A Word From Dave Retseck

Seventh-graders and their parents in Children’s Faith Formation will gather on Thursday, April 1 for an evening on Theology of the Body, with programs geared toward students and their parents. 
One of the key components of Theology of the Body, especially for junior high students, is helping them understand that they were loved and valued by God the Creator, even before they were born. They have souls. They have dignity and need to recognize it in themselves, their families and their friends.
Yet, in our media-inundated culture, where information is sent out within seconds and people communicate with a five-word text message and less face-to-face, it’s easy to forget. People are perceived more as things instead of human beings. Bodies and human value are not respected but rated, criticized and ridiculed, sometimes for entertainment. It’s too easy to forget the person and soul that God created is affected by people minimalizing them to just “things.” Our junior high youth, and our high-schoolers, need more than ever to know how much they are valued and loved by Christ. They need to know their gifts and talents are needed in this world and that what they say and do affects themselves and the people around them. They need our encouragement to reflect that love and encourage their peers to believe it as well.   
Tip for the week: Moms and Dads, it’s easy for junior high and high school students to make a list of the things they don’t like about themselves or wish they could change. Take a moment this week to challenge them in discussion to share their gifts and talents, the things God has graced them to do that nobody else can. Share with your kids the qualities you see in them as their parents—and that God sees in them, too—that they still need to discover.

- Dave Retseck, Director of Faith Formation