BRINGING ADULT CHILDREN BACK TO THE FAITH

At the last Theology on the Rocks, Fr. Kevin Klonowski gave a talk on how to encourage adult children back to a practice of the faith.  The venue was packed and people had to be turned away.  We will are now working on rescheduling the talk so that it might reach more people.  Keep up to date on the schedule of talks HERE.

That being said, Father gave his collection of "5 DON'Ts and 10 DOs" in the practice of encouraging your adult children back to the practice of the faith.  Someone wrote us a note on the comment cards and asked if these 15 points could be published on Adam's Ale.  Yes they can and here they are with some notes written by me since his outline did not contain the details that he shared!  Thank you Fr. K for sending me your outline.

THE 5 DON'Ts

1. Complain.

Who wants to belong to any organization or do any activity that tends to produce complainers?  And this topic is just further evidence that you do not like me for who I am.  This just divides. 

2. Nag.

When has nagging inspired anybody to do the good any further than to quiet the nagger?  Nagging does not transform.  It pushes, it does not lead, and when the pushing is done the momentum stops.

3. Yell or Disown.

When was the last time someone yelled at you and you thought, "Hey!  They are right!  They are only yelling at me and disowning me for my own good!  What a fool I have been!  I can't wait to turn into an exact copy of the person who is attacking me like this!"

4. Grow Discouraged

God works on his own schedule, not yours.  Never give up hope!  St. Monica was persistent in her hope for years and years.  My own Father did not come back to the faith until practically on his death bed.  But he did  Always have hope.

5. Underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit within you.

As Bishop Nelson says, "Never underestimate the Holy Spirit working in you, through you, and in spite of you.  God's will will prevail. 

THE 10 DOs

1. Become a disciple.

You can't give what you don't have.  If you want your kids to follow your example, give them something to imitate. 

2. Learn, know, and be able to articulate the story of our salvation history.

You never know when someone you love will be interested in knowing more.  The door may open for just a minute.  What will you say?

3. Promote the pursuit of truth.

There are three ways to God: through goodness, through beauty, and through truth.  If you children are seeking truth in some way, promote the effort in them and encourage them to dig deeper even if the subject is not directly that of faith because God is truth and the seeking of Truth can lead one to God.

4. Pray for all of you loved ones who have fallen away.

Pray is powerful.  Always remember that and employ it whenever the thought comes!  If you are washing dishes and think of your kids, don't plan on praying - pray RIGHT THEN.

5. Promote vocation to the priestly and religious life.

Pray that there will be more vocations to help aid the life of the church.

6. Support campus efforts for evangelization.

Campus life is often the first time young folks are away from positive influences in the practice of the faith.  They may even be more greatly challenged to abandon it (even in our Catholic Universities.)  Promote organizations that build up the faith on our campuses.

7. Encourage beauty.

Fr. Benedice Groeschel often said that "Ultimately beauty will save us."  Of the three transcendentals, beauty is the most difficult to refute.  God is Beauty itself.  Appreciation of beauty is appreciation of God whether one realizes it or not.  Promote beauty in your parish!

8. Put faith into action.

Our faith should lead us to pray but also to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend to the sick, visit the lonely etc.  Let it be shown that the practice of your faith makes for a better world.

9. Plan for you death.

Let you last act be in the embrace of the Church and her sacraments.  Perhaps seeing this, perhaps someone involved with your funeral may be able to touch something in your son or daughter.   This may be first time in a long time they have met a priest or been in church.  Who knows what God can do?

10. Love your children and will their good.

God is love.  Be the person to your child that you hope is their impression of God.  "I want to be like my parents who loved so much and the inspiration of their love was their Catholic faith."

COFFEE, FRONT PORCHES, AND CHURCH WHISPERS

If you would have asked my Mom, the breakdown of everything is directly attributable to the loss of real front porches on houses and that we drive everywhere.  People do not walk as much in their neighborhood because now they zip around in their cars.  And even if they did walk, nobody is sitting out on their front porch that no longer exist to offer a howdy do and hand on the latest neighborhood talk.

When I was growing up (Oh, here we go - I am getting old) everybody in my neighborhood went to the same parish, worked in the same places, belonged to the same social clubs, hung out in the same parks, bowling alleys and like places.  So when you went to Mass, you didn’t need a gathering space to gab and have coffee, you did that all the rest of the week - sometimes to the point of desiring to get to Mass to not have to do that anymore.  Now we don’t see each other as much (or so it seems to me) and so when we get to Mass, there is a constant hum of chatter - not in praise to God, but about what Mable did last week and how the kids are and can you believe the price of bananas.

Older churches (like St. Sebastian) have gathering spaces about the size of a broom closet.  More modern spaces (St. Hilary) have gather spaces that rival the size of the church building in which you could throw an inaugural ball (or at least a rocking donut Sunday.)  It seems the reality is, that church is now also a social center - no longer just the spiritual center of a community, but the all encompassing source of the Christian Catholic community itself.  

Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have this idea down in spades.  Often drawing from a huge geographical area, they know they must create a community when they have their congregants.  Catholics parishes (particularly in this area) have boundaries.  Our draw is much smaller (in theory.)  We are the parish of the neighborhood or town.  But now we feel we have to be the social center also which has it’s upside and its downside.

If we want to keep people, particularly younger people, we have to provide opportunities to form community in a way that was once (again in my limited experience) almost automatic.  Yesterday we had an example of this which is very popular in many places: we had Theology on Tap, Akron, an event and place for persons (primary in their 20s and 30s) to come and socialize and hear a great Catholic talk (thank you Mr. Brownfield!)  I’ve heard some criticism about meeting in a bar but please remember that my parish, in the 40’s, ran its own bar with the preaching from the pulpit, “Remember, if you are going to drink, drink at your parish!”

Anyway, here are some shots from our modern front porch:

Ladies and gentlemen, our MC for the evening:  Rocco

Lots more space and parking here!

 Our speaker Mr. Brownfield:

And making a surprise appearance, the newly ordained Fr. Anthony Simone, parochial vicar at St. Sebastian.

For more information about Theology on Tap, Akron go HERE.  Next event: July 12th

For more information about Theology on the Rocks go HERE.  Next event: June 19th

THEOLOGY ON TAP, AKRON: OH WHAT A NIGHT

Less than 48 hours ago I looked out my window and saw THIS:

Today I look out my window and see THIS:

It's a beautiful world isn't it?

That is why I've not been blogging.  It is not good to get sand in your computer.

Anyway, I got back just in time for my day away from the parish.  (See how that works?)  But it was still a busy day around the office.  It was Theology on Tap Akron Day and Mother Theodora was coming to speak.  So before hand (they were coming all this way after all) I decided to have the nuns from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery over for dinner along with some priests and seminarians.  It began with the social hour: 

Then we moved in to the dinning room where Marcy and her outstanding crew made us a delightful dinner.  Terri even made cookies with the parish seal on them - and she made the table cloth - and the arranged the flowers.  It was awesome because if I had taken care of it, we would have ordered pizza.

In the above picture to the far right is Sara Lynn who was just accepted as a postulant!  Congratulations!  Please keep her in your prayers.

Below is Mother Gabriella practicing a song a tap number that she was about to perform.

Okay, I was COMPLETELY kidding about that.

Here is most of the gang that was here yesterday.

Then we moved on over to the church where they sang Byzantine Vespers for us.  The parish and community was invited to join us.  It was beautiful.

Then we jumped into our cars and drove out to the Winking Lizard in Peninsula for Theology on Tap, Akron!

There were a lot of priests and seminarians there.  Thanks for coming out guys.

The reason that I really like THIS picture . . .

Is because it reminds me of THIS picture.

Mother gave a great talk to a packed house.

Fortunately we had a little more room this time because the restaurant moved us to a larger room!

I hope you are able to join next time on March 8th when Fr. Marty Miller will be speaking.  Also, on February 20th, I will be speaking at Theology on the Rocks at D'Agnese's on White Pond for those of you who are adults but not necessarily with the adjective "young" before it.

Thank you to Eric Eirmann, Rocco, our MC, and everybody who helped make it a great night.  

Thanks also to Visitation Parish for sponsoring the evening.

Thanks to St. Joseph Parish, Cuyahoga Falls for letting us borrow their sound system.

ToT Akron is a ministry of St. Sebastian Parish.  If you are interested in sponsoring a night, please contact me!

LAST MINUTE THINGS

I'm not going to be able to post for a couple of days (at least I think) but there was a couple of things I wanted you to catch if you didn't already:

Wednesday, February 8th, Mother Theodora will be speaking at Theology on Tap Akron at the Winking Lizard in Peninsula.  Doors open at 7:00PM.  ToT Akron.

Just before that, 5 or 6 of the nuns from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery will be at St. Sebastian to pray Byzantine Vespers (or Evening Prayer) at 5:45 and YOU are invited!  Please come and join in prayer as they chant the prayers for and with us.  For those who are interested, there will be time then to jump into our cars and head out to Peninsula for Mother's talk.

The Akron Beacon Journal ran a great article on the front of the Lifestyle section last week about ToT Akron.  If you missed it or want to see more pictures go HERE.

Theology on the Rocks kicks off in February.  It is for adults with no prefaces (such as young or old.) It will be on Monday, February 20th at D'Agnese's on White Pond, Akron.  Doors open at 7PM.  Cost is $10.  Fr Valencheck will be the first speaker.