Catechesis and the RCIA: Introduction
The General Directory for Catechesis (and the National Directory for Catechesis echoing it) states that “Given that the missio ad gentes is the paradigm of all the Church’s missionary activity, the baptismal catechumenate, which is joined to it, is the model of its catechizing activity.” (90) For those of us in the catechetical ministry there is real value in having a working knowledge of the RCIA. Two years ago I was blessed to participate in a Beginnings Plus workshop put on by the North American Forum on the Catechumenate, which challenged my preconceptions about...
Read MoreCatholic or Private?
A few weeks ago, during a curriculum standards meeting, one of our principals related the following incident: A prospective parent called the school to get information about enrolling their child. During the course of the conversation the woman said that she wanted “a good private education” for her child. The secretary (God bless her!) replied that they have “a very good Catholic school.” Undeterred, the mother reiterated again: “Well, I just want a good private education for my child.” Somewhere along the way people have got the idea that Catholic...
Read MoreDo Prayer Variants Keep Parents from Catechizing?
Earlier this month we had our first diocesan board of education meeting of the year. In the course of the meeting we split into groups to discuss various issues affecting catechesis and education in our diocese; I sat with the Catholic Identity group. A good portion of our conversation centered on parents and helping them claim their role as the primary catechists of their children — which led, naturally, to the question of why parents aren’t comfortable catechizing their children. A Catholic school teacher in our group offered an explanation that I had not considered before:...
Read MoreRoman Missal Workshops: Unexpected Success?
Our diocese had our fourth day of regional workshops on the Roman Missal, third edition yesterday. We offer an afternoon and an evening session, each 3-hours long, covering some basics of good liturgy, the reasons for and some examples of the changes we’ll see on the Firth Sunday of Advent, and a packet of resources for implementing the changes. Our last two workshop are next Tuesday, and after they’re done I really want to sit and analyze what we did right with this workshop. The afternoon session is for Catholic school teachers — usually a very tough audience. But so far,...
Read MoreCatechesis: Not Just for Theology Geeks
Marc Cardaronella has written a great response to my recent post on adult faith formation. Marc gets to the heart of the problem with this passage: I think a lot of catechetical programming is geared toward the theology geeks and old regulars. It centers on teaching doctrines or other aspects of the faith. But to draw in a wider audience, it needs to tell people how to solve real problems. I’m not saying that catechesis isn’t important (except if it’s boring). I’m saying that often it’s not perceived as important by the average person in the parish. That’s because it’s not...
Read MoreGetting Our Knickers in Knots about Catechesis
Thinking aloud today: In the middle of a conversation on journalistic standards during the latest episode of This Week in Tech, panelists John C. Dvorak, Leo Laporte, and Jeff Jarvis (whose blog post on the subject sparked the conversation) discussed the ideal of objectivity versus the reality of partisanship. I’ve edited out the relevant section here: Twit0317-information by sullijo The part that struck me was Jarvis’ statement there at the end: “We in journalism get so much with our knickers in knots about ‘What is journalism?’ whereas the world says:...
Read MoreBook Review: Will There Be Faith?
Whenever I engage in conversation with my catechetical colleagues, certain questions and themes arise again and again: What would catechesis look like if it followed the pedagogical model used by Jesus? What if we sought to not just teach about the faith, but help the faithful (both young and old) learn from and be transformed by our rich Catholic tradition? How can parents be more intentional about passing on the faith? Thomas Groome’s new book, Will There Be Faith? A New Vision for Educating and Growing Disciples, seeks to answer these questions by proposing a life to Faith to...
Read MoreThe Gift of Media: Catechetical Leader Episode 011
The latest episode of the Catechetical Leader podcast is now live! This month I talked with Dr. Eugene Gan, associate professor of communication arts at Franciscan University of Steubenville and author of Infinte Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media. We discussed the Church’s teaching on media, where to find good media, and how parents and catechists have a hand in forming children’s understanding and use of media. You can listen to the entire episode at www.CatecheticalLeader.org; you can also subscribe to the podcast on...
Read MoreVLCFF Course – Old Testament
Registration for my final Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (VLCFF) course of the year is open: Old Testament (September 25 through October 29, 2011) – “This course paves the way for students to develop deeper personal understanding and appreciation for the biblical context, structure (Canon), authoring, meaning and historical impact of the Old Testament. Students are introduced to methods of reading biblical texts, understanding the story lines and process of interpretation with cultural contexts, and current trends in biblical research. Students are encouraged to...
Read MoreWhat Web Browsers Can Teach Us About Methodology in Ministry
Permit me a little rant for a moment: A friend mentioned on Google+ yesterday that he is not allowed to install Chrome on his office computer. I’m sure his IT department has perfectly legitimate reasons. Heck, as someone who’s done a little IT work I understand the value of standardization across a company’s platforms: it makes maintenance and troubleshooting much easier if you don’t have to manage multiple programs, and locking down computers helps keep more… adventurous employees from accidentally installing malicious software. (For the record, I’m one...
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