In the early Church, before there were catechisms or creeds, there were catechists. These early disciples, as their name implies from the ancient Greek, “echoed” what they had heard from Christ to new believers and disciples. From the beginning Christ has been the teacher. From the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the heart of the disciple, the echo of Christ’s voice was given to each successive generation. The essence of the message: that we are created by love and that our destiny is communion with the Blessed Trinity. This wondrous truth became the golden thread that runs through the Catechism of the Catholic Church and is expressed as its driving principle (CCC 25).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides the parish catechist with access to the Truth. There are no agendas, advancement of certain methodologies or clever new gimmicks. Within the Catechism the parish catechist, while learning doctrine and dogma, sacramental, moral and spiritual theology, enters into a dialogue with disciples and evangelists, prophets and saints. The echo resounds from the likes of Teresa of Avila and Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Pope Paul VI. The truth echoes from their hearts to ours and to the hearts of those we are called to catechise. The golden thread of the love that never ends binds doctrine and dogma, saint and sinner, catechist and seeker. Here is the story of Christ and his Church, the Bride prepared and awaiting the Bridegroom.

The parish community is where theory stops and practice begins.

Let us then avail of every opportunity to know more about our faith as we embrace The Year of Faith.
– Patty Norris, The Sower – October – December 2012, pg 29