Heart to Heart Ministry: Visitation Co-founders Sts Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal
by Tricia Menzhuber, Convent of the Visitation School Teacher, guest blogger*
Once again the annual Salesian Conference sponsored by DeSales Resource and Ministry was a wonderful opportunity to connect with people in faith about important topics that inspire all who seek to follow the ways of St. Francis de Sales.? As a teacher at Visitation School in Mendota Heights, I not only grow in my personal faith life through the presentations and conversations the annual Conference provides, but I also gain valuable insights about our Salesian heritage that I share with my students.
St. Francis explains prayer as a response to God?s love?the prayer begins with God sharing God?s loving heart with us and ends with our great ?I love you too.?
I admit that as a teacher, I am always a learner as well.? I have pages of notes from the lectures of Fr. Eunan McDonnell, SDB, this year?s featured presenter, all of which will inform my teaching this year.? But, there are a few of Fr. Eunan?s teachings that will definitely be a part of my senior religion class curriculum this fall.
Visitation School: Teaching Salesian Leadership to all seniors
This year, all seniors at Visitation will be taking a newly created elective called ?Salesian Leadership.?? The idea of the course is to combine the practice of prayer with the students? experiences of liturgical, retreat, and service leadership.? Early on in my career teaching high school religion, I realized that service cannot be activism (as Fr. Eunan warned), but it should stem from an intimate relationship with Jesus.? St. Francis de Sales? teachings on prayer will aid in making this course a transformative experience for students and teachers alike!
Prayer is an intimate relationship, a friendship; it takes us out of ourselves to be a gift for God and for others.
St. Francis explains prayer as a response to God?s love?the prayer begins with God sharing God?s loving heart with us and ends with our great ?I love you too.?? I especially love St. Francis? image of God as the perfume that arouses us to prayer and the sun that warms and enlightens us to prayer.
Fr. Eunan McDonnell, SDB
Prayer is an intimate relationship, a friendship; it takes us out of ourselves to be a gift for God and for others.? I was struck by Fr. Eunan?s many references to this intimate prayer relationship between God and person like that of marriage.? St. Francis teaches that God kisses humanity through Mary, that God weds God?s self to humanity in the Incarnation of our Lord.? What a passionate and loving image of God! ?How can we NOT respond to this intimate love of God in prayer?? This image of marriage, of course, is Biblical.? We have included the study reading and study of the Song of Songs in our senior courses, but this direct connection to the prayer relationship with the Incarnate God will lead to really great discussions and hopefully even better experiences of prayer and leadership in our courses this year.
Teacher as Student: Tricia Menzhuber in small group discussion
The marriage image continues as Fr. Eunan asks the question, ?how do we know we have prayed well??? How do we know we have ?kissed God on the mouth??? He answers, ?Check your heart!? How are you in your relationships with others?? Especially with the person you love the least??? During the conference, the sighs, the nods, the comments, the silence, was very telling as Fr. Eunan reached his point.? Like the marriage vows, do we kiss God?obey him (obedience) and do his will (fidelity) so that our love brings us out of our self?? How do we love God who we can?t see if we don?t love the neighbor that we can see?? All of us in the room that wonderful afternoon knew this, had heard it before.? But for me, the context St. Francis puts this in?the prayer relationship?must have a struck a special chord.? I am hoping that by helping students understand the God who is in a loving prayer relationship with them, a marital relationship in the most theological sense, they will begin to accept God?s grace to help them in the events of their everyday life, their relationships, and their leadership experiences.
?how do we know we have prayed well??? [Fr. Eunan] answers, ?Check your heart!? How are you in your relationships with others?? Especially with the person you love the least??
DeSales Resources and Ministry
This connection between the solitary prayer relationship we have with God (accepting the ?affective? love of God) and the relationships we have with others (accepting the ?effective? love of God) will be the end goal of our teachings about prayer.? As St. Francis illustrated, we are like magnets.? Just as the metal attracted to the magnet becomes magnetized, so we draw to God in prayer and begin to take on the attributes of God?just in time to reach out to our neighbor with the love of God.? I cannot think of a better lesson, ?not for school, but for life,? that we can teach our students at Visitation.? God bless De Sales Resources and Ministry in their very important work on behalf of the Salesian community!
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*On behalf of the Visitation Sisters and blog team, thank you to Tricia Menzhuber for her time here and reflection on the 2011 Salesian Conference. I had the pleasure of sitting in a small group discussion at the conference with this religion teacher/ mom/wife, and was deeply moved by her perspectives on the material and her applications to life and the classroom. Your students are lucky to have you, Mrs. Menzhuber!
Peace, Gratitude, ?Live +Jesus!?
Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, Visitation Companion
you and i bipolar halle berry reese witherspoon patti stanger elenin elenin
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