Enhancing Catholic Identity

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Enhancing Catholic Identity

• Minnesota Catholic Conference
• October 7-8, 2009
• Year II
• Day One

National Catholic Educational Association
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An NCEA Program
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Orchestrator

• Leland D. Nagel
• Executive Director, National Conference for
  Catechetical Leadership
• Educator by profession
• Catechist by vocation
• Teacher by trade
• Evangelist by baptism

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Why this Program at this time?

• Purpose of Catholic Schools
• Societal needs

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Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary
and Secondary Schoolsin the Third Millennium

• Fourfold purpose of Catholic educationTo
  provide an atmosphere in which

• Community in Christ is experienced
• The Gospel message is proclaimed
• Service to our sisters and brothers is the norm
• Thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Societal Needs

• Younger Catholics are far less committed to the
  practices of their faith than older Catholics
• American Catholics Today, 2007
• Parents chose Catholic schools because of quality
  of religious education (81 very important)
• NCEA, CARA Study, 2006

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How the Program Will Assist You

• To celebrate the Catholic Identity within your
  school whereby the Catholic culture will be a
  comprehensive and pervasive force in your
  Catholic school
• Achieved by
• Enhancing Catholic School Identity

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What is Catholic Identity?
From the first moment that a student sets foot in
a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the
impression of entering a new environment, one
illuminated by the light of faith and having its
own unique characteristics, an environment
permeated with the Gospel spirit of love and
freedom. The Religious Dimension of Education in
a Catholic School
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Themes

• Prayer/spiritual leadership
• Commitment to Catholic social teaching
• Ministry of Catholic school leadership
• Adult faith development for teachers

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Review Year I

• In light of the experience last year,how was
  your role in ensuring the Catholic identity of
  the school enhanced?
• What was the impact on the school because of your
  experience last year?

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You are disciples!

• Being there as disciple is simply to belong to
  God
• Because these men and women belong to God, they
  lead not just from their minds but also from
  their souls.
• They speak not simply about what they have read
  in textbooks but more importantly from the power
  of the Holy Spirits dwelling.
• In short, they provide others spiritual
  leadership in the midst of the spiritual,
  doctrinal, and moral dilemmas confronting them.
• Building Spiritual Leadership Density in Catholic
  Schools(Jacobs, 2005)

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You are disciples! (contd)

• In turn, God works through these Catholic
  educational leaders to consecrate their school
  communities that is, to make them holy as
  they build the spiritual leadership density that
  will enable those others God has called
  teachers, administrators, and staff members to
  construct formative communities of disciples.
• Building Spiritual Leadership Density
  in Catholic Schools (Jacobs, 2005)

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• Happy moments, praise God.
• Difficult moments, seek God.
• Quiet moments, worship God.
• Painful moments, trust God.
• Every moment, thank God.

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Meeting with Catholic EducatorsAddress of His
Holiness Benedict XVICatholic University of
America, April 17, 2008

• Our institutions become places in which Gods
  active presence in human affairs is recognized
  and in which every young person discovers the joy
  of entering into Christs being for others.

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VOCATION

• The place where your deep gladness and the
  worlds hunger meet.
• -Frederick Buechner, Wishful
  Thinking A Theological ABC
• When we are not living up to our true vocation,
  thought deadens our life, or substitutes itself
  for life, or gives in to life so that our life
  drowns out our thinking and stifles the voice of
  conscience. When we find our vocationthought and
  life are one. -Thomas
  Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

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Vocation of Catholic Education

• FAITH AND MISSION
• Being mindful of Gods word
• HOPE AND IDEALISM
• The word is made flesh
• CHARITY AND WITNESS
• The word dwells among us

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The dynamic between personal encounter, knowledge
and Christian witness is integral to the diakonia
of truth which the Church exercises in the midst
of humanity. Gods revelation offers every
generation the opportunity to discover the
ultimate truth about its own life and the goal of
history. This task is never easy it involves the
entire Christian community and motivates every
generation of Christian educators to ensure that
the power of Gods truth permeates every
dimension of the institutions they serve.
Thursday, April 17, 2008, Catholic University of
America
The dynamic between
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CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY Four Nonnegotiable
Essentials

• Essential Honesty Integrity Private Life
• Concern for the Poor
• Community God calls a people, not individuals
• Mellowness of Spirit- Do the kind of things that
  keep your heart soft while you do justice.

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Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D. Chairman, NCEA Bd.
Of Dir.

• To the great questions of life,
• How shall I live?
• What is the purpose of life?
• How shall I direct my actions?
• We find our response in Jesus Christ.
• What we try to communicate is an understanding of
  life that only faith can provide.
• -Momentum, September/October, 2006, p.6

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CATHOLIC IDENTITY

• Who we are
• What we believe
• The values we uphold
• How we see life
• Why we do what we do
• Caution What we say doesnt
• always match what we do
• but it is still the truth.

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Growing into the Truth We SpeakImagine if I
wasnt a man of faith? Henri Nouwen

• Can we only speak when we are fully living what
  we are saying? If all our words had to cover all
  our actions, we would be doomed to permanent
  silence! Sometimes we are called to proclaim
  God's love even when we are not yet fully able to
  live it. Does that mean we are hypocrites? Only
  when our own words no longer call us to
  conversion. Nobody completely lives up to his or
  her own ideals and visions. But by proclaiming
  our ideals and visions with great conviction and
  great humility, we may gradually grow into the
  truth we speak. As long as we know that our lives
  always will speak louder than our words, we can
  trust that our words will remain humble. Henri
  Nouwen

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Bread for the JourneyShaina Noll

• Where I sit is holy
• Who I am is holy
• What I do is holy
• Great Spirit circles all around me.

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Catholic School AdMINISTerMinistry of GRACE
(Shepherd)

• Minister
• To serve
• To be a servant
• To be near at hand to offer assistance
• Ministrare
• To act as a servant
• To attend to ones needs
• Minister of God/Minister of Grace
• Life and love of God in peoples lives

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A Good Administrator

• Listens
• Question
• Sympathize
• Embrace
• Build Community
• Trust
• Educational Vision that unifies
• Passion
• Teach

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Definitions of Leadership

• "The first responsibility of a leader is to
  define reality. The last is to say thank you. In
  between the two, the leader must become a servant
  and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an
  artful leader." - Max
  DePree
• CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP
• The process of influencing the behavior of other
  people toward group goals in a way that fully
  respects their freedom.
• -Diocese of
  Rochester, NY

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Servant Leadership "the greatest among
you will be your servant."

• Servant leaders are not leaders on the basis
  of their position or leadership role, but rather
  lead according to their calling, vision and
  principles. 

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Serving Behaviors of a Servant Leader

• Gives credit to others when things are going well
• Takes the blame when things are not going well
• Drops what she or he is doing when others are in
  need
• Visits with marginalized members of the group
• Helps set up for and clean up after meetings
• Is not the focal point of organizational
  activities
• Attends to the needs of others before his or her
  own
• Parish Life and
  Servant Leadership
• Church, Fall 2008, p. 44

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The Grammar of Catholic Schooling, Richard M.
Jacobs NCEA Monograph series

• God Beginning End of human existence
• Education is essentially a moral endeavor
• Parents primary educators of their children
• Subject of education is the student
• Teaching is an intimate communication between
  souls
• Education decisions are best made locally

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Catholic Anthropolgy

• GOD IS the
• Beginning End of human existence
• With what kind of eyes do you look out upon the
  world?
• Elohist
• Yahwist

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Creation Stories Elohist

• Does God Have a Big Toe?
• Stories About Stories in the Bible
• Authors
• Rabbi Marc
• Gellman,
• Oscar De Mejo
• (Illustrator)

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Creation storiesYahwist

• Ethiopian Tattoo Shop
• Author
• Father Edward Hays

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What story do you like best?TODAY Right Now!

• What story best describes your view of life and
  the way you approach every day with God?
• Which story symbolizes your view of God the
  Creator?
• Which story would you choose to tell and why?
• Sharing ones faith is catechesis

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The Creation The Story of How God Created the
WorldAuthors Sheila Cassidy, Emma Hunk
(Illustrator)
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Profound and Perennial Truths

• Person as Essentially Good and Dignified-Though
  Capable of Sin, Remaining in the Divine Image
• Person as Partner with God and Ever in Need of
  Gods Grace
• Person as Partner in Community
• Person Made from Love and for Loving
• Person with Eternal Destiny

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All Things Considered August 7, 2006 Betsy
Chalmers, This I Believe

• Faith in a God who has not abandoned me faith
  in a man who loves me faith in myself.
• I believe in faithfulness.

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Martian Child

• Sometimes we forget that children have just
  arrived on the earth. They are a little like
  aliens, coming into beings as bundles of energy
  and pure potential, here on some exploratory
  mission and they are just trying to learn what it
  means to be human. For some reason Dennis and I
  reached out into the universe and found each
  other, Never really know how or why. And
  discovered that I can love an alien and he can
  love a creature. And thats weird enough for both
  of us.

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The Grammar of Catholic Schooling, Richard M.
Jacobs NCEA Monograph series

• God Beginning End of human existence
• Education is essentially a moral endeavor
• Parents primary educators of their children
• Subject of education is the student
• Teaching is an intimate communication between
  souls
• Education decisions are best made locally

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Education is essentially a
moral endeavor

• A teacher has two jobs fill young minds with
  knowledge, yes, but more important, give those
  minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go
  to waste.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level I

• The punishment and obedience orientation
• Avoidance of punishment and unquestioning
  deference to power are values in their own right,
  not in terms of respect for an underlying moral
  order.
• I dont want to get in trouble.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level II

• The instrumental relativist orientation
• Reciprocity is a matter of "you scratch my back
  and I'll scratch yours", not loyalty, gratitude,
  or justice.
• I want a reward.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level III

• Interpersonal concordance or "good boy-nice girl"
  orientation
• Good behavior is what pleases or helps others and
  is approved by them. One earns approval by being
  nice.
• I want to please somebody.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level IV

• The "law and order" orientation
• Right behavior consists in doing one's duty,
  showing respect for authority, and maintaining
  the given social order for its own sake.
• I follow the rules.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level V

• The social-contract legalistic orientation
  (generally with utilitarian overtones)
• Right action tends to be defined in terms of
  general individual rights and standards that have
  been critically examined and agreed upon by the
  whole society.
• I am considerate of other people.

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Lawrence Kolbergs Six Levels of Moral
Development Level VI

• The universal ethical-principle orientation
• Ethical principles that appeal to logical
  comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency.
  These principles are abstract and ethical (the
  Golden Rule) they are not concrete moral rules
  like the Ten Commandments.
• I have a personal code of behavior
• and I follow it.

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Teaching Moral Developmentto Sixth-Graders

• She gave me a look that said, Dont tell anybody.
  Ok it was me but nobody needs to know. I did it
  because it was the right thing to do.

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Parents are the primary educators of their
children

• Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses
  than to teachers, and if he does listen to
  teachers, it is because they are witnesses.
• -Pope Paul
  VI
• Sustained by the Witness of Teaching
  Evangelii Nuntiandi

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Subject of education is the student

• People travel to wonder at the height of the
  mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the
  long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of
  the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars,
  and yet they pass by themselves without
  wondering."
• St. Augustine,
  354 430 Early Christian
  Priest, Author

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Teaching is an intimate communication between
souls

• When we are not living up to our true vocation,
  thought deadens our life, or substitutes itself
  for life, or gives in to life so that our life
  drowns out our thinking and stifles the voice of
  conscience. When we find our vocationthought and
  life are one.
• -Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

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What Makes a School Catholic?
Thomas H. Groome

• Anthropology
• Sacramentality
• Community
• Tradition
• Rationality
• Personhood
• Justice
• Catholicity

Contemporary Catholic School, Edited by T.
McLaughlin, J. OKeefe, B. OKeeffee. Washington,
DC Falmer Press, 1996.
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We are each others business Morning Edition,
This I Believe, November 7, 2005

• Action is what separates a belief from an
  opinion. Beliefs are imprinted through actions.
• -Eboo Patel  

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Our hearts are restlessStrong images awaken
desire

• As we desire, so we imagine
• As we imagine, so we become
• As we become, so we value
• As we value, so we decide
• As we decide, so we behave
• As we behave, so we relate,
• As we relate so we create networks of meaning
• As we create networks of meaning so we create
  images

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Catholic Anthropology

• How the Catholic perspective shapes
• Our way of life
• Our way of relating to self
• Our way of relating to others
• Our way of relating to the world
• Our entire modus operandi as human beings
  (persons)

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Architects of Catholic Culture
Timothy J. Cook

• Core beliefs and values
• Heroes and heroines
• Symbols
• Ritual Tradition
• Human Communication
• History
• Cultural Players

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PrincipalsNDC, No. 54, B9a, P. 231

• Recognize all are an integral part of the
  process of religious education
• Recruit practicing Catholics who
• Understand/Accept Catholic Church teachings and
  moral demands of the Gospel
• Contribute to the achievement of the schools
  Catholic identity and apostolic goals

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PrincipalsNDC, No. 54B9a, P. 231 continued

• Supervise (observation/evaluation) performance of
  each religion teacher
• Provide ongoing catechesis opportunities
• Design a curriculum supporting catechetical goals
• Design goals for implementation of an overall
  school catechetical plan/Evaluate

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PrincipalsNDC, No. 54B9a, P. 231 continued

• Foster a distinctively Christian community among
  the faculty, students and parents
• Provide for the spiritual growth of the faculty
• Collaborate with parish, area, diocese
• in planning and implementing programs of total
  parish catechesis

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Quality Catholic School Attributes (Seattle)
Momentum, Sept./Oct. 2006, pp 30-33

• Catholic Identity
• Clear and Unified Mission
• Safe and Welcoming Environment
• Strong Leadership
• Academic Excellence
• Continuous Improvement
• Recruitment/Development/Retention Staff
• Accessibility Facilities/Resources

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What has God promised us?I Am With You Always

• Listen to these seven stanzas
• Four lines to each stanza
• What stories/events/miracles/parables come to
  mind?
• Some will jog your memory of a single event
• Some will evoke more than one incident/story
• Keep a running total
• No need to write down the name of memory

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I am with you Always

• Incarnation
• New and Selected Poems for Spiritual
  Reflection
• Author
• Irene Zimmerman

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Promises of JesusI am with you always Matt
2820

• I will be for you the Best Wine of all.
• I will still the storm, restore you to
  tranquility.
• I will honor you by coming to your house to eat.
• I will empower you to stand up straight again.
• I will lay my body down between your enemies and
  you.
• I have forgiven you ahead of time.
• I AM the Resurrection and the Life.

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JESUS PRIORITIES8 Essential Habits

• Christopher Maricle

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Meeting with Catholic EducatorsAddress of His
Holiness Benedict XVICatholic University of
America, April 17, 2008

• Clearly, then, Catholic identity is not
  dependent upon statistics. Neither can it be
  equated simply with the orthodoxy of course
  content. It demands and inspires much more
  namely, that each and every aspect of your
  learning communities reverberates within the
  ecclesial life of faith. Only in faith can truth
  become incarnate and reason truly human, capable
  of directing the will along the path of freedom.

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HEAL

• Stay deeply connected to compassion
• Compassion not only benefits others but also
  frees us.
• Say yes to strangers
• Do what is in your power to do
• Each of us has the power to be a source of
  healing.
• See with the heart
• It is only with the heart that one can see
  rightly what is essential is invisible to the
  eye.
  The Little Prince, St. Exupery

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LOVE

• Show mercy no matter what
• Extend forgiveness without limit
• How often should I forgive? Jesus said to him,
  Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven
  times.
• Whenever you stand praying, forgive.
• If there is repentance,,you must forgive him.
• Love others as God loves

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Forgiveness

• When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a
  new bicycle.
• Then I realized that the Lord doesnt work
  that way
• so I stole on and asked Him to forgive
• Emo
  Phillips

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PRAY

• Pray alone
• Could I speak to you alone for a moment?
• Pray persistently
• Pray with others
• Pray simply

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SO WHAT IFMattie Stepanek February 1998

• What if the world fills up
• with so many people
• that the earth cant hold us all?
• Is that a reason for war?
• No.
• Is that a reason not to love unborn babies?
• No.
• Is that a reason to let sick people die?
• No.
• It is a reason we need to make extra room,
• first in our hearts and then into our world.
• It is a reason to make room for prayer
• because God is the only I AM.
• Who can answer such a What If?

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Cry the Beloved Country

• If my son is not granted mercy, on that day I
  will go up to the mountain. I have gone to the
  mountain twice before. Once when Absalom was a
  small boy and very sick and the other nwas when I
  was sorely tempted to commit adultery. I have
  never confessed that before.

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SPREAD THE WORD

• Share the mission with others
• To fall intimately in love with Jesus
• Invite everyone to Gods banquet
• All are welcome.
• Challenge others and yourself to live the gospel
• God did not send Jesus to solve all our problems.

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BUILD UP TREASURE IN HEAVEN

• Detach yourself from possessions
• Maintain an abundance mentality
• Jesus taught us that if we share,there is enough
• Act justly in all things

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SEEK GODS WILL

• Rely on the example of Jesus
• Maintain a sense of urgency by seeking to be in a
  state of grace
• Focus daily on Gods will
• Seek all tasks as acts of love
• See sacrifice as gain

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ACCEPT CHILDREN AS PRECIOUS

• Protect children
• Talk with, not to, not at
• Welcome children
• Seek to be like children
• Learn to make connections to God spontaneously,
  like children.

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LIVE WITH HUMILITY

• Rely on Gods mercy not your own merit
• Lord I am not worthy
• Presume the lowest place
• God has always wanted what is best for us
• Sacrifice your ego
• Jesus did not worry about his reputation

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• To all of you I say bear witness to hope.
  Nourish your witness with prayer. Account for the
  hope that characterizes your lives (cf. 1 Pet
  315) by living the truth which you propose to
  your students. Help them to know and love the One
  you have encountered, whose truth and goodness
  you have experienced with joy.

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Those who have hope must live different lives! By
your prayers, By the witness of your faith, By
the fruitfulness of your charity, May you point
the way towards that vast horizon of hope which
God is even now opening up to his Church, and
indeed to all humanity the vision of a world
reconciled and renewed in Christ Jesus, our
Savior.
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HOLY SPIRITPrayer of St. Richard

• ENLIGHTENS
• us to see
• ENKINDLES
• us to love
• EMPOWERS
• us to do Gods will

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Prayer to the Holy SpiritSaint Augustine

• Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts
  may all be holy. Move in me, Holy Spirit,
  that my work, too, may be holy. Attract my
  heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what
  is holy. Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I
  may defend all that is holy. Protect me, Holy
  Spirit, that I may always be holy.

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Jesus will still be there.

• Jesus will still be thereHis love will never
  changeSure as the steady rainJesus will still
  be thereWhen no one else is trueHell still be
  loving youWhen it looks like youve lost it
  allAnd you havent got a prayerJesus will still
  be there.