Catechesis is echoing the teaching of the Jesus which was taught to the Apostles and has been handed down by the Catholic Church for centuries. The word catechesis has its roots in a Greek word which means “echo”.
After an initial proclamation of the Gospel, Catholics enter into a lifelong process of catechesis that includes education, formation, discipleship. Through catechesis, Catholics learn to know, love, and serve God.
Books, called catechisms, have existed throughout the history of the Church. These books help Catholics to understand the teachings of the Catholic Church, supported by Sacred Scripture and writings from popes, saints, and Doctors of the Church.
The pope engages in catechesis by teaching on various subjects or themes during weekly general audiences to provide spiritual guidance and deeper understanding of the Catholic faith.
All Catholic parishes provide catechesis for young Catholics through religious education programs, formerly known as the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD). Some parishes also provide adult catechesis programs.
Some lay Catholics serve the Church as formal teachers, or catechists, who are part of their parish’s religious education program, but all Catholics should be willing and able to pass the faith on to family, friends, and neighbors.
Every baptized Catholic, not only children or new members of the Church, has a responsibility to participate in catechesis, growing in their faith, sharing their faith with others, and being a witness to the Gospel.
The Church celebrates Catechetical Sunday on the 3rd Sunday in September by acknowledging the individuals who donate their time teaching in their parish, as well as parents and guardians who are the primary catechists of their children.
Echoing what the Church received from God:
Handing down the faith:
Bringing others into stronger communion with Jesus:
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.
Acts 8: 29-35
A need for intelligent and enthusiastic catechesis:
Teaching Catholics to know, love, and serve God:
Catechists are charged with echoing Christ’s voice:
Quite early on, the name catechesis was given to the totality of the Church’s efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the Body of Christ.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 4
Reinforcing the faith for young Catholics:
The Church has suffered from poor catechesis:
The primary and essential object of catechesis is, to use an expression dear to St. Paul and also to contemporary theology, “the mystery of Christ.” Catechizing is in a way to lead a person to study this mystery in all its dimensions: “to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery…comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth …know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…(and be filled) with all the fullness of God.” It is therefore to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God’s eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by Him, for they simultaneously hide and reveal His mystery. Accordingly, the definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ: only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.
Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, 16 October 1979
Baptized Catholics are called to participate in Jesus’ mission:
Handing on the faith to future generations:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Truth makes us free:
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