 Catechesis, this is Catechesis for conversion the charismatic approach. So as I kind of said before maybe you guys We're coming in. This is a an exclusive You can only get it here not online So it's primarily for CT track people, but it works for everybody. This is basically an overview a Big picture idea of what it is we do at Franciscan catechetics I'll get into that as we go along, but it it's meant to give you a Big picture That you can like placeholder that you can take everything that you learn here and then understand how it fits in to a larger picture for catechizing for conversion, which is now this big thing Charismatic catechesis It's all in the directory and for years and years. I guess I'll talk about that too for years and years It wasn't and it was kind of like a bad word You know and when I was first a DRE and in the early 2000s. I was like 2003 I was coming in 2005 when I would be in national places You didn't say that you you wanted to do charismatic catechesis. That was a dirty word you know everybody's doing sheer Christian praxis and and Thomas Groom and and Charismatic catechesis, that's that's you know That's bygone days the 60s. We don't do that anymore. So, you know, I would come up with all kinds of creative words for it Like if it like maybe maybe I would say evangelizing catechesis or maybe I would say I Don't know. I maybe I'd say catechesis for conversion or something like that if I said things on a national Level if I said something I was speaking to people. I wouldn't say charismatic catechesis because then you'd be branded. Oh, yeah, you're one of those and and then People started well Pope Francis started talking about it more but Benedict talked about it But Francis started talking about a lot more. He used it used the term almost In in one of his in I think even Jillian Gaudium and then this new directory comes out and they just say it Which is what I'm gonna say. I'm kind of repeating myself with They just say it You need charismatic catechesis. I'm like, yes, finally We know that I mean trying to tell you people that for a long time, you know listen Okay So here we are All right, so Let's start Here's the first question Do you ever wish your lessons had more effect? When I first came here, so we my wife and I had my wife right here everybody Give applause for my wife. She's great because she puts up with me My first game in front says we had this big conversion later in life and Reconversion back to our Catholic faith and I really wanted to teach people and so that's what I wanted to do wanted to help convert people and and I we This was like 1999 Scott Hamas first getting started, right? So I was like totally enamored with Scott Hanstoff. He just wrote it's like first book like Rome sweet home Maybe it had he had he had this tape set of salvation history VHS tapes mind you and 14 Set tape set and and I was just like enthralled, right? So that's why I came to Francisca looked on the back of a things like oh he teaches at Franciscan maybe I can go there and I Just loved him, right? I took every class he ever had when I came here I asked the people in admissions. I was like, okay. I want to learn how to convert people Where do I go for that and They said oh you need to talk to Barbara Morgan in the catechetics department. I was like, oh really? Okay, I Kind of likes got Hanstoff. I'm just gonna do that So I did that for a little bit and then my wife and I we taught CCD Down at st. Peters. I don't know if you've ever seen st. Peters in the downtown area. We taught CCD night and I had fifth graders Have you ever tried to teach covenant theory to fifth graders? I mean falling flat is not even close to the description of what that was, right? Just look at me like I Crazy right so so I realized after that year where I got like nothing from them Like I need to learn a little bit more about how to do this instead of just just saying a bunch of cool stuff So so then I did go to see Barbara Morgan and and and said hey I need to learn how to do this right so she's like okay, okay, so so what what I'm gonna tell you about today is what she taught me and A lot of other people here who are who were Students including Stella Jeffries right there who was way before me Pioneer before me so That's what this is And I know I know that from the laughs and the little chuckles I That we probably all had that happen, right or is that just me? I don't know is that That just me no no, I know it's it's a it's a common thing You know we and and sometimes we can do everything right and we still get those blank stares But but there are some things we can do that would help us to actually you know get in there and and Do it better we could have a better chance of doing this so Let's talk about the process of catechesis for conversion. What is that? So you've maybe you've heard this before Heard it said that catechesis is a moment in the process of evangelization. Have you ever heard that? I never knew what that meant. What does that mean a moment in the process? So in the church's understanding Everything that we do to transmit the faith is the process of evangelization so Here and here it is in the here it is stated in the directory Catechesis is a this would they say a privileged stage in the process of evangelization It is generally directed towards persons who have already received the first proclamation Okay, so This is the process of conversion in the directory now It's gone through a couple of different iterations in prior additions to this directory, but basically this is it right? You've got pre-evangelization first proclamation catechesis ongoing formation fully formed faith So when they say it's a moment in the process it means it's it's this is where catechesis belongs The catechesis that you're used to doing the catechesis proper that that where we were to go to talk about Every aspect of the Eucharist and and talk about and break all of that out and help people to understand all of these nuances of the faith, right? But what happened what asked what's supposed to happen first what's supposed to happen first is you have Pre-evangelization so pre-evangelization these to call that fundamental Catechesis it's like answering the big questions Who am I? Why does everything exist? Is there a God? Why am I here? those are the kind of questions that people who Start to realize that there's more to life than everything around them and they they search for purpose and meaning they start to ask these questions and And those can be answered in very fundamental ways by you know not going into a lot of depth right it's like Talking about the existence of God. Why why would there be a God? Why why should there be a creation? Why why are we not just random all those kind of things helping people to understand and you're you're getting them Curious about more and when they're at the point where and you're telling them about Jesus too But when they're at the point where they they realize that they they want Something the Christian thing is really intriguing them now. It's time for the first proclamation. What is that? That's the gospel message first proclamation is is the is the proclamation that the apostles have where they say I'm gonna talk about this at length later, but it's it's talking about the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, right? Jesus Christ died for you and it's and he rose from the dead and he's he's here to bring eternal life That's the first proclamation or the gospel also called the karygma. We'll get into that later and then once you've done that and Everybody is is they understand they they their curiosity is assuaged They've heard this proclamation of Jesus Christ They've made a decision to be Christian and to follow Jesus However imperfectly at that point they but they've made the decision there their lives have changed Now that they're on they're in love with Jesus and they're on fire Now you teach them all the other stuff. That's where catechesis proper comes in you teach them all those things That they're yearning to know Because they want depth right they want understanding That that will feed this faith that they have now and once you've done that Maybe you know it it could be an initial or a catechism gonna be a little bit more you think about our CIA Kind of like you know up to the point where they're ready to join the church Then there's ongoing formation formation that continues for a lifetime and you can never really get to the end of it and That can go on again for a long time until you have someone who is in fully formed faith and that's somebody who is basically feeding themselves Like all of you right nobody had to to tell you to go to mass this morning because you really wanted to right you wanted to Receive the Eucharist always telling you to pray Because you do because you want to be closer to Jesus and you are an adult a mature Faithful Catholic Right, it's a process of evangelization Catechesis is a moment in there So back to the directory the directory says that Those who ask for already received the grace the sacraments often do not have an explicit experience of faith though Okay, so so it says that these distinctions that we have in this process of evangelization these distinctions They're useful. However in today's Society and in today's world We don't always get the luxury of having people go through all the stages People it says people present themselves to you without having had the first proclamation without having had this pre-evangelization and And there they are right and you have to deal with them in Your religion now there's really no formal mechanism for that in our religious education To take care of this. We just kind of do catechesis, don't we? And even if you did even if you had your DRE and you set up this perfect now We can do this in our CIA Because people come to us and we can say okay We're gonna have this time period and we're gonna go through a pre catech catech human it We're gonna do some evangelization there and then we're gonna do the right of acceptance We're gonna have you accept Jesus and then we're gonna do the catech human it proper and we're gonna talk about all the other stuff Involved and then you're gonna get initiated into the church. You can do that in the RCA in children's religious education Even if you did set up this perfect system and you had all of this throughout their primary grades in high school What's gonna happen? Somebody's gonna come in they're gonna move in and they're gonna say cataclysm my kid, right? Oh, no, I'm sorry. You can't be a part of our program because you haven't had Pre-eventualization and first proclamation duh Right, so no, you can't say that can you you can't say you have to take them in You got to do something with them, right? So what do you do? That's what the church says those today who who They've already received the grace of sacros, but they don't have an explicit experience of faith So it says in the present context It's no longer possible to stress such differences these distinctions of the process those today Who asked for already received the grace of the sacraments often do not have an explicit experience of the faith and do not Intimately know its power and warmth So they're coming to you. They're Unevangelized Then it goes on to say This demand to which the church must respond at the present time Brings into focus the need for a catechesis that in a consistent way can be called charismatic. I think I'm going over my thing, okay, here we go I'm not I'm not practiced with my slides here. This is a year ago So here we this is so this is the thing We need a catechesis that can be called charismatic meaning The catechesis that is entering more deeply into the Charigma the proclamation can therefore no longer be considered simply the first stage of faith preliminary to catechesis, but rather the essential dimension of every moment of catechesis What does that mean? That means what they're saying is you have to evangelize and catechize at the same time Simultaneously Evangelizing as you're catechizing so as you are bringing out these aspects of the faith you are doing it in a way That is evangelizing that is charismatic i.e. It's bringing forth the charisma as The central focus any questions like a lot of questions. I mean, how do you do it, right? Okay, so here we go That's the rest of the talk Okay, so the charismatic approach. How do we do that? So so again, this is something that we've been doing here for quite a while Since the mid 90s. This was the thing Charismatic catechesis is something that came out of the 50s and 60s It's a an offshoot of the liturgical renewal catechetical renewal was happening at the same time These are the the movements that led to the second Vatican Council To to go back to the sources to understand how was the how were things done in the apostolic age? And how was it that? These fishermen were able to convert the entire known world How'd they do it? What were their methods? They would go back to the sources. They did it in liturgy. They did it in catechesis as well and a lot of that actually got lost for a while, but but there was this strain of people who really understood that this was the thing that needed to be passed on and It was kind of handed on in secret a little bit. It was sort of clandestine in Catholic University At the Catholic University of America a man named Eugene Kavan and father Eugene Kavan continued to do charismatic catechesis even through the 70s Barbara Morgan and You guys and Gigi's apian. Who was my PCL person? Anyway, yeah, yeah, Gigi's apian was another one to study with Barbara Morgan study with Eugene Kavan Bishop Bishop Lory to actually and several and some other people They they kept alive this charismatic catechesis Barbara came here and started teaching it and It's and the thing is it's in all of the catechetical documents like what do we do when we do Some of the the classes we go into catechetical documents and see what the church writes about catechesis and what they write about catechesis is what We what this is talking about John Paul II would say the same things we could see it But for a long time people were saying no you can't do that Right, that's not the way to do it, but now they're saying it is so it's really exciting So we are guided here in Charismatic catechesis by the work of an Austrian Jesuit named Johannes Hoffinger Hoffinger wrote in the 60s before and after the council he wrote before and then he amended his work after the council and Again, this is from the catechetical renewal So Hoffinger's work is called the good news and it's proclamation. It's kind of like a textbook in charismatic catechesis for us and They they it's out of print. You can get copies used But a lot of times I don't know if they have it a lot of times they have it It's runoff spiral bound in the bookstore. That's what we always have Spiral bound copies of it, but you can get it there You can find it in a use though if you go to Amazon you find you can you can get copies of it so I Would highly recommend if you can get your hands on this. It's gold. It's fantastic. He is just so amazing and this is what he says that drawing from st. Paul Hoffinger says if you look at the writings of st. Paul, you can see one Fundamental theme that runs throughout his catechesis one fundamental theme. He calls it the mystery of Christ The mystery of Christ The he says this this is what he says The message entrusted to us is made up of many different doctrines, but it is by its very nature Far more than a list of truths. That's important The faith is far more than a list of truths It is a wonderful unity with one central idea that we must bring out as clearly as we can the mystery of Christ in Hoffinger's understanding is basically the redemptive plan of salvation in Jesus Christ and And and how that manifests in the church and is brought to us and how we're restored by it It's basically the gospel Hoffinger doesn't call it that because it isn't really called the kurigma either But what he does he does actually in some places, but this mystery of Christ is what we're talking about this fundamental theme it's throughout St. Paul and he says that that is what we need to organize everything around so the kurigma the mystery of Christ Should be the central organizing principle of everything you do all of your catechesis should be bringing out this idea of salvation in Christ and Inviting your students into it Everything we teach every lesson should be delivered from this understanding of the kurigma Everything moving them towards transformation in Christ What is what does Paul say over and over again you are a new creation You've become something different. You've been transformed. So the idea is not information But transformation Your goal is not merely to impart information But to bring them to understand that they can be a new creation in Christ So catechesis with a charismatic approach seeks to guide people Towards realizing that so that's your that's your objective. So Now I've been talking about the kurigma What is the kurigma? This is a good one. I hope Francis has this one Jesus Christ loves you. He gave his life to save you and Now he's living at your side every day to him enlighten strengthen and free you. That's a good one A lot of people use that. I don't think it's the best thing. I Prefer the the this the four-point gospel, which is like a lot of times people think it's sort of like Protestant But but it's not really it actually comes from scripture It comes from Romans if you look at Romans 1 through 11 you can see this thing. Have you ever heard of the Roman road? The Roman road. It's not exactly it doesn't exactly work In Catholic circles, but but it's sort of it sort of does and it's basically what Paul is doing in Romans He's leading you through this understanding of of this four-point gospel basically But before I start does anybody know it who knows it? I'm gonna put you on the spot If I know what the four-point gospel is Nobody does All right, everybody shy here. Here's somebody who's he'll take a chance good Excellent very good. Did you have something similar where you guys say same thing excellent? Yes. I'm so excited a Lot of times when I asked that people say it's my Matthew mark Luke and John I tell you this was something for me When I was when I was growing up. I remember listening to televangelists and on Sunday morning on TV and Hearing them talk about the gospel and I never knew they never said what it was Never said what it was. It's like everybody just knew it. Just they think it was just he understood Everybody knew what it was and I was wondered. What is that and then when I converted? Reconverted I was like, oh, I want to know what the gospel is and I looked everywhere I read all kinds of stuff And nobody said What it was Catholic in character and we said it was and then I thought well I'm gonna come to Franciscan and when I come to Franciscan they're gonna tell me what the gospel is and Nobody did it's like theology doesn't talk about this Theology talks all around this and they just kind of like I don't know. It's a soon that you know this and It's and then and then like the documents like the the catechesis like the director for catechesis They give you flowery or it's all a nice and perfumy language and and you're like you still don't know so big You still don't know what you're talking about like what is this? We're talking about here. What is the I wanted to know? Where's the gospel? It was like it was okay. It was in it. It was in a Scott hon class I was like I was my first couple of semesters didn't hear it. I started to think I'm never gonna know what the gospel is and then Dr. Honest it was lecturing and he he was talking about how his his one of his his mentor professors from when he was a Protestant in in school he met with him after he converted and and he had coffee with him and They sat down and he said the first thing he said to him was Tell me the gospel and so he rattled this thing off and he's like oh, thank God. I thought I'd lost you That's what his that's what his mentor told me. I thought I'd lost you when you when you came to the Catholic Church that's how much we don't know right and And I was like I was like oh wait a minute. He just said the gospel and I wrote down really quick. Okay. What do you say again? Right there like that was the first time I heard it and then I learned more as it went when I went to go see Barbara Morgan And I've learned more but the four-point gospel. This is important. This is like okay, so this is it I just said it's like the fundamental theme is like the central organizing principle. This is everything, right? This is it so you guys pretty much had it right Creation we were created for union with God We were created in the image of lightness of God to be in union with him to have Relationship with him to be intimate with him. That's how we were created and he had he had infused his own life And in our souls and that's how we're meant to live with sanctifying grace not having sanctifying grace is Is not natural to human persons and and so that's how we're we're made but The union was broken through original sin Adam any of our first parents they they disobeyed God in a major way and And they broke the relationship with God and when they broke relationship with God they lost That union with them and they lost his life within them and lost sanctifying grace and so they're they're just they're lost, right? And that was our condition before Jesus came then God became a man Jesus Christ He died for our sins and he made it possible for us to be in union with him again He died on the cross and he went to heaven and he made the way for us to go to heaven, too But now the fourth one is the kicker and It's the one we never do we hear this you probably you probably you knew this already We hear this in mass all the time, right Jesus died for our sins. He rose from the dead Right that and and we're good, right? But there's one more aspect to this that most people miss and usually when I ask people they get the first three And they miss the last one They miss and it's important. It's so important and that is this last one. You can call it restoration Call invitation. There's a lot of different words for this one God is inviting you to be in relationship with him so that you could be restored to union and live the way you were designed and created to live You are not meant to live without sanctifying grace That's how you were created and that's how your whole and the restoration is in Jesus Christ and in sanctifying and receiving his grace and Increasing that grace through the Eucharist and through reconciliation. You become more and more human You become more and more whole you become more and more God-like But who you're meant to be and you can't be who you're meant to be without that but We need to invite people we need to invite people to this and that's where the Protestants really get it and and I get so much pushback in Catholic circles from this last aspect of Invitation. Oh, no, we don't invite people. That's what Protestants do. That's too forward We don't do that as Catholics We just let the Holy Spirit work in their lives and eventually they're gonna come around after like 20 25 years. I Kid you not I was in I was doing this thing at a parish and this guy this deacon He says we don't do that. This was like just a couple years ago. We don't do that That's too much too too presumptive too forward you're gonna run people off that way and I was like, I'm talking just talking about inviting people to more No, no, no, and so we were in this group, right? And there's this guy who he he converted and so the deacon says Joe You you converted the faith, but you were in the parish for a while He's married to a faithful Catholic woman in In the parish she works the diocese What made you join our CIA? He said well, you know, he said would you have left the church if somebody had asked you to join our CIA He's like, well, no, I don't think I would have left because he was like going to Mass with his wife for like 10 years and And and and going to Mass and going to church events and doing stuff with with the parish Like no, I don't think I would have left because I really had a lot of friends and I really enjoyed the parish I probably would have left. He's like, well, what made you join our CIA? He said well One week my wife saw our CIA in the bulletin and she put the thing down on the table and said here you need to go Like that's what I'm talking about That's exactly what I'm saying Somebody in a loving relationship who know who wants the best for you is saying hey, why don't you check out our CIA or whatever and and You know Get this relationship with God because I think it's gonna be good for you. I was like What are we doing? Okay? Okay, now this this is why this is important. Okay, this is why it's important Have you guys ever heard of the hero's journey? Does anybody heard of the hero's journey? Yay. All right. There's a Campbell fan. Anybody else you have to we you guys are like Ringers have you Have you been to this talk before? Heroes journey Joseph Campbell is deceased now He was a mythologist He probably like was the first mythologist and coined the term He he made his living off of this He wrote this book called the hero with a thousand faces. It's his most famous work and Joseph Campbell studied all of the world's mythologies and religions and he found commonalities within all of them and mostly hero stories things like the Iliad and the Odyssey, but also Gilgamesh and And other and there's African ones that are the same the the journey of the Buddha all of these things, right? found these commonalities within them and He codified them the hero with a thousand faces is this hero's journey. So every Hero story and we have these today every hero story classic hero story follows this framework and We have them in our own hero stories today George Lucas was a very big fan of Joseph Campbell So for instance you have Luke Skywalker a Young farm boy on Tatooine who dreams of being a star pilot But he can't Because he's stuck on the farm with his uncle Owen and amperu but then These droids come and he sees this message from beautiful princess who needs rescuing. Oh Man, she's awesome. I want to rescue her and so he's like yeah But I can't because I can't go and then he meets so this is the call-to-adventure Princess Lee is the call-to-adventure then they refuse so then he meets he refused of the call and Then he I can't go but he meets a mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi old Ben crazy old Ben Herman out in the desert right who actually is a Jedi Knight and he says Come with me to Alderaan to save the princess. Oh No, there's no way I can't do that. I'm just a farm boy on Tatooine my uncle Owen needs me for the next planning season and But then what happens the Empire kills his uncle and aunt and Obi-Wan says hey you got nothing left, right? He's like yeah, let's go man. Let's go So then they find they find Han Solo and they take off in the million Falcon and where they do they cross the threshold When they leave Tatooine they cross the threshold into the special world the mystical world the world of transformation they leave the ordinary and they enter into the mystical and Then there's all kinds of things that happen. There's tests and trials. They have enemies There they have there's an order. There's ordeals There's a usually a magic sword involved like a lightsaber right and and then they come back they go through all their trials had this big huge battle and Then the hero comes back to the place where he left But he's changed By his adventure. He's different He's he's more now Then he was and often What he had aspired to be and it solves some of the problems that he had Bilbo Baggins It's a quiet respectable Hobbit in the Shire never doing any of those nasty things called adventures until Until a wizard shows up and says hey, I want you to come on an adventure. Oh, no no no Respectable Hobbits don't have adventures But then all these dwarfs show up and they They get him all riled up and he decides to go and when he leaves the Shire, he crosses the threshold Into the special world and he has a magic sword That he gets and they go through all kinds of trials and ordeals and then what happens they triumph and Bilbo returns to the Shire rich But also different wise Seasoned he's now a man of the world This story you see it in a lot of different places even you guys ever hear of Tommy boy Tommy boy Tommy boy follows your risk journey We watched it We watched it Tommy boy has to save his father's company he goes on this journey with this with this this guy who who's a Marketing dude with him and he goes on his journey to save his father's company. He does it in the anyway Here's the point here's the point Here's the point in the hero's journey the hero Never wants to go on the adventure There's the refusal of the call always. There's the refusal of the call the hero is comfortable He's in his he's comfortable in his place. He's got everything he needs and Here's the one to go out because that's hard He refuses the call every single time the hero never wants to go Until he meets the mentor and the mentor is somebody who has already been the way He's already been out in the mystical world. He knows the way and he Helps the hero to come on the journey He helps the hero to move where he needs to be to be who he's meant to be The mentor is essential for the hero to fulfill his journey now at some point after this the mentor falls away and The hero has to go on his own usually it's in the ordeal the ordeal is where the as you see it the ordeal is exactly opposite of the Ordinary world where he starts the ordeal is The place where he has to go through a serious trial and he's just about to give up When he finds his inner strength without the mentor and he he has now The strength to go forward and to complete his journey on his own And he has to do it on his own because he's the hero if he doesn't do it on his own. He's not the hero He's just a sidekick The hero is the one who acts the mentor must Must call must bring the hero into the ordinary into the mystical world All right, this is what you got to get through you have to get this deeply implanted in your head You are not the hero in this story You are not the hero you are the mentor you are the guide Your students are the hero and they're going to refuse the call They're going to refuse the call. They're comfortable where they are. I I like my life. I've got everything all planned out. I'm comfortable in my sins. They're fun I don't want to change change is hard Requires effort You need to break them out of their status quo You your job is to upset the apple cart to Make them uneasy To show them that there's more in the mystical world. I've been there I've been the way Right. I know what's in the mystical world and you don't And I want to show you what that is I want to show you the riches in Christ I want to show you what life with God can be and how it can be more than what you are now and how it can You can be what you're meant to be That's the gospel and you have to be the guide and you have to get them out of The ordinary world That's why invitation that fourth one is so important so important we can not leave it out All right, good Okay now second aspect To Hallfinger's charismatic catechesis is what he calls the means of insertion into the mystery. Okay question it it just it always appears in the hero's journey and it's human nature that that most of us Need some kind of nudge Right now it can happen Outside of a personal relationship it can happen that the Holy Spirit does just nudge somebody to the point where they're they're restless enough to search Most often though People that take on a journey of conversion are doing it because they have met someone or been in some situation Where they're exposed to something else even something simple as Somebody one time went to a boss's funeral Catholic funeral and Experienced a presence in the church that they had never experienced before in their other Christian churches And they said this is there's something here. That's different and I need to know what that is But some event something something usually needs to to rouse the hero out of his his comfort zone and And and and most often you find that That that people that you're trying to mentor in this way They're going to need some kind of invitation So some kind of challenge That makes sense So I mean it's just human nature, you know We're all just we're all comfortable in our in the things that we do to go out and to to try something new is very difficult Especially if we don't have somebody that we know that's that's going with us and it can be very uncomfortable So the means of insertion in the mystery of Christ There are certain ways of Catechizing certain things that you can do that are more conducive to entering into the mystery of Christ than others and These Hoffinger calls the means of insertion So the first means of insertion is Biblical catechesis Huffinger calls that the foundational way foundational because Story is the best way to teach anything. We all learn best as story with story We're story telling animals. It's this is what we are. I challenge you to get through At least a couple of days maybe one week without a story What do you do every night right you go in you watch TV you watch Series on Netflix or whatever you're you're engaging in a story. We need them. They're great for us. They teach us how to live. That's how Society was passed on You know in in the ancient days by telling story. We're storytelling animals The best way for us to learn is through story And Catholicism is really nothing else But the story of God's dealing with mankind and and how he's bringing us back into his family through Jesus Christ and church That's what it is so Storytelling is foundational so Catechesis according to Hoffinger catechesis for children really should begin with biblical catechesis That's why it's the foundational way Teaching but teaching that That catechesis like not in the biblical catechesis where we're talking about you know When were the Gospels dated and you know historical criticism and those kinds of things You know, you know, I've seen high school textbooks junior high textbooks that went into historical criticism. They're talking about Why why the the Gospels were written and who wrote them? And and maybe maybe the Apostle Didn't write them and they were you know written by people who in the school of Paul and all that like Whatever, you know, they don't need that that's not what they need But they need they need to understand who Jesus is That's what kids need the kids need to understand who Jesus is that He's there for us. He's our friend. He's our companion our guide. He's our savior Those things to should be the first order they should understand and by reading the Gospels You're getting to know who Jesus is firsthand, right? And in this in the next workshop that I do I'll talk a little bit more about how you do that But but that's that's critical. So biblical catechesis the foundational way The next way is liturgical catechesis. He calls that the prime way the prime way so Liturgy is catechetical Liturgy is catechetical and It's special because the liturgy not only teaches but it gives what it teaches in the form of grace Liturgy is the place of Transformation that's where we receive the grace of Jesus. That's that's where we're transformed so learning How to fully participate in the liturgy understanding liturgy and what it is is vital for being inserted into the mystery of Christ and Also, not just liturgy as in mass and in sacraments, which is a Primary but also the liturgical year and what that teaches So the salinity's in feast days what we know we have those in the in the surgical year because they're important We need to emphasize them. They're they're essential aspects of our faith. So what are they teaching us? They are through the liturgy the saints feast days to the saints, you know Marvels there they're I think they're lived theology. The saints are lived theology They are they are the grace of Christ manifest in human experience So we we study The saints we study liturgical feast days. We we celebrate them as much as possible so that brings the Bible of 2000 years ago right into present we don't teach the Christ of history we teach Christ here and now Christ in you Paul says Christ in you is the hope of glory. That's what we teach and So Jesus is a lie, right? We don't You don't think about that, you know, it's like there was this that big You know Paul has this big argument with the Pharisees, you know when he's he's with a grippa And Felix they put him on trial like why are these guys angry at Paul? Well, they say this guy was dead and Paul says he's alive You know, he's alive And we can get to know him, but he's here and now present in the liturgy and The liturgy well first of all connects what happens when you do liturgical feasts in your classroom You're connecting what happens in church with what's happening with your with what you're learning and Then and there's there's grace involved, but it's also it's bringing all of that into the present so that Religion isn't just what's out there, but it's one what's in here. It's what's happening now in my life It's that's really important in the family if you get in the family. That's like so critical So liturgy is the second means the third means is systematic catechesis Systematic catechesis. What does that mean? It means having a plan We don't just teach willy-nilly just teach whatever we have to teach in some order because Some truths are more foundational than others. Not that they're more important, but they build on each other you can't learn about the Eucharist until you know Jesus is God and Systematic also means calculated for an effect So so you are trying to bring out in all of this and these means of insertion What are you trying to do bring out the mystery of Christ? you're trying to help them to understand and you're inviting them into the mystery in small ways Trying to do that all the time and so it can relate to your lesson How you do that and it doesn't have to be huge, but it's just little challenges little invitations To maybe read a passage of scripture on their own or to pray a certain way or or to do something with their family or discuss something Or maybe it's in class. You're you're having them do some kind of activity that's inviting them to go more deeply into the mystery All of these means of insertion you're bringing out the mystery of Christ and helping them to understand it more and more So so as you're doing your lessons you can you can draw out things with this in your lessons for instance like instead of the they have a Bible passage in your textbook and It introduces the lesson and then you have a bunch of text in the lesson. Okay, instead of doing that Go to the Bible passage read it all the way through teach from the scripture and And and draw out the lessons that are or they you know in the textbook they say okay have the students read this Then have the students read this okay instead of doing that Use the scripture ask questions Draw out the things that the lesson says are important that they need to know in that in that lesson Have them have them figure that out on their own And then but you're doing it So you're doing it through the scripture right you're and you're using your Bible You're reading from the Bible not just from the textbook and I see that this Bible thing is something It's something special right something different and you know you don't just Put your coffee on the Bible Put your Bible on the table and put your coffee on the Bible. You know it's reverenced right it's important special So they see that You do liturgical things within your classroom. They call we call it having a liturgical envelope within your class Not only do you start with prayer, but you might start with the scripture of the day Or you might have a Bible Table a little prayer space set up with the crucifix in the Bible And you take your Bible off of that and you read the scripture of the day And you have them go through the same motions that they do in mass So, you know after you finish you say the word of the Lord They say thanks be to god you do you write you read a gospel they do the sign of the cross over there Forehead and lips and you have it you make that you bring lethurgical things in you bring a holy water and you have them Sign themselves as they come into the classroom because this is a holy space right We do you bring in liturgy and you work in liturgy you take colics from the mass You take Little aspects of of things from liturgical these days Things in the mass and you and you work that into your lessons right you use those use those that language So if they hear it again Then the last thing is this the last thing is He doesn't really hoffing doesn't really have a word for it, but I just call it the the communal personal aspect the thing is that You as the catechists will never Authentically be replaced There is no substitute For you being in front of a bunch of kids or a bunch of students and being a witness to the faith to them A book or online learning can never replace the person who's standing in front of you And is pouring themselves out to those students and being a witness Barbara used to say That a catechist never merely imparts information The catechist imparts themselves with the truth at hearing The catechist imparts themselves with the truth at hearing The personal aspect is vital to be able to pass on the faith authentically and the influence of the community and the family as well the parish is the locus of catechetical formation And uh pastor is the head of that And he's doing that for the bishop And so so the communal aspect of the faith can't be done without it's essential to insertion into the mystery carnal carnal Newman goes no Carl John Henry Newman He's really big on this his his idea is personal influence. It's a huge in in the work of Newman Newman wrote a sermon really early in his career when he was still an Anglican And he posed the question How did the faith survive through all the turbulence of the early centuries persecutions Negative effect of society all those things. What was it that that did that? And he he came up with a bunch of ideas and then you know systematically just kind of shot them all down And he said that The reason why the faith was was transmitted the way it was was because The people who were the transmitters of the message were themselves examples of it The people who were saying what they were saying were living it themselves. They were a witness of the message that they were transmitting And that is the reason why Catholicism spreads so heavily So so uh thoroughly throughout the empire And and that's why this is so important and and and your witness is so important