I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

So um - hello - I am still here, are you?

So this year I started a new part-time position teaching the new chastity curriculum to 7th graders (and often 8th graders too!)throughout the archdiocese - in Catholic schools and in parishes. Last week I taught my first school group. They were 7th graders. 24 of them. They rocked. They listened to everything we said, they participated in all the small group discussions, they embraced all of the teachings and asked well thought out questions about their own sexuality and God's plan for their lives. And they rocked on the assessments (some say tests, we say assessments). They could really see how the teachings related to life and what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. How much they will retain, we do not know.

This week is a bit different. We are teaching 8th graders. 50 of them. They are jaded. They are clearly being molded by media and society into believing that they can believe, say, do, be whatever they want and that there are really no consequences. It is terribly sad to me how much of a difference one year makes in the moral development of our young people. Terribly sad.

They can tell you what is a sin, but do not see how it can have an effect on your life in any way and they say "God is so judgmental - I mean really, how can he send people to hell?" I explained to one group of girls that it is not God who sends people to hell, but the decisions that people make with the free will that God gave them. God created us to love, and if we choose not to love anyone but ourselves, it is we who choose to live in the absence of God. She said, "hmm". So many of the girls have gotten me into deep theological discussions in the short time that we were with them today. They are thirsting for this stuff - in a Catholic school. Thirsting. How much more are our public school kids thirsting?

We teach about choosing the greater of 2 good things ... they ask about choosing the lesser of two evils. Interesting.

We teach about virtues, they ask about vices. Interesting.

We teach, they ask. God loves. Thank God. Amen.