What are you going to do with your life?

We are just winding up to that stage of the school year when we will ask senior students which subjects they need to study next year. That is a whole long process and will not conclude until a month into next term - but early this week senior students visited a Careers Expo in Richmond - and on Wednesday evening parents visited the Careers Roadshow, hosted this year at Nelson College. 

Over the next ten weeks students will be doing a lot of research exploring what they are good at, what they like doing, looking at personal preferences (working indoors or outside, with others or on their own, thinking and problem-solving or physical work - and all the other foundation questions).

Then parents and students will gather with teachers and sort out the courses our young adults will need to reach their career goals.

That process is often called "vocational", a word from the Latin vocare "to call" which leads to "called" or "calling". That comes from our understanding that God creates us with a purpose, and fully equipped with the seeds of the gifts we need to fulfil that purpose - and so God "calls" us.

Society narrows the word to mean "job", and Catholics have sometimes further narrowed the concept of "vocation" to priesthood and religious life - and certainly that is one calling. 

But God calls each one of us - and in all sorts of directions. 

For example, I was called to be a teacher (not necessarily in a school), to be a husband and father, to lead and to follow. I believe I am called to work my way through difficult concepts and make them accessible for people - one of the things I was best at as a teacher. I am called to be a friend, an idealist, a member of different communities ... you get the picture.

The important thing to remember is that EACH ONE of those things is done in partnership with God - so each one is important (and holy).

Thinking of God being limited to calling people to jobs is lazy thinking; thinking of God only calling priests and religious (and apparently not caring so much about the rest of us) is verging on the ridiculous! 

God made each of us, loves each of us as only God can love, gifted each of us, and expects all sorts of things from each of us. We are called to be all we can be in many, many areas!

Over the next ten weeks New Zealand secondary schools focus on career-based callings - but for the rest of the year Catholic schools like Garin work hard on all the other things we are called to: becoming the whole people our Creator created us to be.

All shall be well

In previous ages people with real passion and love for God did outrageous things to live their commitment to our Creator. You may have heard of people who lived for decades on top of pillars of stone in the desert - or went into the wilderness to get away from the distractions of the world around them and focus entirely on prayer.

In the Middle Ages there were a number of people who stayed in cities, but also cut themselves off from the world. Unlike hermits, they took a vow to stay in one place - and had themselves walled into a small cell attached to a church. 

An interesting historical note: they went into their cell prior to the opening being walled in with a ceremony very like a funeral - so they were "buried" in their cell and, for the rest of their lives, received food through a small hole (and send out waste products the same way!) and spent their days in prayer and contemplation. Not a way of life that appeals to us today!

One of these really committed Christians was a woman known now only by the name of her patron: Julian of Norwich. She wrote ...

In my folly, before this time I often wondered why, by the great foreseeing wisdom of God, the onset of sin was not prevented: for then, I thought, all should have been well ... But Jesus, who in this vision informed me of all that is needed by me, answered with these words and said: ‘It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.'

Many modern people (including myself) find this wisdom very helpful. When things go wrong in our lives, when the actions of other people cause hurt and distress, when misguided people do stupid things (and sometimes really stupid things - just watch the news tonight), I can say with Julian of Norwich ... 

It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Just a short reflection this week - but hopefully something helpful! God bless.

Heirs of Pentecost

In many ways Pentecost (celebrated next week) is the birthday of Christianity, the birthday of the new church. So Pentecost is our heritage, we are the heirs of Pentecost.

Certainly Jesus' friends didn't see themselves as starting a new church - they were loyal Jews following the example of their leader who had died because he refused to accept second best worship or respect or commitment for his God and religion. The people of the original Pentecost lived for the renewal of their religion - not its overthrow and replacement.

The beginning of Christianity

But maybe the Holy Spirit wanted a more universal church - a church able to touch the hearts of all people, a religion better able to evolve as the human spirit grew, one not limited to what had become a very codified and inward-looking religious observance centred on a small area at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

So those early leaders were empowered to reach out. It took another 20 years before early Christianity really established itself outside  Palestine - mainly in towns of Turkey, Greece and Italy - and then centuries to reach out to the rest of the world. But that day was day one of the movement we know today as Christianity. 

Empowered with sudden confidence, and a range of gifts that got them noticed and made them effective, the disciples started their work. The most useful gift for their time, the one emphasised in Acts 2, was communication: everyone got the message no matter what language they spoke.

I'm not sure how that worked. Did the passion and commitment of Peter spread to his listeners? Did the listeners receive the gift of being able to understand? What was the understanding - the intellectual concepts, or the emotional and spiritual understanding? Or both?

But however we understand the actions of that day, the result was a surge of commitment to the good news of Jesus, to the message that death was not the end, and that the kingdom was available to all.

The ideal Christian community

There are two parts of Acts 2 that have always made it real for me. First, among all the enthusiasm and passion there were still the cynics stepping to one side and snidely asking if the speakers were drunk! and then, at the end of the chapter Luke takes a small step a few months into the future to show the actual real world effect of the good news on those almost mythical disciples ...

they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people.

I have always been able to feel the passion and idealism of those first Christians in this description. They created havens of peace in every town. They absolutely KNEW how to live their lives. They were afraid of nothing, indeed they looked forward to the last judgement and resurrection in the next month or so.

Christianity's foundation principles

For me that is a vision that tells me very clearly that these people were completely committed and living the message. 2000 years ago there was no such thing as social security, but one of the wonders of the world was the way the Christian communities took responsibility for the care of the poor and marginalised in their towns and cities. 

They still do. It was, and is, the first (and possibly only) sign of true Christianity. The sheep and goats were certainly Jesus' only pass/fail assessment! (Matthew 25, 45-46)

Pentecost is celebrated to remind us of what Christianity is all about: it is about communication and that intimate and idealistic form of community outlined above - and - as the first leader of the early Church challenged us:  

Do any of you think you are religious? What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: 

• to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and 
• to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world. (James 1)

Happy Pentecost!

Creativity

Right at the top of Benjamin's Bloom's hierarchy of thinking skills is Creativity. (We use Bloom a lot at Garin College to provide structure and depth to our teaching. For instance, in NCEA if a student can demonstrate Knowledge and Understanding of material, they will likely pass an assessment. But if they want Merit or Excellence they would need to demonstrate higher order thinking: Application of their knowledge, or Analysis, Evaluation or Creativity/Design based on their understanding.)

So, when we are thinking about thinking skills, creating something from your learning is pretty impressive!

This week Head Students Jess Brooks and Nick Erasmuson opened our festival of Creativity: Te Wairua o nga Mahi Toi, the spirit of creation in the arts. Mahi Toi has evolved into what we have today over the years. Fourteen years ago our first dance/drama teacher Rebecca Reid, our Head of Arts Rebecca Monopoli, Arts coordinator Nicky Sowry, Head of RE Suellen Boyce and I sat down to plan our first arts festival – something we hoped would give students the chance to be extra-ordinary and to see extra-ordinary events away from the routine of everyday school life. Our theme for 2002 reinforced that ideal: You are God’s work of art.

I assumed we would end up with singing and music, dance and drama and speeches. But from that very first year we were stretching the boundaries: our Vinnies were looking for a fund-raiser and RAW (Recycled Art that is Wearable) became part of the arts festival.

Matua Simon Pimm came up with a title that fitted with the new Catholic school and our goal of being extraordinary: Te Wairua (the spirit of creation) o nga Mahi Toi (in the Arts).
We were to find other “wow!” examples in our classes, our sport, service, arts events and Journey – but Mahi Toi is still the main way we help students to notice moments of beauty and wonder – moments beyond the ordinary.

That can only happen when a student takes a risk and gives us their very best performance – and that will only happen with a knowledgeable and supportive audience. The arts are always a partnership between performer and audience.

Since 2002 Mahi Toi has evolved to include all other teaching areas. "Creative" has been joined by "Design", and the final concert has moved from a low-key concert in our gym to a much more professional performance with much higher production values at the Hope Community Church - a multi-purpose theatrical venue.

So why is creativity so important in Catholic life?

At heart it is because it is in creativity that many of us come closest to our Creator. Catholics have a devotion to Mary - partly because she is the mother of Jesus - but Mary is also a symbol of motherhood. Many mothers are fully aware of themselves joining our God in the act of creation. Our RE teachers use the word "co-creation".

But all of us are affected by different forms of creativity: moments when your diaphragm tightens, your throat closes, or your eyes tear up. These things happen to us when we experience beauty or something close to perfection. It isn't just in the arts. We get caught in moments of perfection and creativity when a backline move works to perfection, when we see a perfect gymnastics routine, when a baby smiles, or when the penny drops in class.

Creativity is one of the things that makes us human - and one of the things that reminds us of the wonder our Creator made us to be.