When I was in another parish in another diocese, we had a large Catholic School and a substantial Religious Education Program. I was part of the team preparing seventh graders for the Sacrament of Confirmation. One of the projects we had the Candidates do was to interview a Senior Catholic about what their Catholic faith has meant to them. For some 13-year-olds, their idea of a “senior Catholic” was somebody who was 25; but most of them caught the idea: interview somebody my grandparents’ age. Some of these interviews were shared in class. What struck me was how honest some of these older Catholics were about their faith journey. Some acknowledged that aa teenagers they only went to Mass because they were forced to go. Then,  life happened. The great plans they had for their life at 21 did not all pan out. People they loved battle sickness. People close to them died. It became more and more important to them to have a spiritual center, to be able to talk to God, to receive Communion, and to trust that their dreams would not all be fulfilled in the here and now but would be in the afterlife. They learned about faith not from a catechism but from life itself.

As I look back on that project thirty years later, it seems clear that this is the kind of thing we need more of right now. We need people who are comfortable talking about their faith in a personal way. We live in a world with a thousand distractions every minute and a massive mistrust of institutions. Many outsiders think of organized religion as a political faction, and one not popular with many younger people. Yet the questions about existence (Why am I here? What is life for? Is there anything behind everything that is?) are questions we all have to face. If we have questions about God, where can we go to ask them without being judged for having the “wrong” answer? If we care about passing on the faith, where do we go to get better at telling our story?

Over this past month we have been running announcements in the bulletin and online about Alpha. There are flyers in the back of church and a banner outside. The Evangelization Team did a trial run with Alpha in the fall, and now they are ready to open it up to everybody. Alpha began in an evangelical branch of the Church of England several decades ago, as a way to reach the vast numbers of unchurched people. Since then, it has spread around the world and crossed denominational lines. It is endorsed by the Archdiocese of Chicago and has taken root in many parishes in the Chicago area. I think it can be transformational for us too. It gives those who have always thought of their faith as very private the tools to talk about their faith with others and to develop a more personal connection with God. It gives the unchurched and those alienated from church the space to talk freely about their struggles with belief. In short, it can make us a more outgoing, mission-oriented parish. People who complete the Alpha course tend to be people who get actively involved in ministry, whether through the church or another agency. They also help revitalize existing ministries by giving them a stronger sense of community and more of a spiritual center.

Because Alpha falls “outside the box” of what we have traditionally thought of as “Catholic,” it is easy to ignore, to think of it as something that belongs at Willow Creek but not at Assumption. Yet we all know that simply thinking “inside the box,” doing the things we have always done to pass on the faith is not working the way it used to work. It fits the definition of insanity:  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In spite of all the money invested in Catholic education and all the time spent in Catholic schools and religion classes and even dragging reluctant teenagers to Mass, only about one in five Catholics in the Chicago area regularly attends Mass and out of this 20% only a small number participate in church activities beyond Sunday Mass.

 So, if Alpha has not been on your radar screen, please take some time this week to think about it and pray about it. Consider sacrificing one evening a week, to spend time in community with fellow parishioners and strangers and let the Alpha experience take hold in you. The first Session of Alpha is a great opportunity to invite your non-churchgoing friends and relatives to come to a church event where they will simply be welcomed. They will not be preached at or taught what to believe or told what is right and what is wrong or made to feel guilty about their past or roped into coming back if they do not find the experience helpful. To participate or to find out more, email alpha@assumption-chgo.org.

                                                                                                Fr. Joe