 Thank you for coming. I'm Sister Mary Michael. This is a presentation on this book following God's pedagogy. It is a presentation on the book, but only for the purpose of encouraging us as catechists to look at a particular approach that's being used right now for the principles that I have found in that approach that I think are applicable to all catechesis. I really believe that. The church does not have one method of catechesis, amen? She says that there's not one, there's a plurality of methods and methods are for the purpose of serving the gospel and serving the people. And so I was blessed in my doctoral research just to kind of go and look at one. But I wanna ask you, why did you come? That's my first question that's, I think on my PowerPoint. Why did you come to this presentation? I too have taught grades, well, I've taught three to 93 and that's on my calling card and I'm sticking to it because I have worked in an atrium with three year olds and I also did adult catechetical formation. So I worked with the catechist in my diocese in Nashville to try to help them to hone their craft, really. And so, and one fellow, Walter God bless him, he started when he was 89 and finished when he was 93. And I'm like, hey, I can do this. I can do this. So anyway, excuse me. So the heart of the book, this came from my doctoral research, all righty. So I came here in 2009 to work on a postgraduate specialization in catechetics. Mother had asked me to get my doctorate in catechesis and I just simply asked her, I would love to get my doctorate in catechesis, what I didn't know is what that really meant. But I said, I would love to do that, but can I get some undergrad in catechesis? Cause, you know, it's helpful to do progressive learning. So I called sister Johanna and I said, mother wants me to come and get a degree in catechetics. What's that look like? And she said, oh, you're in luck. The stars align, the courses are all lined up. You can come in January, you'll be finished in August, you'll be dead, but you'll be done. And I said, okay. And she was right. I was, by that last, she took me to the wall greens just this week to pick something up and I grabbed a bag of Eminem almonds and she laughed and she said, oh, still the attachment to that. Cause I got through her last course, which is the practicum in catechetics on Mountain Dew and Eminem almonds. And that's about three hours of sleep, Mountain Dew, Eminem almonds. So the book actually came from a research question that has been in my heart and my mind and my practice for a long time. And it really is this particular work of how do you bring the head and the heart together in catechesis? Even before I came to Steubenville and read the documents, I had already heard enough people in this argument what is a rather polemic argument about it's important for them to know God, to know the doctrine. It's important for them to love God, to love Jesus. And of course, not that Dominicans have a corner on the market, but it is. I mean, Saint Dominic, it's the head and the heart. It is the head and the heart, it's the whole person. I mean, where would you ever find that separation between the head and the heart, except in a post-Contian dualism world? And that's what we live in. And I think that has been impacting catechetics continually. And so I was blessed to meet Petrach, Willie, to follow him back over the pond to Maryville. And this was the question I was looking at. Like, where did this happen, the separation? And so I started a year's research on a passage in the 1977 Synod, catechesis tradende. And it's that first bullet point. And so in that catechisis tradende, there's a phrase paragraph 22 that says it's useless to play off orthopraxis against orthodoxy, doctrine and life, head, heart, religious knowledge, religious experience. So I was looking at a variety of ways to term this, but there is definitely a polemic, and there has been for years in the work of catechesis, this head and this heart, you know. So I gave you a little bit of the background. And, but I'm still in that particular spot of just the sense of where is this coming from? Well, it's coming from this question that I have, that I'm seeing in catechesis with the separation. And so I spent a year doing that research, really. I spent a year doing the research. No, this is actually my overview. You can cut and we'll start over. How about that? This is what I'm gonna talk to you about that I've already launched into, but you're with me, okay? See, it does help to have it. So I wanna give you a little bit of background, a little bit of the nature of catechesis. The heart of the presentation is what I have determined and discovered in what I'm calling the CGS difference. Okay, what is it that I found in the catechesis of Good Shepherd that I have not seen? And then some principles for every catechist. And that's actually where I was in that story. So I began my doctoral research looking at a particular question, how this bifurcation happened. And as I was starting that, and I hadn't been formally accepted into the program, but I was already doing a whole year's research and already done a presentation on it. And I watched a catechesis of the Good Shepherd training session was in on that session. So catechesis being formed to be CGS catechesis, I'm watching this whole thing. I'm listening to the formator and suddenly these light bulbs are going off and I'm thinking, here it is. I'm looking at the reconciliation of religious knowledge and religious experience. I'm looking at it. It's richly doctrine. It's so rich and so profound. And there is this moment of engagement, encounter. And that was just, that was us. That was the sisters in the program. Hearing doctrine that I've studied for years and yet there was a new landing in my heart and my mind. I was encountering the Lord through that proclamation and through that experience of working with the materials. So Petra came that summer to give a talk at our college and I said, Petra, I need to change my question. Oh, oh, sister, tell me more. He's so careful, tell me more. And I said, I really think there's something here and no one has researched it. At least I couldn't find it at the time. No one had gone into it and given a real research. Is it valid? Does it hold up to all the documents that I've just studied, right? And he said, very, very good, sister, very fair. You're right, go in. And so I did. So I did. And so what I found in my research is that since 1905 with the proclamation of a chair boneemis, the prize, the tense encyclical on catechesis, like just starting over, there has been a tremendous experiment in catechesis. We have had waves of attempts to improve it. Beginning with method, let's have a better method of having the catechism, these doctrinal truths in the memory. Now the book goes into various people in that movement which I'm not gonna do in the presentation because this is just a synopsis and a shameless plug to go get a book if you haven't gotten a book. But it's important for us to know because if we don't know our history, we keep repeating it, yes? Yes. So I fought for this particular chapter of my dissertation which really went through a longitudinal study of what have we been doing in catechesis for years because as I got into it, I realized, oh, we're about to do the same thing over and it's gonna be another mistake and we're just gonna continue to do this pendulum between the head and the heart, doctrine and life, orthodoxy, orthopraxis. They need to know God, they need to love God and we've already done all that. So I give a synopsis of that in the book but the long study was worth it and so we were adamant not to let that go and various people who have read the book have said I had no idea and that was very helpful. And I wanna ground the catechism with Shepard and ground our revival in catechesis which is what I'm really about is a revival in catechesis in that history so that you are aware of what has been going on and where we can move forward out of the polemics, out of the polemics and that was Petrox, I think that's his project too. So we did a, I don't know, 30, 40 years of looking at method, a better method and there was great inroads in some of that. Then when the Theological Ray Sermont came in the 1940s and 50s, the theologians in theology were looking at let's go back to the sources of theology, scripture, liturgy, the fathers of the church. Well that happened also in catechesis through Joseph Youngman. Let's go back to the sources, right? In catechesis, let's take them back to the scriptures, let's take them back to the liturgy and so content became the focus. Let's offer a richer content to our people and that enjoyed a little bit of a renewal. Why that stopped? Why that, there's different people who propose reasons for that. I think there was a convergence of the revolution in the 60s, okay? So again, people are coming out of the war and it takes us a few times to really figure out what was that all about. This focus on the person, there was a catechist at Catholic University, Gabriel Moran, who maligned Youngman's work and so if you have somebody who's very popular, very charismatic, looks at someone else's work and says that's not gonna do it. Okay, so people start to follow the new guru. So Gabriel Moran actually did a great disservice to catechesis in our country and then the world because what he was looking at is that it's not even the content, we need to be looking at the person more. So Gabriel Moran and Tom Groom both went to what we call an anthropocentric approach and if you're in catechesis, that word perhaps is not new to you, anthropocentric. Looking at the person, looking at the person. Now I say that because all three of those things are important in catechesis, yes? Yes, we have to look at the way we're handing on the faith. We have to look at what we're handing on and I have to understand you. So a primary Thomistic principle that I stand on and have always tried to stand on is whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. Where are you in your journey and faith? Where are you intellectually? What is your ability to abstract? So the anthropology was missing in catechesis and it was a one-size-fits-all. Here's the truth, get in your head, let's keep repeating. Or, that's too hard, let's color. I mean, we've done all kinds of things, right? And so we see these different components and there's waves of it that I recognized. So I'm just gonna ask you because I have a little bit of time to do this. What was your experience of catechesis? How many of you spent a long time memorizing the catechism? It's okay, I mean, it dates you a little bit, but it's okay. All right, what about a long time? You spent most of your time doing skits, making crafts, singing high God, how do you feel today? And then, of course, there's another. We spent a long time talking about the poor and other social justice issues. Okay, so that's pretty much the wave of generational catechesis that's happened in this country. And you've experienced it. So what does the church say to us? And she has been saying to us in the nature of catechesis. So the 1977 Synod looked at what is the work we're trying to do? What's the goal of it? And the 77 Synod had already encountered a heavy dose of the anthro-procentric catechesis. This height focus on the human person. So we're gonna throw out the catechism, we're gonna do away, we just, what do you wanna talk about today? Okay, so this heightened interest. And the Synod was very clear in saying, our work is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not rocket science. Go make disciples of all nations. That was the mandate from Christ to the apostles and it just continues to be handed down. That's your primary work, making disciples. You're like, yeah. And she just said, how? Which is exactly the question we should be asking. But we can't lose the goal. What does it mean to be a disciple? To put others in touch and intimacy with Christ. They have to have that encounter. Pope Francis isn't saying anything new. This just got highly eclipsed from the 77. He's not saying anything new that the church hasn't been saying all these years. Intimacy with Christ. So I tend to be, I don't wanna say a minimalist. I'm an essentialist. To me, and those of you who have been following me all these years, you hear this often. This is really what Catechesis is about, according to Sister Marie Michael, but I think I'm standing on good ground. God is an eternal exchange of love. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he has destined us to share in that eternal exchange. I am made to participate in this eternal exchange that is happening right now between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's not a doctrine in the Catechism that isn't somehow pointing to who God is. Right? Those of you who've been looking at our Catechism, can you see this? This is Thomas. It's all the exitus ready to us. Who is God and how do we get back to him? God creates us to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world and forever in the next. So when I work with my Catechist, this is what I, every lesson has to have this at the heart of it. No matter what you're gonna teach, how is it revealing God who is love and how is it leading that person back to him? Because if all else fails, that's why I showed up today. That's why I showed up today. God is love. He loves you and he has created you to share in that love. Kiss, keep it simple, sister. So the question we ask ourselves is how do we do that? How do we do that? Well, the church has answered that question. We do it the way God does it. We follow what is called the original pedagogy. God's pedagogy. Pedagogy is such a rich word and I'm so grateful for Petrach for opening my mind to the richness of that word. That was his dissertation. This pedagogy of God. Pedagogy is a term that, it's everything that's involved in the formation, the transformation of a person to be a Hebrew, a Greek, a disciple. It's everything. And we have to always be looking at it as everything. And the church said to Catechist, God has already shown us how to make a people unto himself. Our work is to be careful discerners. Watch him, study him. He is the master and we must be disciples of that master not just in living but in our praxis. How do we communicate the gospel to others? So in my study, I came upon two women who asked that question. Gianna Gobi on the left, who's the educator and Sophia Cavalletti who always looks very serious in my photos. Yes. What Sophia and Gianna did in 1950s, 1954 was kind of what we would mark as the beginning of the Catechist Good Shepherd but it's a 50 year experiment. These women came upon Catechesis. Gianna Gobi was a Montessori teacher and in Montessori whether you know that or not it's a very Catholic approach to education. It's been hijacked in our country but Maria Montessori was a deeply committed Catholic person who said if a child does not receive a religious formation they're not educated, right? So go stick that on all the Montessori schools that have no God there. Just saying. So she had already had some experience with Catechesis through Maria Montessori. Montessori wrote a beautiful book called The Child in the Church. Montessori's Catechesis was very liturgical because that was her time in the 1900s, 1920, 1930s. The church hadn't really gone through a full race or mon, a new beginning of biblical studies for the common people. So she did in her atrium, Montessori's atrium, what the church was doing which was very liturgical though she did have some biblical things. But so the educator meets the theologian, Sophia Cavalletti, the theologian. And they ask this question, how do we bring the child to become disciples? How do we do that? What is the way? So they follow the child which can often be misunderstood. As Catechists, they proposed to their children who were three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. The first children were about eight, getting ready for first million. They proposed to the children particular stories of salvation and they waited to see the child's response. Now that may sound kind of Tom Grumish, right? It's not. It is that whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. Children are by nature inquisitive. They want to learn. Who they do, who has children here, right? What did they ask the whole first years of their life? Why? Why? Where does that disappear in school? What have we done to education? That has taken the wonder out of children. And what these women did was they followed the child. They proposed various proclamations of the gospel and they waited for what sparked in the child. And then because they were Montessorians, which again follows a Thomistic principle, what is known in the intellect comes through the senses. There's nothing in the intellect that is not first in the senses. So then they began to create material that would help the children meditate on these proclamations. This is a rocket science. Just nobody had done it. Montessori had done it. Montessori had done it. But the theologian is bringing more biblical stories to this work. So they followed the child and they followed the church. When you read the writings of Sophia Cavalletti especially, because she's the theologian, she writes more. Gianna Gobi has a beautiful book called Listening to God with Children. But you'll find more of Sophia's work. And she was already a published author, scripture scholar. Scott Hahn actually got Sophia to contribute to his inaugural issue of Letter in the Spirit. How about that? Scott Hahn knows that Sophia Cavalletti was a preeminent scripture theologian. He's no dumb bunny. And so they followed the church. They had themselves tethered to the documents. They were reading the documents. Sophia Cavalletti was involved in the work in Rome that went to the Synod 77 cents. She didn't go to the Synod, but she was in those meetings, those preparatory meetings in Rome that went to the Synod. So again, here's this person in the church. And I believe I get more and more convicted of it that they followed the Holy Spirit. That they were both very anointed in the spirit. And what convinced me of that is the new directory. When I read the new directory, which we'll be saying for 100 years, the new directory 2020 to me is prophetic. I kept reading this thinking, who was the catechise of the good shepherd person on the committee? I kept asking around. Mary, were you on the committee? Jared, were you on the committee? I mean, I kept, who got on this committee that there's influence? Were you on the committee? There, I just found my person. Because there is so much in here that works for the child, for the person, for the person. I thought I asked you that before and you said no. Oh, thank you, okay. Well, there you are. I knew it. I knew there was a cts person on this. All right, so I'm giving you a little bit of a background into who these women were. Why? Because I want you to trust that this is no fly by night work. This was 50 years of working with children. They called it an adventure. Now, we hear that in catechesis, we're like, oh, we've been on adventures before in their disaster. They called it an adventure because actually they didn't set out to start a new program in catechesis. All they wanted to do was to bring the gospel to the child in the way that the child would receive it. Dear friends, I come from a long family of catechists. My sisters in the 1970s were on many of the Dostos and committees to write curriculum. They went to my community and asked, give us a religion curriculum, give us a school curriculum. They were there in writing them. And one of them who was a catechesis good shepherd formator now says, we never asked the child whether this works. We just knew what the sumo said, what the catechism said, and we just went down. If we started all over again, we would do it different. These women, top in their field, Sophia Cavalletti is a theologian at the La Sempe NCA University, teaching academics. Gianna Gobi is a Montessori master. These women are masters in their field and they're being attentive to three-year-olds. Watching, did this proclamation ignite you? Did this work feed your contemplation? They spent hours working with materials, making materials. I got to go to their atrium and see the wood, the little room that had all of their materials in there. If the child did not use the material, if it didn't foster their contemplation and meditation on the proclamation, they put it aside. Now, they're alone, dear friends, makes me stop. The humility of these women, the humility of these women should say something to us. It's not about me. It's not about us, it's about the child. I want the child to know God. So what I found as I got deeper into their work and analyzed it really was more than I expected. So I see in them a particular content, a particular proclamation, that is all about the inexhaustible mystery of God. God is an inexhaustible mystery. Yes, the catechism has 2,558 entries in it and they're all beautiful words. But if you think that's the end of the discussion, and I had a Byzantine priest really open me up to that, he said, you need to be careful because whatever you say, there's always more. It's inexhaustible. And what we have done in catechesis in our faithful proclamation of doctrine is we have put a full stop behind some statements and have left no room for the child or the adult to continue to meditate, to contemplate, and to explore God who is an inexhaustible mystery. Bless you. So there are things we know about him absolutely and we can stand on them, but we will never exhaust that love, that truth, that beauty. Amen? Amen. And so to recover in catechesis, a certain, well, there is a certain misdegogy to this in the sense that we are always going deeper and deeper and deeper. And the way we catechize small children leads them to know that so that they're not just receiving a sacrament saying, I'm done. They're not just leaving eighth grade or twelfth grade in a Catholic school, but I know all that and we've heard that from children, haven't we? Oh, we already studied that. God, the Holy Trinity, you've already studied that. Okay. So their content has this particular quality about it because of the scriptures and the liturgy. It's inexhaustible. I can always go deeper into the scripture. Scott Hunt has not exhausted it, okay? I'm just telling you, you picking up the word today in prayer can have a new insight. The child possesses unique intellectual and physical and spiritual exigencies, these life forces. So at each stage of the child's life, there is a particular spark towards the world, towards themselves, towards God. And what they were doing is looking at the scriptures and looking at the liturgy and matching this up. The small child has a great desire to touch, to do. And so it's a very sensitive time for gestures of the mass, the nomenclature of the liturgy, the articles of the mass. They have a great capacity for love, great capacity for love, you know that. We've all been jerks to children and they all gave us a new day. It's expansive. And so what they're looking for is God who has an expanse of love. The seven-year-old starts to become a moral child. That's why they tattle tail. Johnny did this and well, he's just wanting to know, was that right or wrong? And so a curriculum that begins to introduce the moral life after the relationship has been established, the covenant, God's gift and gift and gift and gift. And how do we live in that gift? How do we stay in that love? So they realize that each phase of a child's life has a particular religious hunger. And so the curriculum, let's match that. Why work against it? Children are naturally inquisitive. Why? Let's match up our content with that inquisitiveness. And the method. So the method is serving simultaneously content and methods. So method works as this beautiful bridge that brings the mystery of the child and the mystery of God together. And so that method itself must be able to effectively communicate God who is and who has revealed in an inexhaustible nature to a child who is mystery, as you know. What are their hungers? So what they landed on was the parables. Do you want anybody else who used parables in his catechesis? Oh my gosh. How novel is this approach? And liturgical signs. Who else uses the liturgical signs in their catechesis? By the church. Again, they're not trying to be rogue. They're not trying to be novel. They're trying to ground this work of making disciples in what is there in the heritage of our church. But then here's this also this important method, the child's personal work. And Bishop Cousins, Archbishop Cousins spoke about that. This personal faith, this response that needs to happen. We're not saying make up your doctrine, but every person, if you want them to be true disciples, have to be able to say their own amen, amen. Now I see this. Now I know this. Now I am seized by this. So where does that happen in a traditional setting? Here's the textbook. Here's my lesson. Well my experience is it hasn't been. So it isn't about a better textbook. It isn't about a better PowerPoint. It's creating space in our catechesis that the person can sit with that proclamation how they are capable of sitting with it and allowing the Holy Spirit from inside out to convict that person, amen, it's true. And the catechesis of good shepherd allows the child to do that because after the proclamation, their meditation, their contemplation, there is their own work that they do that's related to the proclamation. And that's the cycle of the CGS. It's very simple. Proclamation, contemplation, and then work, which is contemplation. So this is why you paid all your money to come to this talk. This is what I found in the CGS that I have not found in any approach. Jared O'Shea is doing that with the education in Christ. So Jared, if you went to his presentation yesterday, he's a CGS formator actually, had a atrium himself, was asked to do work in the school by his cardinal and his bishop and we need to do something and he says, well this is what I know, yes, right, we'll make that work for the schools. His project stands on CGS. There's no embarrassment to that. He knows a good thing when he finds it. Sophia Cavalay said to him, Jared, take it all. Now there's humility. Jared, take it all. It's not my work, it's the church's work, it's the children's work. Take whatever you want, whatever will serve you, but if you're going to make any adaptation, give it your own name and that's what he's done. Now he's done more than that, but that's what he stands on and it's this. The CGS proclaims this content in this way because of this child. It's a paracoretic, Trinitarian approach. That's my elevator speech. This content, why do the three-year-old are we doing epicleses? Because they're so sensitive for signs and they can see that. It's a big word but they can see it. It's intelligible, it's intelligible and then they can do it so their body's involved, right? Why the Good Shepherd parable? The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and he calls them by name. Well, haven't you been listening to that this whole conference? Isn't it the one message we keep trying to put into your mind and your heart and your whole being that you are known by God and loved? Yes? If you didn't get that, you got nothing because that's what we're all keep trying to say. You are known by God and you are loved by God and if we don't get that, nothing else really matters and yet how many of us didn't get that deeply established in the core of our being when we were children? It's part of our struggle. I work with people in healing of memories and healing of addictions. This is what the struggle is. So the young child is expansive love, the parable, you are known and you are loved. This content in this way because of this child and that's an inexhaustible meditation, this child. Now I will not be able to go fully into this presentation. You have a handout on the back and I do believe that Jared is going to do a full presentation on this. This is actually a whole course in Montessori studies really and I don't even have my Montessori degree. I just read her because I love her and I've got a lot of people showing me the way to her and I'm just trying to encourage others to study her. Jared is about to do a series of videos that unpack this chart but the point is, the point is and this is the revolution and the revival that I am asking of you. We have to do something different in our catechesis and if we could begin with recognizing that the child is different at different stages, it isn't just start small and get bigger. At each phase there is a particular face of God that the child is looking for, hungry for and ready to receive and that starts with the small child and starts with the adolescent. It goes all the way up. There's a particular hunger that they're about about themselves, questions they're asking about themselves, about the world and about God. It's not rocket science but we haven't done it that we would match a curriculum to fit that particular spiritual, physical, intellectual hunger. And what Maria Montessori contributes to the CGS through Gianagobi and then Sophia did go study Montessori herself is this understanding of the child. That's not anthropocentric, it's anthropological. It's anthropological. We better pay attention to the person sitting in front of us otherwise we're just talking heads. It's not about you, it's about them. And so a little bit of study just, and it doesn't take much. This four planes is this very small little document. Now it's helpful to have an expert guide you through it but it's not rocket science in that way. Montessori was a scientist and a saint who took time to observe the child, receive, receive, who are you, why are you, what is this about, and then she wrote about that. And so if we could connect our curriculum to that we'd be making headways. So it's just a question I wanted to ask you at this point in your vast experience or just starting new with the little ones, can you think of a particular doctrine that really animated your class? So just think about that doctrine as you were talking and your kids were just on fire, tell me more, tell me more, tell me more and just tell me what was the doctrine, what was the age? 13, 13 and 16. And so correct me if I'm wrong. There's a little bit of that age that becomes the independent researcher, okay? So the adolescent child, they don't want you to tell them all the things. They don't want you to tell them anything, okay? All right, all right. Now, but why, let me just, before I go to that, let me just say one thing. Since we all know that's a universal experience of the teenager, they don't want you to tell them something, you know what that should say to us, that's probably the nature of an adolescent and why do we keep working against the nature of an adolescent when the nature of these children, except for sin, was inspired by God? If the nature of an adolescent is don't tell me everything, then we should as adults say, all right, I won't gonna tell you, I'm not going to do that because that's not where you are, but I do need you to have an intellectual, spiritual engagement with the gospel. Well, let me give you something that you can go then, study, investigate, cogitate, wrestle with. Is that plausible for you? As you're listening to me, is that plausible? Yes, yes ma'am. Okay, all right, so the secrecy, all righty. So yes, so that's seven-year-old, eight-year-olds, yes, they're beginning to discover that they have an interior life. Again, Jared, help me with this because I think I know these things, but I'm not a Montessori expert, so I'm learning to be a little more studious in that, but that's my understanding of that, is that that child, it's an interior child who is beginning to see their particular relationship with God interiorly, and so you're right. They do become a little more secretive, if you will, working with that. Yes, that's a Montessori mantra. Help me to do this by myself, yes. So something that I'm just, and this is, Jared has in his book, Educating in Christ, has beautifully laid out a curriculum that matches the various exigencies. It's been tested through Sophia and Gianna, 50 years testing these doctrines' spark interests, and he's done some exploration in his own field with that, and he's laid that out so beautifully in the back of the book and has tethered it to the catechism. Can I say one more time? You can trust this. It is a chance to revive catechesis by simply doing something different with the curriculum that matches the hunger, the spiritual hunger of the child. But these were just some things that, just to give you an example of the three and six year old, this movement, expansive love, they're into rituals and symbols. They do like to work independently, and so what you see in the CGS are processions, an ability for them to take a work and go by themselves and work on it. The liturgical gestures, we introduce to them practical life because they want to do help. So they're sweeping, they're cleaning, they're polishing, they're cutting flowers. Now many of those things are for eventual liturgical work, right? So we give them a certain practical experience which will then be liturgical, pouring beans into a container for control because they will at some point work on a mass preparation of preparing the chalice. So we want to make sure their body control is there. The seven to six and nine and moral development is important to them belonging and they begin this hero worship. And so it's a great time to bring the moral parables, this whole story of salvation history, like where are we on this love story and that the good shepherd is laying his life down, right? That sparks in there, he laid his life down. And so it's the beginning of that to do something great. Nine to 12, yes, so knowledge, it's expansive, abstraction becomes more easy for them, self-identity and duty. These are key things to them. And so you begin to see these beautiful works, the origin, the Eucharist, like why do I do what I do in the church? Where is this coming from? That's connecting to identity. How many high school children and middle school children, they don't know why we're doing what we're doing. And because I said so, never worked, ever. And there is nothing that I have ever seen in my 20 years of teaching in a classroom where the curriculum intentionally worked them into, this is the family story. The mass has come to us through the generations in this way. It's a magnificent presentation. I was in a CGS training and the priest who was with me said, I didn't get that in the seminary. We have a study from a woman in Toronto, Patricia Coulter, who did her doctoral research on the impact of formation of the CGS Catechist and their faith. And those who've been trained in it, who's been trained in CGS, okay. And what happened to your faith as you were receiving these lessons? Yeah, you're like, I didn't know that. Or if you knew it, suddenly it's penetrating at the core of your being in a whole new way. So this is not only good for the children, it's gonna be good for the church because the adults who wanna sign up are rediscovering or discovering for the first time, what is the heritage of the church's doctrine? They're seeing it, they're encountering it, they're experiencing God's presence. So some principles of the CGS that I think are applicable anywhere. And I'm gonna run out of time to go through all of these in depth. And that is not another shameless plug for the book, but just I do actually walk through those things. But let me just poke around this list for a little bit. Those of you who have been on the retreat track have been inundated with the message of silence. Yes? Silence. The critical need for silence. James Polly published an article that I just offered on the pedagogy of silence. And what happens in silence if I have given a faithful proclamation, if that proclamation was meditated on my heart, my mind in silence, I know this doctrine reveals the face of God to me. I proclaim that to you, and then I pause and let that resonate. Jesus Christ became flesh to dwell among us. And he remains in the Eucharist. The silence that we've been building into this conference has been intentional. The half an hour last night, which we've never had before, of silent adoration. It's a new thing for us. If you like it, tell them on the survey. If you don't, don't come back. I'm just kidding. But this is all intentional. The work of the Bosco Conference is to form you as a catechist, as a DRE, as a Dostosian official, wherever you are serving. What is essential to that formation is that you become a contemplative catechist. There's not an option in the church. There has never been an option, and now we're desperate. If you can't become contemplative in your study and in your preaching, you are not leaving room for the Holy Spirit. And this revival is only gonna happen in and through and with the Holy Spirit. Amen? And so here's a work that I've seen. The magic is the Spirit. There is a lot of room for the Holy Spirit in the CGS. So silence. So if that's all you do in your catechetical work tomorrow, the next day is to say less, pause more, you will be joining the revival. Already the catechist is essential. So the formation that happens in the CGS catechist is intensive, which is why it's very daunting for many places. And I was really grateful when Jerry gave his presentation, which I absolutely, his work is phenomenal. All things being equal, we would want CGS catechist because of the intensive formation that it takes. You become transformed in this doctrine. You take on a new way of thinking about the Lord, a new way of praying and a new way of proclaiming. Bosco is helping in that transformation to recreate you as new proclaimers of the gospel. But you are indispensable. If he's not here with you, it's not gonna communicate to them. And when all else fails in your lovely lesson plan, and it does and it will, and if you can stand on and fall back on boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, that's what I would call my middle school, ladies and gentlemen, God is love and he is real. And I know that. And all I'm trying to do is to try to help you believe that because there's nothing like knowing his love. And then you sit down. So the environment, something immediately, and the directory talks about that, creating an environment that speaks to the person as soon as they walk through their door, this is an algebra. This is catechesis. When children walk through the door of the atrium, especially the beginning, I know many catechists who say to them, in this place, God speaks to us. And I can help you listen and hear his voice. That's my job, is to help you listen and hear his voice. The environment's beautiful for an atrium for the small child, it's their size, it's everything about it says, oh, this is my prepared place. Isn't that what God did in creation? He prepared a place. So the materials, yes, there's a particular incarnational dimension to the materials. They do speak to the child. Not every classroom teacher is gonna have that opportunity, but Jared is really helping that with some of his work. But a beautiful piece of art. And the catechetical view always offers beautiful work. The materials that a child can then sit with or meditate on, you know? The language. So I don't know if I'll get this article written and I have to confess to James that I've been not duly attentive to my homework, but I'm going to be writing an article for the catechetical review on the importance of language as that vehicle of proclamation. It has to be accessible to the child. Simple, poetic, inexhaustive. The context, so the scope and sequence, which again, I think I've been speaking to you, to look at that. Is it appropriate to begin even a second grade class with moral formation, hear the commandments, here's what God expects of you to get them ready for confession before they've ever been introduced to a covenantal relationship with God? And I will say, that's not Dominic, that's not Thomas. For the Dominican, the moral life is a response in grace. We stand on that. I can't be good except for his grace. So show me how to get his grace, grace upon grace upon grace. He loves me, he loves me, he loves me. How can I stay with him? How can I follow him? And they'll ask you, how can I follow him? Well, this is what the Lord has spoken and shared with us. Okay, and then your presentation, so how you're actually delivering your doctrine. If it's just a set of words and rules for you, it's gonna come across. But if you are truly trying to introduce them to the Lord, to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you realize that doctrine, doctrine is the portal to him. We're not Star Trek aliens, just brains stuck someplace, right? We're body so, and so my intelligibility comes through something tangible, be it a sign that I can see or a word that I can hear, that then can stay. So the doctrine is indispensable, but that doctrine is a portal to the inexhaustible mystery. And there's a way that I say that, that will communicate that. Even if I'm talking about sin, sin is the turning away from a God who loves us and turning to ourselves. Let's pray. I gave a presentation to some priest in Knoxville, Tennessee. And then one of them in the back of the room got real snarky with me. He said, and where do you find all of these beautiful children who pray so innocently? And before I had a chance to knock his head off, another priest stood up and he said, oh, they're in my atrium, come see them. So grateful, so grateful, so grateful. So the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, you commissioned us to let the children come to you. Help us, Lord, to do that in the best way, in the way that opens up all the doors to your heart for them. Renew us, Lord, in this work of Catechesis. Revive us in this work by sending forth your Holy Spirit anew. Help us discern well what to say and how to say it. And let us always be about leading the children of all ages to you who take us to the Father. All glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end, amen. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.