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Here are some ways to live as everyday catechists
by Sr. Janet Schaeffler special to The Michigan Catholic
Published September 18, 2009
Once again, this year on Sunday, Sept. 20, in parishes throughout our country we celebrate Catechetical Sunday. We will not be alone. This will be happening throughout the world, the universal Church. Who will you commission, in your parish, as catechists and catechetical leaders?
- Adult faith formation catechists?
- Catholic school teachers, principals and support staff?
- Catechists in the parish faith formation program?
- Catechists in the RCIA process for adults and children?
- Youth ministry team and catechists?
- Young adult formation teams?
- Your director of religious education and adult faith formation?
- Scripture study leaders?
- Marriage preparation teams?
- Facilitators/leaders of parish small faith-sharing groups?
- Baptism preparation teams?
- Leaders of social justice study and action groups?
- The various commissions and committees who envision and plan programs and support the faith formation efforts of the parish?
- The many others who faithfully teach and model that faith is to believed, celebrated, lived and prayed?
At the same time, this is a day for each of us. We are all catechists.
The "General Directory for Catechesis" leaves no one out when it talks about the responsibility for catechesis: bishops, priests, parents and family, men and women religious, laity, catechists, and the entire Christian community.
Materials for this year's Catechetical Sunday, "Catechesis and the Proclamation of the Word," can be found on the U.S. Bishops' Web site:
The materials focus on a variety of ways catechesis prepares people to hear, understand, and apply God's Word in their daily lives.
Even though the catechists who will be commissioned throughout our archdiocese on Sept. 20 will do that in a systematic way through formal programming in your parishes, each and every one of us is called to hear, understand and apply God's Word 24/7 in our daily lives.
How do we do that? Through participation in our Catholic community of prayer, liturgy, faith formation, service and justice outreach as well as spending time in our own lives for personal reflection/study, prayer, spirituality practices, and actions for peace and justice.
Helps for hearing and praying about God's Word. Since we are all catechists, wishing to be transformed by God's Word, we are fortunate to have many avenues to reflect on God's Word. A few:
Helps for applying God's Word. One of the hallmarks of Ignation spirituality is "finding God in all things."
That is one of our roles as "everyday catechists" - to be more aware: to look for God in the everydayness of our lives. Yes, God is with us when we celebrate liturgy, when we pray, when we celebrate the sacraments, but God is with us in each everyday moment.
In the next few weeks there are three events (there are probably many others) where we can be everyday catechists, where we can make our faith come alive, where we can apply God's Word to our everyday life.
Sept. 21: International Day of Peace. The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an opportunity to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of humankind to work in cooperation for this goal.
Much information, including ideas for observing Peace Day, can be found at International Day of Peace.
Sept. 28: Family Day. Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children (trademarked) is a national movement launched by CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) in 2001 to remind parents that frequent family dinners make a difference!
Much of this campaign is about the conversation that happens at the dinner table, helping the family to share feelings, thoughts, joys, worries and hopes. Conversation starters - and many other ideas and helps - are found at Family Day.
Another helpful site to complement this day is: Grace before Meals. Fr. Leo Patalinghug is using his role as a budding celebrity chef to preach the importance of the dinner table in family life. (See related story, Page 22.) The family that cooks and eats together stays together, he says. This Web site has great recipes, ideas for celebrating, several graces before meals, and good conversation starters.
Some things parishes might do to help families celebrate Family Day:
- Incorporate CASA's research on the importance of frequent family meals into marriage preparation sessions to make the case for the benefits of families eating together.
- Publish meal prayers and fun/interesting dinner conversation starters in your Sunday bulletin.
- Don't schedule any parish events on Sept. 28 so it can be a family night; encourage your local school system(s) to do the same.
- Sometime during the week of Sept. 28 have a family (all are family) potluck meal at the parish.
Oct. 2: International Non-Violence Day. The United Nations has designated Oct. 2, Gandhi's birthday, as International Nonviolence Day. A prayer service is available on NCR Online.
Oct. 24: 350 - International Day of Climate Action. On Earth Day 2009 the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, with the help of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and the full support and cooperation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, launched The Catholic Climate Covenant: The St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor. On Oct. 24 there is a one-day opportunity to participate in another event which would be a way of fulfilling the Covenant.
Events are planned for all over the world for the project known as 350, the safety zone for planet Earth. NASA's James Hansen, the first scientist to warn about global warming more than two decades ago, wrote recently, "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 p.p.m. (parts per million) to, at most, 350 p.p.m."
Visit 350.org for information and ideas.
Sr. Janet Schaeffler, OP, is the archdiocesan associate director for adult faith formation for the Office for Faith Formation/Catechetics.
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