At synod I met with my former rector, who, like my current rector, is a superb Catholic and excellent priest. He told me of a book he's reading by a priest named Branscombe written, oh I don't know - years ago - that deals with youth and confirmation. (NB: Unfortunately I deleted the e-mail father sent me with the full name of the book. Though when I did have the title I looked for it online and called Anglican Bibliopole, but could not find a copy for sale anywhere.)
The author (I am told) makes the argument that many kids leave the church after confirmation because they never developed a spiritual life. They have been taught a bunch of important facts and doctrine, their spiritual development has not been given enough attention. So he says that kids need to be taught how to develop a rule of life as part of their confirmation preparation. Sounds like a great concept to me. What good is a bunch of facts and religious knowledge if it is not practiced?
So I decided to give my Church school class a summer project: to develop and implement a rule of life. When we went over it, and when I explained the rationale behind it, they seemed very interested and excited. The kids are already great little catholics (e.g. when, as a class, we did the "Beating of the Bounds" on Rogation Sunday they spontaneously began chanting the Litany.), but this will help them lay the groundwork for years of spiritual growth. And hopefully when they get to be older, they will have such a strong spiritual foundation that they will not get into too much trouble. We'll see what sorts of things they come up with.
