The work of the catechist is so apparently mundane, carried out on dark evenings in small parish rooms, on wintry afternoons in classrooms, to half-expectant, half-nervous groups of adults and restless rows of children. And yet we can occasionally glimpse something of its immense nature - and then how helpless we can feel before the task! After all, how can one begin to express the overwhelming love of the Lord for the whole of his creation, and for each person individually? What words can we find to express even a little of that Love that is without limit and without end, which reaches to the ends of the earth and pierces the depths of every heart?

Those to whom we have this word to proclaim are hungry to hear it – though they may not appear to be. They are hungry to receive the ultimate meaning that can structure and form their choices, responses and attitudes when this most foundational of all truths is spoken into their lives. There are moments in our catechesis, which we treasure, when an awe descends upon everyone, catechist and those being catechised alike, as all together are caught up in sheer wonder at the works of the Lord. And yet alongside this hunger for meaning, for truth and goodness, what barriers are thrown up, what distractions are welcomed, to provide a protection against this Love that gives all, and would ask for all in return!

This issue of The Sower focuses upon the spiritual life of the catechist. The spiritual life for which each of us is destined is a life which is consumed by the one Reality which will never pass away – Eternal Love, in whom already we live and move and have our being, and Who would be entirely our life and our being.