Faith Development

On Saturday, September 12, I attended a session on Faith Development. The instructor was Douglas Leal. This material reminded me of Psychology 101 and even more so of the books I read a long time ago, not for faith development but as part of my growth at my job as an aspiring manager:  Dr. Wayne Dwyer, Norman Vincent Peale, Kahlil Gibran, Og Mandingo, Peter Drucker, Harvey B. Mackay, Steven R. Covey, Dale Carnegie and many others. Some of these books gave self-help advice in the development of the personal and public self and yet others how to be an effective manager.

Years later in the nineties, while being mentored a manager who I admired greatly gave me the following advice, "know your people and when you go to a meeting shake your head in agreement, when you return to your office do what works." In between the lines of today's session, this is the same thing I kept hearing, "know the people and do what works."

The human person grows in various ways as Freud, Piaget, Erickson, and Kohlberg have shared. The person also develops physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually at various rates. The dynamics of the different states are what manifest themselves in behaviors, emotional stability and spiritual maturity. For example, a teen  may be six feet tall at thirteen, yet behave emotionally as a thirteen year old and spiritually be at seven years old. Some people can learn mathematics easily at fifteen while the light bulb doesn't go on for some until they are in college. What's more is that our brothers and sisters come to us wounded in so many ways and this is a hindrance to all states of growth perhaps even physical if they are sick or are poor and don't have sufficient food.

There was a woman on The Ellen Show several months ago. She was a teacher in an elementary school. She was in tune with her students and how much they needed help with their basic needs. She believed that they could not learn unless they had breakfast. This teacher spent the first hour, tending to the children's physical needs, washing up, brushing their teeth, changing into something clean, then eating some breakfast. When all this was done she would begin class. By the way, Ellen recognized her efforts and gave a donation to the school to support this as the teacher was spending her own money.

This teacher came to know her students. I might add, I think she came to love them. This is the correlation I made with the information gathered in the session called Faith Development. I must know my students more than superficially. I must know if they are suffering in some way and try to alleviate that suffering. Through the intimate bond of understanding, love and a feeling of support the student's mind is free at least while in class, free to open up to learn.

This is what Douglas was teaching, know your people, make sure you are reaching them in your approach to their learning and understanding. Through careful listening and understanding another's story, we ourselves grow and learn. Shared experience is the active dynamic of growth; it's two-way.

This is the role-modeling of Jesus. Understanding exactly where a student regardless of age is coming from. What is their circumstance? What brings them? How can we know and love them first and open the door to learning, open the door for the Holy Spirit. Let Wisdom in all her glory find a room in your heart and theirs.

We never know. Years ago, one student shared with me that his mom bought cat food for them to eat in order to make her budget go further. Pleased that he shared this with me I wondered how many came to the early morning Confirmation sessions to have something to eat with us. My sister and I always made sure there was plenty of food left to take home and the teens we knew didn't have much would so willingly volunteer to take home the extra.

It is the reality of Church that people of all ages, economic, educational, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual levels, every imaginable circumstance and situation, knock on the door. It is our responsibility to ascertain their total makeup, know and understand their story and reach out to them where they are in the Spirit of Compassion and Mercy. Just as it is our responsibility to share the "Good News" in a way people may understand.

And so, I wonder why in proportion to the secular society, parishes are missing those differently-abled? For the most part, we have much work to do.

Psalm 67:6-7

May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you!
The earth has yielded its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
May God bless us still;
that the ends of the earth may revere Him.