THE CHALLENGE OF ADULT FAITH FORMATION IN A SMALL PARISH
By Frances Vogel Montano

Anna sits at her kitchen table sipping her coffee and reviewing her notes from last night’s meeting. Suddenly she is overwhelmed. When she had joined the new Adult Faith Formation Committee at her parish a few months ago, she was excited and encouraged to learn that the Bishops of the United States and her own Archbishop had decided to give more attention to the formation of adults.

Now she ponders, “Where do we start?” As an educator, Anna knows the question to ask. She knows that when you are planning for learning you start with a curriculum. “But where do I find the curriculum for adult faith formation?” she wonders.

Anna knows that the word “curriculum” comes from the Latin word currere, which means to run, and that literally it means “a course to be run.” When applied to learning, curriculum can simply mean “ a course of study” or it can have the broader meaning of “the sum total of learning experiences in the local situation.”

Reflecting on these definitions of curriculum and on her own growth in faith over her many years as a Catholic, Anna begins to realize: Everything I have done in my life as a Catholic has helped my faith to grow and deepen. Participating in parent sessions before my children’s sacraments; my Renew small group gatherings; preparing Thanksgiving baskets for my neighbors who were struggling financially; joining the group petitioning the NM legislature regarding the death penalty; helping my parish community put new mud on our church building; preparing for the talk I gave on the sacrament of Marriage to the young people preparing for Confirmation; participating fully in the Sunday liturgy, listening to the readings from God’s Word, and sharing Jesus in the Eucharist with my parish; explaining to my unbelieving brother-in-law why I believe in and follow Jesus; reading the Bible before dinner with my family and struggling to understand the message of God’s Word for us; making Lenten sacrifices, participating in the parish mission, and celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for Easter…

Her list went on and on. Anna’s insights about her own faith growth led her to a profound insight that has its roots in the Scriptures and the documents of our Church: we find the curriculum for faith formation in the whole of the Church’s life. This “course of study” for faith growth is much too big to be contained in a book or a class. The PARISH IS THE CURRICULUM! The WHOLE LIFE OF THE PARISH IS the course of study, the course to be run. If we want to bring people into deeper relationship with God manifest in Jesus, and with his Body the Church, we do all that we can to enable them to live fully the whole life of the church, present in the parish. We provide multiple opportunities for every person to participate and contribute, to be always more fully a faithful, prayerful, serving, teaching learning member of the Body of Christ.

The Church continues to live out its mission in the same classic and historic ways that is has for 20 centuries, through koinonia (community), leiturgia (prayer and worship), didache (teaching), kerygma (proclamation), and diakonia (outreach). All the members of the Church are called to live out this mission and to minister in these five ways.

We find these five ways of ministering, of being church, first described in Acts 2: 42-47. We discover them in multiple places in the documents of our Catholic Church, written by Popes and Bishops over the centuries, including the documents of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We find them reflected most recently in Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us: A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States. Anna found these five ways of deepening her faith right in her own experience of being a vital part of her parish and family.

Anna is left with a new set of questions: How can we make our parish life more clearly a place where people grow in and pass on knowledge of the faith, the teachings of Jesus and the Church; where people learn to live well together in the world because community life flourishes in the parish; where people learn to deepen their relationship to God through prayer, vibrant liturgy, and soul stirring celebrations of the Sacraments of our Church; where the Good News of God’s saving action in our lives is proclaimed with greater assurance; and where all members strive to transform this world into a place where God reigns by working on behalf of all in need.

Anna’s questions are our questions. What will we do? How will our parishes respond to this challenge?