Blessings and Backpacks
This Sunday we came together for worship and fellowship as usual. With extra fellowship. The extra fellowship was that during the service I invited all youth with backpacks, and adults with briefcases, to have them blessed in preparation for a new school year. We prayed for students and teachers, for questions and answers, for many things but most of all that the school year will be a good one. Where Children can accept information all the while being “in formation.”
By “in formation” I mean that the students learn how to be inquisitive in such a way that they become lifelong learners. They no longer necessarily need a teacher to give them information, but rather the ability to learn has been transferred to them. Transforming them in such a way that they can find the information they need.
The same can be said for church. In church people come to worship together and be with one another. They also come for information about God through things like Bible study and the youth and adult education classes. I find it interesting that the Christian formation part is like school where people can be formed into lifelong learning Christians. But there is something a little extra…people learn that they are never alone.
They learn that God loves them no matter what. They are formed to understand that God is always there not judging them but lifting them up and offering them impossible amounts of grace. People are formed in such a way that if the day comes when they feel alone or that God has abandoned them, they can remember that God loves them no matter what. God never abandons and always loves. That is Christian formation.
This year have a wonderful school year and know that God loves you.
Fr. Mitch+