Attending Religious Education Congress

I always enjoy attending the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress! And fortunately the calendar smiled at me again this year and I was able to attend.

To be sure this is the largest annual gathering of Roman Catholics in the U.S. There are workshops for catechists, teachers, musicians, liturgists, lectors, and anyone looking for spiritual growth.  Sessions are available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

This year I didn’t attend any of the workshops; I was busy distributing materials at the Dominican Family Booth. The Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, Mission San Jose, and Adrian, Michigan, have been staffing this booth for many years. And it is a wonderful experience!

As I handed luggage tags with our logo and website (www.sanrafaelop.org), I said, “We’re Dominican Sisters.” The responses were great! Were we the sisters that taught them at such and so school, or from Dominican University? Maybe they had a question about religious life. Sometimes they wrote a note to a sister that they remembered from childhood. Even if we weren’t the Dominican Sisters that had educated them in Chicago or New York, the wonderful memories from their school years was attached to us.

I loved the liturgies, and always wish our regular liturgies in our home parishes were more like these. But I remind myself that this is special, and there is a lot of work and preparation put into these liturgical events. I also remind myself that it is our response to the daily, lack-luster parts of our lives that makes us. And that’s what makes the special and celebratory  . . . well, exactly that. Special and celebratory!

This year’s theme was “Love Unfolding…Igniting Our Yes! Our “yes” lived out may feel daily and lack-luster. The sessions and liturgies delivered what we hoped for. They ignited our yes and revitalized us.