Bloom Where You Are

 Magnolias Don't Bloom in September, by Carol Lynn Luck, will have teachers thanking God they don't have classes like Kendra's.  Kendra, the main character wants to make a difference.  Her parents forbid her to join the peace corps. Vista, for some reason, didn't accept her, but they gave her a few suggestions for areas that needed teachers.  Kendra chose Mississippi.  The year is 1970 and it is the first year of forced integration.  Kendra is teaching middle school-aged children who are grades lower scholastically.  Some can't even read!  She is innovative and comes up with methods, techniques, rewards, and finds success. She also becomes entangled with the politics of 1970 problems in the south.

    Somehow, she survives the year.  The class not only has learned academic subjects but also respect, acceptance, cooperation, and pride in achievement.

Person to Person

Teaching in small groups is much more comfortable than larger classes.  Last month, we taught the Mass to the entire church.  It seemed to me that everyone stared at me with hostile expressions.  They didn't want to be there.  They spaced out.  They couldn't wait for it to be over.

This month we divided the people up.  There are four of us formation leaders.  So the group was small, at least smaller than last month.  Because the group was smaller, the interaction was exponentially better.  I even got questions!

And I'm not even mentioning the material.  I had one lady in the group that knew more than I do, about other religions.  She was very helpful.  There was a grandmother in the group who told us "how it was."  Her experience was interesting.  One couple said that last month they went home and looked around and decided to make their home more Catholic!  Hooray!!!!

Oh.  My lesson was on the Nicene Creed.  The last section, "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.  I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."  proved to elicit the most discussion.

I was asked why Protestants say this when they don't believe in Catholicism.  I explained that catholic meant universal.  But I couldn't explain why they say they believe in apostolic succession, when their church was formed by someone in a later century than the apostles.

One more thing.  This smaller group appreciated my sense of humor.  Unlike the group last month, this group laughed at my jokes.