Catechesis

Over at Amy Welborn's this morning is a comment from Gashwin Gomes which is highlighted. The subject is Scriptural Studies and catechesis. Here is the part of the comment I want to focus on:

When the General Directory for Catechesis came out (the one from the Vatican, in, 1997 I think it was), I read through it eagerly, and one of the things that struck me was this: the goal of all catechesis is union with Jesus Christ.

"union with Jesus Christ"-that is basicallyhow our pastor has expressed to us the purpose of the CCD classes we teach.

We try to accomplish this by teaching 1. What Jesus Christ's Church teaches and believes (the catechism), 2. What God has revealed to us in Scripture (we read from the Bible in every class), and 3. How to pray-to come to know Jesus Christ (at early ages, this is simply knowing your prayers and the rosary etc.. By the time jr. high and high school has come around, a deeper prayer life is necessary; how to pray/meditate with Scripture, etc. is on the adgenda.)

All levels of our CCD classes have these three coponents-appropriate for age. We are lucky to have this at our parish-but every parish should have such a program. We are only going into the third year with it, but I think we already see some fruits.