DelBloggolo: WHEN JESUS CALLS

Saturday, November 08, 2014

WHEN JESUS CALLS

-->

When I was a kid, Mom decided I needed religion badly. At 5 years of age, I was heading to a life of crime and God knows what else, so she needed help, and enlisted the nuns and brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Brooklyn to straighten me out. Brooklyn started its demise from being a very nice community to being just nice when I was born.

To some degree, the school was a help, it taught me how to write properly, a take orders under the threat of corporal punishment, although they all acted like drill sergeants! We did things by rote, we responded respectfully and did what we were told to do, or else, from both the teacher and the parent.

TLW (The Little Woman) teaches little second graders religion. Every week she takes time from her life and teaches kids about Jesus and about how to carry love and respect in their everyday lives. If I had had TLW as my religious teacher, who knows how good I could have been? She has a habit of lulling you into goodness, without breaking a sweat!

However, when she comes home after her class, we sit down and eat dinner, and she relates to me the experience she just pasted through and how it compares with other similar experiences, bringing the full load of expectation gone awry.

Every year there is always one child in her class who acts up, and decides to be a clown, with an overactive mindset. This year’s award winner happens to be a little 7-year old who likes to burp. Yes, even on an empty stomach, and while talking will fain a burp in mid-word. She has had them stand on seats, climb the walls and for those who can’t read, insist on reading out loud!

At the beginning of the year, when she is introduced to the children, at least one parent, usually a father, will warn TLW that his child: usually a boy is a TWO- hand filled. Problems like over-active is not uncommon, hyper and big mouthed they run and TLW has to try to calm them down, and teach them about God and Jesus.

Usually, by the end of the year, the child has learned about God, Jesus and the way of the cross. The difference between that kid and me was that I had to go to confession, but they didn’t have to sign theirs!