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D06, H04, L07, "Premeditated Mercy: A Spirituality of Reconciliation," May 11, 12 and 13, 7 p.m.

"I think that a lot of what we appropriated as children isn't what we were supposed to be learning" in faith formation, declared Rev. Patrick Butler, pastor of St. Edward the Confessor parish in Clifton Park.

Children, he explained, don't have the life experience to necessarily understand what adults are teaching them about God - so they may grow up with some very mistaken ideas.

Father Butler hopes that, when participants in this year's Spring Enrichment -- to be held May 11-14 at The College of Saint Rose in Albany -- attend his series of talks on "Premeditated Mercy: A Spirituality of Reconciliation," they're able "to go back and say, 'Oh, my God, that's what [my teachers] were talking about!'

"Many of us grew up with the idea of God and sin and punishment - what we had to do for God to forgive us," the pastor remarked. But the Bible "always talks about God acting first, not us."

He remembered, in his own childhood, being taught that "Jesus died for your sins" and that "God loves you unconditionally," and concluding that he had to focus on "the conditions for me to get to heaven."

He thought Lent was about focusing on his own sins and trying to getting rid of them, rather than being a season that's actually joyful, as people realize the unconditional love of God.

"It's sort of backwards," Father Butler said. "Reconciliation isn't what we do; it's what God does. We need to receive it and celebrate it." It's God who gives to us, he said: "That's the whole experience of Christ on the cross."

The pastor quoted a famous line from the biblical book of Hosea, put to music and often used at Masses: "'Come back to me with all your heart; don't let fear keep us apart.'

"I need to turn back, but it's God who's inviting me to turn back," he explained.

Father Butler took the title for his talks from a book by Joe Nassal. Although the book is not the basis for his talks, he liked the image of "premeditated mercy."

In the biblical story of the prodigal son, Father Butler explained, the father is always standing outside, waiting for his son to return -- and even after that younger son does comes home, as the party to celebrate his return is going on inside, the father stands outside in the dark with his angry older son, essentially saying, "You've got to come in. You've got to come in."

As in the book of Hosea, said Father Butler, "God keeps saying, 'Come back to me; let me heal you."

The pastor hopes people attend his talks because "we're always growing in our understanding or at least our appreciation of God. I don't think we can hear too many times that we're loved by God without condition."

Father Butler will also offer a three-part series of Spring Enrichment talks on the Gospel of John and the idea that God comes into the world and people don't recognize Him - and that those who do "are either radically changed for good, or harden their hearts against it."

B03, "Creatively Praying with Children," May 11, 1:30 p.m.; C02, "Delightful Discipline," May 11, 4 p.m.

It's important for catechists to pray with children, not at them.

That's one of the main points of "Creatively Praying with Children," one of two sessions being led by Theresa May at this year's Spring Enrichment. Ms. May is director of the Syracuse Diocese's western region faith formation office.

As any catechist knows, she said, children are innately prayerful. While catechists, Catholic school teachers, leaders of children's Liturgy of the Word and others can get caught up in the need to teach specific prayers to children of specific ages, "[the children's] experience of God comes first."

Ms. May recalled her own initial experience of teaching the faith: She sat on the floor with a group of preschoolers in a circle around an old trunk with a candle on it. At a loss for how to begin, she just started talking about love -- and the children freely chimed in with their thoughts on who they loved and how, giving concrete examples. "They're already loved into being by God. Most already have some type of relationship with God; they just don't have the 'churchy' words for it," Ms. May told The Evangelist.

To meet children where they're at, she encourages using creative forms of prayer like guided meditation, prayer with movement or singing, and prayer journals. Younger children can draw their prayers; older ones can write petitions. Ms. May met one group of middle-schoolers who even wrote their own prayer books.

Religious educators do need to teach children more formal prayers so they can pray in community and as part of the Church community, the speaker noted; but catechists need to first "focus on the sacred within the child."

Ms. May has learned much from faith formation efforts with children.

"As an adult, I get wrapped up in my own world," she said, with liturgies and "churchy things" taking precedence. But "when you experience the prayer of a child, it can bring you to a whole other level. They see beauty in rocks or birds singing or when their grandmother kisses them. They don't have any filters.

"I hope, through [the Spring Enrichment] workshops, that we can grow through them," she added.

Ms. May's other session, "Delightful Discipline," will explore both techniques for discipline in classrooms and "really forming disciples," she said. "How do we help kids to be successful in the classroom? Each person is worthy of respect and dignity. How can we minister effectively to our young people? How do we encounter God?"

In both sessions, she said, she hopes to talk about teaching "life skills."

B04, F06, J06, N05, "God's Uncommon Justice in Job and the Hebrew Bible," May 11, 12, 13 and 14, 1:30 p.m.

Dr. Michael Dick doesn't think enough Catholics read the biblical book of Job.

He's hoping a lot more do so -- and then attend his four-part series of talks at this year's Spring Enrichment. Dr. Dick's talks are collectively titled, "God's Uncommon Justice in Job and the Hebrew Bible."

Job "says some blasphemous things," said Dr. Dick, a professor emeritus of religion at Siena College in Loudonville; but the Old Testament book also includes "the most gorgeous poetry in the Bible - some of the best 'world poetry,' too, I think."

Many Catholics simply know the book of Job as a depiction of the suffering of an innocent man. Job is beset by a series of catastrophes and questions God. Dr. Dick calls the book "clever. It starts with a folktale about a man who lost everything and gets it back. The author splits the folktale in half and puts this poetry in the middle of it."

Amid his trials, Job doesn't just question the wisdom of God, either; he challenges God outright in what the professor noted was a legal strategy common in ancient times in the Middle East: going before a judge and swearing an oath of innocence, so one's accuser had to either produce evidence of the person's guilt, or leave him alone.

Dr. Dick noted that "Job works under the idea that if bad things are happening to you, it means you have destroyed a relationship with the deity. Job says, 'I must have done something wrong,' but the reader knows he is without flaw."

Job's belief is basic Old Testament theology, said Dr. Dick: "'The evil man will suffer in this life and the good man will prosper in this life' -- that's what this book is challenging."

Job learns that people must move away from "forensic" justice, the kind meted out by courts, because "our understanding of justice is utterly useless in matters concerning God," Dr. Dick explained.

The professor said that, in response to Job's pleas and demands, God speaks to Job about animals and nature -- something that seems irrelevant at first, but points to "changing the concept of justice to God's management of the world: 'I even make it rain on the lands where this is no man,'" God tells Job.

Dr. Dick promises to go into much more detail in his series of Spring Enrichment talks. "I've taught Sunday school, but [this] is an advanced Scripture class for adults," he told The Evangelist. "I would really like people to have read the book of Job before class. It doesn't make much sense if you haven't read it." [[In-content Ad]]

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