim from the housetops. And one more thing. Do not be afraid of those who put the body to death but have no power of bringing death to the soul. Rather, be afraid of him who has the power of destroying both body and soul in hell.
Is it not a fact that one copper coin buys two sparrows? Yet without your Father's consent not one of them will fall to the ground. As for yourselves, why, the very hairs on your head have been counted. Cease feeling anxious, therefore: there is more in you than in many sparrows.
Well then, everyone who acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; and anyone who repudiates me before men I will repudiate before my Father in heaven.
Do not suppose that, if I have appeared, that was to bring peace to the Earth. I have not appeared to bring peace but a sword. Indeed, this has been the purpose of my appearing: to turn a man *against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Moreover, it is the members of a man's household who will be his enemies.
He who loves his father and mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; he who loves his son and daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross upon himself, following in my footsteps, is not worthy of me; He who gains possession of his life will lose it; and he who loses his life will gain possession of it.
He who gives a welcome to you gives a welcome to me, and he who gives a welcome to me gives a welcome to him who has sent me forth. He who gives a welcome to a prophet, because he is a prophet, will receive the reward due to a prophet. He who gives a welcome to an upright man, because he is an upright man, will receive the reward due to an upright man. As for him who offers something to drink to one of these little ones, thought it be only a cup of cold water, and does so because he is a disciple of mine, I can indeed give you solemn assurance of this: he will on no account suffer the loss of the reward due to him."
Matthew 10: 24-42 *with quotation from Micah 7:6.
"The gods are not; truly, you are the G-d who is in hiding."
Isaiah 45:14-15.
"He had a name inscribed upon him known to no one but himself.... The name by which he was known was 'The Word of G-d.' "
Revelation 19:12-13.
"We read in the gospel that when our Lord was preaching, he urged his disciples to share in his suffering through the mystery of eating his body; and there were some who said: 'This is a hard saying', and from then on were no longer of his company. He asked his disciples whether they, too, wished to go away. 'Lord', they said, 'to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.'
And so too, my brothers, I tell you that to this very day it is evident that the words of Jesus are spirit and truth to some people, and for that reason they follow him. To others, his words seem hard, and they seek elsewhere a consolation that can only end in misery. Wisdom cries out loud in the street, in the wide and open way that leads to death, seeking to call back those who walk that road.
Again the Lord says: 'For forty years I was among this generation and I said, "They are a people who always err in heart." ' In another psalm you will find it written: 'G-d has spoken once.' Once: yes, because always! For his word is a unity, not changing, but spoken continuously and always.
It calls the sinner back, to return to the heart; it convicts the errors of the heart, for G-d himself dwells in the heart and speaks in the heart. He does exactly what he taught through the prophet in the words: 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.'
You can see then, my brothers, in what a salutary way the prophet warns us that when we hear his voice today we should not harden our hearts. Almost identical words are to be read in the gospel and in the prophet. For in the gospel the Lord says: 'My sheep hear my voice'; and in the psalm holy David says: 'We are the people of his' (he must mean the Lord's) 'pasture and the sheep of his flock. O that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts.'
Listen also to Habakkuk the prophet. He does not disguise the Lord's thought, but he reflects on it with careful and thoughtful consideration. He says: 'I will take my stand to watch and station myself on the tower to look forth, to see what the Lord will say to me, and what I will answer to him who accuses me.' I ask you then, my brothers: let us take our stand to watch, for now is the time for battle.
Let our life be in the heart, where Christ dwells; let us live in wise judgment and in reasoned counsel; but always so that we place no reliance upon this, and do not trust to a weak defence."
St. Bernard of Clairveaux, Sermones De Diversis 5:1-4.
"I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father."
John 15:15.
"There is one who will stand by your side, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send forth in my name. He will teach you everything, and you will call to mind all that I have told you." John 14:26. "No need to remember past events, no need to think about what was done before. Look, I am doing something new, now it emerges; can you not see it?"
Isaiah 43:17-19.
"No human being can be found upright at the tribunal of G-d by keeping the Law; all that the Law does is to tell us what is sinful. G-d's saving justice was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, but now it has been revealed altogether apart from law: G-d's saving justice given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack G-d's glory, and all are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Christ Jesus.... Faith is what counts, since, as we see it, a person is justified by faith and not by doing what the Law tells him to do. Do you think G-d is the G-d only of the Jews, and not of pagans too? Most certainly of pagans too, since there is only one G-d.... Are we saying that the Law has been made pointless by faith? out of the question; we are placing the Law on its true footing."
Romans 3:20-24. 28-29. 31.
"Rational reflection and daily experience demonstrate the weakness which marks man's freedom. That freedom is real but limited: its absolute and unconditional origin is not in itself, but in the life within which it is situated and which represents for it, at one and the same time, both a limitation and a possibility. Human freedom belongs to us as creatures; it is a freedom which is given as a gift, one to be received like a seed and to be cultivated responsibly. It is an essential part of that creaturely image which is the basis of the dignity of the person.
Within that freedom there is an echo of the primordial vocation whereby the Creator calls man to the true Good, and even more, through Christ's Revelation, to become his friend and to share his own divine life." "The Magisterium does not bring to the Christian conscience truths which are extraneous to it; rather it brings to light the truths which it ought already to possess, developing them from the starting-point of the primordial act of Faith."
Pope John-Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, par. 86 & par. 64.
"Of course, it is heretical to voice the thought that the sensory awakedness of the aborigine is preferable to twentieth-century technological comfort, which, in actuality, is a closing off of the sense fields and a narrowing of the perceptions we have of life.... Myth defines the capacity for simultaneous, multi-referential resonance that merges being with being; history is the tendency to limit, measure, and materialize in a uni-referential direction that separates being from being....
The mythic condition constructs from... experience a sacrament or ritual that affirms the bond between light and the greater forces, ultimately the forces of light. The historic mind uses... experience as information that determines practical creature-comfort goals. However, the creature-comfort-seeking aspect of historic consciousness is in actuality the feedback effect of the impulse of DNA to extrude technology. Hence historic consciousness is but a by-product of the larger technological bridging process, moving us from one natural symbiosis to another - from one realm of light to another.
To gain an even deeper level of understanding, let us put forth one more equation: Myth = DNA x Light. In this equation, myth or the mythic condition is the self-sustaining capacity of DNA to directly utilize light - the spectrum of radiant energy - to attain its ends. In the mythic condition, therefore, the psychic resonance between organism and radiant energy is direct and provides both primary nurturance and primary reality. This resonance is dependent upon and intensifies a superior sensory capacity for radiant interactiveness. The experience of the senses - eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body - is not only primary, but attuned to nuances that both convey information and expand delight. In this condition, the need for artificial inducements to pleasure become obstructions to the untrammeled purity of sensory experience per se.
History and the historic condition, by contrast, represent the counter-spin capacity for DNA to artificially maximize its potential in relation to the totality of its host body, the planet, in our case, Earth. This accounts for the extrusion of technology - artificial extensions of the sense organs - to facilitate completion of the larger DNA circuit.
Naturally, to the individual cells of the larger organism, humankind, the greater purpose of the DNA circuit is, at best, dimly perceived. Consequently, most of the individual members tend to rely upon and become addicted to the sensory feedback that depends solely on the artificial technological extensions and environment. For this reason, at the far end of history where we find ourselves today, nature is hard-put to compete with television.... There is a profound need to reawaken the sense fields to their own natural capacities....
The critical tension which we are experiencing in our morphogenetic field is due to the inner contradictions of a paradigm bound by its own beliefs. Dominated by a white, male, neo-protestant priesthood defending its scientific 'objectivity' through planetary political power plays - this paradigm paralysis is in reality a reflection of the dissonant shifting of the Earth...."
Jose Argüelles, The Mayan Factor - Path Beyond Technology, Bear & Co., 1987, pp. 149-54.
“Within Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving to man, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-surveying, penetrating all intelligent, pure and most subtle spirits; for Wisdom is quicker to move than any motion; she is so pure, she pervades and permeates all things.
She is a breath of the power of G-d, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; hence nothing impure can find a way into her. She is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of G-d's active power, image of his goodness.
Although alone, she can do all; herself unchanging, she makes all things new. In each generation she passes into holy souls, she makes them friends of G-d and prophets; for G-d loves only the man who lives with Wisdom. She is indeed more splendid than the sun, she outshines all the constellations; compared with light, she takes first place, for light must yield to night, but over Wisdom evil can never triumph. She deploys her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things for good.”
Wisdom 7:22-8:1
Here let it suffice to mention, in addition to works already referred to in the text:
Duane Arnold & George Fry, Francis - A Call to Conversion (Triangle/SPCK 1990).
A. Auffray SDB, Saint John Bosco (North Arcot, South India: Salesian House Tirupattur 1959).
Eric Doyle OFM, St. Francis and the Song of Brotherhood (London: Catholic Book Club 1980).
Blanche Gallagher, Meditations with Teilhard de Chardin (Santa Fe: Bear & Company 1988).
Harold Knight, The Hebrew Prophetic Consciousness (Lutterworth Press 1947).
Bernard Lonergan, Insight - A Study of Human Understanding (Longmans 1957; critical edition: University of Toronto Press 1992).
Helen M. Luke, Kaleidoscope - “The Way of Woman” and other essays (New York: Parabola Books 1992).
Sallie Nichols, Jung and Tarot - An Archetypal Journey (New York: Samuel Weiser 1980).
Erik Routley, The Gift of Conversion (Lutterworth Press 1957).
Lois Lang-Sims, The Christian Mystery - An Exposition of Esoteric Christianity (Allen & Unwin 1980).
Jacques Vallée, The Network Revolution - Confessions of a Computer Scientist (Berkeley CA: And/Or Press 1982).
Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth - Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer (Harper & Row 1983).
Present Focus - Life itself: Being, Receptive Listening, Accepting Chaos Naturally, Making a Creative Response.
Priority Purpose - Growth In Freedom: Initial Dynamic Conditions Crucial, Process Functionally Self-Justifying, Willingness to Start Afresh.
Organization - Mysteriously Effective: Rhythmic with Quantum-Leaps, Unconscious Synchronicities, Morphogenetic Resonance, Left- & Right-Brain Consciousness both Balanced and Valued, Feeling of Kinship and a Sense of Fun, Reciprocal Nourishment and Support, Local Openings and Specialist Clusters & Nodes, Children's Circles of Friends of Creativity House, Foundations also prepared for associated International Faculty of Creative Healing and for the Academy for the Cultivation of the Natural Arts.
Characteristics - Community of Mutual Trust, Individual Strengths Appreciated, Open, Relaxed, Energetic, Shared Leadership, Keeping Everything as Simple as Possible, Celebrations in Gratitude-&-Praise.
Interface with Environment - Mathematically Precise to the Nth Degree! Globally, Locally, In Each Person's Heart
Neith - Ancient local goddess of Saïs in Egypt. A warlike divinity - witness her bow and arrows. She blessed hunters' weapons, and these would be set round coffins in ancient times to invoke her protection. Wears the red crown of Lower Egypt since the Delta was the centre for her cult; Suchos, the crocodile god was her son. In the New Kingdom, as the gods' mother who bore Ra, Neith is a primeval goddess, neither female nor male in any restricting sense, being the first to create the seeds of gods and men, presumably by parthenogenesis - one possible link with the Christian Virgin Mary. The Pyramid Texts have her, with Isis, Nephthys and Selket, watching over the funeral bier of Osiris. She is patroness of weaving, so all the wrappings, bandages and shrouds on a mummy evoke her divine power, symbolised by a weaver's shuttle.
Services offered by the Preliminary LibrArian - Assisted by Anubis, Maat, Neith, Ptah and other Angelicals, Colin Hamer functions as a catalytic converter. His gift is that of empowering and enabling other individuals more clearly to discern how best to effect the needed transition from a depressing, because disordered situation of frustration and seeming sterility to an authentically chaotic, and therefore fertile state of higher-octave creativity, where each person's life can grow and flourish more abundantly, more freely and more playfully.
A confidential personal growth and career development program, consultancy, communications, retreats for individuals and groups, lectures and seminars, as well as, whenever appropriate, the shared enjoyment of audio- or video-cassette-tapes, books and magazines, or guided pilgrimages to selected locations feature in the Rainbow Program, which is always naturally customised to match the needs of each. Individual Freedom, Resonance IN Love & Integrity IN Truth are at all times honoured, nurtured and nourished as of Absolute Value.
The money needed to make this possible comes from the voluntary offerings and contributions individuals freely make to help defray the Preliminary LibrArian's expenses in establishing, developing and maintaining this resource, and in making it as easily and readily available as current circumstances permit. He has no other source of revenue.
- Shalom & Welcome! -
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