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Growing as a Catechist: A Practical Guide - $5.00

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Are you a catechist looking for inspiration, or for a quick reminder about why you are doing what you are doing? Are you looking for resources to grow in your own faith or ministry? Or are you simply looking for a practical idea to implement today, right now? This booklet is for you.

Growing as a Catechist: A Practical Guide (38 pages) offers thoughts, inspiration, reflection, and practical ideas you can use today in your catechetical ministry. Our hope is that this Guide becomes a “go-to” addition to your catechetical toolbox--that supports you in your ministry to children, and encourages you in your own adventure of discipleship. God bless!

Daniel J. Pierson was the director of religious education for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids for seventeen years. He has worked with religious publishers in areas of product development, marketing, and sales. He is the founder and editor of eCatechist.com and FaithAliveBooks.com

Susan Stark has worked in Catholic ministry at the parish, diocesan, and national levels. Currently she contributes to the creative development, writing, and editing of print and Web-based educational curriculums and resources for major Catholic religious education publishing companies. She and her husband live in San Diego, CA. They are the parents of four children, and grandparents of three.

Susan and Dan are the authors of Reflections from Pope Francis: An Invitation to Journaling, Prayer, and Action. (Tarcher/Penguin, Feb. 2015). The book invites people into a spiritual reflection process that places the predominant themes of Pope Francis and of Sacred Scripture—such as mercy, peace, forgiveness, and hope—into conversation with their own life experiences and faith journeys. “Anyone accepting the invitation to journal with Pope Francis will be enriched” (Bishop Robert Morneau, Auxilary Bishop Emeritus of Green Bay).

Endorsement: The Diocese of Victoria, TX purchased 500 copies of Growing as a Catechist: A Practical Guide, which they will give as gifts to all the catechists who attend the Diocesan Catechist Rallies in July and August.

The Way of Catechesis: Exploring Our History, Renewing Our Ministry by Gerard F. Baumbach

A weekly online book discussion 

June 20  

Chapter 1: Our Journey on the Way of Catechesis - Online Discussion - Join the Discussion

June 27

Chapter 2: Rooting the Journey: Some Old Testament Foundations - Join the Discussion

July 4

Chapter 3: Identifying the Way: Jesus Christ, Teacher and Catechist - Join the Discussion

July 11

Chapter 4: Marking the Way: New Testament and the Emerging Church - Join the Discussion

July 18

Chapter 5: Framing the Way: The Church and the Catechumenate - Join the Discussion

July 25

Chapter 6: Spanning the Way: Catechesis through the Middle Ages - Join the Discussion

August 1

Chapter 7: Sustaining the Way: Fracture and Reform - Join the Discussion

August 8

Chapter 8: Reigniting the Way: Catechesis Bridging a Millennium - Join the Discussion

My goal in this work is to foster a catechesis rooted in its own history while continuing to grow in fresh and invigorating ways, especially at a time of "New Evangelization." A natural paradigm is the exploration of catechesis in the life of the contemporary Church in light of some of our historical foundations. Awareness of these foundations affords us the opportunity to employ life lessons derived by our forebears as we catechize and evangelize today.

From the Preface

 

For additional information, author biography, table of contents and to order, visit

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Discount: 25% on orders using the following Promo Code: WAY17

 

Online Discussion: Beginning June 20, 2017 eCatechist.com will select a chapter. Those wishing to comment and discuss are invited to link to Padlet, where they can post a comment or respond to a question.

Padlet is a digital bulletin board that works like a piece of paper. It makes it easy for people to share ideas and collaborate. Padlet is used by teachers, students, professionals, and individuals of all ages, all around the world.

One Each Week: Each of the eight chapters of The Way of Catechesis will have its own Padlet. One each week. Just click on the link and then post your comments. 

Facilitator: Daniel Thomas will serve as facilitator. Each week he will post a summary of the reading material with one or two questions for reflection. Thomas served for over 30 years as a parish director of religious education in the Dayton, OH area. He was writer for "Catechist Magazine" and book reviewer for "Catechetical Leader,"  the official publication of the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.

 

 

Theology in a Nutshell: God - God Is Good by Steve Mueller

5. God Is Good

God’s creative work reveals much about who God is and what God is trying to accomplish. Creation proclaims the kind of person God is. When God brings into being the variety of creatures and orders them, God is very pleased and recognizes how good everything is.

         But goodness is not just a description of the things God creates. It also describes the one who is doing this good action. Goodness means wanting the best for the other person in a relationship. Everything God does reveals how much God wants the universe to exist as a perfect network of rightly ordered relationships. God puts everything in its right place so all creatures can live in harmony just as God desires.

         One indication of God’s desire for the good of creation is how carefully God prepares the world as a hospitable rather than a hostile place for the human beings. God prepares a “garden” (Gen 2:8) for them to live in. Since a garden does not occur naturally but requires a lot of planning and effort to create and maintain, the idea of a garden suggests God’s loving care to provide a suitable place for humans to live, survive and succeed.

         For more, see CCC, #293–94.

Theology in a Nutshell: God - God Wants to Love Us by Steve Mueller

4. God Wants to Love Us

If we wonder why God reveals God’s divine hidden self to us, the answer is that God wants to love us and be in a relationship with us. When we discover someone with whom we want to be in a relationship, we entrust our self to them through our words and our actions. So likewise, everything God says and does is aimed at entering into a relationship with us, then maintaining and nurturing that relationship by being with us and acting for us.

         The story of God’s relationship with us begins with creation, which is the first moment in God’s relationship with us. From a religious perspective, creation is not just a way of describing how things started, the way scientists talk about the “big bang,” but rather an affirmation of how and why a relationship started at all. Just as parental love generates a child, so God’s love brings into being the whole natural environment that will be the arena in which the drama of our relationship with God will be played out. So we must consider the biblical accounts of creation (Gen 1–2) to discover who God is and what God was trying to accomplish through creation.

         For more, see CCC, #32, 290–92.

Theology in a Nutshell: God - God's Many Names by Steve Mueller

 

3. God’s Many Names

Just as we have many names to describe persons in their relations—parent, spouse, child, sister, brother, worker, team member, etc.––so we have many names for God. These names identify the many ways that we experience and relate to God. In reality, God is a holy mystery, that is, a sacred reality that is so profound that all of our attempts to capture this mystery in concepts, words or doctrines is never exhaustive. Each name points to a partial truth. Since we affirm that God is a personal reality, we come up with names for God by analogy (showing two things as somehow both similar and different) with human persons like ourselves.

         In particular, since we experience God as the creator, the one who as St. Paul says “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17), we describe God as a nurturing parent, like a father and mother who for us are the source and loving sustainers of our life. So as God’s children, we call upon God to provide for us (“Give us this day our daily bread”) and protect us (“deliver us from evil”).

         For more, see CCC, #42, 239, 370.

Note:

Like many other catechists, are you suffering from TDD--Theology Deficit Disorder?

Would it help if you could get a brief, understandable explanation of some of the basic Christian theological beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Salvation History, the Church, and the Sacraments? 

Theology in a Nutshell provides a basic foundation for your understanding of Catholic belief and practice. 

Over thirteen weeks, we will post entries from the first category, “God.” The series is written by Steve Mueller, Ph.D, the author of The Catechist’s Guide to Reading the Bible Series, published by www.faithAlivebooks.com.