There is a focus in the church today on adult faith formation that may seem new to us. But faith formation is an ancient practice. What is new are the conscious efforts being made by parishes and dioceses to provide formation opportunities for adults.

These opportunities are needed because such significant changes have occurred within families and parish communities in the last 50 years.

The term "adult faith formation" itself may seem new. It often is used now instead of the more familiar "adult religious education" for clarity. Adult religious education may bring to mind images of instruction, lectures and classrooms, while adult faith formation includes instruction, but also provides many other types of opportunities for people to grow and mature in faith.

As you know, the word "faith" can mean the religious beliefs we live by, the internal commitment we make to those beliefs, the gift from God that allows us to accept the beliefs as true and the actions we take to live committed lives guided by those beliefs.

And we can grow in faith by learning new things about our beliefs, by becoming closer to God through them and by making them the guiding principles by which we live.

Our faith is shaped by many factors, including our relationships with other people, how we experience God acting in our lives, the decisions we make and the consequences of those decisions. Three factors that influence our faith lives greatly are: (1) what the church believes and teaches; (2) the beliefs and practices of our extended family; and (3) the beliefs and practices of our parish community. These factors are all necessary, interrelated and intertwined.

While the church has offered more formal instruction for its young members for millennia, most adult formation opportunities happened informally and sporadically within normal family and parish activities. Through the loving interaction that took place between people in extended families and in close parish communities we learned to respect others, to care for the poor, to heal the sick, to show compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Formal instruction didn't continue for most people after childhood because they had learned the basic beliefs of the church. Because the basics didn't change, there was little need to teach them again. The beliefs were reinforced continually during the never-ending formation process that occurred in family and parish life.

In a time of strong extended families and close parish communities, we learned what it meant to be Catholic from the wisdom and actions of others. We learned through word and deed to choose right from wrong, to play fair and to make moral choices.

Our identities as people of faith were shaped by their expectations and the pressures those expectations placed upon us. As we moved from adolescence into adulthood, we learned what it meant to be a Catholic adult by watching how decisions were made and eventually being included in making those decisions.

Sadly, much of the formation that once happened in families and parishes no longer does. Because of changes in society, parishes lost much of this former sense of community.

How often is serious conversation about important issues affecting faith and life a part of today's parish life? Once parishes were the settings for discussions on labor rights, political candidates and causes, and issues such as prohibition and gambling. But parishes no longer tend to serve that role, perhaps out of fear of offending a potential donor or losing their tax-exempt status.

And family members have become extended across great distances, robbing them of much of their influence and ability to shape our lives. When familial bonds are weakened by distance, family values and attitudes lose their potential to shape and reinforce attitudes and behavior.

The church is concerned about adult faith formation today because it recognizes that unless it intentionally offers opportunities to help adults understand what Catholics believe and shows them how Catholics act, other voices and forces within the culture will influence them to believe and act outside the faith.

Adults today face issues that our ancestors never confronted. Furthermore, they confront those issues without the strong family and parish ties that they once had.

Through adult faith formation we can provide people with correct information about these issues, offer them opportunities to have serious discussions guided by faith, pray together for guidance and wisdom, and be public witnesses to Catholic belief and behavior.

If it is going to happen now, it will happen because we make it happen. I conclude that we must plan for and make AFF an intentional part of church life. We must, as the General Directory for Catechesis, a Vatican document, says, give adult faith formation the best of our resources.

Daniel S. Mulhall is assistant secretary for catechesis and inculturation in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Education Secretariat.