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Catechetical Saints: Living Theology

Saints offer us living theology. How do we draw on the saints for this living theology, both for our own lives and for our work as catechists?

In my experience as a catechist, I have found that, in general, people relate to saints in one of three basic ways.

First, there are those who have little or no relationship with saints. Secondly, there are those whose love for the saints may indeed replace their relationship with the members of the Blessed Trinity, or may border on superstition. Thirdly, there are those who understand that the saints lead us to the intense relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The key to understanding the saints is that they lead us into relationship with God and with others. In our desire to follow the example of the saints, we cannot just be configured into a narrow relationship of the ‘saint and me’. Saints did not, and we do not, live in isolation.

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Sr. M. Johanna Paruch, FSGM, Ph.D, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, holds a BA in Theology and Elementary Education from St. Louis University, a Pontifical Catechetical Diploma, an MA in Religious Education from the Angelicum, and a PhD in Theology from Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, England. Sister has been involved in Religious Education for over twenty-five years. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, specializing in Catechetics, and offers catechetical workshops in both the US and her native Canada. In 2013 she published her first book Mentors for the New Evangelization: Catechetical Saints of North America.

This article is from The Sower and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of Maryvale Institute. Contact [email protected]

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