Retreating

Please pray for my students as we head on retreat this week. I ask you to pray that their hearts will be opened, that I will be present to them, and that the Lord would also work in my own heart at this time. Thank you!

"Tell him slowly: Good Jesus, if I am to be an apostle, and an apostle of apostles, you have to make me very humble. May I know myself. May I know myself and you. Then I will never lose sight of my nothingness."

-- St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #871

The Hardest Thing to Teach

Every day my high school Catholic Bioethics class poses challenges for me -- some good, some bad, some I'm routinely able to answer, and some that are new and require me to think on my feet. I was recently asked by a colleague what the most difficult topic to teach is, and while I first thought it might be the case against homosexuality, it turns out that it is increasingly becoming artificial/assisted reproduction. I think this is posing a challenge for several reasons....some of which are related, others which are not.

1. The model of the family is now viewed by my students (age 18) as something archaic, or at the very best, something arbitrary. Or, if family matters, family is whatever one willingly determines it to be...deliberately two-parent, deliberately one-parent, purposefully gay, purposefully straight, etc. I asked them to think about whether or not the design of the body is something arbitrary...whether or not the fact that it takes a biological father and a biological mother to create new life. They don't see that fact as particularly meaningful..just a fact of science that can be manipulated so as to satisfy our desires (all the while ignoring its implications).

2. The second reason the Church's teaching on artificial reproduction is so difficult to sell is for the very fact that assessing these techniques as immoral seems to perpetuate the immense suffering that a faithful, heterosexual, Catholic couple might experience....the desire to act in accord with the natural law while being unable to give one another a biological child. Trying to explain why ART's might have a good object and intention but immoral technique is so difficult. This generation does not see the use of technology as something that might offend or threaten our very humanity -- they take it for granted and assume it is something morally good or morally neutral.

3. Some of the children that I'm teaching are the products of these technologies. Now, some of the students I teach have had abortions, and so there is a very real suffering and tension that takes place when we talk our way through that issue. But this topic poses another question, in that some begin to question their identity and origin. As a teacher who so thoroughly cares about these girls, it's difficult to watch them grapple with their parents' decisions, to hear that the means why which they were conceived are not justifiable, even while I stress that once conception takes place, no matter the means, one is infinitely loved by God and has been given an eternal end with Him.

It's just a hard thing to pull off...both a truthful yet pastorally sensitive approach to such a topic, because it deals with our humanity...our beginning, our desires, the desires of our parents, and the evaluation of and self-reflection regarding our personal ethics, which, if there is to be any progress, is bound to include growing pains.

"You Must Teach Them How to Use Their Freedom"

I am volunteering for a tutoring center that helps inner city girls do well in school, forms good study habits and good character, and helps the girls build skills to get them into college. The center focuses on girls from grades 4-12. My job is that of an 'adviser' to girls in 11th and 12th grade. No easy task. First, I have five girls I need to chat with for about 20 minutes each (and really, do you know me!?! 20 minutes only!?) and I basically talk to them about what is going on in life. I am to help them instill the cardinal (and theological) virtues in their lives. An even more difficult task.

Last week, we advisers had a training session with a priest who said something very profound that I have been mulling over all weekend. He told us that so often we (as human beings, that is) try to force people into the mold of what we think is right. We tell them ‘Do it this way, Say that, Don’t do this,’ etc. But he said, we cannot do that. For these girls and for all in our lives – we are to teach them how to use their freedom. They will do what they will do because they are simply free to do it. But our responsibility is to teach them how to use their freedom – how to be free. That is really, really hard. And who among us is not enslaved to some bad habit or annoying behavior? Is that not the very essence of sin – to be enslaved and to stifle our own freedom? How do you teach someone how to be free?

So far, I can only come up with this solution: “For you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” Christ is Truth and by giving these girls that Truth, they will learn how to use their freedom. It's a delicate balance, I think, between imposition and informed guidance in freedom. And it is a line that I think, especially in jobs of education (and higher education) that we often see very blurred. For example, yesterday Julian spoke of the Gospel of Tolerance that insidiously affects us all. It's the gospel that I see these girls living by. As I said above, they are indeed free to do as they will. And they will often times choose to do the wrong thing. But it is by constantly bearing the person of Christ to them that we can show them (and ourselves) how to live freely.

My Teaching Experience, Year Three

This year, my experience in the classroom is like nothing I've gone through as of yet. I don't know if it's just that I know the material well by now, or that I've integrated it into my own life, or that I have taught these girls before, but I feel more relaxed in front of the classroom, free to have a dialogue with the girls, to explain things (even while lecturing), in a manner that comes from my heart. I think I'm learning what it means to be a teacher, at least according to St. Augustine. Augustine believes that Christ is in the internal teacher within everyone. In order for Christ to teach my students, I must be free in my presentation of His truth. This includes preparation, study, organization, and comfort. I think I'm getting there. Please continue to pray for me so that these girls may know Christ.

One girl has an incredibly cynical view of the human person, which is directly going to reflect her ethical framework. She believes that deep down, everyone is either motivated by guilt or by fear of punishment. She believes that only Christ is capable of living selflessly, and that even Mother Teresa must have been motivated by fear of hell. I'm wondering what kind of household she comes from. Please pray for her!

I offer up certain periods of the day for our readers and for all of your needs. Don't hesitate to email us with things we can pray for!

From the Pope's Lips to My Ears

On the occasion of the beatification of John Henry Newman, the Pope reminded me, through Newman's own words, of why I teach theology:

And indeed, what better goal could teachers of religion set themselves than Blessed John Henry’s famous appeal for an intelligent, well-instructed laity: "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it" (The Present Position of Catholics in England, ix, 390).

Thanks, Papa B.

Running on Empty

I feel like a failure.

I know I'm not. I know to my students I have it (mostly) together. I know to my colleagues I'm able to balance the courses, unit development, yearbook deadlines, and trip meetings because I'm young and have the energy. But the reality is, I don't. Don't get me wrong. Things are just fine in this new school year. I am fortunate to continue to build relationships with students and build friendships with colleagues. I am fulfilled. I'm just tired. Well, exhausted, really. I haven't had time to return phone calls, emails, or texts. The thought of saying "yes" to making plans with friends has only been stressing me out, as I don't feel I can give anyone my whole attention or heart because I am so mentally and emotionally spent. Talking about God, morality, and girls' very real problems takes it out of you day after day. I feel guilty saying "no" to friends and not being available. But I feel as if I'm treading water, and if I don't give myself a little space for my mind, heart, and even physical distance from people, I'm going to drown.

I take comfort in our beloved Pope, who said this in Glasgow this week.

Saint Ninian, whose feast we celebrate today, was himself unafraid to be a lone voice. In the footsteps of the disciples whom our Lord sent forth before him, Ninian was one of the very first Catholic missionaries to bring his fellow Britons the good news of Jesus Christ. His mission church in Galloway became a centre for the first evangelization of this country. That work was later taken up by Saint Mungo, Glasgow’s own patron, and by other saints, the greatest of whom must include Saint Columba and Saint Margaret. Inspired by them, many men and women have laboured over many centuries to hand down the faith to you. Strive to be worthy of this great tradition! Let the exhortation of Saint Paul in the first reading be your constant inspiration: “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering and persevere in prayer” (cf. Rom 12:11-12).

If I am tired, I'm tired for Christ. And if I remain in Him, my engine is far from empty.

Saying Goodbye

This morning I'll head to the commencement exercises at my school. Though last year was difficult to say goodbye to some students, this year strikes me as even more so. In my second year at this school, I was able to really immerse myself in the community, forging relationships with students that run deep. Though I am able to commend them to God out in the world in their future, a selfish part of me wants to keep them close by, not only to watch over them, but for my own sake! I really have learned a lot from their insights, and many of them show me a love that is really beautiful. I know, though, that I have more students to meet, and they have other teachers and professors to encounter. What a privilege to have been even a small part of their lives.

In an exciting note, she is our commencement speaker!

Off to get dressed in my best!

A Feminism for Generations Y and Z

Just last week I began to introduce my sophomores to some of JPII's "new feminism." We've been exploring the role of the laity in the Church and their specific calling to holiness. The holiness of the lay person doesn't look like the holiness of the priest or the religious insofar as the means to achieving sanctity are quite different. I watched quite a few girls have "a-ha" moments when they realized that they could grow in sanctity precisely by being virtuous students, friends, daughters and siblings.

I figured that I could smoothly transition into growing in holiness through femininity, since all of my students are female. So far, not so good! I've noticed a few trends in their answers, which seems to indicate that they need to be exposed to very different images at any earlier age than they have been.

Many of my students are convinced that gender is something that is relative, subjective, and conditioned. While they are willing to recognize biological differences between men and women, they do not, for their lives, want to associate biology with gender. They don't want to name anything essential to masculinity or femininity. I think this still stems from a fear of being pigeon-holed into pursuing certain careers or having limitations put on their dreams.

Now, it's really difficult for me to teach the anthropology and philosophy of John Paul II, Edith Stein, and Benedict XVI (another blog post on his writings on femininity is forthcoming!) to fifteen-year-olds. They can't yet think abstractly enough, and their experiences are still limited.

Has anyone attempted to break this down for this age group and been successful? Any thoughts on a helpful approach to helping young woman see their femininity as a privilege, opportunity, and blessed responsibility?

Life Lessons

It's only Wednesday, and it's turning out to be a very long week. You know I love teaching, but this week I have had too many occasions in a 48-hour period in which I've had to talk to students about how they speak to me. I know teenagers will be teenagers, and I remember having trouble biting my tongue on occasion, but I don't remember ever speaking to a teacher in the way that my students have been addressing me. It's rude, it's un-called-for, and it's actually very shocking. I'm having a difficult time getting myself to the point to call them in one-on-one to talk to them. Is it my place to explain to them that what they are doing is inappropriate? Am I stepping into the parents' domain? Will they listen to me when I am so young?

I have decided to talk to them. However, they are girls, and girls cry when they think that they have hurt you. It's been hard to be stern, to be honest, and to be clear all while being sensitive to their sensitivity. I don't know how parents do it. Well, for some of them, clearly their parents didn't do it.

Anyway, this is all to say that I could use a prayer or two! Vocations are not easy, are they?

"Womaning" Up

Oh, if only we had all of the time in the world to think about the philosophical and theological meaning of masculinity and femininity. I think we Magdalene Sisters and our readers have done a fine job thinking it through amidst our busy lives, and I'm sure there is more to come.

I've been trying to mull over these things during the busy school days as I watch young women who are about to graduate and go off to college. My "mother bear" instincts kick in, and I want to protect them from the trials they will no doubt encounter, but I also realize that my heartaches and growing pains only helped me to understand my Lord and His call for me even better. Those years between 18 and 22 were incredibly formative for me. I entered an adolescent and came out a woman (a young woman at that, but still, much different than when I had started).

My lofty hope in my job is to contribute to the transformation of our culture by instilling in young women during their adolescence a clearer idea of femininity. This is my response to John Paul II"s call for women to transform the world through our work.

However, as I am continuing to learn, great books, beautiful artwork and film, and fruitful philosophical discussions are really only about a quarter of the things that impress teenage girls in the classroom (a quarter seems to be generous in fact). My life, my example, carries more weight in their education than I had ever really considered. I do not say this out of pride, but rather out of awe, I think. I often forget that as a teenager my female teachers (well, the one that was rather young) had an impression on me not in the classroom per se, but in our discussions outside of class and in all that I learned about the way that she carried herself in relation to others.

While I consider the importance of my example in addition to the discussions we've had on men "manning up" in our culture, I'm becoming particularly intentional about "womaning" up in my own life. I should not expect from men what I myself am not willing to work on -- be it my manners, what I say and how I say it, etc. Whatever I am asking of men, they also should be asking of me (with regard to manners and virtue, not necessarily that which pertains to masculinity or femininity in themselves). In short, I'm inspired and intentional. In fact, I am working with three other women in an apostolate of a similar nature.

I have been re-reading The Privilege of Being a Woman for my book club (which, by the way, it all centered on femininity and the feminine soul) and have been meditating on the following:

God has indeed created women to be beautiful. Their charm, loveableness, and beauty exercise a powerful attraction...

Let us "woman up" and use this power only to draw people to a greater knowledge of the One who made us to be so.

Retreat Recap

This week I chaperoned my students on a Kairos retreat for three days. I had never been on one of these retreats (although I had been on something similar called Encounter in college). After years of organizing and leading retreats in college, it was nice to have a different role as someone who sits back and is there for counsel should it be asked for. And boy, was it asked for.

I was incredibly humbled that girls came forward to ask to talk to me about their personal and spiritual struggles over the course of the three days. What a great responsibility spiritual direction and counseling is...posing questions to them to make them look at themselves really directly and then look at God's hand in their lives. I couldn't help but thank God for priests, spiritual directors, and therapists who bring their education and wisdom to these very personal and intimate settings of self-revelation. They are really sacred encounters.

Many of my students brought up the following: alcoholic parents, parents who should be arrested for neglect, self-loathing, abusive relationships with boys...you name it. I saw real wounds, real piercings of the heart, mind, and flesh. However, it was incredible to watch them be healed by the love of Christ in community, in the sacraments, and in silence. Grace abounded, and the witness of so much healing strengthened my own faith. It was what I needed.

Kairos means "the Lord's time." My own belief in Providence was affirmed and renewed watching the girls be healed, in God's time, over these past few days. When we abandon ourselves to God's time, we get a taste of eternity and the peace that it brings.

Teaching, Love, Truth, God

Since two of us sisters teach, and the other works in an educational institution, I have been thinking A LOT about teaching and learning. So, this is a post for all teachers out there. I've been reflecting on teaching as a vocation, and I thought I'd just share my little 'idylls and rambles' with you.

What got me thinking is this. Soon, I'll be visiting with Julian and Agatha! YAY! I cannot wait - this will be our longest reunion ever! Agatha told me that while I am visiting, she will be able to introduce me to the priest who got me interested in political philosophy - Fr. James Schall. He is one of my heroes, and next to the Pope, he is probably one of the only clergy members I simply dream of meeting! Right before a semester begins when I am teaching, I always re-read a little essay of his on teaching political philosophy found in his book On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs. I certainly recommend it! I finally get to meet the man who has been my teacher throughout undergrad and grad school. You can imagine my joy!

So that is why I have been thinking so much about teaching. You know, students always complain about their teachers. We all did it, it's true. "Mr. So-and-So is too hard and mean!" "Miss So-and-So assigns too much work! Doesn't she know there is a huge football game this weekend?" But I'd like to remind all students about something. Teachers are simply students who fell madly in love. And the best thing a student can do for a teacher is remind him what exactly it was he fell in love with. Let me explain.

In my political philosophy classes, I like to share with my students the questions that make me love to study. I ask them to challenge themselves to come up with some answers to the things that are essential, both eternal and human things - even if the answers cannot be entirely found. Fr. Schall's aforementioned book reminds me of this when he writes about teaching students:

Students arrive in inchoate intellectual shape before a professor. They are ritually embarrassed if someone affirms that something can be true or right, that something is evil, that most of the current enthusiasms for which students and politicians stake their lives are ideological in nature. . . . These same students are quite surprised, even sometimes pleased, to learn that the purpose of thinking is not just thinking but thinking about the truth. They are relieved to be told, finally, that the purpose of truth is that we should live according to it, and that we will not be happy unless we 'know ourselves.' p. 117

I love telling my students that truth, goodness, untruth, and evil are real. And the response is that most of them crave to hear those words. They want the truth. And, as Fr. Schall writes, "The truth we know, moreover, is not exclusively 'ours.' When students learn the same truth we have taken so long to learn, we are not less, though they are more." (p. 112) The reason is love. We as teachers fell (and are falling) in love with something that revealed to us the truth, and the reality that we should live by it. God is truth and God is love, and therefore we fall in love with the God who desires us and reveals Himself to us through our studies. And we cannot but share that love because love by its very nature cannot be self-serving. If it becomes as such, then it is no longer love, and the teacher becomes merely an agenda pusher -- and the students can usually sniff out the difference, even if they don't always know how to respond properly.

No teacher can be truly a teacher without love. Teaching is a labor of love, as Pope Benedict reminds us in the his address to Catholic educators when he speaks of the importance of 'intellectual charity':

This aspect of charity calls the educator to recognize that the profound responsibility to lead the young to truth is nothing less than an act of love. Indeed, the dignity of education lies in fostering the true perfection and happiness of those to be educated. In practice “intellectual charity” upholds the essential unity of knowledge against the fragmentation which ensues when reason is detached from the pursuit of truth. It guides the young towards the deep satisfaction of exercising freedom in relation to truth, and it strives to articulate the relationship between faith and all aspects of family and civic life. Once their passion for the fullness and unity of truth has been awakened, young people will surely relish the discovery that the question of what they can know opens up the vast adventure of what they ought to do. Here they will experience “in what” and “in whom” it is possible to hope, and be inspired to contribute to society in a way that engenders hope in others.

As teachers, one of the greatest joys we have is to witness the love we share set another on fire in a totally unique way. That is how students remind us of why we love to teach - they respect our love, respond to it, they seek, they desire. All teachers should point their students inward - to know themselves, and then outward - to seek Him. Teachers participate in God's love in a special way - perhaps by echoing Christ's words in the Gospel of Luke: "I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!" (Lk 12: 49). Let us fulfill Christ's desire for the fire of our love by helping Him to set His people ablaze!

So All I'm Saying...

...is that some days at all all-girls' high school would be easier with an adult beverage in my water bottle.

Pray for me!!!

:)

I Can Only Imagine

I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a mother (or father), and when I do engage my imagination in thoughts of this vocation, I think perhaps the hardest part of it all would be to watch the suffering of your child and know that there is nothing that you can do to take it away. Sure, when children are sick you can comfort them, and certainly a mother never ceases to offer up little and great things for her children's spiritual and physical health. But there are some things that mother's love cannot save her children from, and it strikes me as the most devastating risk in loving another, especially your own flesh and blood, or those whose care you have been entrusted with through foster care or adoption.

I speak of my imagination insofar as I have two students, whom I dearly love and care for, who are carrying such great burdens that I cannot carry for them. While I am so incredibly humbled and blessed that they (and others) find that they can confide in me, it feels like a great responsibility to have the knowledge I do about their lives. I have been wondering, "Is it possible to feel TOO MUCH?" Compassion means to "suffer with." But what (if at all) are its limits?

Rest assured, I'm not locking myself up in my classroom and crying, paralyzed in sadness for them. I just feel their agony with them, very deeply. I have been ever grateful to the Lord for this capacity to feel things of others quite profoundly, but I always have to remind myself that I am NOT Christ. Lord, remind me that to be a Simon of Cyrene is not to be a savior.

Image found here.

A Surprise Treasure from Newsweek

I really encourage taking the time to read the article "Harvard's Crisis of Faith," found in this week's print and online version of Newsweek. Lisa Miller explores the debate at the Ivy League institution about whether or not to require undergraduates to take one (count it, one) class that falls under a "Reason and Faith" core curriculum category. Currently, this suggestion is being met with significant opposition from deans and professors at the university.

Miller notes the significance of Harvard's lack of religious education:

In the end, Menand & Co. backed down, and the matter never made it to a vote. A more brutal fight was put off for another day. But that's a pity—for Harvard, its students, and the rest of us who need leaders better informed about faith and the motivations of the faithful. Harvard may or may not be the pinnacle of higher learning in the world, but because it isHarvard, it reflects—for better or worse—the priorities of the nation's intellectual set. To decline to grapple head-on with the role of religion in a liberal-arts education, even as debates over faith and reason rage on blogs, and as publishers churn out books defending and attacking religious belief, is at best timid and at worst self-defeating.

She follows:

Harvard's distaste for engaging with religion as an academic subject is particularly ironic, given that it was founded in 1636 as a training ground for Christian ministers. According to the office of the president, Veritas was only officially adopted as its motto in 1843; until then it had been Christo et Ecclesiae ("For Christ and the Church"). While it's true that other Ivy League colleges don't require undergrads to take religion (with the exception of Columbia, where readings in the mandatory Contemporary Civilization course include selections from Exodus, the Book of Matthew, Saint Augustine, and the Quran), it's fair to say that the study of religion at Harvard is uniquely dysfunctional.

Read until you reach the end -- Catholics will really appreciate the interview with a young man who knows that faith is actually quite reasonable. Well done, Newsweek.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton: Patroness of Teachers

Today is the feast of the first American born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton. A loving mother and wife, as well as teacher, and foundress of a religious order, the convert Elizabeth Ann Seton was a remarkable woman, dedicated to serving Christ and his Church, no matter what adversity hit her. She is patroness of the Navy (two of her sons were Naval officers), and of teachers. Since I am the only non-teaching Magdalene Sister, I offer up this prayer for Julian and Edith as they prepare to go back to school for a new semester:

Lord God, you blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton with gifts of grace as wife and mother, educator and foundress, so that she might spend her life in service to your people.

Through her example and prayers, may we, learn to express our love for you in our love for all your children.

We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.

Amen.

(If you are ever within a stones throw of Emmitsburg MD, I highly recommend visiting her shrine. It is lovely, and fascinating.)

Thou Shall Not Whine

I have a sign in my classroom that reads like the title of this post: Thou Shall Not Whine. I tell my students that it's the 11th commendment, and if the Passover Plague didn't work, God was prepared to smite the Israelites for their whining. Certainly sarcastic. But there is a little truth to my remarks, nonetheless.

I teach the products of Generation Whine. My students are bold with requests, find no problem complaining about assignments to my face, and find it perfectly acceptable to challenge the established classroom rules.

However, what I find to be most frustrating and most disturbing is that much of their behavior is not only not stopped, but encouraged, by their parents. Parents frequently email me providing far-fetched excuses for their child's tardiness with assignments or putting the blame on me when students fail to meet expectations. Students are even encouraged by guardians and people in authority to take "mental health days" when the weeks get too stressful.

Whatever happened to buckling down, doing your assignment, and having integrity if in the rare case you missed a deadline? Whatever happened to respecting your teacher so much that you feared having to explain yourself if you did something outside of the classroom norms? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned hard work and learning to take initiative?

Sorry for the rant, but I'm finding it hard to motivate students who have no motivation within themselves and no one pushing them at home. How are we to turn Generation Whine into Generation Fine?

A Short Post

I have been thinking all day of something profound to post or some deep, intellectual article to comment on, but all I have the desire to say right now is that I am content in my vocation.

Well, not in the way that you think, seeing as I still feel a bit restless about my single status. I am truly content and grateful for my vocation to be a teacher. It feels so natural to be in front of students everyday, imparting whatever knowledge that I've gained along my short little way so far. Even more than that I love to pose questions and watch them discover Truth together. It is such a privilege to stand where I do, watch what I do, hear what I hear, and see what I see.

The peace I feel about my vocation, even despite the daily struggles and trials, is providing me with a sense of the freedom that God gives us when we follow His will. I am thinking that I will know this peace in my vocation of marriage. It will not be perfect everyday, probably not any day, but if it is truly what I'm called to and I work within it with a lot of heart behind it, I will experience this type of freedom that I experience now. For now, I ask God for peace within this single state, and for the desire to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10).

Off to grade papers...

A Teacher Always Learns

I have had the joy of teaching two classes of American politics at my university, and I am already so excited for the time I will spend with them in the classroom. I have mostly freshmen and sophomores, and they are still so -- not jaded or lazy -- that I just love their enthusiasm. I had one very interesting moment on the first day of class. I asked my class of 40 what the first thing they thought of was when they thought of American politics. The class consensus was 'corruption.' Wow, I was blown away. I would have said "the Constitution" or "republicanism," but it seems that today's young people (okay, well younger people) are so disillusioned with their own government. When I asked why, they said it was because they had no idea what was going in the government, and you know, they might be right. I guess maybe I should learn from them and be a little more skeptical too.

Anyway, it got me thinking and reflecting. These kids have no faith in their own country and that's a pretty scary sign. Now, I teach at a secular institution in a very Catholic state. I know that many (but not all) of my students are Catholic -- but to bring Catholicism into the classroom is in some ways inappropriate. (BTW, I freaked myself out when I made a comment in front of my class that made me seem like a raging feminist and a relativist....I turned so red and kind of tripped up my words. I could not believe I did, especially since every day before I teach, I pray to the Lord to help my words in small way lead them to Him. Any advice on how to find the balance between faith and reason in the classroom of a public and secular institution??)

I decided that even if I cannot always bring up the faith in the classroom, I can do it here. So, I think I will start a new column about the history and the future of the Catholic Church in our country. It will debut next week (probably Friday, as I am so ill and really need to get some rest!) Let's give our young people something they can have faith in -- and learn how to hope again!

The Truth Will Set You Free

Today in class one of my students presented a current event on the USCCB's study of adults who oppose abortion. She said that the numbers (in favor of the Catholic viewpoint) had to have been grossly exaggerated. Then she took a poll of the class and worked out the percentages of people who supported or opposed abortion in different circumstances, and the numbers were the same. Truth is truth. It was a learning moment for her, so I was grateful.

However, another girl completely bashed the Church for saying that Rick Warren should not speak at the inauguration, and said that the Catholic News Agency is completely exaggerating Obama's pro-choice stance. So, I had to send a secular and a religious outline of FOCA to let her know all camps agree on what it is and what he's promised to present to Congress. Truth is truth. I pray that her heart is softened.

Mary, make us gentle women.