high school q & a

As I've mentioned, part of my assignment is to be chaplain for a local Catholic high school. One challenge for me so far has been that I don't get that many chances to interact with the students. I'm not a teacher, so I don't have that regular time to talk with them for any lengthy period of time. I have Mass with the whole school every other week, but that involves me preaching to them. That's important, but I don't get to know them or what they're thinking.


So, in an effort to get to know the students better, I offered my time to the religion teachers for question and answer sessions. So, I spent this Wednesday with the sophomores, juniors and seniors - two periods each. It was a long day.


However, it was also a really good experience. Besides answering/discussing some of the questions they submitted, I got to actually talk to them. It was clear that many of the pre-submitted questions were only asked because they had to do it ("What role does the Athanasian Creed play in the liturgy today?"), so I tried to make it clear that I was there to talk about what they wanted to talk about.


We had some good discussions. Some classes were more talkative than others, but I enjoyed every single one. Some of the recurring topics: ghosts, animals having souls/being in heaven and strange stories from the Old Testament. When the conversation lulled I either asked about their thoughts on being in a Catholic school or we went back and forth about music, TV shows and movies.


I'm hoping this is a step in the process of building my "chaplain presence" at the school. I'm only there two days a week, so every chance I get to be a part of the lives of the students is something to use.