Having a faith conversation with old and new friends is as easy as setting the table.
FAITH FEEDS GUIDE ATTENTIVE
Introduction to FAITH FEEDS 3
Conversation Starters 6
• Love is the Outcome by Elizabeth Stowe Fennell 7 Conversation Starters 8
• Mind and Heart by Lisa Soegaard 9 Conversation Starters 11
• Seeking and Finding God by Jack Butler, SJ 12 Conversation Starters 13
• Gathering Prayer 14
Faith Feeds is an initiative by Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Program (C21), a Center that serves as a catalyst and resource for renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States. Faith Feeds was originally designed for individuals in Catholic parishes who are hungry for opportunities to talk about their faith with others who share it. Considering many Catholic schools are an extension of a parish, in partnership with the Roche Center for Catholic Education, a Center that forms Catholic educators to become agents of change who work to create excellent PreK-12 Catholic schools, a customized set of guides have been developed for Catholic educators.
Educators who strive for this excellence embody the following five virtues that allow them to transform Catholic schools: adaptable, joyful, attentive, visionary, and humble. St. Ignatius stated, “All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully. As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God.”
The development of Faith Feeds guides around these five gifts or virtues, challenges Catholic educators to reflect on how they are living out being adaptable, joyful, attentive, visionary, and humble in their everyday life. Together, C21 and the Roche Center hope to deepen one’s faith and bring communities of people together, especially during this time of social isolation, through these Faith Feeds reflections and questions. All authors in these special Catholic educator editions are committed Catholic educators who have a deep love for Catholic schools. Some authors currently serve as leaders in Catholic schools, others teach Catholic educators at the university level. Drawing voices from the United States and Ireland, all authors are connected by their love for Catholic schools and strive daily in their vocations to love and serve God.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who should host a FAITH FEEDS?
Anyone who has a heart for facilitating conversations about faith, education, and leadership is perfect to host a FAITH FEEDS.
Where do I host a FAITH FEEDS?
You can host a FAITH FEEDS in-person or virtually through video conference software. FAITH FEEDS conversations are meant for small groups of 10-12 people.
What is the host’s commitment?
The host is responsible for coordinating meeting times, sending out materials and video conference links, and facilitating conversation during the FAITH FEEDS.
What is the guest’s commitment?
Guests are asked to read the articles that will be discussed and be open to faith-filled conversation.
Still have more questions?
No problem! Email karen.kiefer@bc.edu and we’ll help you get set up.
READY TO GET STARTED?
STEP ONE
Decide to host a FAITH FEEDS. Coordinate a date, time, location, and guest list. An hour is enough time to allocate for the virtual or in-person gathering.
STEP TWO
Interested participants are asked to RSVP directly to you, the host. Once you have your list of attendees, confirm with everyone via email. That would be the appropriate time to ask in-person guests to commit to bringing a potluck dish or drink to the gathering. For virtual FAITH FEEDS, send out your video conference link.
STEP THREE
Review the selected articles from your FAITH FEEDS Guide and the questions that will serve as a starter for your FAITH FEEDS discussion. Hosts should send their guests a link to the guide, which can be found on bc.edu/FAITHFEEDS.
STEP FOUR
Send out a confirmation email a week before the FAITH FEEDS gathering. Hosts should arrive early for in-person or virtual set up. Begin with the Gathering Prayer found on the last page of this guide. Hosts can open the discussion by using the suggested questions. The conversation should grow organically from there. Enjoy this gathering of new friends, knowing the Lord is with YOU!
STEP FIVE
Make plans for another FAITH FEEDS. We would love to hear about your FAITH FEEDS experience. You can find contact information on the last page of this guide.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Here are three articles to guide your FAITH FEEDS conversation. We suggest that you select two that will work best for your group, and if time permits, add in a third. In addition to the original article, you will find a relevant quotation, summary, and suggested questions for discussion. We offer these as tools for your use, but feel free to go where the Holy Spirit leads.
This guide’s theme is: Attentive
LOVE IS THE OUTCOME
By Elizabeth Stowe Fennell
When the Mayor announced that schools would be closed for six weeks to flatten the curve of COVID-19, I jumped into my former second grade teacher shoes. Miss Stowe was making a come back! With Patrick in third grade, Michael in first grade, and Matthew in K0, I had this. I made my schedule, I took out my pocket chart for morning meetings; I was excited!
And then week one happened. The boys’ assignments from school were posted. I printed handouts, the boys logged onto their devices, we uploaded finished assignments, I checked off the boxes. Matthew thought it was great to have everyone home. He was ready to play. The bigs were frustrated by the distraction of their brother, by the amount of work assigned, by their mother hounding them. I was frustrated, trying to keep track of three curriculums, a four year old jumping on his brothers while they tried to work, and making sure everyone had breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner. Oh, and did I mention that three active boys were cooped up in our house, when they were used to the freedom of playing outside with the other twenty-seven kids on our street? By the end of the week, I was exhausted. I was brought right back to the Friday afternoon after my very first week of teaching. I was defeated.
When I found myself in the same frustrated, exhausted, defeated state in the middle of homeschool week two, I took a step back and recognized the bigger picture. The world was an unknown, scary, sad place. Sure, the boys knew that school and sports were cancelled because of the Corona virus. But what were they thinking about in their heads?
We stepped out of our schedule. We stepped away from their assignments. We snuggled on the couch and we talked about what was on their minds. They
worried that they might get sick. They worried that other family members might get sick. They wondered when they’d get to play with their friends again. They wondered if hockey playoffs would be played. They wondered if they’d get to play baseball and soccer this spring. They wondered when they’d go back to school.
We took some time to think of our gifts. Patrick said that he is young and healthy. Michael said that he is an artist. Matthew said he likes to share treats. I see their ability to laugh, their fullness of life, and resilience as true gifts.
Formed by Ignatian spirituality, I then turned to the boys and asked them how we can use our gifts to be hope for others during this difficult time. Patrick said he can Facetime with Boppa, or other people who may be lonely because of social distancing. Michael said he can draw a picture for his great grandmother, who hasn’t been able to have any visitors in her nursing home for the past two weeks. Matthew said he can share with neighbors who shouldn’t go to the store.
So after a week and a half of feeling frustrated and defeated, my children helped me recognize that they didn’t need Miss Stowe to push academic outcomes. During this stressful, unknown time, they need their mom. They need to know they’re loved and safe. And together, we’re called to use our gifts to bring hope to others.
Elizabeth Stowe Fennell Roche Center for Catholic Education Boston College
LOVE IS THE OUTCOME
Questions for Conversation
1. How are you called to serve your students, beyond academics?
2. How can your students learn to be attentive to others’ needs, and use their gifts to serve those needs?
3. What is the greatest lesson that a student has taught you?
MIND AND HEART
By Lisa Soegaard
“Is this Lisa Soper?” A woman with (what I considered) a thick Boston accent asked over the phone. “I’ve gotten your name from two different people today and they say I should interview you. Could you come in right now?” I was exhausted from a week full of interviews, but figured it couldn’t hurt to try just one more. I had a brand new BA in Elementary Education, one interview outfit, and a hungry desperation to live in a city I had dreamed of going my whole life- Boston. Walking up the steps to my interview at South Boston Catholic Academy (SBCA), I reflected on the words
of Blessed Basil Moreou, whom I read frequently while studying education at Saint Mary’s College. When he sent the Holy Cross Sisters to Indiana to found Saint Mary’s, he impressed upon them that “the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.” It was this motto that formed my own philosophy of teaching, and one that I prayed would hold fast as I embarked in this new position. The principal who interviewed me was kind and thoughtful, yet I never got a chance to wow her with my painstakingly rehearsed interview answers. She and the pastor, instead, asked me about
my family, my prayer life, and my hopes for the class if I were to be their second grade teacher. I described the incredible gift of faith that my parents had instilled in me and my siblings, the Catholic school upbringing I had, and my own second grade teacher who inspired me to go into Catholic education. As I drove away from the interview, with a job offer in hand, a feeling I can only describe as home came over me. This was the job I was waiting for.
Throughout my five years as a second grade teacher at SBCA, I challenged myself to be attentive to my early teaching philosophy, even as the stressors of teaching bore down on me. I realized quickly, that my own classroom could be nothing like the one from my childhood because my students and our community had different needs. It took discipline to start each day with my students in prayer, to prioritize daily religion class, and to model my own faith life for my students. My hope each year was for them to find immense joy in receiving the Eucharist for the first time, even though very few families attend Mass regularly. My second and third years of teaching brought the discernment of community life and graduate school at Boston College, where I felt movements in my heart to bring a faith based professional development to my colleagues at SBCA. What started as a group of teachers sharing how to get to the heart of Catholic education, turned into my creation of a position at SBCA that supported teachers and staff to live out their vocations in the classroom.
I began this year as the Director of Catholic Identity at SBCA, and have loved working with my colleagues to discern the ways in which they can make a home for faith in their classrooms. This role has allowed me to be attentive to our mission as a school, and the ways in which our curriculum and our community are rooted in faith. I pray that when our COVID quarantine is over, I am able to walk back up the steps of my home away from home that found me six years ago.
Lisa Soegaard
South Boston Catholic Academy
Boston College UCTC Graduate
MIND AND HEART
Questions for Conversation
1. Soegaard’s philosophy of teaching shaped her journey from undergraduate student to educator. In what ways has your philosophy of teaching shaped your classroom experience? Has your teaching philosophy changed over the years? In what ways has it been challenged?
2. What prayers and practices do you engage in with your students? How does your faith affect your classroom routines? What ways are you attentive to your students’ faith lives?
3. Where is home for your heart and mind? If you are far from “home” now, how can your faith help you connect to what you love about that place and help you grow in your current context?
SEEKING AND FINDING GOD
By Jack Butler, SJ
A well-known Ignatian phrase is “to seek God in all things.” Oftentimes, this phrase is misquoted, for it says, “to find God in all things.” The difference between seeking and finding is self-evident. Ignatius knew that God wanted to be involved in our lives and therefore, the expectation should be to try to seek God in all the situations we find ourselves. Ignatius realized that we wouldn’t always be able to locate or grasp what God was doing in the immediacy of a situation, but we should stay with that situation until we discern a God-like movement towards hope, love, compassion, forgiveness, peace, or a sense of wholeness. To do this, one needs to be attentive; attentiveness means being aware of all that one is experiencing. Becoming aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, drives and volition in turn give us the data to truly seek the God of the living. All too often there is an assumption that God can only be grasped in external beauty, joy, or pleasantness. That’s the easy find. There is no real need to seek when something is right before your eyes. The seeking comes into play when something isn’t easily found or it’s overlooked. Yet, when one is attentive, really paying attention to the full mixture of the human experience, one begins to realize that tears of-
ten mean that you are in love. Fear can migrate into anger, which mobilizes action, which leads to hope. Anxiety, or being overwhelmed, opens the portal of vulnerability, which lets another in, and relationship is formed. In like manner, the thrill of a roller coaster often can overshadow the fact that the real joy is that you are sitting next to your best friend on the amusement park ride. A beautiful day makes you just want to go have fun and explore, when if you just stay with it a little longer, a sense of gratitude emerges from the warmth of the sun on your face. The more one pays attention to their thought, affect, drives, needs, and wants, the more one starts to discern, and hence, the possibility of recognizing God. Being attentive is the first step to seeking God in all things. Faith holds that, in fact, God is in all things, but finding God is another reality. Being attentive becomes the mode of being which allows one to find God by seeking God. So, to seek God in all things really means be attentive!
Jack Butler, SJ Vice President for University Mission and Ministry Boston College
SEEKING AND FINDING GOD
Questions for Conversation
1. Where have you sought God during this pandemic?
2. How are you called to be attentive in your current situation?
3. How can you help your students be more attentive?
