1. Habit-Forming: Liturgies of Education Video lecture delivered by Peter J Leithart with reflective questions for members of the Senior Leadership Team

2. Synopsis Peter Leithart offers a reflection on the liturgical nature of human beings as made in the image of the “Divine Liturgist”, explaining the importance of ritual in our lives and in our formation. He concludes by applying his findings to the education of young people. The lecture lasts about 45 minutes and it is expected that the reflection questions will take 30-45 minutes to complete.

3. Intended for members of the Senior Leadership Team, a series of reflective questions explores Peter Leithart’s claim that, “the goal of Christian education is to form students who love Jesus Christ and His Father in the Spirit” and how this is realised in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. Questions centre around three areas: 1.The implications of understanding the human person as a partner in a ‘liturgical dialogue’ 2.Current school rituals and their impact on the formation of students 3.The experience of liturgy in the school Companions on the Journey: Middle Leadership/Headship/Vocation of the Teacher/Catholic School/Catholic School Leadership Developing in Faith: Honouring Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life; Developing as a community of faith and learning; Celebrating and worshipping.

4. A reflection on ‘Habit-Forming: Liturgies of Education’ for members of the Senior Leadership Team

5. Click on the ‘Habit Forming – SLT Reflection Booklet’ button on the webpage to download a sheet on which to record your reflections. This can be sent to the RE Office – Christine.Burke@rcag.org.uk – and a certificate of completion will be sent to you for your records. Your answers will not be in any way assessed or evaluated, this is simply a means to recognise that you have completed this CLPL exercise. Christine.Burke@rcag.org.uk Click to watch the lecture

6. 1.‘Priests of the Whole Creation’ Peter Leithart recalls Christian schools to their foundational goal: that of forming disciples, of forming students in their Baptismal identity. The origin of this lies in the liturgical dialogue into which God invites us, in which we are ‘priests of the whole of creation’. The vision of the human person that should prevail in a Christian school is rooted in a Christian anthropology.

7. Students come into a Christian school and they are discipled … Schools should think more self-consciously about what it means for students to be baptised students, wearing the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the classroom (42:00) Character formation and appeals to the student are based on the fact that they belong to Jesus Christ and they are claimed by Jesus Christ (45:35)

8. Leithart describes various rituals that form students outwith the school and argues that a Christian school should be active in creating alternative rituals that will form students into another way of being. Baptism, he says, is “the ground for the educational formation of the students” and the Christian school’s rituals should reinforce the Baptismal identity of students.

9. The goal of Christian education is to form students who love Jesus Christ and His Father in the Spirit. (45:35)

10. Points for Reflection  What does it mean to ‘belong to Jesus Christ’? What does a baptised student look like as opposed to one who has not been baptised?  Is the goal of forming disciples explicitly expressed in your school mission statement and how successful would you say your school is in achieving it? Have you begun to use Developing in Faith to explore this?  What barriers do you see in forming students to be disciples of the Lord?

11. 2. School Rituals The appreciation of the impact of students’ rituals outside the classroom, such as shopping, choice of clothing, etc, reflects current thinking on education which recognises learning environments outside the classroom. The school is only one of many places where children learn and are formed, only one place in which their identity is discovered and expressed. Leithart highlights the importance of ritualised action in both forming students into an identity and in expressing that identity. Of the United States of America and the pageant surrounding the national sport he says: “The Superbowl expresses who we are as a nation”, (20.10).

12. Embedded in a traditional education are already practices and habits, or liturgies that inform practices and habits, that resist the dominate culture around us … What you’re doing in the classroom is not simply imparting information, but your training the students in certain habits of life … That’s as important to the students as the information they’re getting, learning those habits through the liturgy of the classroom. (39:50)

13. The repetitive, routine nature of so much of our lives is not something that inhibits us but rather something that liberates us. The sense of security that comes with the predictability of life is what allows us to explore the new with confidence.

14. Ritualised actions are – they actually free us, and ritualised actions, liturgical actions in this broad sense, free us and form us to love certain things, and when we do these rites and rituals together to love things in common. (9.50)

15. Points for Reflection  Identify the daily, weekly, termly and annual rituals that underpin the life of your school. Reflect on their impact on the life of the school, on staff and students. In what way do they express the identity of the school?  In what way does your school challenge or reinforce what students are learning from the other influences in their lives?  Are your school rituals consistently followed such as to provide a solid foundation that frees students to engage fully in their learning and formation?  Could/should any of these rituals be changed and what impact would this have on the school?

16. 3. Liturgy and Prayer in the School While Peter Leithart’s thought might be useful for any school to reflect on, he is primarily addressing Christian educators and so naturally turns to the liturgy of prayer and worship within a school setting. He recognises that Sacred Liturgy arises from our baptismal identity and so is an important expression of it. The rituals of prayer and worship should be, indeed are, integral to the life of a Christian school. The Sacred Liturgy, especially Holy Mass is, according to the mind of the Church, the source and summit of all that we do (cf. Sacrostanctum Concilium). It is the highpoint of our Christian life in which we offer ourselves, all that we are and do, to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. It is where we are the ‘priest of creation’.

17. [Christian worship] should be part of the cycle of school... A serious act of Christian worship... It should be seen as – and promoted as - the central act that brings the whole educational process to its pinnacle because this is where we act as priest of creation in offering ourselves and our minds and everything we’re doing and everything we are to Jesus Christ in worship. (44.30)

18. As with all ritualised behaviour, the Sacred Liturgy, prayer and worship, not only express a Christian identity, they form us in it. Praying is the best way to learn how to pray; hearing the Word of God, encountering the Lord in the Sacraments, is how we open ourselves to his grace and allow Him to shape us, to configure us to Himself. Formation in our identity as the Baptised takes place in and leads to the encounter with the Blessed Trinity in prayer, both personal and communal.

19. The Liturgy is the best liturgy to shape students in the school, that is, Christian worship, that is chapel … There should be a liturgical, a chapel like, structure to the classroom: each class beginning in prayer. (43.55)

20. Points for Reflection  Identify the prayer routines of the school, daily, weekly, and beyond. Consider their impact on the life of the school.  In what way would you see the prayer life of the school as contributing to: a) the formation of students b) the vocation of staff c) the life of the school  In what way is the prayer life and liturgical life of the school integrated into everything else that happens such that it becomes true expression of the identity of the school?