With workshops, exhibits, prayer and liturgies, the San Pedro Regional Congress celebrated "Tend the Vineyard . . . Cuida la Viņa" at St. Matthias High School in Downey on October 4.

"This year's theme challenges each and everyone of us in catechetical ministry to be keenly aware of the needs of those whom we minister to while at the same time recognizing our own need to be tended to. The Lord's vineyard is entrusted upon us," declared A. Karina Plascencia in the program booklet. The San Pedro regional coordinator from the Office of Religious Education --- who coordinated the regional congress with Paulette Smith, congress event coordinator --- was home caring for her new baby.

The day-long happening began with a morning prayer service in the high school's gymnasium, with congregants singing "Tend the vineyard, embraced in spirit, empower God's people, in the light of Christ" and ended with a liturgy celebrated by Msgr. Joe Brennan, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in San Pedro, in the same gym.

Three sessions of workshops in English and Spanish ranged from "Morality in the Public Square" to "Como Contar Historias Biblicas," from "Developing Computer Skills in Catechesis" to "Religiosidad Popular y Liturgia," from "Preparing the Soil of Teens' Hearts to Receive the Word of God" to "La Tierra Gime de Dolor."

This year's San Pedro Congress also featured a youth track as well as a coordinator's track, the latter offering practical skills about how to get a successful religious education program up and running.

"It's the beginning of the catechetical year, and so this congress is really about enrichment for the catechists and directors of religious education, the youth ministers, the adult educators - the leadership, in other words, of catechetical ministry in the San Pedro region in particular," Religious Sister of Charity Edith Prendergast told The Tidings.

"We try to reach out to Catholic schools and have social justice ministries and all the ministries of the archdiocese. We do it, of course, in Spanish and English, and we try to be sensitive also to the many cultures in the region: the Vietnamese, Koreans, Native Americans, Filipinos and others. The day is really about enriching, since the local religious educators get ideas and skills that they can take back to their parishes to implement."

Long Haul Spirituality
In her morning workshop for coordinators of ministry called "Spirituality for the Long Haul," Sister Carol Quinlivan stressed that catechists can't minister to others unless their own spiritual lives have a solid foundation. And when it comes to spiritual enrichment, one size does not fit all.

"God directs us directly, and we need to make ourselves sensitive to that voice" the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet pointed out. "When we hear it, we feel a peace that goes deep. But we must spend enough time alone with our God to feel God's gaze. Once we discover how God directs us directly and uniquely, we begin to see every bush 'burning' with God's presence."

Another Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet in her workshop explored the foundational elements of the theology of St. Paul along with his methodology as a catechist, missionary and preacher. Sister Karen Wilhelmy observed that Paul's understanding of God was "relational." In short, the early disciple fell passionately in love with Jesus, although he knew him, like us, only by faith.

"Paul realized fully that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the price tag around our neck that says, 'Paid in full,'" she stressed. "Have we thought about that? Do we as catechists move to that level of conversation with those we teach? Do we as catechists give people a sense of how good God is, or are we so busy just saying 'God loves us,' but we never explain how much God loves us?"

Sister Wilhelmy said the ultimate goal of every Christian is to get to the point that Paul did in proclaiming, "To live as Christ is to die as gain." She pointed out that the disciple to the gentiles had given up everything in his previous life as a strictly observant Jew for a whole new way of understanding the intimacy of the relationship with God.

"That's mind-boggling," she said. "Have I come to that? Is this something as a catechist I share with others?"

Father Ken Deasy delivered a super-charged talk at his "Would you rather buy a DVD or save a life? You do have a choice!" workshop. Using an Elton John video and a clip from a 1989 movie "Romero," about the life and death of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, he talked about the joys of ministering to the poor, especially to disadvantaged children not only in Los Angeles but also in Catholic foreign missions.

"How many times do we take time to get to know our kids?" he asked the mostly young adult catechists and directors of religious education. "We're throwing out all this academic stuff, but we need to make relationships as Jesus did, 'cause a lot of these kids, you can tell in your classroom, are coming from trouble.

"Our faith is not an event of the past," he added. "It is continuing very much today through you, the hand of God, the healing hand. If we'd only believed that. I see a lot of you being the bread of life. Your kids experience God in you."

WWJD
What drew Eduardo Alvarado of St. Emydius Parish in Lynwood to the San Pedro Regional Congress was a workshop with the intriguing title "What Would Jesus Do?"

"When I saw the topic, I said, 'I've got to find out,'" he explained. "In time of need, when we scold or hurt somebody, or when somebody hurts us, we must ask the question: 'What would Jesus do?' And through the workshop, I realized I had to make some changes in my own life to feel Jesus' presence at those moments. He is calling me to be one of his servants."

Wife Cristina nodded. She and Eduardo team teach fourth-graders. What the religious educator got out of the day was some practical classroom tips on how to keep the attention span of young students going by making learning more fun and involving through storytelling.

"Just how to tell stories from the Bible, and keep the facts but break it down as conversation: 'Jesus said, Walk with me, I am with you.' So do more storytelling and pay attention to your own body movements. Because the Bible was nothing but stories before they were written down into words."

As a catechist at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Whittier, Cynthia Coleman has prepared fifth- and sixth-graders for first Communion for 11 years. And the 50-year-old woman has come to the San Pedro Regional Congress the last three years for both knowledge and inspiration.

At one 2008 workshop she gained a deeper understanding of the Ten Commandments - the way they had more to do with how people treat each other than being a set of black-and-white rules. At another session she rediscovered how vital it was to take care of the earth's endangered environment, which God created for all humankind to enjoy throughout history.

Coleman, who uses a wheelchair, stressed that more people with physical challenges need to know that they can get involved in their churches to make a difference in the lives of parishioners. She hoped her own example would motivate and energize others.

"The regional Congress reenergizes me," she reported, leaving the Congress with a smile on her face. "It gives me new meaning to go out there and teach the children that I teach. It gives me the inspiration to keep going no matter how difficult things might be."