The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Inspired through Art

For teachers, who understand the power of visual meditation and learning, the Inspired through Art series provides ample opportunities to teach the faith with stunningly beautiful and intriguing images. The series is a type of "cross-curriculum" of art history and catechetics, where pre-teen to adult students learn about the artist, the art form and the lesson of faith presented in the work of art. Every print issue's centerfold has a full-color spread of various art forms from different periods. 

And you'll be surprised at what some of the works of art teach, and at how deeply the artists meditated on the subject they were presenting! What may appear to be irrelevant details, may be very relevant. For example, in the art carousel on the home page, there is an image of the Last Supper (the actual translation from Italian, the Ultimate Supper). Answer to "What does the peacock in the window represent?" is: immortality. Read the article and find out why.

In the past, some teachers have laminated the centerfold in order to present the art in class. Now, more and more people are using computer projection technology to make it easier for students to see and follow along with the lesson. With a subscription to The Catechetical Review, people can also go online to back issues of the magazines they have missed and utilize many different works of art to teach the faith or to use as a backdrop to a time of prayer and meditation, for example at the beginning a class to aid students in putting themselves in the presence of God.

The text articles may be downloaded and reproduced in order to facilitate group studies. Try a sample for free here.

Answer to "Can you guess which saint this is?" on the home page: St. Michael the Archangel, by modern artist Michael O'Brien of Canada.

Articles from the Most Recent Issue

Literature and Forming a Healthy Imagination
By Ryan Hanning
St. Thomas Aquinas explained the imagination as “a storehouse of forms received through the senses” that are later called to mind. [1] St. Augustine considered it as a form of “spiritual vision,” distinct from our corporal and intellectual senses. [2] St. Theresa of Ávila described it as one of the most important powers of the soul. [3] Each of... Read more
From the Shepherds: A Half Century of Progress – The Church’s Ministry of Catechesis
By Monsignor John Pollard
Part Seven: the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005) and the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (2006) This series of articles has explored an extraordinary fifty-year period in the history of the Church’s catechetical mission. We have already looked briefly at the outcomes of the International Catechetical Study... Read more
Forming Catechist-Teachers and Catechist-Administrators for Catholic Schools
By Adam J. Dufault, EdD and Therese Recinella, DMin.
During his tenure as the secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education (now part of the Dicastery for Culture and Education), Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, delivered a talk that outlined the five essential marks of a Catholic school. His fifth mark called for schools to be “sustained by a Gospel witness,” a responsibility... Read more

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