September 17, 2010
The gift of faith
Laura and Max Pawlowski, along with their son Benedict, stand with Father Jason Gries and Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger after the outdoor Mass in Vincennes Aug. 21. Max Pawlowski is the new director of religious education and pastoral associate at Sacred Heart Church in Vincennes. See page 10 for more information about Max. (Message photo courtesy of Zoe Cannon) Click for a larger version.
By ZOE CANNON (Sacred Heart, Vincennes)
Spirituality comes naturally to children. They have no trouble believing in things they cannot see, and they are intrigued by God and religion. Preschoolers enjoy saying grace before a meal, and children wonder about whether their gerbil will go to heaven when he dies. But that does not mean kids really understand what religion is all about. We need to bring spirituality into our everyday life, not just check it off our list when we drop our children off at Sunday school. Generations of experience confirm that a strong spiritual foundation is central to a happy, purposeful, and ethical life.
We should think about the spiritual values we want to pass on to our children, and explain them in a way they can be understood. As a parent, is your faith finding a connection with God while seeking definitive answers? Are you more interested in helping people or in spreading the word? As we preserve our church teachings and traditions, do we understand enough about our own faith to be able to pass this information on to our children? Have no fear, help is available! Religious Education is a life- long commitment. From newly baptized babies, to retired grandparents, our Catholic Church provides many opportunities and the tools to understand what it is that we believe.
This year, Catechetical Sunday will focus on the theme, “Matrimony: Sacrament of Enduring Love.” Those designated by the community to serve as catechists will be called forth to be commissioned for their ministry. Catechetical Sunday is an opportunity to reflect upon the role that each person plays, by virtue of Baptism, in handing on the faith and being a witness to the Gospel. This is an opportunity for all to rededicate themselves to this mission as a community of faith.
We have hired a new Director of Religious Education/Pastoral Associate at Sacred Heart in Vincennes. His name is Maximilian Kolbe Pawlowski. Originally from the small town of Cambridge Springs, Pa, he comes to Indiana via Oceanside, Calif. As we highlight the Sacrament of Matrimony on Cate-chetical Sunday, Max and his wife Laura will have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary on Aug. 15, and the gift of their three-month old son named Benedict Joseph. They met three years ago while teaching at the same Catholic school. Max and Laura both grew up in families where the Catholic faith was encouraged at home, so teaching and passing on the faith are very important to them. The past two years Max was DRE at St. Margaret Catholic Church and religion teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic School, both in Oceanside. He previously taught high school religion and math at Sierra Madre Academy, now named St. Joseph Academy in San Marcos, and was dean of discipline for the high school. Laura taught third grade at St. Joseph Academy, and volunteered to co-teach RCIA for children at St. Margaret’s Parish. They are both committed to educating youth about the Catholic faith
Max did undergraduate studies at Gannon University, Erie, Pa., and received a master’s in theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore. Laura earned a BA from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
With Max and Laura coming to Sacred Heart, we feel our prayers have been answered. They feel that God called them to Vincennes, not that they ever expected it. Max was already working as a DRE in Oceanside where Laura’s family lives. The pastor of their parish told Max that his long term plan was to bring religious sisters into the parish and a house was being purchased for their future community life. The DRE position for Max was no longer affordable with the arrival of the sisters. Max and Laura prayed a novena to St. Anthony. They wanted a place where they could live a life for Jesus in service to the Church, a place that was seeking and needing, in a sense, missionary hearts. In a few days, they heard of a job in Max’s home diocese of Erie, but the position had just been filled. Concentrating only on jobs in southern California, they share this story:
“One night the Holy Spirit must have kept us awake, and we had a long and fruitful talk that suddenly gave us the courage to look outside the box and the job search grew nationwide.“ The position at Sacred Heart Parish in Vincennes became their main interest. Max said, “We could see it all coming together and knew it was going to happen, the phone calls with Father Jason Gries, the phone interview with the committee, and even the contacts we made following our accepting the job, proved to us that we were coming to a place where people already cared about us, even before we met. When we arrived we joked with those we had only met over the phone about whether we had looked for any pictures of each other over the internet.” Laura’s Mom found a song about Vincennes on YouTube – the words ring true: I’m someone to someone in Vincennes, Indiana. I’m someone to someone in Vincennes, my hometown. “We kept singing this song as we were packing and preparing to come out here.“ A five day cross-country car journey with a three-month old baby through eight states and finally on Friday, August 20, at 11:30 p.m. they arrived in Indiana.
Max says, “I don’t know exactly why, but it gives me joy to know I am here in Vincennes. Perhaps it’s partially because I missed having four seasons, trees and the feel of a smaller city surrounded by countryside. I’m originally from northwest Pennsylvania, and my diocese of Erie was something like Evansville in size. California is an exciting place and there’s much to do there, but it’s much harder to settle down and find a home and hearth there. We’re here to give our lives to Jesus, to live in his Sacred Heart and let him form us into a family in this new place. We can’t see the future, but we know we’ll look back one day and see how important this step of our lives was. God has a plan! Whether it’s Oceanside, Calif., or Vincennes, Ind., the catechetical needs are similar to help open people’s eyes to the beauty of the truth. I’m excited to get the parents and children involved together — all ages in a real community and growing in faith. Here is the key — the Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children. The family is the most natural way to ‘pick up’ the faith, as smoothly as a child picks up a parent’s accent (if faith is practiced and spoken often). We’ll see if Benedict picks up our accent or a southern Indiana one, or maybe we will — it’s hard not to when everyone around you does it!
“My goal is to work with Father Jason and the parish making sure that religious education becomes the best it can be, only Jesus can really do this, so we pray every day. I sit before the Blessed Sacrament and put it in his hands. St. Ignatius Loyola said: ‘Pray as if everything depends on God; work as if everything depends on you.’”
How beautiful that God would guide Max and Laura in their spiritual journey to us in Vincennes. The gift of faith just keeps on giving. Amen!