I happen to be directing a Christmas show for a local community theatre group. The experience can be a great outlet for so many people of all ages. I especially enjoy the productions that give us the opportunity to teach younger generations not just acting, but about history and life. 

 

The current production I’m involved with is “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.” For me being involved in the telling of this story a triple treat because it’s based on a true story, it’s a newspaper story and it’s a faith-filled story.

 

In preparing the actors I get the privilege of teaching about how newspapers were once a central and highly trusted source of information and communication. In 1897 when the story takes place, newspapers were important to people of all ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds. The actors get to learn a little about the role of women in the 19th century, the immigrant experience and the importance of trust in God and faith. 

 

The stage play, written by Andrew J. Fenady, centers around the letter that the daughter of Irish immigrants, Virginia O’Hanlon, writes to the editors of the New York Sun. In the story, the O’Hanlons don’t have much in the way of worldly treasure. But, as Virginia’s strong-willed Irish mother Evie O’Hanlon says to her husband as she convinces him to stop whining about being poor and out of work, “…we’ve got our health, our family together, a roof over our heads and blankets on our bed and God… we have God. You can be poor if you want to James O’Hanlon, but not me. I’m rich and I grow richer every day.”

 

And almost every character in the play knows they have God. The characters aren’t afraid to express the fact that they pray for each other and care for each other.

 

And even if some of our actors don’t particularly understand the deep-rooted faith of the characters they play, they are learning the impact of God on the characters the author had intended thanks to the story they get to play out.

 

Our little theatre family is sharing some fun, some faith and some history and learning along the way.

I thought a lot about this experience when I attended the most recent Diocesan Pastoral Council meeting. The DPC learned about sharing fun, faith, some history and learning along the way, not in a theatre family, but in one’s traditional family. 

 

John Jelinek, the director of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Rockford outlined for members of the DPC, the format and benefits of family catechesis offered in many areas of our diocese.

 

Instead of just dropping off your child or grandchild to church once a week for a religion class, family catechesis involves moms, dads and kids coming together to live, play out and teach each other the Catholic faith. In the program, families come together, then the kids learn together while the adults have their own class. Then they all take the resources and assignments back into their homes where the learning and sharing continues until the next meeting. Instead of just the children engaging and receiving new knowledge about Catholic faith, morals and teaching, the entire family gets to engage and bring context to the lessons presented. 

 

When I listened to Jelinek talk about the benefits of the program and the conversations it begins in Catholic homes, it reminded me very much of the interest picqued during the character development moments of preparing a community theatre play. 

 

At first, Jelinek said, a few families joined the program, and as they began to live and teach, others came, and soon the numbers of people engaged in their faith as a family grew to triple digits. 

 

For years clerics and the laity have talked about strengthening the family, strengthening the faith, strengthening marriages, etc.As I listened to Jelinek outline the family catechesis program, it seemed like this is a huge step in the right direction. It takes us back to the very core of faith ... to the family where all values begin for children, where examples are set and where our life of faith is first lived out and transmitted. 

 

The program reminded me of Evie O’Hanlon’s words in the play —“We have God,” she says. And really no matter where we live or play isn’t that what matters — to have God in your family?