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How can catechesis awaken desire for God? This question is especially relevant at a time where the practice of the Catholic Faith in the Western world tends to depend less on cultural and family values and more on personal adherence. How can catechesis foster this personal adherence through awakening desire for God?

Although there are few references to desire for God and its importance in catechesis in the documents of the Magisterium, they are all unanimous in pointing to desire for God as an essential element of human life whose finality, at once personal and universal, is found in God. The most important statement is at the very beginning of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

‘The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.’1

This desire for God is therefore inseparable from the ‘“desire for true happiness’2 and resounds when man is faced with making moral choices. This desire for happiness finds an earthly fulfilment when the Beatitudes are taken as a rule of life.3 Moreover, it is this desire for happiness, this desire for the coming of the kingdom of God, which prompts our prayer and petition to God,4 and it is out of desire to see ‘the Face of the Lord’ that we enter into prayer and into the liturgy.5

This liturgical meditation is take from Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

It was morning. I had climbed a height and was turning back. Deep below lay the lake, and all round in the early light stood the mountains, great and silent. All was pure – the sky high above, the trees with their nobly formed fresh branches. And in myself, all my being was full of clear joyous force, so that I felt as if innumerable, invisible fountains were springing silently forth and all mounting into the bright wide heavens.

Then I understood how a man’s heart may overflow, as he stands lifting up his face, and, with outstretched hands, as if holding a paten up to endless Goodness, to the Father of Light, to God Who is Love – and offers to Him all that is around and in the world below, welling up, and brightening in the overflowing silence.

It must be to him as if all things rose up clear and holy from the paten in his hands.

In this article, Sarah Pedrozo invites us to see that Christ is not so far removed from all the bustle of Christmas after all.

Amid all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations normal to our culture these days, it is easy to be swept up into a seemingly endless list of tasks. Everything from packing and traveling, to hosting guests and dealing with varying family dynamics, not to mention the added expense of presents and charitable donations can all combine to make us overwhelmed and exhausted. Where, we might wonder, is Christ in all of this? How can we hope to truly join in the Advent preparations of getting ready in heart, mind and soul for the birth of Christ when we have so many additional demands on us? Maybe we simply wish to leave it all behind, withdraw from the world and spend Advent and Christmas in prayerful retreat. While there is no doubt that it is always a challenge to keep Him at the center of our Christmas activities in the midst of an increasingly secular society, perhaps what we need more than a change of location or activity is a change of perspective.

St. Bernard of Clarivaux wrote that, in reality, we can think of three comings of Christ. The first occurred in the stable at Bethlehem, over 2000 years ago. The 2nd Coming will take place in the future, at a time known only to God, when Christ will return in glory and majesty. But the 3rd coming is going on right now. It is the time in between the 1st and 2nd Comings, called a “ hidden intermediate coming,” when “only the elect see the Lord.” St. Bernard says that in this 3rd Coming, Christ comes “in spirit and in power.” There is a unique synthesis in activity between all three comings of the Lord. Particularly at Christmas, the activities we engage in (during the 3rd coming) reflect the 1stcoming while at the same time preparing us for the Final Coming of our Lord.

Kelly Colangelo reminds us that service activities are first and foremost opportunities for serving Christ in others.

St. Vincent de Paul said, ‘Go to the poor and you will find God.’ Oftentimes we go to the poor, but we forget that we are seeking and serving Christ. But community service is to be the giving of ourselves to help others rather than just a ‘project completed’ or ‘hours counted’. As Jesus said, ‘For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve’ (Mk 10:45).

In recent years, community service and volunteering has played an integral role in the lives of young people. This may be a result of a school and/or Church requirement; but regardless, active involvement in community service is on the rise with youth. With increased participation in community service, one would hope this means more young people growing in their relationship with the Lord and putting their faith in action. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. One might suspect, in fact, that there is more and more outreach, but less of a presence of God.

What is the greatest word, the most powerful word we say in our life? Each of us has his or her own answer. So, let us ask: what is the greatest religious word? It is ‘Amen’.

When you receive Holy Communion you say ‘Amen’. You receive Jesus into your life. ‘Amen’ is ‘Yes – I accept you Lord’. We could say our ‘Amen’ better – be more loving, more thankful, be a more religious person when we say our ‘Amen’. I do not want to go into how good or how poor our ‘Amen’ may be. I do want to show how special we are just in being able to say our ‘Amen’ to Jesus.

We say another ‘Amen’ at end of the Eucharistic Prayer - the central part of the Mass - and we are saying ‘Amen’ to what the priest has just said – and what has happened. We are part of this long prayer. It is our prayer, too. Let us look at what is happening in this Eucharistic prayer and what is at the same time happening to us.

In the centre of the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest takes the bread and says ‘This is my body given up for you.’ Then, taking the chalice, he says, ‘This is my blood shed for you so that sins may be forgiven’, ending, ‘Do this in memory of me.’

The words of Jesus refer to his death and he wishes us to remember this. Good Friday is all about our remembering. We gather together in Church to remember the death of Jesus.

St John tells us who Jesus really is – the eternal Son of the Father. He also tells us why Jesus is dying – to save the whole world. We come together and allow the Church to guide us, to lead us in this remembering. We could say that we share in the memory of the Church.

‘See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair is, hair of head numbered.’

So often I find I can turn for inspiration for my catechesis to Gerard Manley Hopkins! The wonderful words quoted above are taken from a much-loved catechet
ical poem entitled The Golden Echo. Here we see mirrored the words from the Gospel of St. Luke, with Jesus reminding us to trust in the Father’s providence, and reassuring us that the Father will never forget us:

‘Why every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.’ (Lk.12:6-7)

The psalms also we can draw upon as an inspiration for catechesis. The psalms embrace the whole of creation. To pray the psalms is not only to recall the saving events of the past, but also to reach out far into the future, even as far as the end of time (cf CCC 2586). The psalms reflect God’s great deeds and also human experience in both sickness and health. Through our study of the psalms, we can find resources for a catechesis on the relationship that God has with the sick and elderly.

You go for a walk in the country late on an autumn evening. All around you is dark and cold. The soul feels quite alone in the dead space. Its desires for the living seeks all round, but nothing responds. The leafless tree, the cold hillside, the empty plain – all is dead! The soul is the only living thing in the wilderness. Then, suddenly, at a turn in the road, a light shines forth – Does it not call across to us? As if in answer to the seeking of the soul? As if something expected, something fitting?

Or you sit late in a darkening room. The walls stand grey and indifferent, the furniture is dumb. Then there comes a well-known step; a skilful hand applies a match to the fire; there is a crackling; a flame leaps up; and a red glow fills the room, and a cheerful warmth flows towards you. How everything is transformed! Everything has received a soul – as when a lifeless face suddenly becomes lit up with a friendly life.

Yes, fire is near akin to living. It is the purest symbol of our living soul, an image of all that we experience in our inner life, warm and shining, ever in motion, ever striving upwards.

This liturgical mediation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

Natural space has three directions or dimensions as we know. They signify that we have orderly space and no chaos. The ordering is of things side by side, above and below, before and behind one another. The effects are that life can be built up in a rational way and can move; that we can construct and shape our dwellings, and live in them.

Supernatural space, sacred space, also has its due order. It is founded on mystery.

The Church is built from west to east, looking towards the rising sun; the chord of the sun’s arc, the zodiac, runs through it; it is intended to catch the first rays and the last. Christ is the sun of the sacred world; the direction of His course is the order of sacred space, of all building and shaping that is rightly ordered towards eternal life.

In this article Sr Hyacinthe examines the ways in which Notre Dame de Vie’s catechesis provides for an encounter with God to take place.

All catechesis can be thought of as a response to the fundamental human desire for God.

‘The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God’[i]. God is the origin and finality of the human person. Catechesis should never be thought of as something imposed arbitrarily and somehow artificially on children and young people just because Christianity happens to be the religion in which they are brought up. Catechesis is rather there to answer a need which corresponds to a thirst, present in all human beings created for God.

The first part of this article explored this desire for God and introduced the catechetical work of Notre Dame de Vie, a French programme and approach which I believe engages in a profound way with this desire.

In this second part of the article I would like to examine how Notre Dame de Vie’s catechesis provides for this encounter with God to take place and recount some catechists’ experience in using the programme Viens, suis-moi, tracing its impact in the sacramental, moral and prayer life of the children, in these ecclesial expressions of the life of grace.

Intercessory prayer is important in catechesis because it is a prayer of charity in communion with Christ. The Israelites prayed in petition to experience the presence of God. “My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God.”[i] This prayer of the Israelites is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the “one intercessor to the Father on behalf of all”[ii]. The early Christian community lived this bond of charity in the breaking of the bread, fellowship and prayer[iii] . The saints, in communion with Christ, also pray and intercede for us since this love and concern for all in the body of Christ does not cease after death. The holy men and women who are the “great cloud of witnesses”[iv] are “more closely united to Christ and do not cease to intercede with the Father for us”[v].

This prayer of petition leads us to pray as Jesus did.[vi] Jesus Christ is our mediator; therefore, we can intercede for others and ask others to pray and intercede for us. This is why it is so important to include intercessory prayer when we catechize. Intercessory prayer points to our Eucharistic celebration in the Prayers of the Faithful and in the Eucharistic Prayer “In communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs…and all your Saints: we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help.”[vii]

In our catechetical sessions we introduce intercession by encouraging children’s vocalized prayers. Children willingly express their prayers to God. We can teach children that when we pray for others, this is an act of charity.