VALUING OUR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Dear Friends in Christ:
When I was in 10th grade, my English teacher, who was also the football team’s line coach, kept on calling me “George.” It was an understandable mistake, since my older brother George, a senior that year, was a starting tackle. Understandable, but not welcomed by me. I complained to the teacher several times, but he kept on doing it, and in the end seemed to be doing it intentionally. All that stopped the day he said, “Poor baby,” when I complained, and nearly got a book thrown at him. It took a while, but he finally understood how important it was for me to be my own person, and not just George’s little brother.
In my sermon on the First Sunday in Lent, I mentioned the important role our parish community can play in valuing children and young people and in encouraging them as they mature into the incredible persons that God has called them to be. Two days later, at a meeting of the town’s Youth Services Board, I was reminded of some of the concrete ways that we can fulfill this role.
The Youth Services Board is committed to assisting organizations in the community in the work of asset development for our children and young people. The identification of specific assets that are critical in the development of children and adolescents has been carried out in recent years by the Search Institute. (For more information, visit the website at www.search-institute.org.) The Institute has compiled a list of the important assets for each stage of a child’s development. Although children’s needs change as they grow, there are several key assets that are always important. Among them are the presence of adult role models in a child’s life, active participation in a religious community, and a child’s or young person’s sense that the entire community values children and youth.
I find that one of the very positive aspects of our life together is the way in which older and young members relate to one another. On any Sunday, you can see children sitting in Church with adults who aren't their parents and adults holding other people's babies. At school musicals that have St. Matthias members in the cast, you can see a good number of parishioners in the audience. All these are signs that we take seriously the response we make at each Baptism to the question: “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” But as is always the case, we can do more. I would suggest a few steps that we can take to deepen our friendships with younger members of the parish:
v Learn the names of the children and young people that you see on Sunday. I’m not as good at this as I’d like to be, but I know how important it is to be known and called by name, so I’m working on it.
v Talk with and listen to a child or young person at coffee hour. You’ll discover some wonderful things about that young parishioner.
v Come to the Sunday School gathering in the Parish Hall, sit next to one of the children, and join in the singing.
v Volunteer to help develop more intergenerational events for the parish.
I believe that we are being called to be an exciting intergenerational community, a community where we can simply be brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of age. Where else can you find such a community?
Your brother and priest,
Daniel+
