Click to listen through SoundCloud. God is a perfect Father who lovingly cares for His children. In this workshop, Barbara Morgan gives the essentials and premises for the doctrine of “God the Father” in the Catechism. This workshop allows listeners to encounter their perfect Father and learn about how to effectively teach this doctrine to others.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. God created the world in His plan of loving goodness. He intends to bring everything He created to perfection and this includes you! God is all-powerful and good. He has a beautiful plan for your life. The only limitation is the freedom which He has freely given us to respond to His call. This workshop delves into the goodness of God the Father and how we can respond to His calling in our lives.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:17). Imagine Jesus facing you, and speaking to you these words, with no distractions, no doubts of His reality, identity or knowledge. Imagine facing Him with no loss of memory on your part about your whole past, nothing less than your whole future to offer, no misinterpretation of the profoundness of the question, Do you love me? A breathtaking question. Conversion is about finding what you are seeking in the deepest part of yourself, and finding it superabundantly. The result of true conversion is a rare combination: peace of soul and zeal of heart. This workshop explores how to support this work of the Holy Spirit, so that all catechesis is focused on conversion to Christ and to His Church, and continuing conversion becomes the norm for each Christian life.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. “The heart of catechesis is the explicit proposal of Christ to the young man in the Gospel; it is a direct proposal to all young people in terms appropriate to young people, and with considered understanding of their problems.” (GDC 183) This practical workshop helps youth ministers and all those who seek to reach teens with God’s love, especially parents, to understand the psychological make-up of today’s teens. The goal is to help a young person at this stage of life obtain a holistic picture of the role adolescence plays in the process of development of an emotionally and morally integrated Christian, which even in these transitional years can enable a path to spiritual peace and joy. Successful Catholic youth ministry in the Third Millennium will depend upon helping every young person experience a vibrant and lasting conversion. In Catholic youth ministry, two models of conversion have been contrasted: a purely evangelistic approach or a more catechetical approach. Taken in isolation, each model falls short. This workshop describes the stages that adolescents normally experience in moving from evangelization to catechesis, enabling teens to move deeper into the Mystery of Christ, and find the safety, solace, and strength that only the Holy Spirit enables in each soul.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. In our calling to guide souls in their relationship with the Blessed Trinity, we have the assistance of a powerful tool: the religion textbook! Religion textbooks play an undeniably important role in the Church’s mandate to foster a faith that is “living, conscious, and active” (see the General Catechetical Directory (GCD) 17). This workshop explores the purpose and best use of textbooks within catechesis, and assists participants in developing criteria for textbook selection while examining various materials currently in use for schools and parish programs. Ways to include the parents or caregivers, who are the “primary educators” (see General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) 226–227) of children, will be explored. We will also be challenging the dominance of the textbook in religious education, and the need to develop formation approaches that prioritize the person of the catechist above all: “The work of the catechist must be considered of greater importance than the selection of texts and other tools” (GCD 71).

Click to listen through SoundCloud. In order to pass on the truths of Faith in season and out, the catechist must be securely grounded in Christ. This workshop will consider the richness of the Catholic spiritual life as it pertains specifically to the life of the catechist. Prayer is not the “last ditch effort” of defense for us as catechists, but our first line of defense - the wings on which every effort should soar. Our society often has trouble recognizing that the invisible spiritual realities are in fact “more real,” and certainly more lasting, than the physical realities we touch, see, hear, and experience daily. A review of the spiritual tools of the trade is thus appropriate to help us as catechists joyfully incorporate prayer as our first, middle, and last act of the day, and of the teaching session, creating an environment for catechesis that is permeated by prayer.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. This workshop will explore the necessary connection of catechesis to the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church in our work as catechists. The liturgy comes from the “living memory” of the Church, that is, the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit working in the liturgy, the truths of the faith are passed on, like a special family memory, from generation to generation, to the present day. Each time we participate in the liturgy we receive the treasure of the Deposit of Faith. But the liturgy is more than a family heirloom – it is reality, the place in which “Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of human beings” (CT 23). As catechists, we have a call, the privilege of assuring that those we catechize understand and grow in appreciation for this encounter with God. We bring others into God’s saving work in the liturgy so they too can become transformed by He who loves us fully. We teach about the liturgy to pass on the magnificent inheritance of faith to the next generation, echoing the action of catechists from the centuries before us.

Click to listen through SoundCloud. Throughout the generations, the Word of God has been handed on as a precious jewel. The Church has guarded this Deposit of Faith so that the saving message of hope might shine out for all to see. Now it is up to us. It is our turn to hand on this jewel, unscathed. It is up to us to catechize, continuing the unbroken chain of passing on the faith throughout the ages. The term catechesis comes from two Greek words meaning, “to echo down,” reflecting the call to us to “echo down,” to hand on, the whole of the faith in its saving fullness. This Deposit of Faith is summed up for our times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We will look at this important teaching tool for catechesis in this workshop, to discover how we, too, can effectively pass on the precious deposit of Christian teaching. And in learning how to do this, we are able to insert our own name into St. Paul’s exhortation, “O catechist, guard what has been entrusted to you.”

Click to listen through SoundCloud. How do we keep our focus on serving the Holy Spirit’s plan and empowerment, and not our own ways and human strength? Pope Paul VI wrote, “techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit” (Evangelii Nuntandi 75). No one responds to the gospel without first being drawn by the Holy Spirit, and no one can live the high calling of the Christian life without being empowered by the Holy Spirit. When we forget that outreach is a work of God, we burn-out. This workshop explores who the Holy Spirit is and His work in personal conversion and our accepting with joy the gift of the fullness of the Catholic Church.

Throughout the generations, the Word of God has been handed on as a precious jewel. The Church has guarded this Deposit of Faith so that the saving message of hope might shine out for all to see. Now it is up to us. It is our turn to hand on this jewel, unscathed. It is up to us to catechize, continuing the unbroken chain of passing on the faith throughout the ages. The term catechesis comes from two Greek words meaning, “to echo down,” reflecting the call to us to “echo down,” to hand on, the whole of the faith in its saving fullness. This Deposit of Faith is summed up for our times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We will look at this important teaching tool for catechesis in this workshop, to discover how we, too, can effectively pass on the precious deposit of Christian teaching. And in learning how to do this, we are able to insert our own name into St. Paul’s exhortation, “O catechist, guard what has been entrusted to you.”