This Sunday, in my single hour of time allotted (if not shorter due to the longer Mass tomorrow), I am supposed to cover both Holy Week and Easter.
Both.
In. One. Hour.
Folks, I could spend an entire hour just on the Easter Vigil. Mind you, I'm a bit partial to this, the Mother of All Masses, but still ... does anyone think I'll be able to do everything from Palm Sunday to Easter justice in the time I've got?
If you're a Catholic parent who thinks that Sunday school has it all covered, you are deluding yourself. I've got about half a dozen handouts for my class because I cannot possibly cover it. And I know I'll get excited about one thing or another (Oooh! Institution of the Eucharist! Oh! Stations of the Cross! Oh, my! Veneration of the Cross! Eegad! The Easter Vigil!), so I won't finish it all.
Parents, remember that YOU are the primary educator of your children. Please don't leave it up to the teachers on Sundays (or Wednesdays, or whenever you drop them off). We cannot do it all! We can't do it justice!
I feel pressured to get so deep into things because I am certain that there are some children who don't get any religious education at home. I've got one pair of darling girls whose parents are divorced and, if I understood them correctly, their mother (primary custodian, I think) is a Unitarian. They were shocked to hear that they are supposed to be going to Mass every week. Every Sunday. I know they've heard it before, but I don't think it sunk in. (I know they heard it because I had them two years ago for CCD, too. I always tell my kids that they should go every week.)
If there is one thing I regret, it's that my CCD wasn't deep enough. How many people who received Communion with me and were Confirmed with me four years later have fallen away from the Church because of a lack of information?
Please, parents! Help your children attain Heaven! Teach them at home, too! Don't think of the Faith as a "Sunday thing." Live the Faith! Love the Faith! Teach the Faith to your children!
1 comment:
Thank you for writing about this. I think it might hit some parents a little harder because you are an actual teacher, that CCD is not enough. I know that I forgot a lot of what I learned in CCD because it was not reinforced/built upon at home. Now I am having to relearn a lot of what I should already know.
God bless!
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