An Evangelizing Catechesis: Vision and Strategies

Diocese of Charlotte

Dr. James Pauley

An Evangelizing Catechesis:Vision and Strategies

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1. An evangelizing catechesis proposes life in Christ (teaches kerygmatically)

On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave

his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to

enlighten, strengthen and free you.” This first proclamation is called

“first” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense

because it is the principalproclamation, the one which we must

hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another

throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment…

(Pope Francis, EG 164)

An Evangelizing Catechesis:Vision and Strategies

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1. An evangelizing catechesis proposes life in Christ (teaches kerygmatically)

2. …provides opportunities to freely respond.

“If we can nurture in a man or in a child the emergence and the victory of spiritual liberty, we

have accomplished our task. If not, all is lost and the Christian life will weaken into childishness; it will

harden into formalism; and finally it will disappear.”

(Jean Mouroux, From Baptism to the Act of Faith)

An Evangelizing Catechesis:Vision and Strategies

________________________________________

1. An evangelizing catechesis proposes life in Christ (teaches kerygmatically)

2. …provides opportunities to freely respond.

3. …includes convicted testimony.

“Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to ‘be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,’ and to love one another

with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love.”

(CCC 1642)

An Evangelizing Catechesis:Vision and Strategies

________________________________________

1. An evangelizing catechesis proposes life in Christ (teaches kerygmatically)

2. …provides opportunities to freely respond.

3. …includes convicted testimony.

4. …stirs up a desire for sacramental encounter.

“It is in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for our transformation.”

(John Paul II, On Catechesis in Our Time, #23)

An Evangelizing Catechesis:Vision and Strategies

________________________________________

1. An evangelizing catechesis proposes life in Christ (teaches kerygmatically)

2. …provides opportunities to freely respond.

3. …includes convicted testimony.

4. …stirs up a desire for sacramental encounter.

5. While this proposal of life in Christ should be heard in catechesis, the most important place it

should be received is in the home.

“Of the most religious quartile of NSYR young adults ages 24-29 an impressive 82% had parents who

reported each of the following: that their family regularly talked about religious

topics in the home, that faith was “very important” to them, and that they

themselves regularly were involved in religious activities. By comparison, only

1% of the least religious quartile of young adults had parents who reported this combination of religious attitudes and practices. Thus, according to the

[study], the single most decisive difference between Millennials who remained religiously committed into

adulthood and those who didn’t was the degree of religiousness exhibited by their

parents.”