Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of August 29, 2011!

Congratulations to James Rogers!

James will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Bible®, a $26.95 value.

The Catholic Youth Bible®
General Editor: Virginia Halbur, MA

The Catholic Youth Bible® will be a true companion, helping you find the answers you seek and helping you make connections to Catholic beliefs and traditions.

Over 700 lively articles help you….
• Pray It! Use the Bible for personal prayer.
• Study It! Understand and make sense of what the Bible says.
• Live It! Apply the Bible to real-life situations you're facing now.

This New Edition Features:
•New 40 expanded "Catholic Connection" articles that provide a more complete presentation of those Catholic teachings that are scripturally based
• New 28 articles that address the seven principles of Catholic social teaching
• New 40 pages of 4-color inserts that help you pray, study, and live the Bible and Catholic teachings
• New Illustrations throughout to provide a visual context for the biblical stories
• New Over 275 articles updated to reflect contemporary issues and biblical scholarship

Plus:
• Introductions to the major sections of the Bible and all the books of the Bible
• Biblical connections to many different cultures, illustrating the universality of the Catholic Church
• Insights into how the Church has interpreted key Scripture passages throughout history
• A glossary of Scripture-related terms
• Five special indexes; Sunday readings for cycles A, B, and C; 10 color maps; a four-page color timeline; and three pages of full-color biblical art

The Catholic Youth Bible®
ISBN: 978-0-88489-777-4, paper, 1802 pages

Catechetical Sunday

Several years ago, while serving as the coordinator of youth ministry and director of religious education for middle school and high school in a parish, I had a young, newly married couple approach me saying that they wanted to volunteer, to “just help out a little, nothing big.” I, of course, was elated, and jumped right to figuring out what they could do. The roles and needs for volunteers seemed endless: catechist, retreat coordinators, Confirmation team members. What they wanted to do, however, was help out with the weekly Wednesday night high-school youth-group gathering, assisting another married couple that was coordinating that ministry. It was a ministry that was running smoothly and had plenty of volunteers. It was not my first choice, but it was where they felt called. The following year they returned to that ministry and planned and led a few sessions of the high-school youth group. Before their third year of volunteering, they came to me and said they wanted to start and coordinate a weekly middle-school youth-group gathering. They took the lead in that ministry and built a vibrant weekly gathering of middle-school youth. It became one of those “dream programs” where the volunteer leaders were committed, competent, and excited to be there. I seriously doubt that, had I directed them into a ministry where I faced a need for volunteers rather than into the ministry to which they felt called, they would have been around for that third year in the leadership role they assumed. Watching this young couple being recognized on Catechetical Sunday as they began their fourth year of involvement in the ministry, I was struck by the journey they had been on and how God had called them to a ministry that was ideal for them.

Sunday, September 18, is Catechetical Sunday. It is a day to recognize and affirm catechists for the vital role they fulfill in the life of the Church. The theme for this year’s Catechetical Sunday is “Do This in Memory of Me.” In writing about this theme, Bishop Richard J. Malone, chairman of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said, “By reflecting on this theme, we are also preparing to receive the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal.” This theme beautifully reflects the calling shared by catechists. As stated on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Catechetical Sunday Web page, “Catechetical Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the role that each person plays, by virtue of Baptism, in handing on the faith and being a witness to the Gospel.”

On the USCCB Web page, you can find a variety of resources available to assist you in celebrating Catechetical Sunday and the ongoing formation of your catechists in relation to the Roman Missal changes. The bishops have provided a collection of articles addressing a variety of topics, including these:

- Background on and Changes in the New Translation of the Roman Missa
- Celebrating the Eucharist throughout the Week: The Implications of the Eucharist for the Church’s Mission in the World
- Formation for Liturgical Ministries: What’s My Motivation?
- The Foundation of Love: How Parents Form Children for Prayerful Participation in the Eucharist

Additionally, you may want to utilize the free resources Saint Mary’s Press has created to assist you in guiding catechists, families, and youth through the Roman Missal changes.

I do not know if that young couple is still involved in the middle-school ministry they helped create. I do, however, have no doubt that God called them to that ministry and will continue to call them to ministry throughout their lives. Catechetical Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to affirm God’s calling to each one of our catechists and to invite others to hear his call. I pray that your parish youth ministry and religious education programs will be blessed with excited, committed, and competent volunteers and, as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Finding Your Focus
From The Confident Catechist: Strategies for the New and Not-So-New Volunteer

You are only a few minutes into a session, and already you are struggling to maintain eye contact with the group. Some of the young people are still listening, but many are visually surveying the room for diversions, and one seems about ready to nod off. What can you do to get the young people back on track, connect them to the lesson, and improve their understanding of its contents? You are ready to try almost anything. How about a focus? A focus can be any word or object that, when centrally placed, draws and holds the attention of the group while clarifying and enriching the meaning of the lesson.

Focus Approaches
Group focus approaches are limited in scope and number only by your imagination, sense of humor, patience, and, of course, the developmental level and understanding of the young people in the group. Following are some of the more conventional focus types.

Simple-Word Focus
The most common focus technique is one you may already be using. You may use the simple-word approach by writing a word or phrase on a chalkboard, a whiteboard, or a sheet of newsprint at the beginning of the session.

The word or phrase should announce the main topic or theme of the session. For example, if the day’s lesson centers on the Lord’s Prayer, write “Lord’s Prayer” on the board or newsprint. During the session, occasionally return to those words, underlining them, starring them, circling them, and even drawing arrows toward them for repeated emphasis. The words provide an anchor for the young people, keeping their attention on the lesson securely in place. Looking at the board anytime throughout the session will bring the young people back to the main idea of the day’s lesson. This simple-word focus can help ensure that every young person will leave the session firmly attached to the central message for the day.

Consider varying the way you present the focus words—in bold print, in small italicized print, on colored sheets of paper, on a banner, on a T-shirt, on a balloon, or even on a large sheet cake. You might even give each young person an index card or a small slip of paper with the focus word written on it. The possibilities are as exciting as you wish to make them.

Visuals
Putting words on the board works, but this method works better if it is used in rotation with other focus tools. Fortunately, there are many. Maps, charts, graphs, and photographs can be wonderful focal points when you connect them to a lesson and refer to them throughout the session to further develop or enrich a point.

A map of the ancient Middle East can help the young people more clearly visualize and locate the scene of any Gospel story. Colorful charts or graphs can attract attention to, and provide clear explanation of, a simple analysis of the growth of the Catholic Church over time. And, of course, photos of a recent parish Baptism, Confirmation, or First Communion provide a personal way to connect the young people with the sacramental life discussed in a text.

Whatever visual you select, be sure to maximize the results it can produce by placing it where the young people can easily see it—on a board, on a shared table, duplicated in various locations, or occasionally even passed around the room. Then remember to reference the focus repeatedly throughout the session. Simply displaying a visual device and making only a passing reference to it is ineffective and may actually distract the group.

The Unexpected
Perhaps the focus tools you will enjoy most are those you gather from your own surroundings. You can use everyday items like a rock, a can of soda, or a sack of potatoes to make connections to lesson topics and themes. Rocks of different sizes, placed in appropriate locations, can provide compelling images for lessons that discuss the martyrdom of Stephen or the woman caught in adultery. With just a little direction and imagination, the young people can picture the rock that is sitting on their table as one of those raised against Stephen or the adulterous woman. Being able to pick up the rock, touch it, imagine the pain of being struck by it, brings the young people more clearly into the Scripture event.

A can of soda might provide a link to topics like the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are waiting within us to bubble forth. It might also become a tool for talking about stewardship of the land through recycling. A shaken can of soda provides a focus for talking about our bottled-up human emotions and how explosive they could become.

The obvious use of the potato sack is as a focus for discussion on world hunger. By removing the potatoes and distributing them around the room, you provide tangible proof of how the world’s goods are unevenly distributed, some people randomly receiving large potatoes, others small potatoes, some none at all. But the individual potatoes in the sack can also demonstrate how unique we are as human beings, no two potatoes (or humans) being the same.

Potluck
When the young people are comfortable with the use of a focus, you might want to recruit them to provide some of their own focus materials. When you announce the topic for an upcoming lesson, ask for volunteers to bring objects from their own homes or yards that they think will help focus everyone on the lesson for the week. The benefit here, of course, is threefold: you get help with providing a focus, the volunteers have to do some real thinking about the topic and may begin to look at everyday items as possible spiritual tools, and you coincidentally stimulate the young people’s curiosity and interest in an upcoming theme or topic.

Some Closing Thoughts
Not all young people come to faith-sharing sessions with well-developed verbal skills. Some may show a positive attitude toward the faith but can be turned off, or away, by traditional textbook approaches to learning. If your approach includes simple-word, visual, unexpected, or potluck focus items that help make learning clear, concrete, or tactile, you can draw everyone in and provide a lesson that the young people can take home.

Think About . . .
1. Look around the room you are in right now. What is the focus point of each side or corner of the room? Where do your eyes go and linger or return? What is the focus point of each of your rooms at home?

2. Have you already used a focus as a teaching tool with your group of young people? If so, what was the focus and how did it assist your teaching efforts? What worked well? Not so well?

3. Suppose the main topic for an upcoming session is one of those listed here. What focus ideas would you use for each?
- prayer
- the Eucharist
- the story of the good Samaritan

4. Consider possible uses for the focus items listed here. What faith-related topics might connect well with these objects?
- a plate of cookies
- a flower
- a throw pillow
- a book

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 4, 2011
Matthew 18:15-20

Opening Prayer
Jesus, help me to stay focused on your great commandment--to love God fully and to love my neighbor as myself. Give me your grace so that I will respond in loving ways when others hurt me. Help me to seek reconciliation, rather than revenge, through dialogue with others. Amen.

Context Connection
To understand this Sunday's Gospel, it should be read within the larger context of chapter 18 in Matthew's Gospel as well as within the context of Jesus's overall message of love. Before Sunday's reading, Matthew presents the parable of the lost sheep (18:10-14). In this parable the shepherd has a hundred sheep and one gets lost, so he leaves the ninety-nine behind and searches for the one lost sheep until it is found. This is hard to believe because most shepherds would stay with the ninety-nine and cut their losses. Matthew uses this story to illustrate that God will go to great lengths to rescue the lost and that God desires that all be saved. It seems curious then that Matthew follows this story by having Jesus state that "if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" (18:17). In other words, let that person be cast out from the community. In next Sunday's reading, however, Matthew has Peter asking Jesus how often he must forgive those who have sinned against him. Jesus responds by saying as many as "seventy-seven times," or without end (18:22). Jesus's message in chapter 18 of Matthew and his overall command to "love your neighbor as yourself" (22:39) serves as the backdrop for understanding the meaning of this Sunday's Gospel.

Sunday's Gospel gives us a glimpse of how the early Christian community struggled to be true to Jesus's teaching--to love their neighbor and forgive those who sinned against them. The reality was that maintaining peace and harmony within the community was difficult when sin, because of its interpersonal nature, caused conflict. Matthew tries to convey to his audience what justice, tempered by love, should look like in the context of a Christian community. Just as the early church struggled with this issue, the contemporary church struggles as well. Members of the Christian community are called to be responsible for one another and, when sin occurs, to handle conflict within the community with loving correction. Correcting a member of the community requires compassion and sensitivity to maintain the honor and dignity of the person involved. This approach demands that members be given every opportunity to change their ways before being shut out of the community. It is critical for the church to always remember that Jesus reached out to sinners, tax collectors, and other outsiders throughout his entire ministry.

Matthew presents a three-step process for dealing with a church member who has sinned against another member. This process assumes that a serious sin or wrongdoing, not some petty personal vendetta, has taken place. The first step is to approach the person who has committed the offense and have a discussion with that person on a one-on-one basis. If that does not resolve the situation, the next step is to take two or three members of the church with you to discuss the offense further with the individual. If the person is still not willing to listen, the last step is to tell the whole church community in hope that the person will repent. If the person does not listen to the whole church, then she or he is expelled from the community as a last resort. This drastic step of excommunication was probably intended to shock the offender with the hope that she or he would eventually seek reconciliation.

The first step in this process is based on Leviticus 19:17-18: "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor. . . . You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The second step is based on Deuteronomy 19:15: "A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained." The two or three witnesses testify that the alleged offense committed by the erring member is true and that the member is willing or unwilling to repent.

This three-step process may have originated with the Essenes, who used a similar process to deal with conflict in their community at Qumran. The third step, which could result in excommunication of the member from the community, was not to be taken lightly. It was only to be used as a last resort. This decision was discerned only after the community had spent time in prayer: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20). The community understood that God guided their decisions and that whatever they bound on earth was bound in heaven. When the community did have to excommunicate a member, they were still responsible for the salvation of that individual. Just as Jesus reached out to sinners, Gentiles, and tax collectors, the Christian community is to continue reaching out to sinners and those outside the church.

Tradition Connection
The foundational virtue that this Sunday's Gospel builds upon is the theological virtue of love, or charity. The church member who has been wronged is expected to treat the offender with love as he or she seeks reconciliation. We know from Paul's writings that love never ends. We may do a variety of great things but if we do not do them out of love, "[We] gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3):

"If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing."1 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."2 (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1826)

If charity (love) is always the motivating force behind everything that we do, then we will always desire good for others. The virtue of love, when integrated into our lives as Jesus showed us, can only produce good. Love is the source of energy that nurtures all the other Christian virtues:

The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony";3 it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love. (Catechism, paragraph 1827)

We are able to love like God because God first loved us. Jesus, the Incarnation of God's love, shows us how to make love the foundational virtue in our lives. The results of a life rooted in love are joy, peace, and mercy. The fruits of love allow us to deal lovingly with those who sin against us:

The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:

"Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest."4 (Catechism, paragraph 1829)
(Note: The word disinterested used in this context means impartial.)

Wisdom Connection
The relationship between love of neighbor and banishing someone from the Christian community was a struggle for the early Christian community and continues to be today. Jesus's sayings in this segment of Matthew's Gospel describe for all Christians the qualities and behavior that they should possess in handling conflict within the church in a loving way. Matthew's perspective is a practical and fair way to deal with grievances within the church community. The step-by-step approach begins with a one-to-one loving conversation, then moves to a loving conversation with two or three members of the church, and, if all else fails, finally calls the entire community to mediate. This process hopes that in the course of loving conversation reconciliation will be reached. If the offending member will not change her or his ways after all these possibilities have been exhausted then--and only then--should it end with the decision to excommunicate.

The backdrop for reconciling conflict within the church is Christian love--love of neighbor. A person who enters this process rooted in Christian love will never do wrong to a neighbor or to God. Jesus's great commandment--to love God fully and to love your neighbor as yourself--guided the early Christian community. It helped them develop a way to live in community and to deal with conflicts as they arose. This commandment to love also guides the Christian community today.

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes Cited in Quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. 1 Corinthians 13:1-4.
2. 1 Corinthians 13:13.
3. Colossians 3:14.
4. St. Augustine, In ep. Jo. 10, 4: J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina (Paris: 1841-1855) 35, 2057.

Saint Raymond Nonnatus

August 31 is the memorial for Saint Raymond Nonnatus.

Saint Raymond Nonnatus’s family was Spanish nobility. He, however, was drawn to religious life, against the wishes of his father. He was ordained a Mercedarian priest and spent his family’s fortune paying ransoms to free Christians who were imprisoned by Muslim captors. He eventually surrendered himself to free another hostage. Saint Raymond Nonnatus is the patron saint of, among other things, children, expectant mothers, and obstetricians.

For more information on Saint Raymond Nonnatus, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-raymond-nonnatus/.