CCSS Site
Administrators
Jane Stevens (CCSS
’05) and Bernice Suehr (CCSS ’03) do Bible ministry in a way neither
ever imagined: they serve as site administrators at CCSS Saint Xavier
University and CCSS St. Martha.
In addition to
handling the many week-to-week class management tasks a CCSS group
requires, such as taking attendance, managing homework and recordings, and
ensuring room set-up, Jane and Bernice have, to their surprise, become
partners on the faith journey of these CCSS students.
Listening to lectures
reinforces their CCSS learning, but, as Jane puts it, “my faith grows
because [the students’] faith gives me another perspective on what I
learned.”
Bernice sees the
students as “role models for growing in faith and staying committed, for
doing their job of learning the Bible. I want to do my job so they can do
their job."
Both Jane and Bernice
led opening prayers for the class during the first half of the year. Jane
used that experience when, with another catechist, she prepared a
half-hour prayer for the parents and children of the St. Barbara Parish
(Brookfield) religious education program to close the religious education
year.
Bernice, office
manager for the Ss. Faith, Hope, and Charity Parish (Winnetka) religious
education program, had never led a large group in prayer. She now feels
comfortable leading prayer for groups of any size.
Sixth-Grade
Catechist
Even before Virginia
Sullivan (CCSS '07) graduated from the Advanced Biblical Studies program,
she had already brought her CCSS education into her work as a catechist at
Immaculate Conception-St. Joseph Parish in Chicago.
The sixth-graders who
come to Virginia’s class first learn their way around the Bible.
Virginia uses the ideas in God’s Library by Joe Paprocki (Loyola
Press, 2005) to teach the children about the parts of the Bible, how to
use the Bible’s table of contents and how to read and find Bible
citations.
Virginia has found
that what she now knows about the overall story of the Bible and its
chronology gives her confidence that she can answer the children’s
questions. “I can talk intelligently about what’s in their
textbook,” she says. “You have to know what you’re talking about
with kids. Reading every book of the Bible is so helpful for a
catechist.”
As she moves through
the year with the children, Virginia teaches them how to pray with the
Bible. They learn to call on the Holy Spirit as they begin reading and to
ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for their lives through what they
read.
Here, Virginia is
passing along her own experience with the Bible. Through her formation in
CCSS, she has worked praying with the Bible into her own life. “The
Bible is the only book you can read over and over and always meet your
needs, from different angles” she says. “I love these children. I want
to give them something valuable for their lives. I’m doing it by giving
them the Bible.”
As a graduate,
Virginia now plans to give more time to another of her ministries, the
ministry of care. Her CCSS study has given her a much greater familiarity
with Scripture. She finds that she’s never at a loss for what she wants
to do in prayer for each person she encounters in the ministry.
Parish
Bible Study Leader
CCSS supports the
parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago by educating people who lead parish
Bible study groups. Blanche Childs (CCSS '03) is an example of a
"before and after CCSS" Bible study leader.
Blanche had been
facilitating Bible discussions in Evanston at St. Athanasius Parish and
St. Nicholas Parish for a few years before joining CCSS in 1999. Even with
research, she found she could only do so much without the larger
perspective of more formal Bible study.
CCSS gave her a good
view of individual biblical books, she says, as well as an understanding
of the relationship among the books and a sense of how they relate to the
history of the Jewish people.
Blanche loves to see
the "ahahs" on people's faces when they "get"
something about the Bible. In her ministry, she perceives a great need to
know more about Scripture—a real thirst both in the study groups and in
herself, as she continues to learn.
