April 26, 2009

Dear friends in life and in ministry . . .

What a gorgeous day. I LOVE THIS WEATHER!

Maureen O'Neill, the pastoral administrator at St. Gabriel's and I shared the pulpit this weekend at both St Mary's and St. Gabriel's to introduce the new pastoral plan for our churches. In July, both churches will begin working toward becoming clustered parishes sharing one pastoral leader in July 2010. Deacon Dave LaFortune, who has been appointed by Bishop Clark to follow me at St. Mary's will work with Maureen and our Transition Team to bring about the plan. We already share a sacramental minister, Fr. Jim Jaeger and there has been some movement by parishioners between the two parishes for many years. But change is always difficult. Nevertheless, our presentation went very well. Check out the bulletin below to see how we are communicating the pastoral plan to our parishioners.

My column this week was inspired by an article I read in this months US Catholic magazine. It concerns the impact that we parents have in communicating faith to our children.

There is still time to register for our Lands of the Bible Cruise in November. We'd love to have you travel with us.

May God's great love embrace you and all you love during the Easter season.
Deacon Ray

Who Influences Our Youth?
This month’s U.S. Catholic magazine includes an interesting interview with Sean Reynolds who directs the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Cincinnati. In the article, Reynolds on a report from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Reynolds has spent the past year and a half visiting parishes to explain the “hair-raising results” of the NSYR when it comes to the religious formation of Catholic youth in comparison to those in the evangelical tradition.

The Study found that Catholic young people were found to be 5—25% points lower than their conservative mainline Protestant peers in such areas as worship attendance, the performance of Christian service, Bible reading, prayer and involvement in some sort of youth ministry or faith formation.

One interesting finding of the survey that should bring comfort to Catholic parents is an affirmation of a consistent Church teaching that parents (not religion classes, priests or even peers) have the most significant impact on the faith of young people. Other studies have shown that even as our young people are bombarded with diverse opinions regarding faith and religion from the internet, media, and electronic devices, the smaller the circle of friends they actually trust. As a matter of fact many of today’s young people when asked who are their heroes—list their mom or dad or grandparents at the top of the list. “It appears,” Reynolds asserts, “That kids are taking their signals form their families—despite the popular assumption that kids are rebellious regarding faith, that they are going to reject our beliefs and traditions before eventually coming back to them—research shows that this is not true for this generation of young people.”

So the good news is that parents and grandparents have a tremendous impact on the faith of their kids. The bad news also however is that parents have a tremendous amount of impact on the faith of their kids. “If parents aren’t living their faith, if they are not insisting that their kids engage in faith—just as they insist that their kids engage in a variety of other things that are good for them—then it turns out that kids are not very committed,” Reynolds says.

In my forty years or so experience with Catholic young people (including my own), I would say that the rubber definitely hits the road at confirmation age. There is even a joke involving a sure fire way to get rid of bats that have invaded a church. The punch line is:“Confirm them and they’ll only return on Christmas and Easter!

Reynolds believes that instead of caving in parents should insist that their kids continue active involvement in worship, religious education and youth ministry activities. “If one of your kids would say. “You know Dad, math is boring. I don’t want to take math class anymore,’ would we even consider saying to the child, ‘Oh honey, you’re right, math is boring and so you only have to go to math class through eighth grade and then no more math for you.’ Of course not, but something has happened in us Catholics over the last 40 or 50 years so that the faith component in our kid’s lives
has become optional. Connecting the dots, that would suggest that it’s become optional for parents as well. Math has not become optional, but somehow faith has, when Mom or Dad say, ‘Once confirmed, that’s it for religion classes, and Sunday Mass is up to you.”

Certainly something to think about as you ponder the list of parental responsibility decisions that you must be made during your kid’s teen years. Just what priority is the gift of Faith in your family life?

Rude Behavior
Now let’s put a few others on the spot. I’ve noticed that some people are leaving Mass immediately after Communion. My parents taught me that leaving Mass before the Recessional hymn concludes is an insult to God and my fellow worshipers. I believe it is also a terrible example to our young people. Were my parents wrong?

Have a good week. Serve one another well!

Deacon Ray

Lands of the Bible Cruise

On November 11, 2009, you are invited to join Deacon Ray and Pat Defendorf and pastoral leaders from throughout the Diocese on a twelve-day Cruise to the “Lands of the Bible”.

Our itinerary includes an over-night flight to Athens where we will visit the Acropolis and the biblical city of Corinth before boarding the mv Cristal, a new 471 passenger cruise ship. We’ll dock at Port Said for a visit to Cairo (the Egyptian Museum and the Pyramids at Giza) then on to the port of Ashod in Israel. For two days we’ll visit sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem returning to the ship each evening for dinner and overnight.

Our next port is Haifa where we’ll disembark to tour the Galilee with stops at the Mount of the Beatitudes, Tabgha (the site of the miracle of the loaves and fish), a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and renew our baptismal vows at the Jordan River.

After a day at sea we’ll visit the Isle of Patmos where John wrote Revelations and then to Ephesus, Turkey where St. Paul established a Christian community on his first missionary journey. After a visit to Piraeus we’ll return to Athens for our return trip home.

The price of this journey of a lifetime(including roundtrip airfare, chartered cruise ship, guided shore excursions, daily breakfast, lunch and dinner while aboard ship, study guide, entrance fees and deluxe motorcoaches), starts at $2398 plus taxes, tips and fees.

Follow this link to download our itinerary:
http://www.deaconray.com/travel.htm

This cruise is expected to sell out so early reservations are very important. For more information and a brochure, please contact me by email or phone (607-426-1100).

Serve one another well!

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Bulletin: April 26,2009