eCatechist

The Family Is the First Great Educational Institution by Gabriel Moran

The first educational form is the family. In many ways, the most important educational period in life is the first few years. A person's direction in life is largely set in infancy and early childhood. The most important teachers for most people are their parents. Even after childhood, family connections remain powerful educational influences . People participate in family education not only as a child but as a parent and then as a grandparent. The family in the context of other communal groups is the first great educational institution.

p. 220 - 221 Missed Opportunities: Rethinking Catholic Tradition by Gabriel Moran

 

For Reflection and Action:

In what ways can your programs assist and resource parents in the first five years of the life of the child?

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The Gospels as Catechetical Documents

The Gospels were not written to convert outsiders but as catechetical documents to deepen the faith of those who have already committed themselves to Jesus and his community by adopting his vision the world, his values for living in it and the vocation to continue his mission of bringing the Good News to others.

p. 2 So What's the Good News?

The Dailiness of the Christian Faith by Tish Harrison Warren

The kind of spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive and ordinary.

I often want to skip the boring daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith.

But it is in the dailiness of the Christian faith - the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small - that God's transformation takes root and grows.

p. 35 Liturgy of the Ordinary

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

The Goal of the Parish by Joe Paprocki

The goal of a parish is not to get more people in the pews but to get the people who are in the pews to go forth and transform the world.

The purpose of going to church  is to be nourished and equipped to go forth  - to be sent - which is why we call our Catholic worship the Mass: it comes from the Latin word missa, which means "sent."

Let's be sure that we are sending Catholics into the world fully equipped with practices that enable them to be transformed and to transform the world they engage.

p. 35 A Church on the Move: 52 Ways to Get Mission and Mercy in Motion by Joe Paprocki. Loyola Press.

A Church on the Move

 

Catholic Social Teaching: The Eighth Principle by Dr. David O'Brien

On the night of the first day of the new Eden, the risen Christ appeared to the disciples, stood in their midst and spoke the words of resurrection fulfillment: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19). Peace.

What does peace mean today: quiet, untroubled relaxation in an idyllic setting; a personal sense of integration and meaning in one’s life? Yes, that is an attractive description of peace that many in our Church and nation desire today.

But what about peace among us and between us? What about peace in our world and peace for the world? Did Jesus’ greeting of peace have anything to do with the world we live in?

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The Resurrection of the Lord by Kathy McGovern (The Story and You)

My Lenten resolution this year was to use less water―to take shorter showers, and to be more mindful of the water I waste. A thousand miles away, and without our talking about it, my sister chose the same fast, but each day as she ended her too-short shower she added a prayer for someone, known or unknown to her, who needed an extra-loving boost of grace that day.

God, who is not confined by time and space, answered her prayers and those of billions before and after her. On that Easter morning, God gave all creation, for all time, an “extra-loving boost of grace.”

Easter, not Good Friday, is the center of God’s heart. God did not make death. God made life, and gave it to us, pressed down and overflowing, exactly as our Easter altars express it today. Gorgeous colors, heavenly fragrances, new life bursting from the cold winter graves―this is our God, singing our souls out of their hard shells and saying, “Partner with me, love and protect my stunning world, and I will show you the Risen One in the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands.”

Jesus did not need an empty tomb in order to break the chains of death. He who calmed the sea and cast out demons did not need a rolled-away stone in order to be in glory. His resurrected body was for the sake of those who, confined by time and space, needed a bodily Jesus, raised from the dead and eating and drinking with them. Those of us who were not the eyewitnesses need not feel left out; we know where to find our Risen Lord.

In what radiant parts of your life do you find our Risen Jesus?

Kathy McGovern ©2017 www.thestoryandyou.com

Chemical Weapon Attack in Syria

 

More than 70 people, including at least 10 children, were killed in a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria on Tuesday. Hundreds have been injured. This is the deadliest chemical weapons attack the country has seen in years, and it comes in the same week international leaders are meeting for peace talks.

God of peace, we lift up our prayers to you once again for an end to the conflict in Syria. We pray for the vulnerable and desperate people there; come quickly to protect them. We pray that we might see you at work—through government officials, negotiations and peace talks, economic and political pressure—to bring peace in Syria.

From the Christian Reformed Church, Office of Social Justice

http://justice.crcna.org

Planning for Success in Catechesis by Daniel S. Mulhall

I was recently talking with a friend who was in the midst of developing a curriculum for high school age students. He mentioned that his starting point was the high school framework the bishops created in 2008. Having worked on the high school framework while on the staff at the USCCB, I know them quite well and like them very much. My words to him may have come as a surprise: “Don’t start with the framework. They are a means to accomplish a goal. First, determine your goal, and then decide how you will use the framework to accomplish your goal.”

I believe that many of our problems in catechesis occur because we fail to identify our goals well, and not because of the lack of money, human resources, time, or quality materials. If we can be clear on our goals, then we can determine how to best use the resources we have available in accomplishing those goals.

Here are two examples of meaningful goals:

(1) In the front matter of the High School Framework the US Bishops state that the goal of the document is to bring adolescents into discipleship with Jesus Christ.

(2) The General Directory for Catechesis says the goal of all catechesis is to help people to develop an intimate relationship with Christ and the Church.

If you start with either of these goals you can then start to plan by working backwards, asking these questions (and in this order): What life experiences, faith experiences, and knowledge will young people need at each grade/level in order to become disciples/fall in love with Christ and the Church? What is the role of the Church in insuring that young people have these experiences and gain this knowledge? What resources do I have that can help to make these experiences/knowledge happen well? (Hint: this is where the framework comes into the picture.) How will I evaluate the successfulness of my efforts? When you have answered all of these questions, then you can start to put the individual steps of your plan together.

A few suggestions:

(1) Think systemically and developmentally—recognize that you can’t accomplish everything at once. Accomplish one thing well before moving on to something else.

(2) Be intentional—know what you want to accomplish for everything you do.

(3) Evaluate constantly—don’t wait for the end of a process or program to fix problems. If you aren’t accomplishing what you intended, change what you are doing.

Daniel S. Mulhall continues to work with RCL Benziger. He is the author of Let the Lord Build the House: 8 Steps to Successful Pastoral Planing by Twenty - Third Publications