The parent meeting went off fairly well. Only one small technology difficulty and I dare say some evangelization may have occurred.
As I said last time, I want parent meetings to go well and be positive experiences for everyone involved. I had decided ahead of time that my primary focus would be on presenting the sacrament of Penance and less on Holy Communion. In an ideal world I would have two meetings but I can’t.
I began by welcoming the group and telling about myself. Then we began talking about the sacraments and why they are important. I brought out the point that in our relationships with our spouses, children, family, and friends, we verbalize it when we have done something wrong and apologize. If we didn’t, it would be difficult to stay in the relationship with a good attitude.
I drew out from that the analogy that it is the same with God. We cannot harm our relationship with Him and then act as if we did nothing wrong. We talked about venial and mortal sin; the difference between the two and why confessing even venial sins is important.
I find that there is a huge disconnect on that point, even with clergy saying that only serious or mortal sins need to be confessed. While technically that is true, if you are constantly committing a certain sin, such as losing patience with your children, if it turns into constant yelling, your children cowering and your husband not wanting to come at night, well, it has become serious.
I showed a video, Confession Explained, from the Diocese of Richmond. Of course, the sound would not work properly at this point so I emailed the link to the parents after the meeting. Parents took notes, wrote down the links mentioned in the video, and had questions.
I also reminded them to approach Penance as something joyful, as an event for the family to participate in together. I gave examples from my own family life and let them know that it is a healing sacrament to receive forgiveness, mercy and grace not judgment or condemnation.
I used this quote from Pope Francis to help make my point of why we need confession: “Going to confession is not like going to the dry cleaners to have a stain removed. No! It is going to meet the Father …” (Pope Francis, during his Jan. 23 daily Mass at the Vatican).
We wrapped up Penance and discussed Communion. We finished up with all the logistics and I gave out information with what we’d covered including the prayers their children need to learn.
After the meeting a few parent approached me with asking more questions or thanking me for the review since they’d forgotten most of it. This meeting was different, and as I thought about why I think it came down to two main reasons. First, I very consciously relaxed and let the Spirit fill and guide me. Secondly, I approached it from the perspective that this might be threatening to some parents and so I stopped making them the “bad guys” and proceeded with the thought they are trying to do their best for their children.
Copyright © 2015, Deanna Bartalini
Deanna Bartalini
Deanna G. Bartalini, is a Catholic writer, speaker, and educator. She serves on the retreat team at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center. Deanna loves teaching about Catholicism and how it fits into our daily lives. She writes at DeannaBartalini.com, serves as the editor of the NewEvangelizers.com blog, and is a contributor there as well as at AmazingCatechists.com. Deanna contributed to A Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion published by Ave Maris Press. She is the author of “Invite the Holy Spirit into Your Life: Growing in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control” published by Our Sunday Visitor. Deanna is available to lead retreats and speak at catechist and ministry events.
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