Catholic educators get a "push" for the "final stretch"

Renowned author, catechist leads them to the desert, the mountaintop and the garden

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The late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, Michigan, once asked a gathering of Catholics in his diocese what they wanted for their Church.

Some said they envisioned dynamic youth ministry, others called for dazzling Liturgy, while still others wanted ambitious new social programs.

Then a woman in the back of the church stood up and said, “I want a Church filled with our children and our grandchildren.”

“That is what we are all about,” Benedictine Sister Kathleen Atkinson told over 600 Catholic school educators and administrators of the Jefferson City diocese.

“We are about filling the Church with children and grandchildren so it remains vibrant and alive and dynamic for generations to come,” she said. “This is what you get up and do every morning within the faith community that is your school. You do this by putting what you believe into action.”

Sr. Kathleen, a widely read author and catechist from Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, North Dakota, led a March 11 day of renewal for the diocese’s Catholic educators and administrators.

The event fell during spring break for Mary Immaculate School in Kirksville, so the faculty traveled two hours to the Cathedral of St. Joseph on their day off.

Mary Immaculate Principal Ann Gray said it was worth it.

“Sister Kathleen hit me right where I’m at and really helped put things into perspective for me,” said Mrs. Gray.

Sr. Kathleen works in ministry to the incarcerated and previously served as director of catechesis under Missouri native Bishop Paul Zipfel, now retired, of Bismarck.

She set out to give this diocese’s teachers a chance to reencounter Christ and renew their energy before heading into the “final stretch” of the school year.

Above all else, she wanted them to remember that what they are doing is sacred, and that they never do their work alone.

“They do it with God, and they do it with the broader faith community,” she said.

 

“Fill this Church”

Each of Sr. Kathleen’s talks focused on the first line of one of the verses of the hymn, “We Are Called,” by David Haas: “Come! Live in the light!” “Come! Open your heart!” and “Sing! Sing a new song!”

She spoke of people in the Bible encountering God in barren deserts, lofty mountaintops and fragrant gardens.

She talked about how God often changes people gradually from within — opening their hearts, renewing their spirits, giving them strength and a new attitude and helping them see that there is no “we and they” but only “we.”

She spoke of the Lenten journey of conversion, which leads to the openness that’s necessary to experience the fullness of life in Jesus’ resurrection at Easter.

“Change is uncomfortable, but we recognize that we’re going to have to move if we’re ever going to get there,” she said.

She spoke of gardens throughout the Bible as places of growth.

“The garden is where Jesus is risen and calls Mary Magdalene by name and then sends her forth to do the work,” she said.

Sr. Kathleen likened teachers to those who plant a seed in a garden, trusting that it will grow with God’s help, and then witnessing with amazement when it bursts forth.

She told an ancient story about a teacher summoning his student ever closer to the edge of a cliff.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid of heights, and I’m very comfortable where I am,” the student said from a safe distance.

The teacher remained patiently insistent, and the student finally drew close to the edge.

“And he pushed me!” the student revealed. “And I flew!”

“As teachers, you and I are called sometimes to push people so they can fly,” said Sr. Kathleen.

In her last session, she set out to send each member of her audience off with something to say “yes!” to.

“Yes is really a dangerous word,” she said. “‘Yes’ led Abraham out of his homeland. ‘Yes’ led Mary of Nazareth to become the mother of God. ‘Yes’ led Peter to take off running across the water!”

“‘Yes’ is what you carry into the classroom on that first day of teaching and on that 1,000th day of teaching,” she said. “‘Yes’ is a powerful prayer that moves us to sing a new song and spring into a new kind of action.”

She encouraged the teachers to be people of prayer and to help their students become people who pray naturally.

“Prayer is about being with someone that you love and you want to talk to,” she said. “Prayer becomes natural when it’s a conversation with someone you live with and are loved by.

“Prayer is being able to talk freely and lovingly with a God Who loves us, Who cares about our aches and pains and what we did today and the people we’re concerned about,” she said.

Noting that her favorite four-letter word is “oops,” Sr. Kathleen urged her audience never to forget God’s endless mercy and forgiveness.

“I’m so glad I have a God who understand my ‘oops,’” she said.

“Let yourself know that God always loves you,” she said. “Open your hearts for change, wherever God is calling you to change. Then, take that into action and live it fully, so that there will be another generation to fill this Church.

“That is why we’re in education!”

 

“Phenomenal”

Mrs. Smith said she was looking forward to continuing the discussions with her fellow teachers on the car ride back to Kirksville.

Debbie Bolin, campus minister at Sacred Heart School in Sedalia, said Sr. Kathleen’s talk was exactly what she needed to hear as she got ready to accompany an energetic group of eighth-graders on a service trip to Kansas City.

“All of this comes at a very good time, and this Sister is speaking volumes,” she said.

Without realizing who the author was, Mrs. Bolin recently bought and read Sr. Kathleen’s book, Letting Go & Letting God.

“Talk about the Holy Spirit working!” she said.

Sr. Kathleen used a mouthful of words to describe the educators of this diocese: “Wonderful spirit ... faith ... support! The word goodness just keeps coming to me. And commitment. So many of them have made this their life’s work!”

“It’s been a delight to be here,” she said. “The goodness of these teachers, that commitment, the energy. You people are phenomenal! Excellent!”

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