How would you explain the meaning of catechesis to a new catechist?

Written by Sherry Scott
Sacramental Coordinator
St.Thomas of Canterbury

How would you explain the meaning of catechesis to a new catechist?

Before I explained the meaning of catechesis, I would thank them for stepping forward to be a catechist.  They are about to become part of a very special breed of people.  I would congratulate them on acting on the call from the Holy Spirit to spread the Good News to the next generation.

I would explain to them that catechesis comes from Greek, and it means “to echo, or to resound.”  The catechist echoes the faith that they themselves have been given.  So, it is very important for the catechist to develop their own faith through ongoing formation workshops, classes, retreats, reading, and prayer.

I would also explain that catechesis is not just book learning and memorization.  The object is not to produce students who can recite memorized prayers or successfully answer test questions, although sometimes those can be secondary objectives.  The primary objective of catechesis is to form disciples of Jesus.  We want to share our faith so that our students grow to have a real relationship with Jesus.

The National Directory of Catechesis states that there are six tasks of catechesis: faith education, liturgical education and practice, moral formation, prayer, community life, and missionary education.

So, being a catechist requires that we teach the faith, practice liturgy, practice prayer, further the moral formation of our students, share Christian community with them in our parishes, and instill in them the necessity of taking what they have learned and sharing it with others.

We teach the faith by sharing the scriptures and the tradition of the Church with our students.

We practice liturgy when we have Liturgical celebrations of which they are a part.  Also, we can break open the liturgy in class and discuss the meanings behind the actions and symbols.  We can also take tours of the church for better understanding of what we do as Catholic Christians and why. 

We practice prayer by praying every time we gather together. When we pray with our students we use different prayer forms; memorized prayers (the Catholic family heirlooms), spontaneous prayer, guided meditation, petition prayers, litanies, etc.

We form our student’s moral conscience through talking about events in the world and in their lives and exploring philosophy and critical questions, using scripture and the teachings of the Church as a guide.

We immerse our students into the life of the community by teaching them about our parish life and using role models in our communities to highlight what Christians do.  We engage the students to participate in the life of the community through service, and participation in parish events. (One of my fondest memories and a connection I have to my childhood parish community is the annual Fourth of July picnic that I played at and then worked at as I grew older.  It was a great time to see everyone, and I still enjoy going back to it to this day.) 

We teach the necessity of missionary work through our actions as catechists and as volunteers ourselves.  We also talk about missionary work throughout the world and perhaps participate in an outreach program.

Finally, I would sum it up by explaining that it is a whole lot more that just teaching out of a textbook.  The role of the catechist is to pass the “spark” that “fire/passion that you have for Jesus”, on to your students.