The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Encountering God in Catechesis

Authored by Catechists' Personal Testimonies in Issue #9.2 of Catechetical Review

Testimony 1: Lessons from Hallmark

I taught religion to the whole middle school, from sixth to eighth grades. I was also the homeroom teacher to the sixth-grade boys for most of the years I taught there. I was always on the lookout for anything I could use for my boys or for teaching in general. One evening at the convent, we watched a Hallmark movie, and I walked away with a one-line golden nugget that the Holy Spirit told me to write down for my boys: “A boy with courage grows up to be a man with courage. I wrote it on my board the next day, and it stayed up all year long—and for all the years following. When the boys made good decisions like telling the truth, owning up to their mistakes, or encouraging each other, I would say something like, “Praise the Lord! I’m so proud of you. A boy who owns up to his mistakes will become a man who will take responsibility for them as well.”

. . .

Testimony 2: Am I a Missionary Disciple?

I was freaking out. I had been asked to give my first talk to the high school youth group, a group of about eighty teens. It was a talk on being a missionary disciple, and I didn’t feel like one. Mostly because I had recently graduated college and come into the Church through RCIA, and so most of my experience of the faith up to that point had been very “mountaintop,” full of consolation. But for the past two years, I had also worked a job as a waitress—a job I had started while still in my undergraduate studies and which was now my full-time job. This work environment that would consume hours of my day could make it very challenging for me to live like Jesus. Foul language, even a culture of sexual harassment, was everywhere. Though I wasn’t swept up entirely into all the sinful behaviors, it could be suffocating at times.

A popular saying that was making its way around social media was “bloom where you are planted,” but I felt as if I was wilting. Now I was supposed to give a talk on how to bloom, and I felt as if I didn’t know what that was like! Luckily, I had ties to a good community, and the overwhelming advice of my sisters and friends was to go to prayer and ask Jesus to show me where he had been working. So, that’s what I did.

. . .

The rest of this online article is available for current subscribers.

Start your subscription today!


This article is from The Catechetical Review (Online Edition ISSN 2379-6324) and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of The Catechetical Review by contacting [email protected]

Articles from the Most Recent Issue

From the Shepherds— Four Pillars for Building a Eucharistic Life
By Bishop James S. Wall
Free At the end of his public life, Jesus sent his apostles into the world to preach, teach, baptize, and share the life he had given them (see Mt 28:16–20). This is the divine model: people are called to God to be formed by him and then sent to bring others to share in that joyful life. Teachers of the faith in particular enjoy both the joys and the... Read more
From Information to Transformation: Changing Approaches to Catechetical Texts
By Fr. Dan Mahan
Free Most catechetical texts and digital materials used in parishes and schools throughout the United States today are the product of thoughtful collaboration between the publishers who create them and the bishops who certify their theological and pastoral integrity. This collaboration yields catechetical materials that are not only doctrinally sound... Read more
The Story of the Church and Science
By Dr. Dan Kuebler
Near the end of the 19 th century, scientist and co-founder of the New York University School of Medicine John William Draper penned an influential polemic entitled History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science . In the book, Draper argued that “the history of science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the... Read more

Pages