Working as Catechists or Being Cartechists?

Over twenty catechists from the Brighton Deanery met at the Sacred Heart Church in Hove today for a morning of prayer, instruction and reflection, led by David Wills, A&B’s Adult Formation Adviser.

Key to the session was Pope Francis’ challenge to us to ‘be’ catechists, not simply to’ work as’ catechists.

Catechesis should be much more than teaching, imparting knowledge. We are asked to lead people to Christ by our words and our lives, by giving joyful witness. We can do this by being close to Jesus and by going out of our comfort zone to encounter others - even by going to the margins where we are challenged and uncomfortable.

As Pope Francis put it ‘I would prefer...a catechist with the courage to risk going out, and not a catechist who is studious, knows everything but is always closed...’

We considered the five stages people typically go through in the process of full commitment to Jesus, took a hectic one-hour journey through an abbreviated Kerygma Bible Retreat course, and ended with a fascinating presentation on coaching parents to be the providers of their children’s religious education. 

 

Unspoken - but at the back of our minds - was the inspiring example of Pope Francis himself, a joyful and humble catechist who reaches out in love to prisoners, migrants, the ill, the poor and the wretched at society’s margins.  

We are all called to be catechists. A wise person once said: ‘faith is caught, rather than taught’. Does our faith infect others?