Inaugural Issue of The Catechetical Review

January - March 2015
INAUGURAL ISSUE
Lead Article: What is the New Evangelization
by Ralph Martin

How do we teach them to
be disciples of Jesus
...by echoing God’s own way of teaching us.
This is called
the Divine Pedagogy.
Introducing the first and only catechetical
series built upon, and uniquely aligned with,
all five aspects of the Divine Pedagogy.
…and the first and only catechetical series
that forms children in the process of
listening for God’s voice in his Word…
leading them to understand and live a
life of discipleship!
NEW!
Alive in Christ Bilingual
Available in 2015
RELIGION CURRICULUM
Parish • School • Bilingual
Visit aliveinchrist.osv.com/aicinfo for more information
and ORDER your FREE Comprehensive Review Kit today!
Call 800.348.2440 ext. 2173
CatecheticalRev_AIC_Ad_Jan_15-vr1.indd 1
11/3/14 2:48 PM

Contents
Features
Vol. 1 No. 1
Editor: James Pauley, STD
Managing Editor: Colleen Rainone
Designer/Printer: St. Martin de Porres
Lay Dominican Community
Publisher: Franciscan University of Steubenville
President: Fr. Sean O. Sheridan, TOR
VP for Academic Affairs: Dr. Daniel Kempton
Chair of Theology: Fr. Daniel Pattee, TOR
Copyright© 2015, Franciscan University of
Steubenville
The Catechetical Review (ISSN 2375-0642)
is published quarterly January, April, July,
and October for $28.00 ($38.00 outside the
U.S.) per year by Franciscan University of
Steubenville, 1235 University Blvd.,
Steubenville, OH 43952.
See website for bulk and multi-year pricing.
Subscriptions: Mail subscription orders to
The Catechetical Review, 1235 University Blvd,
Steubenville, OH 43952; subscribe online
at Catechetics.com; call 866-538-7426. Free
downloadable sample issue available on website.
Editorial Contributions: Editorial submissions
should have a clear catechetical focus and run
approximately 800-1500 words on average.
Longer articles are accepted, but may need
to be broken into parts. Submissions for
“Encountering God in Catechesis” department
should only be 150-600 words. Email digital
Word documents along with a brief biographical
statement to: editor@catechetics.com.
Upcoming Themes:
April-June 2015: Christ our Hope
Submission deadline: December 15, 2014
July-August 2015: Catechesis and Culture
Submission deadline: March 1, 2015
October-December 2015:
The Liturgical Encounter
Submission deadline: June 1, 2015
January-March 2016: The Desire for God
Submission Deadline: October 1, 2015
Inquiries: call 740-283-6235 or
email office@catechetics.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles
do not necessarily represent those of the
publisher. Paid advertisements for products and
services within The Catechetical Review should not
be viewed as endorsements from the publisher.
6 What is the New Evangelization
By Ralph Martin
8
A Sanctuary in Time
By André Villeneuve
11 Moving toward a Catechesis of Encounter
By Peter Murphy
12 The Vision of Pope Francis for Catechesis
By Gerard O’Shea
14 Creating Conditions that Favor
the Conversion of the Baptized
By Carole Brown
18 SERIES:
The Catechism & the New Evangelization
Gathering the Fragments
By Petroc Willey
35 Theology of the Body
for the New Evangelization, Part 1
By Katrina Zeno
39 A New Approach to
Children’s Catechesis
By Sr. Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, OP
Art Credits for this issue
Cover: ©L’Osservatore Romano
Page 19: Photo of Loaves & Fish Mosaic by Nick Thompson (Flickr)
Page 25: ©Mazur: catholicnews.org.uk
Page 30: Holy Scriptures ©Charles Shapiro-dreamstimefree
Page 31: “Dwarfed” photo by Nick Thompson (Flickr)
Page 32: Adapted photo of adoration by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP (Flickr)
Page 37: Our Lady of Lourdes stain glass by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP (Flickr)
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 3

Contents
Departments
5 Editor’s Reflections
James Pauley
20 Inspired through Art
Paula Thelen
25 From the Shepherds
Pope Francis
26 The Spiritual Life
Fr. Jean-François Lefebvre
29 Children’s Catechesis
Joseph White
31 Youth & Young Adult Ministry
Jim Beckman
33 RCIA & Adult Faith Formation
R. Jared Staudt
37 Encountering God in Catechesis
Testimonies from Catechists
Make the most of your subscription to The Catechetical Review!
Visit Catechetics.com for accompanying online resources.
⇒ Search, download, and print current and back issue articles to share in faith formation settings
⇒ Use the web links to works of art on any computer projection technology to teach the faith or to
use as a focal point for prayer
⇒ Spanish translations “on demand” available; request translation if the article has not already been
translated
⇒ Free to Non-subscribers: “Other Resources” tab lists links for Scripture, Official Church Teaching,
Family Catechesis (includes interactive family catechism) and more…absolutely free! Bookmark
our homepage and save yourself multiple Google searches
⇒ Order additional catechetical books and DVDs available through our website
Request a complimentary copy or subscribe today
at Catechetics.com or call 866-538-7426
Single Subscription United States International
1 year $28.00 $38.00
2 year $46.00 $66.00
3 year $60.00 $72.00
1 year Bulk Subscription United States International
2-9 subscriptions $23.00 per subscription $33.00 per subscription
10-29 subscriptions $20.00 per subscription $28.00 per subscription
30 + subscriptions $16.00 per subscription $24.00 per subscription
Multi-year bulk pricing is listed on the website under the “Subscribe” tab. Visa/Discover/MasterCard accepted, and please make
sure the billing address on your subscription matches the billing address of your credit card. You may also print off an invoice in
the check out process and mail it in with payment. Make check/money order payable to Franciscan University in US dollars only,
and mail to The Catechetical Review, Franciscan University, 1235 University Blvd., Steubenville, OH 43952.
4 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Editor’s Reflections
Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization
James Pauley
Welcome to Franciscan University’s new
catechetical journal! As we commemorate
the twentieth anniversary of the founding
of our academic Catechetics program,
we offer this quarterly journal to the wider catechetical
community. It is this generous community and those they
serve who are particularly integral to the Church’s hope
for carrying out Christ’s missionary mandate:
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, until the end of the
age (Mt. 19-20).
Jesus’ “Great Commission” to the nascent Church has
echoed down to each generation through the grace of God
and the responsiveness of many faithful disciples. Catechists
in particular embrace the responsibility to teach the fullness
of the faith and to invite others into the joy of life in
Christ. The catechist does not carry out this mission alone,
however; we know that in this sacred ecclesial activity of
passing on the teaching of Christ, the Lord Jesus himself
is mysteriously present and at work. In catechesis, not only
do we communicate his teaching, but he also meets us in
a profound, divine encounter. How is this so I’d like to
suggest two particular ways the catechetical encounter
with Christ unfolds.
First, substantial experiences of prayer within catechesis
become possibilities for genuine contact with God. Coming
face-to-face with God not only happens when we go on
retreat, join a prayer group, participate in the sacraments,
or give of ourselves to another in need. Such a meeting
also happens in the catechetical setting anytime prayer from
the heart is cultivated. Five or even ten minutes of quality
prayer may be the most important moments of a catechesis.
It becomes an experience of hearing and responding to
Christ who “stands at the door and knocks” (cf. Rev. 3:20).
If those we teach prayerfully enter into genuine contact
with God in these opening minutes, a deep desire for God
subsequently arises. Cooperation with the ever-present
grace of Christ throughout the catechesis becomes more
likely. Those initial moments of communion with the Lord
are, in fact, unparalleled in their impact upon the receptivity
and responsiveness of everyone present—including
the catechist.
Second, catechesis itself is profoundly centered on
Christ. Pope St. John Paul II identified the catechist so
intimately with the Divine Teacher and the content of
catechesis so closely with the Mystery of Christ that he
was able to say: “in catechesis it is Christ, the Incarnate
Word and Son of God, who is taught – everything else
is taught with reference to Him – and it is Christ alone
who teaches – anyone else teaches to the extent that he
is Christ’s spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with
his lips.” 1 Catechetical participants encounter Christ,
therefore, because in a mysterious way they are hearing
Christ speak and meeting him in the content of catechesis.
Catechists, then, must be heralds of the Good News, communicating
the Deposit of Faith that has been entrusted
to the Church by Christ himself. This responsibility
entrusted to the catechist is so sacred and significant,
that the task of catechesis is considered by the Church
to be a vocation. 2 The catechist is called to this work by
God, and this work of communicating Christ is a sure
path to holiness.
And so, in and through the catechetical act, a transformative
encounter with Christ is always possible. Catechesis
then becomes an opportunity for deep conversion of mind
and heart, intellect, and will. Unquestionably such a conversion
of those being catechized is integral to the actualization
of the New Evangelization.
This conviction of Christ’s presence within catechesis
is so fundamental to the mission of this journal
that it includes the department, “Encountering God in
Catechesis,” as a platform for our readers to give witness
to the presence of God and the working of grace in the
catechetical endeavor. We hope that such accounts of
how God moves and works in catechesis will inspire
and teach us all how to be more attuned to his grace,
his unmistakable presence, in this work of bringing the
Good News to those we teach.
As Franciscan University launches The Catechetical
Review, we hope that it assists catechetical leaders spiritually,
academically, and pastorally as they fulfill their great
commission. The Catechetical Review will provide penetrating
reflections from experts all over the world on issues
impacting the vital work of communicating the Good
News, for the sake of better equipping catechists to reach
today’s generation with the saving truth of Christ our Lord.
We look forward to working with you, hearing from
you, and serving you in this exciting new endeavor.
Dr. James Pauley is associate professor of Theology and Catechetics
at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Notes
1. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1979), art. 6.
2. Cf. Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis (Washington:
USCCB Publishing, 1997), art. 33.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 5

Lead Feature
What is the
New Evangelization
By Ralph Martin
The stated focus of The Catechetical Review is:
Communicating Christ for a New
Evangelization. For its inaugural issue, I thought
it fitting to give a clear answer to a question
often asked by many, even in catechetical circles, “What
exactly is the new evangelization”
Some Background
The Council Fathers of Vatican II placed significant
emphasis on evangelization, as is evident in the
published documents that followed. In fact, when
the post-conciliar popes describe the fundamental
purpose of Vatican II, they often describe it as renewal
for the sake of evangelization. At its heart, this renewal
is actualized through understanding and living the
universal call to holiness. As Gaudium et Spes puts it:
Although by the power of the Holy Spirit the
Church will remain the faithful spouse of her
Lord and will never cease to be the sign of salvation
on earth, still she is very well aware that
among her members, both clerical and lay, some
have been unfaithful to the Spirit of God during
the course of many centuries…led by the Holy
Spirit, Mother Church unceasingly exhorts her
sons to purify and renew themselves so that the
sign of Christ can shine more brightly on the face
of the Church (43).
Following a period of radical decline in the traditional
missionary work of the Church, Pope Paul VI tried to refocus
our attention on the centrality of evangelization in his
1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. In 1990,
John Paul II published his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio, to
reinvigorate the Church’s work of evangelization both in its
traditional missionary settings and in something he referred
to as “new evangelization” or “re-evangelization” (RM, 33).
Pope Benedict XVI institutionalized the Church’s focus
on the new evangelization by establishing a new curial
office, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the
New Evangelization. This office has also been charged with
the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
showing the strong link between evangelization and catechesis.
He also dedicated the 2012 Synod of Bishops to
the theme of New Evangelization. Pope Francis continues
this theme in Evangelii Gaudium, passionately calling the
whole Church to move out and share the Good News. He
asks, “What are we waiting for” (120)
Conversion: The Core
of Evangelization
Before we turn our attention to what’s new about the new
evangelization, let’s pause for a moment to consider the
meaning of the term “evangelization.” When every aspect
of Church life is labeled “evangelization” it sometimes
becomes an excuse for “business as usual.” However, if
we continue “business as usual” many local expressions of
Church life may soon be “out of business.” While there
is a broad understanding of evangelization that includes
virtually everything that the Church does and every implication
of Christian conversion in the transformation of
every area of life (individual and social), we need to have
a clear understanding of its “core” definition.
While multiple good definitions of the central goal of
evangelization may be found, my favorite is from Pope
John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio:
The proclamation of the Word of God has
Christian conversion as its aim: a complete and
sincere adherence to Christ and his Gospel
through faith…Conversion means accepting, by a
personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ
and becoming his disciple (46).
This is a challenging definition for several reasons. At
parish and diocesan levels, people commonly talk about
the new evangelization as “getting people to come to Mass
again,” or “getting them active in the parish.” While these
are good things, unfortunately we also have people coming
to Mass or active in the parish who are not converted,
according to the definition of John Paul II above. His
definition of conversion includes a “complete and sincere
adherence to Christ and his Gospel,” and “accepting by
a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and
becoming his disciple.” To surrender to the Lordship of
Christ by a conscious, personal decision is no little thing!
To consciously decide to be a disciple, to place one’s trust in
Jesus, to embrace his teachings, and to follow him wherever
he may lead, is indeed a worthy and challenging definition
of conversion.
6 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Lead Feature
Being clear on the goal of evangelization—Christian
conversion—is vitally important. After all, how can we
adopt, foster, and assess the necessary means to achieve
this outcome, if we don’t know that this is the goal in the
first place The goal of Christian conversion has obvious
implications for catechesis, since a disposition to accept
the teachings of Jesus really depends on an “encounter”
with him, thereby eliciting conversion, trust, and obedience.
As catechists we rarely experience a neat demarcation
between evangelization and catechesis, and now all
of our catechesis and sacramental preparation needs to be
carried out with an optic of evangelization, always hoping
to evoke conversion.
Why A “New” Evangelization
Now that we’ve considered the purpose of evangelization,
let’s consider what’s new about the new evangelization.
In Redemptoris Missio, John Paul II makes an important
threefold distinction between the Church’s missionary
activity, pastoral care, and the “new evangelization” or
“re-evangelization.” The traditional “missionary activity”
of the Church (or now more commonly called “primary
evangelization”) is directed toward cultures and peoples
who haven’t yet heard the Gospel. “Pastoral care” is directed
toward those who have some relationship with Christ and
the Church but need pastoral assistance to grow in discipleship.
“New evangelization” or “re-evangelization,” on
the other hand, is directed toward those from traditionally
Christian cultures or backgrounds “where entire groups of
the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no
longer consider themselves members of the Church, and
live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel” (33).
So, the first new thing about the new evangelization is
for whom it is intended: baptized Catholics who aren’t living
as disciples of Christ, whether they are “church goers” or
far from the Church. This is why in more recent magisterial
documents we commonly read such language as “personal
relationship,” “encounter with Christ,” “friendship with
Christ,” and “personal decision.” Catholic culture, which
was once powerfully operative in strong Catholic families,
parishes, ethnic groups, neighborhoods, and schools, has
weakened considerably in recent decades. Additionally, the
“osmosis” system of transmitting the faith, which worked to
some extent in previous generations, is no longer working
today. Evangelization is now necessary for the baptized in
order to help them encounter Christ again, or for the first
time, and choose to follow him as a disciple.
The second new thing about the new evangelization is
who does it: not just priests, nuns or lay ecclesial ministers,
but every baptized Catholic who has awakened to the
meaning of baptism. One of the major themes of Vatican
II was the universal call to holiness and the universal call
to evangelization rooted in an adequate understanding
of baptism. The decree Apostolicam Actuositatem boldly
declared the essential missionary nature of the baptized
Catholic and urged every baptized Catholic to embrace
the call to mission. Completing this mission must include
speaking to others about Jesus—in words and not just in
the example of our lives—in order to help bring to faith
those who don’t have it and to help those who have faith
to grow in it. This is the work of evangelization and sanctification
(cf. AA, 6, 13).
As Ephesians 4:11-12 teaches us, the purpose of leadership
in the Church is not to do the whole work of
the Church but to “equip the saints [the baptized] for
the work of ministry.” The goal of leadership is to help
awaken the baptized to an understanding of who they
are in Christ, so that they embrace their call to holiness
and to mission.
A third new thing about the new evangelization is
the new cultural situation in which we find ourselves.
Seventeen hundred years of Christian culture is rapidly
crumbling, and what Cardinal Wuerl at the Synod of
2012 called a “tsunami of secularism” is engulfing the
lives of the baptized. We increasingly find ourselves in a
culture that is no longer supportive of basic human and
Christian values, which until recently were embraced by
virtually everybody. In its place is a culture characterized
by a “dictatorship of relativism” that uses brutality in its
suppression of Truth, relying on force (or “bullying” tactics)
to rule out the Christian worldview.
Finally, John Paul II indicates that the new evangelization
should be characterized by a “new ardor, methods and
expression.” Old methods that are still useful should be
infused with a new ardor. New methods and new language
need to be developed as well. Another way of understanding
the new “ardor” that John Paul II calls for is to link it
with every post-conciliar pope’s call for a “new Pentecost.”
There will not be a flowering of new evangelization unless
we also experience a new Pentecost.
The points in this summary article could certainly be
developed at greater length, and most likely will in future
issues of The Catechetical Review. However, by clearly understanding
the foundational concepts of the new evangelization,
we take an important step forward.
Dr. Ralph Martin is Director of Graduate Theology Programs in
the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the
Archdiocese of Detroit and Consultor to the Pontifical Council for
the Promotion of the New Evangelization. He is also President of
Renewal Ministries (www.renewalministries.net) and author of
The Urgency of the New Evangelization (Our Sunday Visitor).
Notes
1. John Paul II, Address to CELAM (Opening Address of the Nineteenth General
Assembly of CELAM, 9 March 1983, Port-au-Prince, Haiti), L’Osservatore
Romano English Edition 16/780 (18 April 1983), no. 9.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 7

Feature
A Sanctuary
in Time
How the Jewish Celebration of the Sabbath
Can Help Us Better Appreciate the Lord’s Day
By André Villeneuve
The Jewish Observance of the
Sabbath: Pharisaic Legalism
When I first moved to Israel, I was stunned
to learn about the many prohibitions
that bind orthodox Jews in their observance
of the Sabbath day: No driving,
no cooking, no watching TV, no phones, computers or
any other forms of media, no shopping or handling of
money, and no writing, to name a few.
Like many Christians who first encounter these
practices, I couldn’t help but wonder: isn’t this legalistic
approach to the Sabbath just like the pharisaic
one that Jesus so severely criticizes in the Gospels
At the same time, I was fascinated by the earnestness
with which religious Jews observe the seventh
day, especially when compared to the fading role of
Sunday as a day of rest in most culturally Christian
countries.
8 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
It took me a few years to understand the spirit behind
the Jewish observance of the Sabbath, and what I discovered
greatly enhanced my appreciation of the Lord’s Day.
Creation and Rest
The origins of the Shabbat go back to the dawn of creation,
as narrated in the book of Genesis. The six days of
creation conclude with the declaration that God “rested
on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because
on it God rested from all his work which he had done in
creation” (Gen. 2:2-3).
In this initial context, long before it becomes a commandment,
the Sabbath is first and foremost a testimony
to the goodness of God’s creation. God’s “rest” is not so
much a kind of ‘divine inactivity’ as much as the Lord’s
‘contemplative gaze’ which, in the words of John Paul II,
“does not look to new accomplishments but enjoys the
beauty of what has already been achieved.” 1
Scholars have noted a close link between the order of
creation and the order of salvation, with the Sabbath as the
key link between them. 2 Israel’s redemption from Egypt
is portrayed in the Bible as the renewal and completion of
creation, where God “creates” Israel as his own treasured
people, called to witness to his presence in the world. 3
When God establishes his covenant with Israel at Mount
Sinai and gives them the Decalogue, the commandment
to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” with the
attendant prohibition against work on that day, recalls
God’s creative work in six days and his rest and blessing
on the seventh day (Ex. 20:11; cf. CCC, 2169).
The Sabbath rest is thus a memorial to the creation of
the world. As God stopped creating on the seventh day,
so is man to cease all creative activity on that day. For six
days, man exercises his God-given dominion over creation
by manipulating nature through his work. On the seventh
day, he forsakes his creative power over the universe and
surrenders it back to God, acknowledging that “he has no
rights of ownership or authority over the world.” 4
This is the first rationale for the Jewish Sabbath laws:
contrary to popular belief, the categories of prohibited
“work” (Hebrew melachah) have nothing to do with the
effort required to perform them or whether they are related
to one’s employment or livelihood. The forbidden activities,
in fact, consist of creative work, that is, “the execution of an
intelligent purpose by the practical skill of man” or “production,
creation, transforming an object for human purposes;
but not physical exertion.” 5 This is why Jewish law stipulates
that it is okay to take out the trash on the Sabbath, but not
to write a letter or to plant a seed in the ground.
Liberation from Slavery
The Sabbath has a second major purpose: it is a memorial
of the Exodus from Egypt. As expressed in the Book of
Deuteronomy, Jews are to observe the Sabbath day and keep
it holy because they are to “remember that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you
out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm” (Deut. 5:15; cf. CCC, 2170).
As Rabbi Hayim Donin explains, in recalling the deliverance
from Egyptian slavery, the Sabbath becomes “a
weekly-recurring divine protest against slavery and oppression.”
6 Yet freedom is not only gained from hard labor and
professional obligations. The Sabbath is also an opportunity
to be liberated from the myriad household obligations,
trivial amusements, and restless diversions that so clutter
our lives. In the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel:
Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing
profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we
especially care for the seed of eternity planted in
the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul
belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek
to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try
to dominate the self. 7
A Sanctuary in Time
In other words, the Sabbath is a sanctuary in time. It is
not by coincidence that the commandment to keep the
Sabbath is repeated immediately following the instructions
for the building of the Tabernacle in Exodus (Ex.
31:13-17). Just as God’s sanctuary in space needed clear
boundaries (a courtyard surrounded by a fence) to keep
the realm of holiness separate from the common, so the
Sabbath, as sanctuary in time, requires clear boundaries to
separate it from the other six days of the week.
This concept reveals a second key to understanding the
Sabbath: the ancient rabbis defined as prohibited melachah
the thirty-nine classes of work that were carried out in
the construction of the sanctuary in the desert, 8 itself
considered by the ancients to be a microcosm or “world in
miniature.” 9 Just as God “rested” from creating the world
on the seventh day, and as the Israelites ceased their creative
work on the Tabernacle/microcosm to enjoy God’s presence
in the sanctuary in space, so Jews of every generation
cease from all creative activity in order to enjoy the rest
and blessings of the “sanctuary in time.”
When orthodox Jewish friends in Jerusalem began to
invite me to their Shabbat meals, I started to understand
why they view the Sabbath observances not as burdensome
obligations but as a gift that they love and cherish. Simply
said, the commandments are boundaries that protect the
sanctity of the Sabbath from common, mundane activities.
For twenty-four hours, the observant Jew is released
from his obligations to check his email, clean the house,
mow the lawn, drive the kids to soccer practice, or watch
his favorite TV show. Conversations are not interrupted
by phone calls or texts; the inner voice nagging a mother
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 9

Feature
to take a quick trip to the store is silenced. For one day,
all worldly concerns are set aside for the sake of spiritual
pursuits such as prayer, Torah study, quality family time,
conversation and songs around a bountiful Shabbat table,
leisurely strolls, and rest. The result is a wonderful atmosphere
of peace, serenity, and joy. Fittingly, observant Jews
don’t usually greet each other with a casual “hi” on the
Sabbath, but with “Shabbat shalom,” or “the peace of the
Sabbath” (be with you).
Even though Jesus had some sharp disagreements with
the Pharisees concerning the observance of the Sabbath,
the Catechism reminds us that he “never fails to respect
the holiness of this day” (CCC, 2173). His views on the
sanctity of the Sabbath, in fact, are in close agreement with
an old midrashic saying that will have a familiar ring to the
Christian reader, revealing how the ancient rabbis were well
aware of the danger of Sabbatical legalism: “The Sabbath
was given over to man and not man to the Sabbath.” 10
A Taste of the World to Come
Yet the Sabbath is much more than a well-deserved rest
at the end of the week. Heschel poignantly states that “we
look to the Sabbath as our homeland, as our source and
destination.” 11 Indeed, Jewish tradition views the delight
of the Sabbath rest as a foretaste of the world to come. As
stated in the blessing that is pronounced after every meal:
“The compassionate One! May He cause us to inherit the
day which will be completely a Sabbath and rest day for
eternal life.” 12
In the words of another midrash:
The world to come is characterized by the kind of
holiness possessed by the Sabbath in this world…
The Sabbath possesses a holiness like that of the
world to come. 13
Such is the Jewish love for the Sabbath that the seventh
day is experienced not as an “it” but as a “she.” As expressed
in the mystical song Lecha Dodi, sung in the synagogues
every Friday night, the Sabbath is personified as a bride
and queen who is invited to come and join herself to Israel:
“Come my beloved to welcome the bride; let us receive
the Shabbat presence!”
From the Seventh to the Eighth Day
What are Catholics to make of all this Since the Sabbath
was specifically given to Israel as the sign of God’s covenant
with them, Gentiles were never bound to observe it as Jews
are. And yet the Lord’s resurrection on the first (or eighth)
day not only recalls the first creation but also “symbolizes
the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection”
(CCC, 2174). 14 For Christians, therefore, “Sunday fulfills
the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces
man’s eternal rest in God” (CCC, 2175).
Even though the “Sunday obligation” does not require
Catholics to restrict their activities to the degree of orthodox
Jewish Sabbath observance, we may ask ourselves
whether we have not reduced our celebration of the Lord’s
Day to a bare minimum, considering our Sunday duty
“done” once we have attended Mass (cf. CCC, 2180-82).
Perhaps we should reconsider how to erect some concrete
“boundaries” to protect the sanctity of the day, not only
from hard labor but also from frivolous and mundane
activities that distract us from the rich meaning of the
Lord’s Day (cf. CCC, 2184-85). Just as Jews see the
Sabbath as a “foretaste of the world to come,” so are
Catholics called to reveal the eighth day as an “image
of eternity,” and “the day without end which will know
neither evening nor morning, the imperishable age which
will never grow old.” 15
Dr. André Villeneuve is Assistant Professor of Scripture and Theology
at Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado.
He holds a STB from the Salesian Pontifical University, a PhD in
Scripture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a MA in
Theology and Catechetics from Franciscan University of Steubenville.
He is a founder of Catholics for Israel (www.catholicsforisrael.com),
dedicated to the work of reconciliation between Israel and the Church.
Notes
1. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Dies Domini on Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy,
art. 11.
2. Cf. Dies Domini, art. 12.
3. For example, the Wisdom of Solomon concludes a long description of the
Exodus by stating that in it “the whole creation in its nature was fashioned
anew” (Wis. 19:6). Cf. Terrence E. Fretheim, “The Reclamation of Creation:
Redemption and Law in Exodus,“ Interpretation (1991): 354-365; Bernard Och,
“Creation and Redemption: Towards a Theology of Creation,” Judaism (Spring
95, Vol. 44 Issue 2): 226-243.
4. Hayim H. Donin, To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life
(Basic Books, 1972). Kindle Edition, loc. 925.
5. Donin, loc. 945.
6. Donin, loc. 954. In the words of the Catechism, the Sabbath is “a day of protest
against the servitude of work and the worship of money” (CCC, 2172).
7. Heschel, Abraham Joshua, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (Farra,
Strauss and Giroux, 1951), 1.
8. “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping,
binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting,
kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning,
weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying
[a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two
stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin,
scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two
letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a
hammer and taking out aught from one domain into another.” Mishnah Shabbat
7:2; cf. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 49b; Donin, loc. 1212; Heschel p. 16.
9. Cf. Jon D. Levenson, “The Temple and the World,” JR 64 (1984): 275-98.
10. Mekhilta on Ex 31:13, as quoted in Heschel, p. 5 and Donin, loc. 1284; cf.
Mk 2:27; CCC, 2173. A “midrash” (pl. “midrashim”) in an ancient rabbinical
commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures that seeks to explain, interpret or expand
the biblical stories. The earliest midrashim date back to the 2nd century AD,
but much of their content was transmitted orally for centuries before they were
written down, and so would have been known at the time of Jesus.
11. Heschel, The Sabbath, 18.
12. Blessings after meals.
13. Mekhilta on Ex. 31: 17, as quoted in Heschel, The Sabbath, 61.
14. On the resurrection as new creation, cf. Dies Domini, arts. 24-25.
15. Cf. Dies Domini art. 26, quoting Saint Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 27, 66.
10 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Moving toward a Catechesis of Encounter
The New Evangelization is a call to each person to deepen
his or her own faith, have conf idence in the Gospel, and
possess a willingness to share the Gospel. It is a personal
encounter with the person of Jesus, which brings peace and
joy. (Disciples Called to Witness, 3)
Does the New Evangelization make you a little bit
uncomfortable Does it feel as if you are moving
out into unchartered water Does it feel as
if some of the tools you are comfortable using
aren’t adequate anymore If so, you may be just where
God wants you.
In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis
calls us to go outside of our classrooms,
our parishes, our comfort zones, and
even our very selves to share Christ
with a world that so desperately needs
him. “Each Christian and every community
must discern the path that the
Lord points out, but all of us are asked
to obey his call to go forth from our
own comfort zone in order to reach
all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light
of the Gospel” (20). Yet to do so effectively,
we cannot rely exclusively on our
gifts, talents, knowledge, skills; we must
rely primarily on the Lord. Pope Francis’ prayer to open
Evangelii Gaudium places all our trust in Christ. “Lord,
I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have
shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew
my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again,
Lord; take me once more into your redeeming embrace”
(3). Alone, we fall short; with Christ we can do all things.
This prayer reveals one key quality with which we must
approach the task of catechesis: humility. If catechesis is
truly introducing others to a person and not just a set of
ideals, knowledge, and ethics—if it is truly an encounter
with Christ—then as catechists we must ensure that others
encounter Christ and then let Christ work. The Lord may
choose to use us as his instruments to reveal himself to
another. To do this we must be docile enough to let him
work through us, and say as Mary did, “I am the handmaid
of the Lord” (Lk. 1:38).
Humility is harder than it seems. All too often we want
to rely solely on our own strengths, knowledge of the faith,
and gifts to help others meet and come to know Christ.
My pride creeps in many subtle ways.
When an uncomfortable question arises (or we enter
an unfamiliar environment), we might want to react with
By Peter Murphy
Lord, in this time of New
Evangelization, give us the grace
of humility to confidently go
forth in your name, transformed
by your love, led and docile to
your Spirit, to share your gospel
and our testimony to how
you have transformed our lives.
May we truly live and share
the joy of the Gospel with all
we catechize and encounter.
Feature
what is comfortable, with what we know, with something
to minimize the discomfort of the unknown. Yet this is the
frontier of the New Evangelization: learning to be comfortable
with others’ questions, with others’ doubts and fears,
pain, and confusion. We know that we go out in Christ’s
name and with Christ at our side. We may be tempted to
offer a quick solution or a pat answer, when what may be
needed in the moment is simply being a patient listener
(See EG, 24). This pre-evangelization is essential for people
to know they are cared for and loved. It provides a loving
context to experience, share, and encounter Christ.
Evangelization and catechesis are
moments of encounter with the person
of Christ. This means we don’t share
something foreign to us; we include our
encounters with Christ and how he has
changed our lives. As Catholics we are
not always comfortable doing this. We
might prefer to teach only about Christ.
Yet we are called to also share how we
encounter Christ and how he personally
affects our lives. Evangelii Nuntiandi
reminds us, “Modern man listens more
willingly to witnesses than to teachers,
and if he does listen to teachers, it is
because they are witnesses” (41).
As catechists we become more effective when we are
both witnesses and teachers, but our witness is essential.
This takes practice and work; but when we can share how
the saving truth and love of our Lord has changed us, it
takes on new meaning and significance to the children,
youth, and adults we catechize. People want to know we
are genuine and truly believe and live what we proclaim.
Indeed our witness is a proclamation of the Gospel. It is
evangelization! Catechesis and evangelization unite when
we can share how Christ and his Gospel have personally
touched our lives and how the Truth transforms the lives
of those who accept Christ and his teachings.
No longer, then, is what we share perceived as a sterile set
of rules. Our witness, shared in humility, becomes a story
of personal transformation that others can see and feel.
Through our witness, others see that Christ has changed
us for the better and can do the same for them.
Peter J. Murphy, D.Min., is Executive Director for the Secretariat
on Evangelization and Catechesis for the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 11

Feature
The Vision of
Pope Francis for Catechesis
Introduction: The Kerygma
The election of Pope Francis has brought with it a renewed
focus on the attractiveness of the Christian message. There
are already two magisterial documents from this pope’s
hand offering insights into his vision for catechesis. Perhaps
the best known of his observations
can be found in Evangelii
Gaudium, where he has drawn
attention to the fundamental
bedrock of what we ought to be
passing on—the Kerygma:
Jesus Christ loves you; he
gave his life to save you;
and now he is living at your
No one can lay a
foundation other
than the one that
is there, namely
Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 3:11
side every day to enlighten,
strengthen and free you. 1
The structure is disarmingly
simple, and yet it allows
us to touch on every important
aspect of the Christian life. We
are reminded that the foundation
of all we do as Christians is
the love of Christ. Before every
program, prior to any inspirational
conference, above all petty
politics or personal clashes of any
kind, we do what we do because
Jesus Christ loves you. This finds its
most powerful expression in what Christ did: he gave his life
to save you. This is not some distant event that is no longer
relevant, for Jesus is living at your side every day—made
present mysteriously through the sacraments and made
personal through our ongoing dialogue in prayer. Finally,
there must be some element of struggle and personal
transformation involved in this; for Christ stands by us for
a good purpose: to enlighten, strengthen and free you. This
is an incredibly powerful summary of what we are trying
to pass on to those in our care, by living it out ourselves.
It is so important that “all Christian formation consists
of entering more deeply into the kerygma.” 2
The Sacramental Structure of Faith
Whereas the kerygma gives us insight into what we are
doing, in Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis reminds us how this
is to be done. Here he points out that the Church is a
family, which must pass on the full store of its memories
in a way that nothing is lost. But how The Church has
By Gerard O’Shea
access to a special means for passing on this fullness, one
that is capable of “engaging the entire person, body and
spirit, interior life and relationships with others.” 3
What is this special means It is none other than what
it has always been, “the sacraments, celebrated in the
Church’s liturgy.” 4 Christ is not a distant memory; he is
a real presence. Our senses give genuine access to the Savior
himself, no less real now than he was when he travelled
the pathways of the Holy Land. The Lord himself, on
the road to Emmaus, concretely demonstrates this truth.
Though Jesus is still present on the earth, even speaking
to the disciples, it is not until the sacramental sign, the
“breaking of bread,” that they really know who he is! Thus
shall it be until the end of time.
Essentially, the pope is drawing attention to the fact that
faith itself has a sacramental structure: “The awakening of
faith is linked to the dawning of a new sacramental sense
in our lives as human beings and as Christians, in which
visible and material realities are seen to point beyond
themselves to the mystery of the eternal.” 5
The Place of Doctrinal Content
In Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis makes it clear that what the
Church is handing on is not solely a doctrinal content for
12 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
which a book or the repetition of an idea might suffice.
Rather, it is about “the new light born of an encounter
with the true God, a light which touches us at the core
of our being and engages our minds, wills and emotions,
opening us to relationships lived in communion.” 6
In making this point he has no intention of denigrating
the importance of systematically passing on the doctrine
of the Church:
Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its
purity and integrity. Precisely because all the
articles of faith are interconnected, to deny one
of them, even of those that seem least important,
is tantamount to distorting the whole…
hence the need for vigilance in ensuring that the
deposit of faith is passed on in its entirety…and
that all aspects of the profession of faith are duly
emphasized. 7
Via Pulchritudinis: The Way of Beauty
Pope Francis advises that in proclaiming Christ, we are
not only concerned with what is right and good, but also
with the beautiful. He affirms that “every expression of
true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading
to an encounter with the Lord Jesus.” 8 He warns that this
must never become some kind of relativist asceticism,
where beauty is isolated from its inseparable bonds with
truth and goodness. It is nevertheless a valuable tool; it is
a means by which catechists can attract the attention of
their students by appealing to their senses.
I, like many others, have certainly noticed that modern
young people are incredibly attentive to the visual image.
To attract their attention, it is usually sufficient to allow
them to hold beautifully presented pieces of art work,
mounted on wood if possible. By simply asking what they
think the artist is trying to tell us, a remarkable discussion
almost invariably follows. Students who cannot be reached
by fine words can often be touched by beautiful images.
For this reason, Pope Francis advises that “a formation
in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to
pass on the faith.” 9
The Moral Dimension of Catechesis
Pope Francis also gives attention to the moral component
of catechesis. Changes in behavior ought to follow from
one’s relationship with Christ. This is the motive for rejecting
the evils and sins that endanger our life with Christ.
To put it in the words of the Gospel, “if you love me, you
will keep my commandments” ( Jn. 14:15).
In our teaching of the moral ramifications of life in
Christ, we are told to avoid striking the pose of “dour
judges bent on rooting out every threat and deviation.”
Instead, we should appear as “joyful messengers of challenging
proposals, guardians of the goodness and beauty
which shine forth in a life of fidelity to the Gospel.” 10
Mystagogical Renewal
Finally, Pope Francis expresses a preference for a catechetical
methodology: mystogogical renewal. “This basically
has to do with two things: a progressive experience
of formation involving the entire community, and a
renewed appreciation of the liturgical signs of Christian
initiation.” 11
How can we ensure that the faith is being passed on
in a way that involves the entire community How can
we induct children into a proper understanding of the
liturgical signs and allow them to see the link between
this and the Revelation of God revealed in the Bible In
posing these challenges, Pope Francis is merely presenting
the ancient teaching of the Church, reiterated most
recently in Verbum Domini in 2010. Mystagogical renewal
aims to emphasize the link between the Scriptures and
the liturgy and make this explicit in our catechetical
practice: “To understand the Word of God, then, we need
to appreciate and experience the essential meaning and
value of the liturgical action.” 12
Summary
We could, then, sum up the vision of Pope Francis for
catechesis in four simple statements.
1. We need to begin with the Kerygma, and continually
reflect on it.
2. Catechesis requires an attractive presentation and
the integration of every dimension of the person
within a community journeying towards God.
3. We must emphasize “mystagogy”—working through
the concrete liturgical signs we find in the sacraments
and linking these with the mysteries revealed
in the scriptures.
4. The sacraments are indispensable in passing on the
faith of the Church, as they draw people to Christ’s
ongoing real presence in the world.
Dr. Gerard O’Shea is a Permanent Fellow in Catechetics and Family
Ministry at the the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family
Studies in Melbourne, and Associate Professor of Religious Education
at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia.
Notes
1. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana,
2013), art. 164.
2. Ibid., art. 165.
3. Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2013),
art.40.
4. Ibid., art. 40.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., art. 48.
8. Evangelii Gaudium, art. 167.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2013),
art.52.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 13

Feature
Creating Conditions that Favor
the Conversion of the Baptized
A Survey for Catechists
By Carole M. Brown
U.S. Marines have a code of honor: no one gets left
behind—not even the fallen on the battlefield.
They are bound together in brotherhood. Their
commitment to this code enables Marines to
act with courage and valor. Similarly, as baptized Catholics
we form a bond as God’s family and pledge to accompany
any child of God through conversion. In a culture hostile
to the faith, we must exercise Marine-strength courage to
remain vigilant for those who fall away.
How well are we keeping that pledge Admittedly, too
many baptized and confirmed Catholics fall away from the
faith without taking hold of the treasure of our faith and
its promise of eternal life. They are dying on the battlefield,
spiritually speaking. Statistics in this regard are nothing
short of alarming, with Catholics experiencing the greatest
net loss due to changes in affiliation. 1 An estimated
70% of young Catholics no longer practice their faith by
the time they reach adulthood. 2 Do we strategically think
about the way in which our “baptismal training” equips
people to survive spiritually in a toxic secular culture Are
we praying vigilantly for their return and going in search
of them
One of the reasons that many of our baptized people
do not survive with their faith intact is that “basic training”
for becoming a disciple—personal conversion to Jesus
Christ, personal relationship with him—is a neglected
dimension of Catholic formation. Children baptized in
infancy come to the parish for catechesis, and we work
hard to communicate the content of the faith; but we often
fail to put them in touch with—in intimacy with—the
person of Jesus Christ, which Pope St. John Paul II said
is the “definitive aim of catechesis.” 3 In our concern to
communicate Christian doctrine effectively, we sometimes
overlook the fact that baptized people may not yet know
Jesus Christ enough to care about what he taught.
In this article, I will set forth a small offering of some
principles and practices by which we can create conditions
that favor personal conversion amidst the secular culture.
This is less about developing new programs (though this
can be helpful) than about applying these principles and
practices in ministries that already exist. First, I will set forth
a number of principles drawn from the teaching of recent
popes, who are the architects of the New Evangelization.
These will be followed by four kinds of practice.
Principles of Initial Evangelization
1. The Holy Spirit is the principle agent of evangelization.
Foster devotion to him, and promote those
means that help people not only to know about
him but also to experience his power.
2. The Church exists to help people to find Jesus Christ.
Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The Church wishes to
serve this single end: that each person may be able to
find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each
person the path of life…” 4 That may seem obvious
at first glance, and yet statistics have shown that
only 60% of Catholics believe in a personal God. 5
In what ways is the energy of our parish directed to
bringing people into contact with God in a personal
way Just because people come to Church does not
mean that they have found Christ. Pope Francis has
cautioned us about being a self-referential church.
The goal is not just to get people in the Church
but also to help them to encounter Jesus Christ.
3. Faith in Jesus is both personal AND communal. We
have perhaps relied too much on the communal
dimension of faith, which becomes increasingly
more anemic as the personal aspect is neglected.
Personal faith in Jesus Christ does not replace communal
faith, but rather enlivens it. By the same
token, a community comprised of people who are
living in a continual personal relationship with Jesus
Christ will be most enriching to the persons who
associate themselves with that community. On the
other hand, a community comprised primarily of
people who do not experience their faith in Jesus
Christ in a personal way will tend to be impersonal,
lonely, superficial, anonymous—and boring.
4. Converting the culture begins by converting persons.
Every movement begins with a slow groundswell.
People whose lives have been touched by Jesus
Christ tend to recognize that other people need
to have this experience too, and look for ways and
14 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
means to bring people into this experience. 6 This
can happen in programs but also, perhaps even
more importantly, in the context of interpersonal
relationships.
5. Faith needs the support of reason. Many young people
today are preparing themselves for careers in engineering,
medicine, journalism, and law, requiring
strong reasoning skills. Yet many capable young
people have never been exposed to such treasures
as St Thomas’ Five Proofs of the Existence of God,
or CS Lewis’ argument for the divinity of Christ.
Leaving them without solid reasons for belief is
like sending a Marine into battle without weapons.
6. The power of the sacraments is not automatic but
released by the assent of the person. Once they reach
the age of reason, people baptized in infancy must
be evangelized and brought to a place of personal
assent, in order for the sacraments to bear their
intended fruit. 7 John Paul II said it well when he
wrote, “Conversion means accepting by a personal
decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ, and
becoming his disciple.” 8 Coming under the saving
sovereignty of Christ is a lot like falling in love—and
this love releases the energy for the moral life 9 and
enables us to accept the cross.
Bearing these principles in mind, now let us examine
some methods that foster personal conversion.
Ways to Create Conditions
that Favor Conversion
1. Conversion begins as a response to the Word
of God. In what ways is the Word delivered to
people
Kerygma: The initial proclamation of the Gospel is
“the permanent priority of mission” and has a “central
and irreplaceable role, since it introduces man ‘into the
mystery of the love of God, who invites him to enter into
a personal relationship with himself in Christ and opens
the way to conversion.’” 10 But many times, the centrality
of the initial proclamation is lost on those who are already
Catholics by baptism or culture. We must recover it! Do
people in our parishes know the content of the core message
of the Gospel, the kerygma Do they know how to
build relationships of trust with people, thus earning the
right to proclaim it Can they deliver it effectively in their
personal relationships with family, friends, acquaintances,
and co-workers
Pope Francis recently summarized the content of the
kerygma as follows: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his
life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day
to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” 11 Do you believe
that personally, on more than an intellectual level Do you
know anyone for whom that would be good news Could
you memorize it, and be prepared to proclaim it to the
next person who starts complaining to you
Personal Witness: St. Paul tells us that faith comes
through hearing. “The witness of a Christian life is the
first and irreplaceable form of mission.” 12 Often enough,
it isn’t so much the words that are said, as the tone with
which they are said. If we ask our kids every night whether
they’ve said their prayers, and ask it in the same tone of
voice that we ask whether they’ve brushed their teeth,
finished their homework, or made their beds, then what
they hear is: prayer is a task on the to-do list, perhaps
even a chore.
My life changed as a teenager, when a friend listened to
me complaining about my problems and asked me, “Have
you ever prayed about this” Her tone of voice conveyed
a certain eagerness and excitement, and suggested to
me that there was a potential source of help that I had
not yet discovered. That conversation got the wheels of
my mind turning, provoked my curiosity, and sparked
my own faith. These kinds of conversations need to take
place in every possible context: faith formation settings
of course, but also with altar servers in the sacristy, with
fellow parishioners at the coffee hour, with our kids’
friends and their parents.
Homily: Does homily preparation have pride of place
in the priest’s weekly time commitments Does he know
how to pray with the Word of God, using Lectio Divina, or
Ignatian meditation to draw out the personalistic substance
of God’s self-revealing word 13 Do parishioners have the
opportunity to learn these methods for prayer
Fostering Personal Meditation on the Word: Pope
Benedict XVI said, “…it is decisive, from the pastoral
standpoint, to present the word of God in its capacity to
enter into dialogue with the everyday problems which
people face. Jesus himself says that he came that we might
have life in abundance (cf. Jn. 10:10). Consequently, we
need to make every effort to share the word of God as an
openness to our problems, a response to our questions, a
broadening of our values and the fulfilment of our aspirations.”
14 Unfortunately, the Bible seems like a “protestant
book” to many Catholics. Fostering a personal love for
God’s Word is essential to personal conversion. What
concrete resources do children, teens, and adults have for
accessing the Word of God for prayer and establishing a
personal dialogue with him What daily scriptural meditation
materials are available, and what still needs to be done
2. Conversion involves an experience of a personal
encounter with Jesus Christ. In what ways can we
foster the expectation for this encounter
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said it well when he wrote,
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or
a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person,
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 15

Feature
which gives life a new horizon.” 15 What are the practices
that prepare the heart for such an encounter
Witness Testimony: Regular exposure to personal, Christcentered
witness testimony is a profoundly valuable practice
in this regard. To encounter someone who has encountered
Jesus arouses wonder and curiosity. Good preparation is
essential. Besides the value of live testimony, what possibilities
exist in various forms of media (video, radio, social
networking) to expose people to real people, Catholics
whose lives have been changed by Jesus Christ For the
New Evangelization, giving explicit personal witness to
Jesus Christ must come to be understood as something
Catholics can do.
Meditation: Regular meditation on the Word of God
(above) prepares the ground for such an encounter. The
Word of God is alive and active and has a way of hitting
us between the eyes, if only we pray with it frequently
(and not just at Sunday Mass).
Sacramental Encounters: In what ways do our children
experience sacramental moments as a personal
encounter with Jesus Particularly
in the Sacraments of Eucharist and
Reconciliation, in what ways can we
intentionally foster this sense of a personal
encounter with the Lord Pope
John Paul II encouraged us to foster
the experience of “Eucharistic ‘amazement.’”
16 My friend asked her young
charges which of them had seen the
movie Spiderman. She then referred to
the fact that Spiderman was really Peter
Parker in disguise. Jesus, she explained,
also has a disguise—he disguises himself
as bread, but it’s actually Jesus. These
children were delighted with this discovery and soon began
to visit Jesus at church after school. Parents can foster this
amazement by attending adoration with their children, or
when stopping by the tabernacle together after Mass to
leave their prayers with him.
Likewise, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a tremendous
encounter “with Christ saying, through the minister
of the sacrament of Reconciliation: ‘Your sins are forgiven’;
‘Go, and do not sin again.’…this is also a right on Christ’s
part with regard to every human being redeemed by him:
his right to meet each one of us in that key moment in
the soul’s life constituted by the moment of conversion
and forgiveness.” 17
These two sacraments enable a person to remain in right
relationship with God in order to be in communion with him.
Non-Sacramental Encounters: In what non-sacramental
ways can we develop the consciousness of living out a
personal relationship with the Lord during the rest of the
week For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The act of selfentrustment
to
God is the engine
for catechesis and
sacramental practice,
the engine for the
moral life, the engine
for vocations and
stewardship.
teaches us: “To pray ‘Jesus’ is to invoke him and to call
him within us. His name is the only one that contains
the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and
whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the
Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up
for him.” 18 Placing ourselves in the presence of Jesus at
home, in the car, and at work, is a tremendous antidote
to anxiety and loneliness, and profoundly enriches the
culmination of our relationship with Jesus in our reception
of Holy Communion.
3. Conversion requires an act of explicit, personal
self-entrustment to Jesus Christ by faith.
Another word for this is “the act of faith”—not just in
terms of reciting the creed but also in terms of entrusting
one’s whole life to God. This act of self-entrustment
is the engine for catechesis and sacramental practice, the
engine for the moral life, the engine for vocations and
stewardship. When Catholic catechesis is undesired, when
moral teaching is rejected, when Mass is boring, when
the experience of the faith community
is anonymous, lonely, and superficial;
all these are flags that little has been
invested in bringing people to a personal
act of self-entrustment to the Lord.
Witness testimony (above) is valuable
because it creates the opportunity for
people to share how they did it (or how
Christ did it to them), what the circumstances
were that occasioned it, and
what benefit there would be for others
to do likewise. 19 For maturing disciples,
witness testimony is especially powerful
when it exemplifies the profound
intimacy with Jesus that grows out of the shadow of a
cross we carry with him.
4. To enable the conversion of children and teens,
we must help their parents come to know Jesus
Christ, too.
What creative possibilities exist to expose parents to
personal witness testimony that is both Christ-centered
and Catholic, and put meditation materials in hand that
will help them to engage in dialogue with God through
his Word For parents whose children are preparing to
receive a sacrament, consider conducting a daylong retreat
to help parents come to know Jesus better, to spark their
own conversion, and to supply them with concrete resources
for growing in discipleship.
Conclusion
This brief survey is directed to the development of conditions
that favor the conversion of the baptized, but it only
16 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
addresses the first stage of discipleship. It is by no means a
comprehensive plan. Maturing disciples need a complete
catechetical, moral, and liturgical formation. When we
attend to the initial stages of personal conversion, we
enable people to entrust themselves to Jesus; and the one
who entrusts himself to Christ by faith “endeavors to know
better this Jesus to whom he has entrusted himself.” 20
Catechetical, moral, and liturgical formation have little
hope of being effective if self-entrustment to Jesus Christ
has not yet taken place, still less the missionary discipleship
that is called for in the New Evangelization.
A personal relationship with Jesus Christ, nurtured
by the Word of God and sacramental practice, keeps
the baptized well armed and fortified to “support and
defend” our faith with those on the battlefield of secular
culture. Let us also exercise courage and valor in
our commitment to leave no one behind, just like the
Marines. Semper fi!
Dr. Carole Brown is the Director of the Office of New Evangelization
in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, and a 1997 alumna of
Franciscan University.
Notes
1. US Religious Landscapes Survey, 2008. http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/
report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf, 6.
2. Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and
Followng Jesus (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), 24.
3. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae (Washington DC: United States Catholic
Conference, 1979), art. 5.
4. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, Vatican Translation (Boston: Daughters of St.
Paul, 1979), art. 13.
5. See US Religious Landscapes Survey, 2008, 164.
6. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1975), art. 20.
Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, art. 10.
7. John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), art. 47.
Ecclesia in America (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1999), art. 7.
8. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, Vatican Translation (Boston: Pauline Books
and Media, 1990), art. 46.
9. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993), art. 18.
10. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, art. 44.
11. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) (Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, 2014), art. 164.
12. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, art. 42.
13. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, arts. 135-144.
14. Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2010), arts. 23-36.
15. Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, art. 1.
16. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, art. 6.
17. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, art. 20.
18. CCC, par. 2666.
19. Cf. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, arts. 19, 25; Veritatis Splendor, art. 18;
Christifideles Laici (Libreria Editrice,1988), art. 27.
20. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, art. 20.
Fidelity&Freedom
The
Series
EX CORDE ECCLESIAE AT 25
A Symposium on the Dialogue of Faith and Reason
March 5-6, 2015
Join Franciscan University for a symposium in honor of the 25th anniversary of Ex corde Ecclesiae, Pope St. John Paul II’s
visionary Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Higher Education. Symposium speakers including the Most Rev. Mark Bartchak,
JCL, JCD, Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Fr. James Conn, SJ, JD, JCL, JCD, of Boston College, and Sr. Susan Wood, SCL, PhD,
of Marquette University will examine the right relationship between faith and reason in the Catholic university. Hosted by
Franciscan University President Father Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, JD, JCD, this free symposium is open to all those interested in
discovering a path toward fuller incorporation of Ex corde Ecclesiae in the life of Catholic universities.
Register online: franciscan.edu/fidelityandfreedom
1235 University Boulevard • Steubenville, Ohio 43952 • 740-284-5343
Franciscan University of Steubenville is committed to principles of equal opportunity and is an equal opportunity employer.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 17

Feature Series: The Catechism & the New Evangelization
Gathering the Fragments
People involved in the mission of handing on the faith will discover a reliable reference point
for content and pedagogy in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This series examines
how to make use of this gift of the Church for the task of evangelization and catechesis.
By Petroc Willey
A
moment at the end of the feeding of the five
thousand vividly captures the task of the new
evangelization. After all had eaten from the
miraculous multiplication of the loaves and
fish, there was one further task to be undertaken: “And
they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of
the fish” (Mk. 6:43).
The image of broken pieces left after a feeding that
prefigures the Eucharist—the sum and summary of the
faith—is a compelling image. The ecclesial culture that
Pope St. John Paul II asked us to mend, as the priority for
the new evangelization (a priority on which the mending
of a Christian society depends) is a fragmented one:
Without doubt a mending of the Christian fabric of
society is urgently needed in all parts of the world.
But for this to come about what is needed is to first
remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community
itself present in these countries and nations. 1
The fragmentation
A remaking of the ecclesial fabric is needed, a collecting
of the scattered fragments. The fragmentation may be of
a number of kinds.
A fragmentation of meaning has followed from the
widespread difficulty in maintaining continuity in the
transmission of the faith:
Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. 2
Words and terms slide for many in the ecclesial community
when they lack the clear reference point of a living,
but consistent meaning in Tradition. Powerful and central
elements in the Christian vocabulary—“economy of salvation,”
“paschal mystery,” “celebration,” “conscience”—are
shorn and evacuated of much of their rich meaning in
contemporary society and lie about the field, scattered as so
many fragments needing collection, needing to be reconnected
to the Tradition. Where this kind of fragmentation
of meaning occurs, discouragement and confusion follow
because of a lack of understanding. There is an attempt at
engagement, but Philip’s question to the Ethiopian eunuch,
“Do you understand what you are reading” meets with
the apt reply, “How can I, unless someone guides me” 3
A second kind of fragmentation occurs because of the
loss of any overarching meaning to life, the loss of what the
encyclical Faith and Reason calls the “sapiential dimension”:
One of the most significant aspects of our current
situation, it should be noted, is the “crisis of meaning”.
Perspectives on life and the world, often of
a scientific temper, have so proliferated that we
face an increasing fragmentation of knowledge.
This makes the search for meaning difficult and
often fruitless. Indeed, still more dramatically, in
this maelstrom of data and facts in which we live
and which seem to comprise the very fabric of
life, many people wonder whether it still makes
sense to ask about meaning. 4
The sapiential recovery needed is a recovery of wisdom.
The advice of the utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind in Dickens’
Hard Times has left us rich in knowledge but poor in wisdom:
“Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else,
and root out everything else.” 5 Indeed, facts are necessary;
but so are the connections between them and ultimately
the capacity for a panoramic understanding, a vision that
can set the facts in place within a meaningful life. 6
A third fragmentation is the disconnection between belief
and life: “The split between the Gospel and culture is without
a doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other
times. Therefore every effort must be made to ensure a full
evangelization of culture, or more correctly of cultures.” 7
The gathering
As we have noted, one of the points that is striking about
all of the accounts of miraculous feeding is the careful
collection of the fragments. They are gathered into the
twelve baskets, a clear reference to their reconnection back
into the community of disciples. 8
We can see three related tasks involved in this collection
of the fragments, corresponding to the three fragmentations
we have noted. The fragments need to be securely
understood, then placed within an overarching meaning that
connects and holds them, and finally integrated into life, as
part of an ecclesial culture.
In this action of finding and collection, the Gospel
offers us a wonderful image of hope: we see that the fragments
can be gathered and each one treasured. Each has
its place in the whole. The baskets are filled precisely with
such fragments.
18 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature Series
It is within this context of the overcoming of fragmentation
and the mending of the ecclesial fabric that the
purpose of the Catechism needs to be located. As we know,
the Catechism was prepared by the bishops precisely for
the work of mission and for the guarding of the Deposit.
While the Deposit is presented for us in the Catechism in
its integrity, yet in the life of the Church this same Deposit
often appears in fragmented form, scattered, detached,
and truncated. For the new evangelization, therefore, mission
involves a double movement: of the proposing of
the Deposit in its integrity on the one hand and of the
gathering of the fragments on the other. The Catechism
can help us develop a dynamic synergy between these two
movements of proclamation and gathering.
The role of the Catechism
In this process of gathering we can first consider the
arrangement of the Catechism, which presents the fragments
to us in numbered paragraphs—a staccato form that
might deceive us into thinking that here indeed we are
faced simply with “facts” innumerable. But it is precisely
this form and arrangement that enables us to reach out to
the “peripheries” in a new evangelization. 9 The fragments
of the faith that are present in families, in institutions, in
the lives of the baptized are here identifiably present and
held within the whole. Importantly, the Catechism has
maintained the rich language of the Tradition through
which to express the faith. Here the meaning of words has
not perished and there is no decay. From these numbered
fragments catechists can assist in the mending of the fabric,
through a healing of language and thought, by speaking
from the heart of the Church with precision, beauty, and
clarity. As we collect each fragment, it can be with this
deepening of understanding as it is placed in the basket.
In the second place, we can appreciate the Catechism’s
presentation of an overarching meaning. The Catechism presents
its task to us precisely as that of providing “an organic
presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety” which
should therefore be seen “as a unified whole.” 10 The greatest
care has been taken to provide an integrated account
of the faith so that each fragment is held in place within
the whole. And this integrated whole has the depth of
infinity, for it is the depth of the Blessed Trinity that runs
throughout every section and part, as the deep source,
feeding and nourishing the fragments. The Blessed Trinity
is the “central mystery” of every aspect of faith and life. 11
As we gather and re-place each fragment we reveal its
Trinitarian heart. Each fragment is to be treasured. “No
truth may be denied,” no virtue excluded from the organic
unity of the faith, insists Pope Francis, for the Trinitarian
kerygma can be proclaimed and received as the deepest
level of every aspect of the faith. 12
In the third place, we can note one of the unique features
of the Catechism: that it provides a set of cross-references,
in addition to a subject index, as an intrinsic part of the
approved text. This aspect of the Catechism’s presentation
of the faith is still comparatively neglected; yet here we
have been offered a means of assisting in that mending of
the fabric that is the crucial task proposed to us for a new
evangelization, through the uniting of each dimension of
our lives around the central Mystery of the faith. The crossreferences
are designed to reach into the four parts of the
Catechism that together provide for a holistic transmission
of the faith. The fragments from which we begin no longer
remain isolated but have their own connecting points to
doctrine, to sacramental life, to prayer and to the royal way
of life in Christ. Doctrine and life are reconnected.
Dr. Petroc Willey is Professor of Catechetics at Franciscan University
and Reader in the New Evangelization at the School of the
Annunciation, England. He is a Consultor for the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
Notes
1. Christifideles Laici, art. 34. This quotation also appears in the Moto Proprio,
Ubicumque et Semper, the founding document for the Pontifical Council for
Promoting the New Evangelization.
2. T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton, V, 13-17.
3. Acts 8:30-31.
4. Pope St. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, art. 81.
5. Hard Times, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994, 1.
6. The point has been well made with regard to the need for university curricula,
especially at the undergraduate level, to provide for the recovery of this wisdom.
See Alasdair Macintyre, God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the
Catholic Philosophical Tradition, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2009. A
university should be precisely this, providing a way of drawing together the
‘multiversity’ of disciplines and perspectives under an overarching meaning. This
place has traditionally been assigned to theology, queen of the sciences because
her reign establishes order and peace.
7. Blessed Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, art. 20.
8. The reference to twelve baskets is a clear indication of the New Israel, the
Church, who gathers all to herself. The reference in some of the accounts to
seven baskets (Matt. 15:37; Mk. 8:8) has been held by some to point to the seven
deacons of Acts 6, in ministry alongside the twelve apostles. Whether or not this
is the case, seven is certainly a number connoting wholeness and completeness.
9. Cf. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, art. 20.
10. CCC, art. 18.
11. See CCC, art. 234. For an account of how the Blessed Trinity and their plan
of salvation run through each ‘fragment’ of the Catechism see P. de Cointet,
B. Morgan, and P. Willey, The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of
Catechesis, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008, Chapter 3. See also Michael
E.Gaitley, The One Thing is Three: How the Most Holy Trinity Explains Everything,
Stockbridge: Marian Press, 2013.
12. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, art. 39; see also art. 164.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 19

Inspired
THROUGH
Art
The Baptism of Christ
Pietro Perugino, c. 1497
By Paula Thelen
Born Pietro Vannucci, this Renaissance master
is known by the name of the city of Perugia,
near the place of his birth. While Perugino’s
famous pupil Raphael often overshadowed his
own work, this Umbrian artist masterfully conveyed the
Christian mystery through painting. Perugino is perhaps
best known for his “Delivery of the Keys,” which is prominently
displayed in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. In
this issue of The Catechetical Review, we will explore his
majestic depiction of the baptism of Christ. Perugino
actually painted two versions of Christ’s baptism. This
centerfold rendition (pp. 22-23) resides at Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, Austria 1 ; but his earlier, more famous,
and more detailed fresco of Christ’s baptism (below) is
in the Sistine Chapel (c. 1482) 2 , parts of which will be
highlighted here to compare and contrast the two.
Natural beauty fills the background of both paintings.
The greens and blues sing of the created order, of life, and
freshness; the waters appear calm and peaceful. Perugino
conveys the suitability of water as the matter for baptism,
20 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Inspired Through Art
for while it gives life, hydrates, and refreshes, it also has the
ability to destroy, wipe away, and wash clean. Theologically,
baptism serves both these purposes: one is “born” into
God’s family as a Christian and simultaneously is purified
of original sin. However, for the grace of baptism to
blossom, one must be humble.
Masterpiece of Humility
The virtue of humility permeates Perugino’s work. See how
Christ’s eyes are closed, his head bowed in deep prayer,
as the grandeur of the moment unfolds. This Feast of
Theophany is the culmination of the Christmas season,
when we reflect upon the self-emptying of Christ, kenosis
as it is commonly referred to in the East. We contemplate
the humility of God made manifest in the Incarnation, seen
in the smallness of the Baby, sleeping in a mere feeding
trough for animals. And now as Christ emerges from the
relative silence of his life in Nazareth and begins his public
ministry, he doesn’t claim special privileges or proudly lord
his authority over all. Rather he goes to John and asks to
be baptized. The lack of clothing on Christ calls to mind
the end of his life, where once again the Son will obediently
submit to the will of the Father during his Passion
and will be stripped of his garments. Here he stands nearly
naked, vulnerable, and pouring out his life for his people as
servant, just as John gently pours the water over his head.
In this particular rendition, Perugino adds an extra
emphasis on Christ’s humility, not by what he adds but
by what he leaves out: Christ’s halo. Jesus has given up
his heavenly citizenship to become truly one of us. In the
earlier Sistine Chapel fresco, both Jesus and John have
halos, but not here. A more skeptical person could say that
Perugino simply made a mistake. However, as we will see
in a moment, that is not the case.
Romano Guardini astutely notes that “Jesus quietly takes
his place in line. He refuses to be an exception; voluntarily
he places himself within the law that is valid for all.” 3
Even his stature appears smaller than that of the Baptist.
Certainly Christ has no sin to be washed away, but he still
consents to baptism so as to purify the waters for the rest
of us. He sets an example to be followed, and follow they
do. The figures directly behind Jesus imitate his piety with
their prayerful hands. In the
Sistine Chapel fresco, we
can see behind the Baptist
a person eager to jump into
line next. Baptize me!
However, in this rendition,
behind the Baptist we
do not see a person but an
angel, as identified by none
other than a halo. Angels
are included to remind us
that this is, in fact, a divine event.
In the Sistine Chapel version, a
winged angel (no halo
needed) kneels behind
Jesus holding his
white tunic: another
reminder of the baptismal
purification.
The Mission of John
and the Church
John is identifiable with his bowl and reed
cross. He appears with long hair and a brown tunic (supposedly
animal skin) representative of his ascetical life in
the wilderness, yet Perugino generously portrays John as
less unkempt than some other painters. John bridges the
gap between the Old and New Testaments as the last and
greatest forerunner to the Messiah. Perugino even uses
the minute detail of the placement of his feet as a mirror
image to Christ’s, to illustrate the connection between the
God-man and his saintly relative. St. Gregory Nazianzen
eloquently explains, “He is the lamp in the presence of the
sun, the voice in the presence of the Word, the friend in
the presence of the Bridegroom, the greatest of all born of
woman in the presence of the firstborn of all creation.” 4 Yet
his facial expression is also humble, as one keenly aware
of an undeserved honor. Why me How am I appointed for
this task Indeed, “He must increase, I must decrease” had
been John’s conviction. 5
Another noteworthy feature of the Baptist in this
painting is his red cloak, which foreshadows the martyrdom
he would undergo. Guardini explains that “to be a
prophet means to speak the word of God, whether timely
or untimely.” 6 John so exemplified this idea that it cost
him his life at the hand of Herod Antipas, who resented
John’s condemnation of the king’s adultery. John received
a baptism through blood for the sake of the Gospel. Many
more martyrs would follow his example in the Church’s
history and even today.
Do you see the church in the distance,
just behind the Baptist The Church
continues John’s mission to call people
to conversion and to point to Jesus as
the one “who takes away the sin of the
world” ( Jn. 1:29). The Church is now
the conduit for baptism.
A Theophany
The brief yet poignant story of the baptism of Christ in
Scripture contains the first reference in the Gospel to all
three persons of the Blessed Trinity. This visible manifestation
of the triune God to humankind is called the
theophany. “As Jesus steps from the water, the mystery
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 21

22 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

JANUARY-MARCH 2015 23

Inspired Through Art
of the Spirit is revealed above him: heaven opens—the
barrier between Creator and created has fallen—and the
Spirit of God descends in the shape of a dove to hover over
Jesus.” 7 An intimate and “infinite encounter took place:
the illimitable abundance of the divine Father streamed
into the Son’s human heart” and the “power of the Spirit
descends upon Jesus.” 8 God the Son
humbly immerses himself in the waters
of rebirth. God the Holy Spirit hovers
above Jesus and John in the form of a
dove. While Perugino does not include
an image of the Father in this version,
he does in the Sistine Chapel painting.
Still, we know for a fact that God the
Father’s voice resounds from Heaven
(Jesus’ place of origin) proclaiming, “This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” 9
This statement from the Father exemplifies a profound
truth: who we are is more important that what we do.
Prior to this point, Christ’s life has been a hidden one in
Nazareth: working in his father’s carpentry shop, living
a simple life of manual labor, and bearing witness to the
dignity of human work and the life of the family. By worldly
standards he had not yet done anything noteworthy or
commendable. Yet the Father’s voice reminds us not only
that work is dignifying but also that we have incomparable
value as children of God. Our worth and dignity do not
depend on our actions but rather on the divine filiation
we receive at our baptism. How humbling to think we are
all daughters and sons within such a royal family!
The power of the Holy Spirit propels Jesus out to wrestle
with forces of evil, as he is tempted in the desert by Satan,
and to carry out his public ministry to the end. Yet even
Jesus is not left to carry his burdens alone. Do you remember
the angels on the banks of the Jordan in both paintings
After Jesus is tempted in the desert “angels ministered to
him” 10 and in the Garden of Gethsemane
appeared “to strengthen him.” 11
May we never forget our own baptism
and continually, with great humility,
enter again into its deep mystery. May
we always seek cleansing from our sin
and conversion of heart in Christ so that,
filled with the Holy Spirit, we may bring
the light of the Gospel to everyone we
meet.
Paula Thelen has a BA in Catholic Studies, Theology and Secondary
Education from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota..
She currently teaches at McDonell Catholic High School in Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin.
Notes
1. http://www.wikiart.org/en/pietro-perugino/baptism-of-christ-1
2. http://www.wikiart.org/en/pietro-perugino/baptism-of-christ-1483
3. Romano Guardini, The Lord (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc.,
1954), 31.
4. Oratio 39 in Sancta Lumina, 14-16, 20: PG 36, 350-351, 354, 358-359. This
homily is found in the Office of Readings on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
5. John 3:30.
6. Guardini, The Lord, 25.
7. Ibid, 24.
8. Ibid.
9. Matthew 3:17.
10. Mark 1:13.
11. Luke 22:43.
Reflection Questions
Before handing out the article to participants of your class or prayer group, allow them to make their
own observations about the artwork by asking the following questions:
1. How do we know this is a “divine event”
2. Why do you think Perugino included a church in the background
3. How are the postures of John and Jesus similar and different Why
4. Why is water necessary for baptism What does it symbolize
5. How many symbols of baptism are present in the painting
24 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

From the Shepherds
Pope Francis Speaks
to CATECHISTS
On September 27, 2013, Pope Francis gathered catechists
from around the world for the International Congress on
Catechesis in Rome. For many of these catechists, this was a
stirring encounter with the Holy Father. While this department
will regularly feature insights of our chief shepherds,
in this inaugural issue we begin with those of THE chief
shepherd. May the following excerpts from the Holy Father’s
important address to catechists 1 challenge us to faithfully
live out our vocation.
The Requirement of Love
To “be” a catechist requires love, an ever stronger love for
Christ, a love for his holy people. And this love can’t be
bought in stores, even in Rome. This love comes from
Christ! It is Christ’s gift! And if it comes from Christ, it
also starts with Christ, and we too need to start anew with
Christ, from the love he gives us.
To start anew from Christ means being close to him, being
close to Jesus. Jesus stresses the importance of this with
the disciples at the Last Supper, as he prepared to give us
his own greatest gift of love, his sacrifice on the Cross.
Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches and says:
Abide in my love, remain attached to me, as the branch is
attached to the vine. If we are joined to him, then we are
able to bear fruit. The first thing for a disciple is to be with
the Master, to listen to him and to learn from him. This
is always true, and it is true at every moment of our lives.
What will become of us if
we stay united to Christ
Starting anew with Christ means imitating him by leaving
ourselves behind and going out to encounter others. This is a
beautiful experience, and yet a paradox. Why Because
when we put Christ at the center of our life, we ourselves
don’t become the center! The more that you unite yourself to
Christ and he becomes the center of your life, the more he
leads you out of yourself, leads you from making yourself the
center and opens you to others. This is the true dynamism
of love, this is the movement of God himself! God is the
center, but he is always self-gift, relationship, love that gives
itself away . . . and this is what we will become if we remain
united to Christ. He will draw us into this dynamism of love.
Where there is true life in Christ, there follows an openness
to others, and so a going out from oneself to encounter others
in the name of Christ. And this is the job of the catechist:
constantly to go forth to others out of love, to bear witness
to Jesus and to talk about Jesus, to proclaim Jesus.
To the outskirts!
Starting anew with Christ means not being afraid to go with
him to the outskirts…God is not afraid of the outskirts. If
you go to the outskirts, you will find him there…Whenever
we Christians are enclosed in our groups, our movements,
our parishes, in our little worlds, we remain closed, and
the same thing happens to us that happens to anything
closed: when a room is closed, it begins to get dank. If a
person is closed up in that room, he or she becomes ill!
Whenever Christians are enclosed in their groups, parishes,
movements, they take ill. If a Christian goes to the streets,
or to the outskirts, he or she may risk the same thing that
can happen to anyone out there: an accident. How often
have we seen accidents on the road! But I am telling you:
I would prefer a thousand times over a bruised Church
than an ill Church!
This is fundamental for us: God is always ahead of
us! When we think about going far away, to an extreme
outskirt, we may be a bit afraid, but in fact God is already
there. Jesus is waiting for us in the hearts of our brothers
and sisters, in their wounded bodies, in their hardships,
in their lack of faith. But can I tell you about one of the
“outskirts” which breaks my heart I saw it in my first
diocese. It is children who don’t even know how to make
the sign of the cross.
Final Words
Dear catechists, I have made my three points. Always start
anew from Christ! I thank you for everything that you
do, but above all, because you are part of the Church, the
pilgrim People of God, and you accompany God’s People
on that pilgrimage. Let us remain with Christ – abiding
in Christ – and let us always try to be one with him. Let
us follow him, let us imitate him in his movement of love,
in his going forth to meet humanity. Let us go forth and
open doors. Let us have the audacity to mark out new
paths for proclaiming the Gospel.
Notes
1. The full text may be found at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/
speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130927_pellegrinaggiocatechisti.htm
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 25

The Spiritual Life
St. Teresa of Avila and Pope Francis
Living and Proclaiming the Joy of the Gospel: Part I
By Fr. Jean-François Lefebvre
This department begins with a series focused on the insights
of St. Teresa of Avila into the joy and desire to evangelize
which comes from communion with God. In this first article,
the author shows how St. Teresa was a woman of deep joy,
who was responsive to her profound desire for God, which
was a divine gift in itself.
2015 is the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth
of St. Teresa of Avila. 1 This is a time of thanksgiving for
the whole Church because St. Teresa, as a doctor of the
Church, is a light for all the baptized. She is often called
“mater spiritualium,” mother of interior souls, because her
teaching is about the richness of baptismal life. She was
so grateful to the Lord for giving such treasures to souls,
whenever he finds them open to his love.
“The joy is so excessive the soul (…) wants to tell everyone
about it.” 2 I chose this sentence from the Interior Castle
as the theme for this series because it is typical of Teresa’s
personality. She was a joyful person, always ready to praise
the Lord. Where did this joy originate That is what we
will investigate in this series. And, there is another point
which is particularly inspiring for the period we are living
now in the Church: Teresa was eager to share this joy.
Pope Benedict XVI insisted on the joy of the Faith, as
may be read in the beginning of his apostolic exhortation
on the Word of God:
Indeed, sharing in the life of God, a Trinity of love,
is complete joy (cf. 1 Jn 1:4). And it is the Church’s
gift and unescapable duty to communicate that joy,
born of an encounter with the person of Christ,
the Word of God in our midst. 3
Pope Francis also invites us to be witnesses to the joy
of the Gospel. We cannot aspire to announce the Gospel
to the world if we do not give testimony that the love of
Christ is the source of true joy:
The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of
all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his
offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow,
inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy
is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish
26 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

The Spiritual Life
to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon
a new chapter of evangelization marked by this
joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s
journey in years to come. 4
The joy of the Gospel filled St. Teresa’s heart and life.
She was truly a joyful woman. She could experience that
“with Christ, joy is constantly born anew” because her
deepest desire was fulfilled.
Teresa: A Joyful Woman
If you are sad one day, in a bad mood, with a headache
and the desire to speak to nobody, try to read some pages
by Teresa. Soon, you will be invited to praise the Lord, as
she does in the beginning of her first book:
May God be blessed forever, He who waited for
me for so long! (…) May this account [I have been
ordered to write] render Him glory and praise!
(…) [Thus may I] give the Lord something of
the service I owe Him, whom all things praise
forever. Amen. 5
Or you will smile, for instance while reading this, at the
end of a chapter where she tries to explain some delicate
matter:
I am laughing to myself over these comparisons
for they do not satisfy me, but I don’t know any
others. You may think what you want; what I have
said is true. 6
Teresa was able to laugh at herself. For instance, at the
end of a letter to her brother Lorenzo who sent her some
candy for the community, she gives him some advice for
his spiritual life. She recommends that he wear a hair shirt,
something used at that time for the mortification of the
body. She tells him how to use it and writes:
I laugh as I write, for you send me sweets, presents,
and money and I repay you with a hair shirt. 7
Biographers tell us that when she was prioress in the
Convent of the Incarnation in Avila, the situation was
very tense. Their superior had imposed her on the sisters,
without the election process. She herself was not very
enthusiastic about this mission. She had left this place, her
former convent, because she wanted more poverty, more
silence, more fervor in prayer. You can imagine how she was
welcomed as the new prioress by sisters who were afraid
of enforced austerity measures in the monastery. Upon
entering the chapter room for the first time as a prioress
to give an edifying talk to the sisters, in a moment of
distraction, she went directly to the place where she used
to sit while a simple nun. When she realized what she
had done, she burst out laughing so that the sisters also
began to laugh and the tension began to decrease in the
community. She put the statue of the Virgin Mary on the
seat of the prioress and told them: “Here is your prioress.” 8
Teresa was spontaneous, natural, true to herself, and
without any facade in order to appear better than she
was. She was full of what the Spanish call “gracia.” The
word means both charm and humor. She was an attractive
person, and people would seek out her company. With
simplicity, she tells in the story of her life about her time
as a teenager when she was a boarder in the convent of
Notre Dame of Grace:
All were very pleased with me; for the Lord gave
me the grace to be pleasing wherever I went, and
so I was much loved. 9
How is it that such a vivacious person was so attracted
to solitude and silence We will try to discover her secret.
For Teresa, silence did not exclude joy. We could say
that joy was part of the rule of the reformed monastery
of St. Joseph in Avila. She wanted her sisters to express
joy during those times called “recreation” after lunch and
supper. During recreation, she would sing (even if she was
not very keen on singing), dance or play the castanets.
She did not want devotion to prevent the expression of
fraternal joy:
When I see souls very earnest in trying to understand
the prayer they have and very sullen [encapotadas]
when they are in it – for it seems they don’t
dare let their minds move or stir lest a bit of their
spiritual delight and devotion be lost – it makes
me realize how little they understand of the way
by which union is attained; they think the whole
matter lies in these things. No, Sisters, absolutely
not; works are what the Lord wants! 10
What the Lord wants is works, and works means charity,
joyful charity. One day, she was praying in the chapel.
Her sisters (they were young sisters) entered singing these
strange words:
Since you gave us new raiment, Celestial King,
keep free this cloak from evil folk. 11
There had been a problem in the community with the
religious habit, made out of a rough heavy woollen fabric.
The sisters feared that it would become infested by vermin,
and they were making a procession to ask the Lord
to liberate them from this plague. Instead of protesting
and scolding her young sisters for disturbing her in her
prayer, Teresa began to sing in dialogue with the sisters:
Daughters, since you take up the Cross, be brave,
and ask Jesus, your light, for His favour. He will
be your defense, in such suspense. 12
For her, every event in daily life was an opportunity to
educate and transmit her spirit, which included sacrifice,
praise, and spiritual joy.
Where did such joy originate It was not only a matter
of temperament. It was more profound. The source of this
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 27

The Spiritual Life
joy was an inner wellspring: the wellspring of the love of
God whom she discovered living in the very center of
herself. Before hearing Teresa in her teaching to her sisters,
I would like to give you some context from her life, in this
siglo de oro (the golden age) of her country, Spain.
A Trend in Teresa’s Life:
the Desire for God
A trend that extends throughout the
life of Teresa is a desire, the desire
for God. In the Bible we encounter
the expression of such a desire in the
psalms, like Psalm 42:
As the deer longs for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts
for God, the living God. When can I go and see
the face of God (Ps. 42:1-2)
Teresa began to express this desire at a very young age,
with both the seriousness and the naiveté of a child.
She was born in 1515 in a rich family of Avila. She
was the third child of the second marriage of her father
with Beatriz de Ahumada. She already had four brothers
and sisters and she would have six more. Her mother
died when she was only thirteen years old. This event put
a shadow of sadness in the joyful atmosphere of such a
large family. Teresa went to a church and before the statue
of the Virgin Mary asked her to be her mother.
At the age of seven, after reading the stories of the
martyrs of antiquity, she convinced her young brother
Rodrigo to go with her to the south of Spain, in order to
endure martyrdom from the Muslims. She had not realized
that the Muslims had left southern Spain in 1492,
which was twenty-three years before she was born! Many
years later, in the book of her life, she writes:
I greatly desired to die in the same way. (…) My
brother and I discussed together the means we
could take to achieve this. (…) It seemed to me
the Lord had given us courage at so tender an age,
but we couldn’t discover any means (…). We were
terrified in what we read about the suffering and
the glory that was to last forever. (…) We took
delight in often repeating: forever and ever and ever.
As I said this over and over, the Lord was pleased
to impress upon me in childhood the way of truth.
When I saw it was impossible for me to go where
I would be killed for God, we made plans to be
hermits. And in a garden that we had in our house,
we tried as we could to make hermitages piling up
some little stones which afterward would quickly
fall down again. 13
This short text describing her feelings as a child, is
revealing of Teresa’s personality. She is persuasive and
her enthusiasm is communicative. She is as courageous
as a warrior and she perceives the truth in the spiritual
realities that last forever compared with the temporal ones
that vanish after a short time. Truth is a major topic of
the writings of Teresa, as we will see. She is also deeply
realistic: when she realizes that it will be difficult to finalize
her project to be a martyr, she changes her
plans. Like the first monks after the time
of persecution in the Roman Empire,
she decides to become a hermit in the
family’s garden and she manages to
convince her brother to join her.
This desire for God, as I said, is the
major theme of her life. 14 It was God’s gift
to Teresa. It was a call to intimacy with him. Teresa’s
response did not, however, always correspond to the love of
the Lord. As a contemporary economist might say, there
was a trend of deep desire for God in her life but also some
seasonal variations in Teresa’s concrete answer to this call.
Fr. Jean-François Lefebvre is a priest and Professor of Theology from
the Notre Dame de Vie (Our Lady of Life) Studium in Venasque,
France. Fr. Lefebvre earned his doctorate from the University of
Fribourg, Switzerland in 2002. In addition to his teaching responsibilities
and overseeing the initial formation to the consecrated life for
the priests’ branch of the Notre Dame de Vie institute, Fr. Lefebvre
additionally leads a variety of Christian outreach apostolates, including
prayer groups, preaching retreats, and youth chaplaincy in France.
Notes
1. This series is based on a presentation given at Franciscan University of
Steubenville on September 16, 2014. I would like to thank Father Dan Pattee,
TOR, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, for his invitation. I also thank Dr. James
Pauley for publishing it in The Catechetical Review and Teresa Hawes for the
rereading of my text.
2. Except for the poetry, quotations of St. Teresa come from the following edition:
The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh O.C.D.
and Otilio Rodriguez O.C.D., Washington D.C.: ICS Publications. Vol. I, 1987
(first ed., 1976); vol. II, 1980; vol. III, 1985; here: Collected Works, Vol. III The
Interior Castle, VI, § 10, p. 395 (hereafter The Interior Castle).
3. Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, art. 2.
4. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, art. 1.
5. The Book of Her Life, Prol. Collected Works, Vol. I, 53 (hereafter: Life, Prol., p. 53).
6. The Interior Castle, VII: 2, § 11, 438.
7. Lt. 166, January 17th, 1577. The Letters of Saint Teresa – A complete Edition,
Translated from the Spanish and Annotated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.
With an Introduction by Cardinal Gasquet, Vol. II, London, Tomas Baker,
1921, 219.
8. Cf. Marcelle Auclair, Saint Teresa of Avila, Translated by Kathleen Pond,
Petersham: St Bede Publications, 1989 (French Edition: 1950), part III, chapter 8.
9. Life, Chapter II, § 8, 60.
10. Interior Castle, V: 3 § 11, 352.
11. The Complete Poetry of St Teresa of Avila, A Bilingual Edition, Eric W. Vogt, New
Orleans: University Press of the South, 1996, 101.
12. Ibid.
13. Life, I, § 4-5, 55.
14. Father Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD, a disciple of Teresa in the 20 th
century, chose the phrase “I want to see God” as the title for his master work.
This is a synthesis of the teachings of the three Carmelite doctors of the Church
following the itinerary of the soul explained in Teresa’s most important book:
the Interior Castle. It is now published in English in two volumes: Vol I: I Want
to see God. A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality; Vol II: I am a Daughter of
the Church. A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality Translated by Sister M.
Verda Clare, C.S.C., Christian Classics, Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1997.
First French Edition: 1949-1951.
28 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

If we peruse the foundational catechetical documents
of our time, we learn that we are called to a catechesis
that is modeled after the pedagogy of God. Indeed,
this is an essential component of the Church’s mission
to evangelize. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
states that the Church is called to be “a visible and actual
continuation of the pedagogy of the Father and of the
Son.” 1 The General Directory for Catechesis says it this way:
“Catechesis, as communication of divine Revelation, is
radically inspired by the pedagogy of God, as displayed
in Christ and in the Church.” 2
For far too long, catechesis in the United States has
been bogged down in the mire of a debate regarding the
relative importance of content and methodology. The GDC
addresses this issue: “concerning pedagogy, after a period
in which excessive insistence on the value of method and
techniques was promoted by some, sufficient attention
is still not given to the demands and to the originality
of that pedagogy which is proper to the faith. It remains
easy to fall into a ‘content-method dualism.’” 3 This false
dichotomy that pits content against methodology has
done considerable damage to the ministry of catechesis,
manifesting itself most tragically in generations of poorly
formed and disillusioned Catholics who have left the
Faith, either because they never knew the true teaching of
the Church or somehow found it irrelevant to their daily
lives. Without a marriage of good content and methodology,
the truth is not heard and lived. It doesn’t matter
how theologically precise we are in our catechesis if we
never communicate it in a way in which the learner can
hear it and apply it. Likewise, the most developmentallyappropriate
methodology will do the learner no good if
the content is inaccurate or incomplete. In either case, the
truth goes unheard, and the stakes are too high when that
truth is the Gospel we are called to proclaim.
Adapting principles of sound pedagogy provide us a way
to extract ourselves from the fruitless debate concerning
content versus methodology and turn our attention to
principles that can govern both. Dr. Petroc Willey, perhaps
the foremost expert of the pedagogy of God, states,
“Pedagogy and methodology are not one and the same, but
rather pedagogy, with respect to catechesis, may be defined
as ‘overarching principles of transmission which govern
the nature of catechesis precisely as the transmission of
the faith.’” 4 A sound pedagogy, then, can guide us both
in our scope and sequence of content and in the methods
we use to communicate it to the learner. But how shall we
Children’s Catechesis
THE DIVINE PEDAGOGY
Teaching Others the Way God Teaches Us
By Joseph D. White
operationalize the pedagogy of God How can we move
from the philosophical, or theoretical, to principles that
guide our everyday work as catechists I would propose
the following five principles, which I call “aspects of the
divine pedagogy.”
1. The pedagogy of God is invitational. God invites
us into relationship with him. We don’t find God, God
finds us. Throughout human history, God has called each
person into relationship with himself. God initiates the
relationship, and we respond. A catechesis based on the
invitational pedagogy of God begins with God’s revelation
and personally invites the learner to hear and respond to
this revelation.
In a well-intentioned, but perhaps ill-informed, effort
to be developmentally-appropriate, catechists have often
tried to begin lessons in children’s catechesis with “life
experience.” However, developmental psychology helps
us understand that children not only do not yet have a
wealth of life experience, but they are also not particularly
interested in the experiences of others, because they don’t
always find them relevant to their own lives. Additionally,
their ability to inductively derive truths of the faith from
experiences is quite limited by their abstract reasoning
ability, which cognitive theorists such as Piaget would tell
us will not develop until much later. 5
2. The pedagogy of God is incarnational. God speaks,
and his words become action. We see this in the story of
creation itself, when God says, “Let there be light.” We see
it most fully in the person of Jesus Christ, the “Word made
flesh,” the fullness of God’s revelation. Jesus himself taught
through words and deeds, miracles, healings, and “object
lessons.” The Church has continued this multisensory
pedagogy through centuries of fine art, liturgical music,
and liturgical celebrations, such as the Eucharist and all
of the other sacramental rites, all of which have elements
that involve multiple senses.
When we implement a catechesis based on the incarnational
pedagogy of God, the learner will experience God’s
Word in action. This is most evident in the witness of the
catechist. The General Directory for Catechesis states, “No
methodology, no matter how well tested, can dispense with
the person of the catechist in every phase of the catechetical
process. The charism given to him by the Spirit, a solid
spirituality and transparent witness of life, constitutes the
soul of every method. Only his own human and Christian
qualities guarantee a good use of texts and other work
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 29

Children’s Catechesis
instruments.” 6 Beyond the witness of the catechist, an
“incarnational pedagogy” is a “pedagogy of the senses.”
Some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and
others are kinesthetic learners. An incarnational pedagogy
will engage the learner by communicating the message in
multiple ways. “The ‘variety of methods is a sign of life and
richness’ as well as a demonstration of respect for those to
whom catechesis is addressed” (GDC, 148).
3. The pedagogy of God is communal and familial. God
reveals his very nature as communion—Father, Son and
Holy Spirit—one God in three Divine Persons. Jesus tells
us to call God “Our Father,” and Sacred Scripture describes
us as God’s sons and daughters, brothers and sisters to one
another. The relationship between Christ and the Church
is also revealed to us in a familial context: as a marriage
between Christ the Bridegroom and
the Church, his Bride. In other words,
God uses family to help us understand
some of the most basic truths of our
Faith: who God is and how God relates
to us. A communal and familial pedagogy
will recognize the primacy of the
family in understanding and handing
on the faith. As catechists, we are called
to proclaim God’s beautiful design and
plan for the family and to equip parents
and families as primary teachers
of the faith.
4. The pedagogy of God is structured,
systematic, and comprehensive.
Throughout salvation history,
we see God reveal himself, more
and more fully, as people are ready
to hear and understand. God reveals
himself in a particular way through
his Creation, and more fully through his covenant with
Abraham. He reveals himself yet further in the Law given
to Moses. The fullness of revelation is given to humankind
in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is this revelation,
entrusted to the Church through apostolic succession,
that still guides us as a pilgrim people. A catechesis patterned
after the structured, systematic, comprehensive
pedagogy of God will likewise reveal God’s truths as the
learner is ready to hear and understand them. Here we
can gain some insights from the fields of education and
developmental psychology, which help us to understand
the ages and stages of growth in cognition, communication,
socialization, and conscience formation. Still, we
must make allowance for individual differences in these
areas and the work of the grace of God. The structured
pedagogy of God also helps us see the wisdom of solid
textbooks and other materials that help to systematize our
catechesis. Finally, it calls us to attend to the hierarchy of
truths in catechesis: the understanding that some truths
are foundational to others in our Faith. For example, we
can only understand the Blessed Mother in relation to
her Son, and we can only really understand Jesus once
we are familiar with the Trinity.
5. The pedagogy of God is perpetual. Isaiah speaks of
the perpetual power of the Word of God: “So shall my
word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not
return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end
for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). God’s truths are handed
on through the generations in the forms of Scripture
and Sacred Tradition, which is the living memory of
the Church. In baptism, each follower of Christ is sent
forth as missionary that the Word of God may continue
to flourish and multiply. A selfperpetuating
catechesis is one that is
rooted in mystery. When we teach key
principles of the faith, we are planting
seeds that will later grow and flower.
Learners should never be given the
impression that in memorizing a
few key facts or formulas, they know
all there is to know about our rich
Catholic faith. There must always be
the impetus to “dive deeper.” A selfperpetuating
catechesis also instills a
spirit of mission—a desire to live the
faith. Finally, we should prepare those
being catechized to preach by example
and be ready to defend/explain their
faith, to “always be ready to give an
explanation to anyone who asks you
for a reason for your hope” (1 Pet.
3:15).
Dr. Joseph White is a clinical child psychologist and former parish
catechetical leader. He currently serves as a National Catechetical
Consultant for Our Sunday Visitor Publishing and is the author
of the book, The Way God Teaches: Catechesis and the Divine
Pedagogy (Our Sunday Visitor, 2014).
Notes
1. CCC, par. 141.
2. GDC, art. 143.
3. Ibid., art. 30.
4. Petroc Willey, Introductory Paper, Amicitia Catechistica Conference on the
Pedagogy of God, Rome, Italy, 2009.
5. For a detailed presentation of the developmental issues raised here, including
a discussion of Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, I would refer
the reader to the following resources: H.E. Gruber, and J.J. Voneche, eds. The
Essential Piaget., (New York: Basic Books., 1977), J. Piaget, “Piaget’s Theory”
in Handbook of Child Psychology, ed. P. Mussen, 4 th ed., vol. 1 (New York:
Wiley), 1983 and J.W. Santrock and S.R. Yussen, S.R., Child Development: An
Introduction., 5 th Ed. (Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers), 1993.
6. GDC, art. 156.
30 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Empowering Parents
Youth & Young Adult Ministry
to Disciple Their
Own Children
Part 1: The Mindset of the Catechist
By Jim Beckman
The focus of this article is a practical consideration: how to help parents in the
task of “discipling” their own children. The topic is a rather vast one, so I’m
going to break it down into two parts. The first part, the mindset catechists
should have toward parents, is the focus of this article. Part 2, practical
tools to empower parents for discipleship, will follow in the April issue.
Photo/Nick Thompson
We all have heard the Church’s teaching
on this: parents are the “primary educators”
of their children. 1 But do we really
believe this to be true, and indeed act as if
we believe it I have talked with many Church employees
and volunteers who treat this statement like some empty
platitude saying, “It’s a nice theory, but in reality WE are
better at teaching young people the faith. We have degrees
in Theology after all!”
In the paragraphs that follow, I hope to shed some light
in this area, and offer some practical ways we can empower
parents to take up their call to educate, even “disciple”
their own children. But fair warning: I may strike some
deep-rooted cords and maybe even unnerve you a bit. This
is an area that desperately needs attention in the Church
today and needs serious renewal if we hope to be effective
in the years ahead.
Parents are da Bomb!
Okay, pardon the youth ministry lingo here, and surely
outdated at that, but no other words can quite capture
my point here. Parents have the most significant influence
on the lives of their children, hands down. When Church
documents teach that parents are the “primary and principle
educators of their own children” they mean it, not simply
because it sounds nice but because it is a basic reality. As
catechists we must acknowledge this reality and believe it
with every fiber of our being. Study after study has conclusively
shown that parents have the greatest impact on
their own children, particularly in terms of faith formation.
Christian Smith, in his landmark study Soul Searching, 2
goes so far as to say that if you want to know what a kid’s
faith life is going to be like, just look at his parents. High
percentages of young people mimic their parents’ faith as
they come into their adult years.
The Church calls parents the primary educators because
she knows that parents have a number of trump cards
that no catechist is ever going to have: calling, anointing,
proximity, and access. Parents are called to the role they
are in; and because of their call, they bear a huge weight
of responsibility. Okay, so you could argue that you have
been called to be a catechist, but it is a different calling and
bears a different type of responsibility than a parent’s. A
mother and father have been uniquely anointed for their
call. This means that God is constantly making up for what
is lacking in them and is actively involved in what they
do through the work of grace. In addition to calling and
anointing, parents also have proximity and access. They
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 31

Youth & Young Adult Ministry
live in the same home as their children (at least part of
the time) and have unique access to their children because
of their parental relationship, especially regarding trust,
comfort level, etc. These are powerful assets that EVERY
parent has. No matter how close you may get to a young
person, you are never going to have these to the extent
that a mother or father has them. And when it comes
to teaching and discipling, even an awkward, ineffective
parent is going to be better than you. Yes, once more: even
an awkward, ineffective parent is going to be better than you!
I think many of us need to soak in that statement until
it fully sinks in. It might change the way we approach and
relate to parents and the way we seek to empower them.
If we really believed this, it would inherently shift the
way we see the vital role of parents in EVERYTHING
we are trying to do.
As catechists, I would suggest some serious prayer
and reflection on this key point. How do you see parents
in your ministry Are they an annoyance A burden A
distraction to the teaching you could be doing if they
would just start supporting you More importantly, how
can you begin shifting your relationship with parents
and helping them to see how important they are in the
lives of their kids
Embracing modern culture
I won’t enter into the debate of current divorce statistics.
The topic has obvious challenges: marriages and divorces
at different ages, multiple divorces, co-habiting statistics,
etc. Due to these multiple variables, it is very difficult to
arrive at a clear statistic in regards to divorce rate. Many
have argued convincingly against the 50% statistic that
is widely touted. A much more realistic statistic might
be 40%, or possibly even lower since the divorce rate in
the past decade actually seems to be declining, rather
than rising.
My point here is to face a fundamental reality in modern
culture: the state of the family (and even the institution
of marriage itself ) is under constant attack from outside
forces. Even if the divorce rate statistic is just 40% or lower,
we can no longer approach parents as if everything is just
fine, or solely from the perspective of an intact family. We
must acknowledge the landscape and begin better accommodating
single-parent families and divorce situations. It
needs to become part of our vocabulary, part of the way we
think, and a vital part of the way we attempt to resource
and empower parents. Not every parent is working on a
“team”; and if that is our only paradigm, we are going to
alienate a whole lot of the people we are trying to serve.
The way we address them needs to steer clear of negative
terminology such as “broken” families, which only tends
to add to the feelings of alienation.
In addition to the reality of divorce, we also have other
cultural pressures to deal with—time, financial strain,
high-pressure jobs, etc. The typical family situation, even
with intact families, is a tsunami of stress and anxiety.
Family life is challenged with just trying to find time to
spend with each other. And then what we offer through
the Church is typically pulling families apart once again:
children go to RE classes, teens go to the youth group,
parents go to adult formation class, etc. We are competing
with sports, school, jobs, and numerous hobbies, hoping
against all hope that we will get a hearing.
It is just as John Paul II wrote in his Letter to Families,
“But once man begins to lose sight of a God who loves
him, a God who calls man through Christ to live in him
and with him, and once the family no longer has the possibility
of sharing in the ‘great mystery’, what is left except
the mere temporal dimension of life Earthly life becomes
nothing more than the scenario of a battle for existence,
of a desperate search for gain, and financial gain before
all else.” 3
But does the typical family ever take time to rest
Take time for some solitude to reflect Or is their normal
experience one of such a frantic pace that they never really
have time to consider the deeper things of life I believe
this is becoming one of our greatest roles as catechists
in the Church today: to help people connect with who
they really are. As human beings, we were not designed
for frantic. There is just something about the pace of
modern life that rubs against our humanity. We need to
help parents, even give them permission, to detach from
the hectic and frenetic activity that consumes so many
families. And we need to do that in a way that doesn’t
just add more things for them to put on their calendar.
How can we minister to modern families without creating
more burdens for them How can we enter into their
busy and hectic lives and actually ease the burden, lighten
the load These are the challenges that lay before us as
modern catechists. I surely don’t have all the answers
to questions like these, but I’m convinced that we need
to be wrestling with them and sharing with each other
what is working.
In part 2, I will develop practical tools that can help
us empower parents to more effectively realign priorities
and create an environment for discipleship in the home.
Jim Beckman is Lecturer of Leadership and Catechetics, as well as
Director of Youth Leadership and Evangelization at the Augustine
Institute. Jim is also the author and founder of YDisciple, a series
of teen discipleship and leadership formation resources.
Notes
1. See especially Vatican II, Declaration on Christian Education, art. 3.
2. Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious
and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (NY: Oxford University Press), 2005.
3. Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families, art. 19.
32 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

PERMANENT
MYSTAGOGY:
According to the General Directory for Catechesis,
“adult catechesis must be given priority.” 1 In
fact, the GDC links adult catechesis to the
baptismal catechumenate: [Adult catechesis]
“involves ‘a post-baptismal catechesis, in the form of a
catechumenate...presenting again some elements from the
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults with the purpose of
allowing a person to grasp and live the immense, extraordinary
richness and responsibility received at Baptism.’” 2
Therefore, adult catechesis is not simply a refresher course
in content but is permeated by the idea that the life of
Baptism (and each of the sacraments) must be lived in
maturity. And this requires ongoing formation and support,
a “permanent mystagogy.” 3 Therefore, Pope Benedict
XVI, in Sacramentum Caritatis, calls for a “mystagogical
approach to catechesis, which would lead the faithful to
understand more deeply the mysteries being celebrated.” 4
Initiation is ultimately ordered to being one with our
Lord in an intimate and eternal communion. Such intimacy
requires that we approach Jesus’s Body with love, free from
serious sin, and with a reverent disposition. However, many
seem to take the reception of Communion lightly in the
Church today. Reception of the Eucharist, for many, has
become routine, uniform, and even presumed as a right,
regardless of canonical standing or state of soul. We know
from St. Paul that improper reception of Communion works
against its true purpose and rather than deepening our participation
in the life of God, it can actually alienate us from him:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup
of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let
a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread
and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and
drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks
judgment upon himself (1 Cor. 11:27-30, RSV).
We know from the infrequency of confessions today in
many parishes that few Catholics approach the Eucharist
with the necessary aid of the sacrament of Penance. This
fact alone makes it clear that we are living in a time of
Eucharistic crisis.
In defending current practice, some would point
to the work of Pope Pius X in promoting frequent
RCIA & Adult Faith Formation
The Urgency of Adult Catechesis
for the Reception of Communion
By R. Jared Staudt
Communion. Indeed, many Fathers of the Church, noting
the words of the Lord’s Prayer and the practice of the early
Church, exhorted their flocks to daily Communion. The
practice of frequent Communion should not, however,
be confused with approaching the sacrament routinely or
haphazardly. In fact, in the decree authorized by Pope Pius
X, Sacra Tridentina, encouraging frequent Communion, the
Holy Office notes that the Eucharist should be approached
with a “right and devout intention (recta piaque mente).” 5
Thankfully, the document explains the characteristics of
this intention. “A right intention consists in this: that he
who approaches the Holy Table should do so, not out of
routine, or vain glory, or human respect, but that he wish
to please God, to be more closely united with Him by
charity, and to have recourse to this divine remedy for his
weakness and defects.” 6 The decree also makes clear that
there is no obligation to receive Communion frequently,
as is made clear in the Church’s precept that it must be
received at least once a year.
Sacra Tridentina provides one more crucial point on
this topic: that the grace of the Eucharist requires a
proper disposition in order for it to bear full fruit in
the soul. “Since, however, the sacraments of the New
Law, though they produce their effect ex opere operato,
nevertheless, produce a great effect in proportion as the
dispositions of the recipient are better, therefore, one
should take care that Holy Communion be preceded
by careful preparation, and followed by an appropriate
thanksgiving, according to each one’s strength, circumstances
and duties.” 7 In order to avoid a merely routine
reception of Communion that is hindered in its effects,
both preparation and thanksgiving are vital. Pope Benedict
XVI explicitly affirms this need for a proper disposition:
“Active participation in the eucharistic liturgy can hardly
be expected if one approaches it superficially, without
an examination of his or her life. This inner disposition
can be fostered, for example, by recollection and silence
for at least a few moments before the beginning of the
liturgy, by fasting and, when necessary, by sacramental
confession.” 8 Liturgical participation requires the
right interior disposition in order to fruitfully enter
into the realities of the Mass and the Eucharist.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 33

RCIA & Adult Faith Formation
We need to ask ourselves, does possessing the right
disposition seem to be common today Simply from the
lack of silence in many churches, it is apparent that the
times before and after Mass are not being dedicated to
serious prayer. Further, an adequate catechesis for fostering
the proper disposition for Communion is frequently missing.
The results are seemingly disastrous. Sherry Weddell
insightfully observes that “in recent decades, there has
been little or no serious discussion at the parish level about
how an individual receiving the sacraments can prepare
his or her heart, soul, and life to do so fruitfully.” 9 Given
this fact, she concludes: “I think we may safely question
whether many Catholic adults possess the inner disposition
of discipleship necessary for the sacraments…to have the
intended effect and bear the intended fruit.” 10
More faith-filled and reverent reception of Communion
cannot realistically be expected until Catholics are better
prepared. In fact, many of those who attend Mass could
actually be understood to be quasi-catechumens. Pope John
Paul II says as much when he writes:
[Our pastoral ministry] is also directed to those
who in childhood received a catechesis suited to
their age but who later drifted away from all religious
practice and as adults find themselves with
religious knowledge of a rather childish kind. It is
likewise directed to those who feel the effects of a
catechesis received early in life but badly imparted
or badly assimilated. It is directed to those who,
although they were born in a Christian country
or in sociologically Christian surroundings, have
never been educated in their faith and, as adults
are really catechumens. 11
We must approach those who find themselves in this
situation with patience and understanding, offering them
the means to grow in understanding and love for God.
Before concluding, I would like to offer a few suggestions.
Of course, the first step must be to offer a substantive and
compelling catechesis on the true presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. If Catholics do not believe in the reality of the
Eucharist, fruitful reception of Communion is clearly impossible.
Such an initiative must be linked, of course, to more
general and necessary efforts of evangelization and catechesis.
Second, we need to find ways to impart the necessity of proper
preparation before Communion and thanksgiving following
it. Third, parishes can revive such practices as Sunday Vespers
with Benediction, Eucharistic processions, and, most of all,
the practice of Eucharistic adoration. When Catholics see
a more flourishing general devotion to the Eucharist, they
will more likely prepare themselves well for Communion.
Fourth, we can work to create a more prayerful and silent
environment before and after Mass, more conducive to
preparation, thanksgiving, and devotion to the Eucharist.
Finally, pastors can firmly and gently challenge Catholics
to go to confession before receiving Communion (when
needed) and more generally reinforce the principle that one
must be prepared to receive Communion.
The Church has been clear that we need to prioritize
adult catechesis, that it should be inspired by the baptismal
catechumenate, and that we should form the initiated but
uncatechized through the New Evangelization. These
important endeavors foster intimate communion with our
Lord. This communion brings about a transformation of
one’s entire life, as the Eucharist is meant to impact how
we live out the Christian mission in the world. 12 Thus,
there must be an emphasis on the ongoing mystogogical
catechesis requested by Pope Benedict: “A convincing
indication of the effectiveness of eucharistic catechesis
is surely an increased sense of the mystery of God present
among us. This can be expressed in concrete outward
signs of reverence for the Eucharist which the process
of mystagogy should inculcate in the faithful.” 13 When
Catholics approach the Eucharist with the right dispositions—charity,
faith, piety—that stem from deliberate
preparation and thanksgiving, there will be a deeper living
of the Christian life by all within the Church.
Dr. R. Jared Staudt is assistant professor of theology and Catholic
studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND and Co-editor
of the theological journal Nova et Vetera. He taught previously at the
Augustine Institute and served as a DRE in two parishes.
Notes
1. Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis, art. 258.
2. Ibid., quoting Christifidelis Laici, art. 61.
3. This term appears in the Synodus Episcoporum Bulletin, XIII Ordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishop 7-28 October 2012. The New
Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith, Proposition 38. The
paragraph reads as a whole: “Therefore we propose that the traditional process
of Christian initiation, that has often become simply a proximate preparation for
the sacraments, be everywhere considered in a catechumenal perspective, giving
more relevance to permanent mystagogy, and thus becoming true initiation to
Christian life through the sacraments. (cf. General Directory for Catechesis, 91).”
4. Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, art. 64.
5. Sacred Congregation, Sacra Tridentina (20 December 1905), par. 12 (1). (This
decree from the Sacred Congregation and authorized by Pope Pius X is out
of print, but may be found in its entirety at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/
CURIA/CDWFREQ.HTM courtesy of ETWN.)
6. Ibid., par. 13 (2).
7. Ibid., par. 15 (4).
8. Sacramentum Caritatis, art. 55. He also mentions the importance of
thanksgiving: “Furthermore, the precious time of thanksgiving after communion
should not be neglected: besides the singing of an appropriate hymn, it can also
be most helpful to remain recollected in silence” (art. 50).
9. Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and
Following Jesus (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), 98-9.
10. Ibid., 120.
11. Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, art. 44.
12. See Pope Benedict XVI’s Sacramentum Caritatis: “Finally, a mystagogical
catechesis must be concerned with bringing out the significance of the rites
for the Christian life in all its dimensions – work and responsibility, thoughts
and emotions, activity and repose. Part of the mystagogical process is to
demonstrate how the mysteries celebrated in the rite are linked to the missionary
responsibility of the faithful. The mature fruit of mystagogy is an awareness
that one’s life is being progressively transformed by the holy mysteries being
celebrated. The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer
in an adult faith that can make him a ‘new creation’, capable of bearing witness
in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him” (art. 64).
13. Ibid., art. 65.
34 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
Theology of the Body for the New Evangelization,
Part 1
By Katrina J. Zeno
For us catechists, St. John Paul II’s “theology of the
body” should strike a single, resounding chord in
our hearts and minds: “good news!” It is, in essence,
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
While St. John Paul II’s 133 Wednesday catecheses
include a profound application to sexual and marital morality,
the application occurs primarily at the end of this series
of discourses. As a consummate catechist, St. John Paul II
knew that grace perfects nature. 1 It doesn’t replace nature
nor jump ahead of it. Thus, to truly understand how we
should act, we have to first understand who we are and what
our purpose is. In other words, the foundation of faith is
a correct view of the human person, a correct metaphysics.
Before you hurriedly skip to another article because you
fear I’m about to launch into the philosophical stratosphere,
let me reassure you I am not. Like you, I am a catechist in
every pore of my being. I live to communicate the faith
to others in a concrete and systematic way. However, I
am increasingly convinced that our efforts to pass on the
faith often fail to be transformative because we assume
others have already adequately answered the key human
questions of “Who am I” and “What is my purpose”
Or, perhaps without realizing it, we have relegated those
questions to the realm of psychology and philosophy, as
if they are irrelevant to theology and catechetics.
In truth, these two questions constitute the core of
Christianity. The cataclysmic shock Christianity introduced
into history was not its moral teachings; other cultures
and religions embraced and taught similar moral norms.
Rather, the novelty of Christianity is its illumination of
personal identity. Confessions of faith in Jesus’ divinity are
the highpoints of the Gospels: Peter professes, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Mt. 16:16); the
centurion at the foot of the cross concludes, “Truly, this
man was the Son of God” (Mk. 15:39); St. John declares
the purpose of his gospel to be “that you might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” ( Jn. 20:31).
The gospel, the good news, answers Jesus’ question to his
disciples: “Who do you say that I am” Why is this good
news Because it also answers our search for identity in a
way that can never be found on YouTube, in the zombie
culture, through scientific research, or even in the Old
Testament. Jesus Christ, as Vatican II teaches, “by the
revelation of the Mystery of the Father and his love, fully
reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling
clear.” 2 Jesus’ historical life is the fullness of the revelation
of the Father’s love expressed through a human body. It is
this embodied divine love that sheds light on each person’s
identity and on the meaning and purpose of the body as a
communication of that love.
As a result, theology of the body can never be reduced to
another, more effective way to present the Church’s moral
teaching based on “doctrinal shoulds.” Rather, its real
brilliance lies in being a robust, Christocentric, Trinitarian
anthropology. And it is this anthropology, which illuminates
embodied, human identity from womb to tomb (and
beyond!), that must be recaptured and integrated into our
catechetical efforts for the new evangelization.
Why the new evangelization
St. John XXIII, in his opening address at the first session
of Vatican II on October 11, 1962, articulated the logic
behind what St. John Paul II later called the “new evangelization.”
Here are Pope John XXIII’s insightful words:
What is needed is that this certain and immutable
doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be
studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary
terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which
are contained in our time-honored teaching, is
one thing; the manner in which these truths are
set forth...is something else. 3
The new evangelization, directed as it is to those who
consider the faith as irrelevant to their lives or as something
they’ve outgrown or left behind, relies on a new,
creative action of the Holy Spirit to re-present the gospel
in fresh terms. This process can be likened to the distinction
between roller blades and roller skates. Roller skates
and roller blades differ because of their alignment. Some
inspired person took the classic components of the traditional
skate and redesigned them so that the wheels are in
a line instead of a square. This “fresh” approach facilitates
new ways of moving and navigating that weren’t possible
before.
Likewise, in the theology of the body, St. John Paul
II took the deposit of faith and re-aligned it in a “fresh”
manner, thus providing a new way of navigating within
Catholic theology and especially within Catholic catechesis.
What makes the theology of the body’s alignment new
It is St. John Paul II’s contemporary approach to “doing”
theology. Throughout the Catholic Church’s history, phi-
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 35

Feature
losophy has always been considered
the handmaid of theology because
it provides a framework in which to
understand reality. “Metaphysics” is
simply the philosophical term for
human reason encountering and
describing, in a systematic manner,
reality as it is. Despite what is
often portrayed in the media and
sometimes even in the Church,
faith (theology) and reason (philosophy)
are not antagonistic nor do
they occupy two aseptically sealed
intellectual domains. Rather, as Pope
Francis reminds us, faith is a light
capable of illuminating every aspect
of reality 4 including the domains of
philosophy and science. In “doing”
theology, what is known by reason
is opened up to further illumination
by its relationship with the supernatural, with the Divine.
As a result, a change in philosophy often evokes a change
in “doing” theology. For instance, Augustine, the greatest
of the Patristic theologians, drew primarily from Plato for
his philosophical (metaphysical) framework. St. Thomas
Aquinas, spurred on by the rediscovery of Aristotle and
thus Aristotle’s understanding of reality, opened up new
theological vistas that became the highpoint of scholastic
theology. Building upon these two theological schools of
Augustine-Plato and Aquinas-Aristotle, St. John Paul
II penetrated the truths of Divine Revelation using the
additional philosophical tools of phenomenology and personalism.
With this approach, St. John Paul II catapulted
human experience (phenomenology) and the human person
(personalism) to the forefront of reality, in both their natural
and supernatural dimensions. In other words, human
experience and the human person (and in fact, all creation)
harbor the potential to be carriers of God’s self-communication.
Or, to put this in catechetical terms, through
God’s wisdom and love, the created order is sacramental.
Until recently, the word “sacrament” has been primarily
associated with the seven sacraments. In this context, a
sacrament, properly celebrated, is an infallible means of
encountering Christ: Christ’s redemptive work is communicated
to our embodied human nature through the
action of the Church for our healing and salvific perfection.
Without dismissing this restricted use of “sacrament,” St.
John Paul II recaptured a “wider and perhaps an older and
more fundamental meaning of the term ‘sacrament’” 5 as a
sacred symbol: as a created reality that reveals something
of the mystery hidden from eternity in God.
This more ancient sense of “sacrament” and “sacramentality,”
the fragrance of which St. John Paul II infused into
Fr. Karol Wojtyla hiking with college students.
the text of the theology of the body, must be personally
encountered and liberated by the catechist for the new
evangelization. In a post-modern culture that increasingly
values the visual and experiential in lieu of abstract principles
and strict logic, St. John Paul II’s rich, sacramental
anthropology relies on the concrete, tangible, and experiential
for encountering God and thus for the catechetical
moment. For St. John Paul II, the sacramentality of creation,
not just abstract propositions, is the medium for humanity’s
dramatic encounter with Christ and therefore the revelation
of the Trinity and man’s identity.
This sacramental impulse is perhaps what lies behind
St. John Paul II’s “re-alignment” of the Deposit of Faith in
experiential and relational terms, especially as it pertains
to four central aspects of the faith: the Trinity, gift, the
body, and sacramentality. These are the four “wheels” of the
re-aligned skate. They are four catechetical keys that will
be further developed in the next issue of The Catechetical
Review.
Katrina J. Zeno, MTS, is coordinator of the John Paul II Resource
Center for Theology of the Body and Culture for the Diocese of Phoenix,
AZ. She has been speaking and writing on theology of the body and
Pope John Paul II’s writings for over 17 years. She is the author of
three books, an international speaker, and founder of TOBforeveryone.
com. Many of her talks are posted on YouTube, and her web site is
www.katrinazeno.com.
Notes
1. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Q1, article 8, reply to obj. 2: “Grace
does not destroy nature but perfects it.”
2. Documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, art. 22.
3. www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfmid=3233
4. Cf. Lumen Fidei art. 7.
5. Man and Woman He Created Them, Audience 98:8.
36 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Encountering God in Catechesis
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” [Mt. 18:20].
These familiar words of Jesus teach us as catechists that we have multiple opportunities to encounter him,
not just in communal prayer but also in missionary outreach and every time we step into our catechetical
sessions. Yes, even the mundane and hectic are sanctified by God’s presence. Since he called us, he won’t
abandon us. The question is: are we watching and waiting for him Or, are we attuned to how he moves
us and moves those in our care
We invite you to read the following testimonies of catechists, just like you, in the hope that, as you
respond to your own vocation, you may also find ways of Encountering God in Catechesis.
Give Him Lourdes Water!
One day during my first year of teaching high school, I decided to show my students pictures from my mission trip
to Lourdes. One class was particularly fascinated by the Lourdes water. When I offered to bring some in and share it
with them, they went ballistic! They could hardly wait for the following afternoon.
I carried the container of Lourdes water in my hand as we walked to the chapel for Confession. A kind-hearted
baseball player approached and said, “How do I go to confession I haven’t ever gone. I’ve been too afraid… but…it’s
time.” It was moving to see the strength, nerves and peace in his
eyes. My heart soared. I gave “Pete” a crash course as we walked.
I poured out my heart in prayer as he went into that confessional.
About ten minutes later he opened the door and looked back at
me. He gave me two thumbs-up while smiling from ear to ear.
I made the Sign of the Cross on his forehead with the Lourdes
water. He closed his eyes and prayed on his knees for the rest of
the period. It was a good day for both of us.
Shortly after, I learned that Pete’s father had been battling cancer
quietly for the last two years and his health was starting to fade.
“Give him Lourdes water” the Holy Spirit prompted. A minute
later I saw Pete in the hallway. “How’s your dad” I asked. He
teared up, looked down and answered in a whisper, “Not good.” “Do
you want some Lourdes water to take home” He looked at me in
disbelief, “Yes! I was going to ask you, but I didn’t know if it was
appropriate.” He took the water home the following afternoon.
The entire family experienced spiritual and emotional healing.
Physically, Pete’s dad began to improve. He was even healthy
enough to make it to some of Pete’s baseball games that spring.
Unfortunately, Pete’s father passed away the following year. As
I stood in line at the funeral vigil, I realized what day it was: it
was Our Lady of Lourdes’ feast day! “Do I tell him” I wondered.
I prayed about it the whole time I waited in line. I was hesitant to
remind Pete because I wasn’t sure of his spiritual state. He hadn’t
been in school and I didn’t know if telling him would make him
angry or bitter. I debated the whole time I waited. When I finally
got to hug Pete I sheepishly asked him if he knew whose feast day
it was. He didn’t. “It’s Our Lady of Lourdes.” “Really!” he asked
with tears in his eyes. I nodded. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I
think she wants you to know that she’s still looking out for you and
your dad.” Pete smiled and looked down before hugging me again.
This experience taught me how much God does with my smallest
efforts. There’s only one appropriate word to describe how God
worked through this: awesome.
Grace Burnham
Knoxville, Tennessee
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 37

Encountering God in Catechesis
Thank you, God, for shots!
Sometimes God works in ways we could never imagine,
let alone plan.
Just as parents were dropping off their three, four, and
five year old students for an early evening catechetical session
with me, a woman I had never seen before introduced
herself. “I’m here to fill in for your aide. Her husband is
in the hospital. I’m not sure whether she had a chance to
call you, but I said I would take her place.”
The young woman had never served as an aide before, but
there was precious little time to explain what was expected
of her. Instead I breathed a prayer and she prayed along;
“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful . . .”
The two hour session progressed peacefully and toward
the end we gathered
around the prayer table. As
usual, the children offered
spontaneous thanksgiving.
A three year old, sporting
a bright Band-aid on her
upper arm spoke quietly,
Grace…and an Annulment
One typically does not expect an annulment process to
be a grace-filled moment. At least, that was far from my
expectation. When I think of an annulment, I think of
paperwork, ecclesiastical red tape, embarrassing questions,
a waiting game. Where could one possibly find God in all
of that The recent case of a woman in my parish’s RCIA
process answered that question for me.
After reviewing the Adult Inquirer Information forms, I
realized that one of the female inquirers needed an annulment.
I was worried about sharing this news with her
because I knew that her situation involved more than a
simple defect of canonical form. She would have to pursue
a formal annulment process, which involves at least a year
of investigation into the circumstances of the couple at the
time they were married. This meant that she would not be
able to enter the Church at the Easter Vigil.
I had no way of knowing how she would respond. Would
she give up on RCIA and the Church Would she resent
the Church for making her drudge up these painful memories
from her past Would she ever understand why this
was necessary
She surprised me, as God so often does. She told me she
wanted to do whatever was necessary for her to enter into
“Thank you, God, for shots.” “Shots” A boy turned to
her incredulously. “Why would you thank God for shots
They hurt!” “Because . . . even though they hurt, they keep
you from getting very, very sick!” Satisfied, the boy offered
his own prayers of gratitude and we sang a closing song.
Alone, we were cleaning up the room when the substitute
aide turned to me, tears streaming down her face.
“Thank you for letting me help you tonight. I was supposed
to be here. It’s so amazing how God works! Today, when
my best friend’s husband was rushed to the hospital, I
thought I was doing her a huge favor, you know, offering
a sacrifice, driving clear across town to sub for her. God
knew I needed to be here. If I hadn’t come, God never
could have used the prayers of a joyful little girl to speak
to my heart. Did you hear what she prayed My doctor
recently informed me that I must give myself an injection
every day for the rest of my life. It’s been so hard to accept
this and I have been fighting it. What are the odds that
I would hear that prayer from the pure heart of a child
But God’s love for us is so amazing!”
Lani Bogart
Phoenix, Arizona
full communion with the Catholic Church. It was difficult
for her, but she did it. She filled out all the paperwork,
and in a timely manner. She answered the embarrassing
questions. She even told me that the annulment process
was a grace-filled moment for her.
Her advocate (the one who helps the petitioner collect
evidence) was a warm and patient person. He listened to
her without judging her. He was helpful and kind, and
she appreciated that. In fact, it was in seeing how much
the Church cared about her and wanted to help her to
heal her past relationships and make things right with
the Lord that she decided she did not want to give up on
the RCIA process.
In fact, she was so committed that she continued to
attend all the sessions, even though she would not be receiving
the sacraments of initiation with the rest of the group.
If that weren’t enough, once she received her annulment,
she went through the entire RCIA process again! Only
God’s grace compels a person to do that! Never before had
I seen someone doggedly pursue the Church like she did.
She was an extraordinary witness to me of the attractive
force of God, and of his ability to transform lives in the
unlikeliest of ways…even through an annulment.
Nicholas Hardesty
Owensboro, Kentucky
If you have an experience, which you could share with readers of how God was present to you or those
you catechize in the catechetical process, please consider emailing your story to us at editor@catechetics.
com. Submissions must be between 150-600 words in order to be considered for publication. Writing
requirements are available on our website, www.catechetics.com.
38 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

A New Approach to Children’s Catechesis:
Come, follow me
By Sr. Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, OP
Feature
At the 2015 St. John Bosco Conference for Catechesis and
Evangelization this summer, Sr. Hyacinthe will offer training
for this new catechetical program, written by members
of the Notre Dame de Vie institute in France, an institute
with whom Franciscan University’s Office of Catechetics
has enjoyed a close institutional relationship. This article
provides an overview of this children’s catechetical program
and demonstrates its continuity with the Holy Father’s
vision for catechesis.
Catechesis is a proclamation of the word and is always
centred on that word, yet it also demands a suitable
environment and an attractive presentation, the use of
eloquent symbols, insertion into a broader growth process
and the integration of every dimension of the person
within a communal journey of hearing and response. 1
This short but rich paragraph from Pope Francis’ apostolic
exhortation encapsulates the essential principles
upon which Come follow me catechesis is founded. Come
follow me is a catechetical program for children aged 7 to
11 developed in France by Notre Dame de Vie Institute
in the last 30 years, and published recently in French
and partially in English (Years 1-2). We are now going
to take the main aspects of Pope Francis’ description,
and, in a brief overview, see how they are applied in
Come follow me.
Proclamation of the Word
In many catechetical resources, Holy Scripture is proclaimed
and used in great ways to introduce or illustrate
a doctrinal or moral aspect, or to confirm a point
of teaching. Here however Pope Francis tells us
that catechesis is a proclamation of the Word
and is centred on that Word.
The content of Come
follow me is the Bible, read
according to the Church’s
interpretation under the
light of the Holy Spirit.
Come follow me simply
opens the Word of God
to the intelligence of the
children, in a dialogue
which leads them
to discover
and accept
in the same
movement the reality and presence of Jesus in their own
lives, as well as the truths of the faith.
However, Come follow me’s direct and ‘simple’ approach
to the Word of God is not left to chance or spontaneity.
Not only is the text prayerfully studied with the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, and the questions asked from it
carefully prepared, but the choice of the biblical texts is
structured in a Trinitarian and Christocentric movement
and determined according to the psychological maturity
of the children. This choice of text also follows the liturgical
year, and respects the order and flow of Scripture itself
(the Gospels are proclaimed in the order in which they
are written).
Here is an illustration of the proclamation of the Word
of God in Come follow me, with a short extract taken from
the year 1 Catechist’s Book, Live as Children of the Light
(7 year old onwards), session 22. (The words
of scripture are underlined: Luke 11:1.)
THE SESSION
Let us prepare our hearts. Let us listen
to the Word of Jesus.
Moment of silent prayer. The catechist will
have prepared the figures of the
apostles and the name “Lord”.
Then the figure of Jesus praying
is put in place, without explanation. This is
done with quiet background music. After a moment
of silence, the catechist reads:
“One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place”
Moment of silence, and then
“when he had finished, one of his disciples said
to him,”
The catechist places
the sentence: “Lord,
teach us to pray” and
asks the children:
Do you understand
what is
happening Let
the children reflect.
Why do the
apostles ask Jesus
to teach them
to pray Let
the children
answer.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 39

Feature
They already know how to pray to God! But when
they see Jesus praying, the apostles understand that this
is something new. They would like to be able to pray like
Jesus. Jesus is going to fulfill their great desire.
Suitable environment
Through the use of two spaces, the space of fraternal life
and the place of Meeting with God, the children are given
the freedom to move from one to another. This allows the
children to remain in silent prayer with God for as long
as they want after the proclamation of the Word , while
those who have finished praying can meet in the space of
fraternal life to engage in an activity related to the theme
of the session.
This use of space also develops the children’s understanding
of the sacred and profane. Many children in
our own Catholic school (Lymington, United Kingdom)
are not Catholic or never go to church. Yet they begin
to enter the place of Meeting with great respect and in
silence as they learn to receive and respond to the Word
of God in a prayerful atmosphere. Our school does not
have a chapel, and so we have to set up our “place of
Meeting” in the gym, which is probably the place least
conducive to prayer and recollection. Yet the transition
from gym to place of Meeting with God is possible: one
day, in the classroom that serves as “place of fraternal
life,” I stood corrected as I invited the children to come
to the gym. One of them immediately said, “No! To the
place of Meeting!”
Attractive presentation
and eloquent symbols
The card silhouettes are one of the most immediately
striking aspects of Come follow me. They are used to lead
the children to an interior understanding of the Word of
God and to respond to it. Each session comes with a set
of silhouettes which are displayed soberly and beautifully
to help the children adopt the attitudes of faith, hope, and
love they illustrate.
The horizontal and vertical features of the wooden kit
helps the children to gain a sense of the transcendence of
God and of his action in the world.
At the heart of the display, which is the center and focus
of the Place of Meeting with God, is the Bible, placed in
honor. Candles and light are used to signify the presence
and the action of God, who speaks to us in his Word and
comes to us in Jesus. This first sensorial and meaningful
experience of the sacred awakes the liturgical sense of
the children.
Insertion into a broader
growth process
As fundamental catechesis (35 sessions each year during 4
years, from the age of 7 to 11) Come follow me is not only
40 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

Feature
concerned with the transmission of the faith to the
children but also with their growth, as inseparably
human and Christian persons.
This is shown by taking
account of the intellectual,
social, and spiritual maturity of the children
at different ages, and an emphasis on the development
of the human and theological virtues. Here
is a short summary of the 4 years.
Year 1 (7-8) Age of reason with a discovery of
our capacity to know and think (intelligence), of
the gift of faith that enables us to know God, of
our conscience that
enables us to listen
to God, and of the
virtue of prudence.
This year, built
on the theme of
mercy, introduces
the Sacraments
of Baptism and
Reconciliation.
Year 2 (8-9) The
“social” age of first relationships, with a discovery
of our capacity to love and choose (will), of the
gift of charity that enables us to love God, of our
conscience that enables us to do what is good,
and of the virtue of justice. This year, built on the
theme of communion, introduces the Sacrament
of Holy Eucharist.
Year 3 (9-10) The age when we “find our roots,”
with a discovery of our capacity to remember
(memory), of the gift of hope that enables us to
trust God by remembering his mercy, of our conscience
which seeks the truth, and of the virtue
of self-control. This year, built on the theme of
the Word of God, introduces the Liturgy of the
Church and the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Year 4 (10-11) The age when we first consider our
future, with a discovery of our freedom and of the
Person of the Holy Spirit who makes us free and
enlightens our conscience. This year, built on the
Holy Spirit introduces the virtue of courage and
the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Integration of every
dimension of the person
The pedagogy used in Come follow me takes account
explicitly of the various dimensions of the person, from
the physical to the spiritual. God in Christ has taken on
the whole of our human nature and has redeemed the
whole of our human nature. No dimension of our person
is indifferent to God, nor should be left
unattended by grace.
Part of the catechists’ training for
Come follow me involves a short
“anthropological” formation. We
first learn to attend to the children’s
physical needs, to the awakening
of their five senses, as a way to help
them become aware of their interior
senses. This leads them to the discovery
of their own capacities to know,
to love, to remember, to choose, and
to further an even greater discovery of
the grace of God in them: the gifts of
faith, hope, and charity that they learn
to recognize and use. The children’s
gradual discovery of their own
person, as a unity of body
and soul touched by
grace at every level,
is fundamental to
the pedagogy of
Come, follow me.
Within a communal journey
of hearing and response
The essential methodology of Come follow me is a dialogue
with the Word of God proclaimed by the catechist in the
name of the Church and under the breath of the Holy
Spirit. As the children hear and respond to the Word of
God, they journey together towards holiness, throughout
these fundamental years of their lives, between the age
of 7 and 11.
What response do the children give Here are some
responses from catechists who have used Come follow
me:
• Integration of the Faith They are attentive, focused,
and remember the Word of God, to the point that
they are able to make connections between the
different words and events recorded in the Bible.
Their faith becomes integrated. They invite other
children to catechesis and begin to evangelize their
own families.
• Sacramental Life Although Come follow me is not
a sacramental preparation program, it introduces
the sacraments in relation to the person of Jesus,
the action of the Holy Spirit and the Church.
Sacramental themes run through the four years
in most of the sessions. As a result, the children
themselves ask for the sacraments, expressing a deep
understanding and desire for baptism, confession,
first Holy Communion.
JANUARY-MARCH 2015 41

Feature
• Moral Life Devoid of moralism, Come follow me
has a profound impact on the children. Parents,
teachers, and catechists see signs of moral change
in their behavior to each other and within their
own school and family setting. The teaching on
conscience, but also the familiarity with grace and
the application of the Word of God to their own
life in each session, encourages a response to the
Word in deeds as well as in words.
• Prayer Life This is perhaps the most visible response
of the children to Come, follow me. Each session
ends with a time of prayer, which the group begins
together. Then the children are free to remain in
prayer or join the others for a common activity
related to the theme of the session. Naturally, not
all the children stay to pray, but there will always be
some to stay one, two, five or even ten minutes, in
complete silence, to be in the presence of Jesus. This
opportunity given to the children is the most moving
evidence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and is
one of the most essential aspect of Come follow me.
Here, the proclamation of the Word of God bears
all its fruits, in the response of prayer freely given.
Rooted in Notre Dame de Vie’s Carmelite spirituality
and developed under the breath of the Holy Spirit, Come
follow me is a catechesis highly adapted to the challenges
and demands of modern society. It provides both a structured
and comprehensive teaching of the truths of the
faith and a profound respect of the personal freedom and
maturity of the children. Here the children truly experience
the joy of the Gospel and share it with others. As
one parish catechist recounts:
During the year, the children bring in their classmates
to catechesis. They are aware of experiencing
things that touch them deeply in their hearts and
want to share this joy with their friends...We have
finished the year with more children than we had
started with, which is completely new for us; the
children evangelize each other...Because nowhere
else do they find such spiritual experience.
Sr. Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, OP is a member of the Dominican Sisters
of St. Joseph in Lymington, UK, which she joined in 2000. She has been
an associate member of the staff of Maryvale Institute, Birmingham,
UK, since 2007, and is one of their MA student supervisors. She is
the author of the Anchor resource for adult faith formation. Since
2007, she has been translating from French the Come, follow me
catechesis. As well as publishing the English translation of the catechists’
books, she is responsible for training catechists for this particular
pedagogy, which is currently being implemented in schools and parishes
in England, Ireland and the United States. More information may
be found at www.comefollowme.info.
Notes
1. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, art. 166.
42 THE CATECHETICAL REVIEW

NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 6
NEW HAVEN, KY
Online
Master of Arts
in Catechetics
&Evangelization
The Master of Arts in Catechetics and Evangelization from Franciscan
University Online empowers catechists working in the field to be more
effective in leading others to deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ. Through
this program you will acquire more of the knowledge and skills you
needto proclaim the Good News. And you can do it entirely online in
as little as 24 months.
Academically Excellent
Passionately Catholic
• Perfect degree for:
Directors of Religious Education, Youth Ministers, RCIA Directors,
Diocesan/ Parish Faith Formation Directors,Catechists and Religion
Teachers, Anyone in the position of handing on the faith.
• Classes taught by renowned professors including:
Bob Rice, Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. John Bergsma, Dr. Stephen Hildebrand,
Dr. Petroc Willey, Sr. M. Johanna Paruch, FSGM, Dr. Alan Schreck
• Flexible completion in 2-4 years
• Courses offered Fall, Spring, and Summer
• Transferable course credits accepted
• Accreditation:
North Central Higher Learning Commission
The Ohio Board of Regents
TO LEARN MORE OR APPLY
www.franciscanuniversityonline.com
800-783-6220 • online@franciscan.edu
Graduate Admissions • Franciscan University
1235 University Blvd. • Steubenville, Ohio 43952
Franciscan University of Steubenville is committed to principles of equal opportunity
and is an equal opportunity employer.