Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald staff
The Diocese of Superior’s fifth annual Homeschool Conference was hosted at St. Joseph Church in Rice Lake on Saturday, Sept. 26. Of the two dozen participants, most were married couples from the Rice Lake area.
Organizer Loree Nauertz, associate director of Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship, was pleased to have Gina Loehr return as the keynote speaker. Loehr presented at the inaugural conference in 2021.
“She offers such a real perspective on the joys and challenges of discipleship,” Nauertz commented. “Her presentations offered great insights, not just to those who God has called to homeschool, but for all those who are seeking the Lord. She went back to the basics of discipleship, asking us to consistently reflect on and pray with, ‘Where is God at in my life, and where is he calling me?’”
Knowing that Catholics who feel called to homeschool are striving to live out Catholic ideals and pass them on to their children, Nauertz echoed Loehr’s consideration, “How do we maintain our ideals in a culture that doesn’t support us?’”
“Renewable resources” was Loehr’s given answer. Her two talks—“Marriage as the School of Sanctity” and “Turning Water into Wine: Lessons at Cana”—identified and encouraged finding those resource in the grace God gives in the seven Sacraments.
‘School of Sanctity: Learning while we teach’
In her first presentation, Loehr quoted Pope St. John Paul II, who called married life a “school of self-perfection.”
“Even as we strive to teach our children,” she added, “we have a magnificent opportunity to learn about ourselves and our relationship with God through our marriage and family life.”
The talk explored the intrinsic power of sacramental marriage and how it can help spouses flourish both as parents and teachers.
Paulo Veronese’s painting, “The Wedding Feast at Cana,” was a visual aid throughout the day. While children are a blessing and gift from God, they are not a sacrament, a visible sign of God’s invisible grace, as is marriage.
She also quoted Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Canubii: “The grace of matrimony will remain for the most part an unused talent hidden in the field unless the parties exercise these supernatural powers and cultivate and develop the seeds of grace they have received.”
Loehr openly talked about the sacrifices and crosses that life, married and family life in particular, entail. They are “what we need to use to grow in trust in the Lord,” she affirmed.
Encouraging parents to be honest about the mysterious and difficult nature of crosses, Loehr also advised not wallowing in pity or being a “martyr mom.” We can use our sufferings for good when we seek God in each present moment, allowing him to be the only one who knows and understands the big picture.
Images from Loehr’s life as a farmer’s wife came naturally: cultivate and fertilize. She reminded parents that they have control over what they allow into their families and what they keep out.
“There are many other components that we cannot control … like the sun and rain,” Loehr emphasized, and we are not fully responsible for the fruit. We must do what we can and trust the rest to God.
She described homeschooling as a path to holiness for parents as much as it is a path of education for the children.
Reflections were offered to ponder on as a couple and long after the conference. How is homeschooling making us better parents, spouses and Catholics? Can we kiss our daily crosses as we venerate Christ’s cross on Good Friday?
Mass was celebrated by Fr. Dan Tracy before lunch was served to the group. It was the memorial of the brother Ss. Cosmas and Damian who were martyred for their faith in Christ. The homily encouraged parents to find consolation in God more than in their own good deeds. He offered the martyrs as living witness of virtue’s culmination—choosing eternal life in God over this world.
‘Lessons from Cana: Turning water into wine’
Loehr’s second talk focused more completely on the Scriptural account of the Wedding at Cana and other Gospel stories.
Through the miracle at the Wedding of Cana and other miraculous moments, Loehr showed that Jesus teaches very important truths about the mission of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers.
Pointing out the “high ideals” homeschooling parents set for themselves and their family, she applauded the aspiration but also admonished not getting too disappointed when they aren’t reached. She noted how “crazy” the secular world sees many of the ideals to which dedicated Christian parents hold fast, and the exhaustion that can result.
“The wine of Cana seems a good metaphor for a renewable resource for families, marriages and homeschooling parents,” Loehr said.
Imaginatively contemplating the scene, she pointed out that the newly married were at their lowest point, completely vulnerable and depleted. What Jesus asked for wasn’t something they couldn’t give—nothing more than the water that was available.
“Take that stuff you have… whatever that is, as invaluable and insignificant as that is,” Loehr imagined Christ telling the couple, telling her listeners. “Fill the jugs with that to the brim.” What you have, she said, “That is the stuff that God wants to transform … Don’t tell him, Lord, this is all I’ve got; but Lord, this is what I have, and I bring it to you to consecrate.”
She spoke of prayer as the complete interweaving of our relationship with God with daily life, in all its messiness and surrender. Loehr said that acknowledging our unbelief to God is just as, if not more, important than assenting to our belief in him and his omnipotence.
Loehr offer a prayer formula she calls “Prepositional Prayer: pray about it, pray over it, prayer through it.”
Then leading the parents through other Scripture passages where Jesus encountered parents and children in need, the speaker once again encouraged prayer is sincere enough to recognize its lacking.
“We don’t have to be in a perfect place for prayers to be effective,” she said. “Lord, ‘help my unbelief’ is a prayer we can all pray, need to pray, at any moment.”
Offering concrete ways to weave the action and contemplation that make up an interior life, Loehr spoke briefly about lectio divina as a “good place to start. God is always speaking to us – in circumstances, in the sacraments and our hearts, but absolutely through the Scriptures.” She said, when we feel like he’s not speaking, it’s more often that we’re not in the right listening mindset.
She highlighted the necessity of forgiveness to pave the way and cultivate the heart’s “soil” for prayer. She also spoke about the need for spouses to be supportive and understanding.
“Our unity doesn’t always look like we’re doing the same things,” she referenced different but complementary roles and duties. “As spouses we have to be doing both things all the time – caring for the bodily needs of the family … but also bringing Jesus into the home.”
Making a morning offering to consecrate the day together, examining the day’s successes and failings, and prioritizing one hour of silent prayer per spouse were three concrete suggestions Loehr gave parents.
“What we live and what we show to our children is so much more important than checking off an academic checklist,” she concluded.
Loehr ended quoting Pope St. Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than he does to teachers, and if he listens to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
In her closing comments, Nauertz iterated that being Catholic “does not mean being perfect, but it does mean knowing where to turn” for God’s perfecting grace.
One couple’s takeaways
Lauren and Patrick Finnegan, parents to three small children, who are discerning a possible call to homeschool, found the conference “very beneficial.”
The content’s focus on marriage made the day feel like a marriage retreat for Lauren.
“Gina’s point that marriage is a school for self-perfection” stood out to her. “Marriage, and even choosing to homeschool, can be a path to holiness for us. Our children are learning and we are as well. The crosses of each day are the lesson plans that God gives us as parents.”
For her husband, “One of my big takeaways was the beauty of embracing our crosses, choosing them, and loving them in the midst of our lives. Embracing the daily challenges of our lives as the ‘lesson plans’ God has given to me for the day.”
Another was “the importance of staying in the present moment, not being overly concerned about the fruit to be borne in the future or dwelling in the past. We only have control over the cultivation … With our children, living the present day, hour, and moment with them, rather than getting caught in the ‘weeds’” of wondering about God’s bigger picture is where focus is needed.
Nauertz, a mother of six and now grandmother of five, expressed her gratitude to those who helped with childcare, Mary Alice Larson and Gail Librande, who oversaw several teens who offered their services for the day.
She was thankful to everyone who took the time on a beautiful fall day to “journey together… It’s always great to come together with the people of our diocese who are striving to live out our Catholic faith in whatever way God is calling them.”
Gina Loehr
