This past Saturday evening, Willie our middle son, made his Confirmation, thanks to the SPRED program at our church. It is a program designed for children and adults who are special needs or disabled. SPRED is a unique program that delights in the differences of this population and gears its 'classes' to such. It is more of a gathering than a class actually as the catechists and their 'special friends' gather to have some quiet time spent doing activities designed to calm each one (including the catechists) from the craziness of the outside world, to a reading and music celebration of a Bible passage, to a 'breaking of the bread' so to speak (usually some type of dessert that the children will inhale including Will) where everyone shares stories of whatever they like and, after Will helps to clean up like everyone else, he gets to listen to his radio station much to the delight(?? - depends on the music) of everyone else. It is run by wonderful people from our own church with the help of folks from neighboring churches who love the people they have there.
If your church doesn't have such a program, you should check around to see where there is one and talk to others about it. In fact, when the same children who made their Confirmation started there was NO program for their age group at our church. The closest one was about 30 minutes away. So a few parents and myself decided to start our own group. We found some people who had done the program previously and said they would help. Then another group of people came in and said they would take over, since basically the program should not be run by the parents of the children involved - this is their time away. Which is good and you can tell by the way the children, including Willie, tell us to leave as soon as they get settled, that they love being there.
Will with his sponsor, Mario, and wife Chris.
Ways you can help this ministry?? This is from the latest Providence Spred News from the Diocese of Providence:
:Remind each other how important it is for us to be present for our friends with disabilities.
:Be their advocates in our churches and communities, but most important to be their witness of God's love for them.
:Teach them about God in everything we do.
:Share our experiences of God with them.
:Work diligently with our faith communities, church leaders, and families to have our churches accessible to all, not just with building adaptations but spiritually. Keeping in mind that we are all members of the Body of Christ.
:To create an environment where we all can grow in faith, share our love for God.
:Reminding each other of what a great Gift from God, people with disabilities are to our Church.
Religious Education:
We have a wonderful program at our church called 'SPRED'. The program has been around for years. It accommodates children and adults who are intellectually and physically challenged (called Special Friends) and pairs them with an adult helper. Will's group meets every other week for 2 hours. They start out with some 'quiet time' - there are activities they can do to relax with soothing music playing. Activities run from writing, which Willie likes to do, to building with different materials, painting, looking at photos, rocking in a chair, etc. Then there is time for listening to a Bible passage and listening to religious music to which they do flowing hand and arm movements. Finally they all share food for snack. This should be a program to check out especially if you are looking for your child to receive the Sacraments. Will has made his First Communion and we are looking forward to this Spring when he makes his Confirmation.
Pro-life:
Was the phrase "ask not what this country can do for you, but ask what can you do for this country" part of John F Kennedy's inaugural speech? What happened to that sentiment?
My idea of pro-life is more than anti-abortion. We are given a life, to help others whenever we can. The purpose of this blog is to share information to help people find solutions to life issues.
In a few weeks, the March for Life is scheduled in Washington DC. There will be
pro- life speakers, breakout sessions in many venue , as well as hundreds of thousands of people, from all over this country just being there to let America see they are engaged
in sharing their love for the unborn, disabled, and elderly.
You don't have to travel to Washington to be a part of the pro-life solution. There are opportunities in your local areas: try volunteering at a soup kitchen, crisis pregnancy center, or just visit a nursing home. Have you ever thought of being a foster parent? Talk to your next door neighbor, an older person might need a hand with a small project. A young couple with small children on a tight budget could use an hour of babysitting to get some down time.
History of SPRED
ORIGINS
EUROPE 1960
In the 1960s three priests in Europe struggled with the question of HOW to do Religious Education with people who had a learning disability. Realising that a rational, logical and wordy method was totally inappropriate, they developed an intuitive approach, paying much more attention to the environment and the sense of the sacred within the context of community. They wrote down their "lessons" in books called the Method Vivre.
USA 1966 This written text was discovered by members of the Religious Education Staff (Special Needs) in the Archdiocese of Chicago. They translated the books into English and spent two years studying and researching the Method under the guidance of the priests from Europe. The result was SPRED.
ENGLAND 1977 In 1977 a Sister from England studies SPRED at Loyola University in Chicago and introduced the method into Westminster archdiocese. A lecturer from a college in Liverpool spent a year in Chicago and set up a SPRED Diploma Course.
IRELAND 1980 SPRED's beginnings in Ireland date back to 1980. Today there are SPRED groups in the dioceses of Down and Connor, Armagh, Derry, Dublin and Limerick.
SCOTLAND, GLASGOW 1984 SPRED was introduced to Glasgow in 1984. A catechetical programme for children, teenagers and adults, it is parish-based and has flourished in the rich soil of the archdiocese. In the past fifteen years 250 catechists have been trained.
In 1988 At Andrew's College agreed to validate a Certificate Course in SPRED which has now been upgraded to a Diploma. Through this one-year full time course, SPRED Directors for other dioceses and leaders for other denominations are qualified.
PAISLEY, MOTHERWELL, 1990
ST ANDREW'S & EDINBURGH, 1997
GALLOWAY, 1998
SPRED is now part of the pastoral and catechetical life of five dioceses in Scotland:
Glasgow, Motherwell, Paisley, St Andrew's and Edinburgh and Galloway.
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How many times have you made a comment defending the right to life of unborn children, and heard a pro-abortion response that was purely emotional, or completely ignorant of the facts? This is a common occurrence today, especially with people under 25 years old, who have been robbed of the truth by our pagan culture and a Godless educational system. To illuminate their minds, your normal reply would be to start at the beginning, by noting the clear distinction between human persons and members of the vast animal kingdom, or describing the obvious presence of a living, animating soul within the growing human embryo from conception onward. Or you might present the first necessary principle for establishing a good society: Justice. If the listener has genuine good will, he will be led to think logically, starting from the basic facts, to arrive at the solid conclusions that inform a caring, pro-life attitude.
ReplyDeleteShould we blame these young, pro-abortion teens and adults for believing the hedonistic propaganda they’ve been fed all their lives? Most of the time we should not, since they have often been unsuspecting recipients of the moral poison flooding their minds year in and year out. To make matters worse, our message about human life as God’s greatest gift has consistently been distorted or gone unreported in the media, as when the TV networks totally ignored the 2013 March for Life in Washington with over 500,000 dedicated pro-life citizens in attendance.
Facing such opposition, and yet armed with the truth, we must double our efforts to reach this generation and the next one with the powerful message of Life. We can create new opportunities to present the reliable pro-life arguments according to Natural Law, the laws of nature, Catholic theology, science, medicine, psychology, anthropology, history and common sense, all of which demand that every innocent person be protected from violence and murder. This positive effort inspired by our love for young people requires only two things: Initiative and Resources. The first of these, Initiative, comes from you as a passionate follower of Christ who wants to improve our world and perhaps save the lives of some unborn babies as a result. The decision to act is half the battle.
The second requirement, Resources, is what the veteran activists of the pro-life movement can provide. We stay abreast of all the issues touching on human life and the threats to it, including abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, stem cell research, contraception, in vitro fertilization and others. Many of us are ready and willing to come to your parish or youth group to present the plain facts and moral teachings that lead men and women to wise decisions, physical and spiritual health and a happy life. When more people are equipped with the truth and inspired by the grace of God, they become allies in this crusade for life, unborn lives will be saved, the virtues will be promoted and selfish acts can be resisted, as the culture slowly becomes more intelligent and supportive of the human person.
Please contact an experienced pro-life speaker in your area to discuss a presentation to the youth and adult groups in your parish or community. You will be helping them discover the best reasons for following God’s plan in their lives, and fulfilling your responsibility to spread the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ in this Year of Faith.
Thank you David.
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