Franciscan at Home

As St. Paul says, our attitude must be that of Christ. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became man in order to save us from our sins. He “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,” and died on a cross (Phil 2:7-8). During his short time on earth, Jesus cured lepers, as well as people who were blind, deaf, and lame. In the Gospels, we can find specific miracle stories, and it would be safe to say that Jesus cured many others whose stories were not told. And yet, he did not cure all of them. He taught us that neither the sins of the disabled nor the sins of their parents were the cause of their disabilities (cf. Jn 9:1-41). Most importantly, he taught us to love one another. Catechesis should always be a loving act: we are not merely teaching about Jesus but leading those we teach into a relationship with Jesus Christ, who loves us all.

Despite Christ’s example and teaching, in our 2000 years of Church history, we, as members of the Church, have not always loved persons who had disabilities. Up until the nineteenth century, in Christian countries, the disabled were left to die or to beg or to be imprisoned in institutions where they were treated no better than animals. For the most part, people with physical or cognitive disabilities were not permitted to participate in the sacramental life of the Church. There were individuals and religious congregations who tried to accept and care for the disabled, but this behavior was not widespread. Despite the almost total lack of compassion for persons with disabilities, there exist a few examples of the attitude of Christ in this regard.

Noëlle Le Duc, a member of the Carmelite secular institute Notre Dame de Vie, was a pre-school and kindergarten teacher who worked with three to seven-year old children, in order to awaken their faith. Her work with children formed a foundation for the later development of the Come Follow Me program. She believed that even very young children can enter into a lively personal relationship with God and live this out through prayer, as well as in all the dimensions of human life. This relationship grounds catechesis and allows it to bear lasting fruit. In this article, we will begin to examine the baptized child’s capability for a dynamic relationship with God. A Powerful Inspiration at the Beginning Before we examine Le Duc’s contributions, we must first understand the Carmelite founder of the Notre Dame de Vie Institute she entered in the 1950s, Ven. Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, whose cause for beatification is currently being examined. Fr. Marie-Eugene was a spiritual master, who highlighted especially the treasures that come with baptism. Fr. Marie-Eugene believed that catechesis must not only teach the truth about God, but it also has to “give the sense of God” and to teach people how they can “put into practice” the capacities given by grace. He thus explains what the catechist must do: the catechist has to awaken the child to all the supernatural realities present in his soul; therefore, it is necessary to teach the child how to put the theological virtues into practice. Then the catechist must foster in the child the habits inscribed in the depth of his soul, where the reflexes that guide human nature are mainly to be found. The purity and the simplicity of the child increase his capacity to put into practice this “supernatural organism” of the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are integral to the working of baptismal grace. The catechist has to teach the child how to find God, to have regular personal encounters with him, and to remain in his presence. Thus faith becomes keener and penetrates more deeply into God. In this way the child acquires incomparable spiritual riches that will benefit him his whole life. Emphasizing the act of believing, Fr. Marie-Eugene challenges catechists: what pedagogy can bring children to God and help them adhere to him in faith? How can the catechist help them discover God as a living and loving person, whom we can trust and who wants to enter into dialogue with us?

One of the fundamental tasks of catechesis, according to the General Directory for Catechesis, is “missionary initiation.”[i] We typically do not think of children as missionaries. Some might ask, “Why would we expect children to share their faith?” Children naturally talk about things that excite them. Whether we are young or old, when we have an encounter with Christ, we naturally want to share him with others. We see countless examples of this in Scripture, as people go and tell what Jesus has done for them (even, at times, when he has asked them not to.). So how do we as catechists prepare children to be missionaries? Here are seven keys to inspire children to share their faith and to equip them with the tools to do so.

The family is the original cell of social life…. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.[i]

In December my niece gave birth to a beautiful girl, Noelle Rose! Her arrival so close to Christmas provided a poignant opportunity to reflect anew on the mystery, the wonder, the gift of the child! One Child was given to the world and destined to be the salvation of all. The other was given to my niece and destined to receive that salvation. The powerful link between the two is grace. Yet, the practical link between them remains the work of catechesis! The topic of children’s catechesis can evoke passionate responses. Some scornfully recall the “content-less” catechesis that beleaguered the Church after Vatican II when many children never even heard the teachings of the Faith much less committed them to memory. Others reproach the pre-Conciliar catechesis where the primary goal was a mental mastery of the Catechism. (We might be tempted to ask whether this method of “indoctrination” might not be the better alternative to the current praxis of making “Fruit-Loops rosaries” or “cotton ball sheep.”) If we are honest, children’s catechesis has been struggling to find an appropriate praxis since the Middle Ages! Before we can rightly consider the how (methodology) or even the what (content), we should first give serious consideration to the WHO! In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS)[1] we recognize that children’s catechesis is the meeting of two great mysteries: the mystery of God and the mystery of the child. Though I think the CGS has a particularly unique praxis for fostering this meeting, the insight is not exclusively ours. The Church clearly teaches that the primary task of catechesis is to “help a person to encounter God.”[2] For this reason, the content and method of catechesis (and catechist too) must be seen as “servants” of this encounter. Meaning, our preoccupation should not be with catechetical content and method as goals in themselves but only as they serve the goal: inviting the child to intimacy with Christ.[3] The evaluative question then regarding content and method is this: “How does this facilitate the ‘dialogue of salvation’ between God and the child?”

At the 2015 St. John Bosco Conference for Catechesis and Evangelization this summer, Sr. Hyacinthe will offer training for this new catechetical program, written by members of the Notre Dame de Vie institute in France, an institute with whom Franciscan University’s Office of Catechetics has enjoyed a close institutional relationship. This article provides an overview of this children’s catechetical program and demonstrates its continuity with the Holy Father’s vision for catechesis. Catechesis is a proclamation of the word and is always centred on that word, yet it also demands a suitable environment and an attractive presentation, the use of eloquent symbols, insertion into a broader growth process and the integration of every dimension of the person within a communal journey of hearing and response.[1] This short but rich paragraph from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation encapsulates the essential principles upon which Come follow me catechesis is founded. Come follow me is a catechetical program for children aged 7 to 11 developed in France by Notre Dame de Vie Institute in the last 30 years, and published recently in French and partially in English (Years 1-2). We are now going to take the main aspects of Pope Francis’ description, and, in a brief overview, see how they are applied in Come follow me.

If we peruse the foundational catechetical documents of our time, we learn that we are called to a catechesis that is modeled after the pedagogy of God. Indeed, this is an essential component of the Church’s mission to evangelize. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Church is called to be “a visible and actual continuation of the pedagogy of the Father and of the Son.”[1] The General Directory for Catechesis says it this way: “Catechesis, as communication of divine Revelation, is radically inspired by the pedagogy of God, as displayed in Christ and in the Church.”[2]

For far too long, catechesis in the United States has been bogged down in the mire of a debate regarding the relative importance of content and methodology. The GDC addresses this issue: “concerning pedagogy, after a period in which excessive insistence on the value of method and techniques was promoted by some, sufficient attention is still not given to the demands and to the originality of that pedagogy which is proper to the faith. It remains easy to fall into a ‘content-method dualism.’”[3] This false dichotomy that pits content against methodology has done considerable damage to the ministry of catechesis, manifesting itself most tragically in generations of poorly formed and disillusioned Catholics who have left the Faith, either because they never knew the true teaching of the Church or somehow found it irrelevant to their daily lives. Without a marriage of good content and methodology, the truth is not heard and lived. It doesn’t matter how theologically precise we are in our catechesis if we never communicate it in a way in which the learner can hear it and apply it. Likewise, the most developmentally-appropriate methodology will do the learner no good if the content is inaccurate or incomplete. In either case, the truth goes unheard, and the stakes are too high when that truth is the Gospel we are called to proclaim.

Adapting principles of sound pedagogy provide us a way to extract ourselves from the fruitless debate concerning content versus methodology and turn our attention to principles that can govern both. Dr. Petroc Willey, perhaps the foremost expert of the pedagogy of God, states, “Pedagogy and methodology are not one and the same, but rather pedagogy, with respect to catechesis, may be defined as ‘overarching principles of transmission which govern the nature of catechesis precisely as the transmission of the faith.’”[4] A sound pedagogy, then, can guide us both in our scope and sequence of content and in the methods we use to communicate it to the learner. But how shall we operationalize the pedagogy of God? How can we move from the philosophical, or theoretical, to principles that guide our everyday work as catechists? I would propose the following five principles, which I call “aspects of the divine pedagogy.”

The education of the young, particularly in matters of faith and morals, is not merely a career but rather a calling. St. John Baptist de la Salle, founder of the Christian Brothers, in his Meditations on Christian Education, declared that those who teach the young are “cooperators with Christ in the salvation of souls.” Theirs is a task that must not be taken lightly. It requires much zeal and vigilance, indeed being “ambassadors for Christ” and “guardian angels” for their students, for on the Judgment Day the Lord God will ask these educators to render an account of the souls entrusted to their care.

Pius XI, in his encyclical on Christian Education, declares: “Perfect schools are the result not so much of good methods as of good teachers, teachers who are thoroughly prepared and well-grounded in the matter they have to teach; who possess the intellectual and moral qualifications required by their important office; who cherish a pure and holy love for the youths confided to them, because they love Jesus Christ and his Church.”[i] All Catholic educators must be professional, competent, and set an example of prayer and virtuous living. They must seek to “practice what they preach” and thus give integrity to the Gospel message.

Yet while the aforementioned characteristics can and ought to be embodied by both religious and laity who teach in Catholic schools, there further exist traits that can only be personified in one or the other. Thus by virtue of their different vocations, laity and religious both bring something unique to the world at large and to the educational apostolate specifically.

Ven. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD founded the secular Institute of Notre Dame de Vie in Venasque, France in 1932. One beautiful fruit of the Institute has been the development of a catechetical program for children called “Come, Follow Me.” This catechetical model proceeds from the conviction that children are capable of genuine contact with God—and that a marvelous exchange is possible for the child living in the grace of Baptism.

For the edification and inspiration of our readers, we wish to share this excerpt from a hitherto unpublished presentation given by Ven. Marie-Eugene in 1959, in which he describes the supernatural capacities of a child in grace. This discalced Carmelite’s confidence in the child’s ability to penetrate into the divine mystery, because of the presence of divine life in the child, is provocative. It is indeed a fascinating insight—the possibilities for communion with God available to the youngest children before the age of reason, who are in possession of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and yet unencumbered by personal sin.

‘But how does it work, Miss?’
She really wanted to know. At the start of Year 5, still interested in the way things work, even in religious education, she was genuinely puzzled as to how Jesus dying on a cross saves us from sin. She may have been sweet natured, sincerely interested and willing to learn, but she was only ten years old. How was I to answer her question in such a way that she could grasp its truth without being overwhelmed by its depth?

The question of how the death of Christ saves us has long been debated. The essential truth is the doctrine of atonement which holds that our reconciliation with God has taken place through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This reconciliation covers both the forgiveness of our sins and adoption as children of God. After the Fall, our relationship with God was destroyed in such a way that humanity could never reestablish it. What we could not do however, God has done in Jesus Christ. Christianity’s central message is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been saved from sin and made children of God.
However, although in teaching that atonement really happened, the question remains of how it happened, leading to more than one theory explaining the manner in which Jesus Christ brought this about. So which of the several different theories best lends itself to a child’s ability and imagination? We cannot help but think of God and his works in analogical terms, but all analogies eventually fail. Still there seems no other way to attempt any kind of explanation, both for ourselves and for our children.

I would like to consider the main theories of atonement and their appropriateness, or otherwise, for use with children, keeping in mind that they are not necessarily mutually contradictory, nor will they prove to be the solution to a ‘puzzle’; rather they provide a viewpoint from which to ponder the mystery.