Preparation

1. Prayerfully read the scriptures for Sunday
2. Read a commentary on the scriptures
3. Identify at least three church teachings that flow from the readings (you won’t use all three, but it helps to be prepared)
4. Look up related topics in the Catechism of the Catholic Church to refresh your understanding of these teachings
5. For each of the three church teachings, make a list of at least six points that you want to emphasize for the catechumens. You’ll have a list of at least 18 points related to church teaching (you won’t use more than a few, but you don’t know which ones you’ll need). So your outline might look like this:

Catechetical session

(This can take place on Sunday after Mass or later during the week.)

10 minutes
Gathering

1. Greet everyone as they arrive. Invite them to sit in a circle. Provide Bibles to those who did not bring one
2. Lead the group in prayer
3. If you are meeting right after Mass, ask someone to read the gospel from Mass
4. If you are meeting later in the week, lead the group in a guided meditation, walking briefly, but prayerfully, through the Sunday liturgy.

30 minutes
Mystagogical reflection

1. Ask the catechumens to review for the group some of the points they discussed in their dismissal session
2. As they speak make a mental note of which points connect with your list of church teaching points you want to emphasize
3. As they speak, listen for places where they seem most energized
4. Invite the sponsors to share their understandings of the readings, particularly the points raised by the catechumens
5. Ask open-ended questions to explore the readings more deeply and lead the catechumens into a discussion of church teaching. For example:
   • Why would Jesus do (say) that?
   • How do you think the disciples reacted to that?
   • If you were in Mark’s (Matthew’s, Luke’s, John’s) community in the first century and heard this story, how would you react?
   • Why do you think the church still tells this story today?
   • How is it possible for this story to have meaning for modern society?

10 minutes
Break

20 minutes
Teaching

1. Based on the discussion, choose one of your major church teachings and three of the subpoints.
2. Discuss these three points with the catechumens. (The exact number of points you discuss is not important. What is important is not to overwhelm the catechumens. Over the course of the liturgical year, you’ll have plenty of time to cover the basics of church teaching. You don’t need to cram.)

	Teaching 2
	Subpoint
	Subpoint
	Subpoint
	Subpoint
	Subpoint
	Subpoint

3. If nothing the catechumens brought up in their discussion of the readings relates to what you prepared, you have two options.

1. Do your best to discuss a church teaching that does relate to what they discussed. You won’t be as well prepared, but it will be more meaningful to the catechumens. You can draw on the sponsors for help.
2. Discuss something you have prepared anyway. Explain to the catechumens that this material also relates to the readings, and you had done your best to anticipate what they might want to discuss.

15 minutes
Faith into action

1. Go around the circle and ask each catechumen and sponsor
   • what they learned about Jesus in the liturgy this week, and
   • how they will live differently this week based on what they learned from the liturgy.
2. Be sure to share your own learning and commitment to living in a new way.

5 minutes
Close with prayer

May 13, 2007

Sixth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• Apostolic nature of the church
• The Holy Trinity
• The Mystical Body of Christ

Readings

Acts 15: 1-2, 22-29
Revelation 21: 10-14, 22-23
John 14: 23-29

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

The reading from Acts today describes one of the first crises the early church had to deal with. Some among them believed that Gentiles seeking baptism must first submit to the Mosaic practice of circumcision. Paul and Barnabas, among others, believed there was no need for non-Jews to take on Jewish practices in order to become Christians. What is important is not so much the dispute as is the method of resolving it. The question was submitted to “the apostles and elders” in Jerusalem. Since the very beginning, the authority of the church has descended through the apostles and their successors, the bishops.

The apostolic theme is carried through in John’s vision. The holy city Jerusalem, which had been the center and foundation of the church in its earliest days, is now the jeweled Bride of Christ—the people of God, the church itself. The walls of the city, and the foundation of the church, rests upon “the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” John also notes the city has no temple, no sun, and no moon. It may be difficult to understand the utter shock this would have been to John and his community. The sense of the imagery is that the holy city in which we will dwell with God is like nothing we have known before. We have some foretaste of it in Eucharist, and the full revelation awaits us.

We will dwell with God in fullness in the holy city, but it is not solely a future promise. God (the Father and the Son) dwells in the church here and now, through “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.” The radical love (the Spirit) of the Father and the Son inhabits us and lives in us. The Spirit makes us one with Christ, uniting us so closely that the church becomes the very body of Christ. The Spirit is the one who instructs the church, intercedes for us, and comforts us with Christ’s peace.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

• • The church is made up of two groups, two parts of the Body, that together carry out the church’s mission. They are the ordained and the laity.
  • The church receives its mission from Christ, who first handed it onto the apostles. The bishops are the successors of the apostles. The technical term for this is “apostolic succession.” Like the apostles, the bishops act in the person of Christ. They are the sign and source of unity in their own diocesan churches.
  • The chief bishop is the bishop of Rome who is also called the Pope. The Pope is a successor to St. Peter, to whom Jesus entrusted the authority to lead the church.
  • It is the job of the bishops to teach the faith, to lead the church in prayer, especially Eucharist, and to act as true pastors or shepherds. They are helped in these tasks by priests and deacons.
  • Ordinarily, the laity carries out the mission of the church by living holy lives in the secular world.
  • The word “priest” can sometimes be confusing. Lay people share in Christ’s priesthood. Anyone who is baptized does. The ordained priesthood is a sacred role that is distinct from the rest of the baptized priesthood. Because all the baptized share in Christ’s priesthood, we are all called to lives of holiness. That is, we are called to live the same kind of life of faith that the apostles did. All of the faithful share in the apostolic mission of the church.
  • The mystery of the Trinity is the core belief of all our beliefs. It is foundational to all the rest of what we believe. Like the mystery of love, we can never fully understand it. However, with God’s help, we will grow to know more and more about the Holy Trinity.
  • One of the ways we grow to understand the Trinity is through Jesus’ incarnation. Jesus reveals God to us, and we realize he is one with the Father.
  • We also know that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. The mission of the Holy Spirit is exactly the same as Jesus’ mission. That understanding reveals to us that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. “With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified” (Nicene Creed).
  • We believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This was a very important controversy in the fourth century church. It simply means that the Holy Spirit is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.
  • We also learn more deeply about the Holy Trinity because, through the grace of baptism, we are drawn into the dynamic life of the Trinity. We learn about the Trinity “up close and personal.” We are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
  • We do not believe in three Gods. This is important. We believe in only one God. And we believe that God is three separate persons, all equal in glory. It can be confusing to think about, but remember this is not about physical science. It is about an absolute unity of love.
  • Because God is an absolute unity of love, all of God’s actions are also one. We cannot assign different jobs to different persons as though the other persons are not involved. The Catechism says it this way: “Within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit” (267).
  • Jesus became one of us to save us and make us one with him. In the first letter of Peter we read: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.”
  • We become one with Christ and part of the People of God by faith and baptism. This unity is so complete that we call the church the Mystical Body of Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ, who died on the cross and rose three days later, makes us part of God’s family and makes his own Body. This reality is most clearly expressed in the sacraments.
  • Even though we are all one, however, we all have different roles. There is a lot of diversity in the Body. And still we are all linked to one another, especially to those who are suffering, to the poor and persecuted.
  • The head of the church, the head of the Body, is Christ. Our life comes from Christ and Christ lives in us. We also say the church is the Bride of Christ because Christ loves the church so much.
  • When Jesus left this physical earth, he sent the Holy Spirit to instruct the church, care for the church, and intercede for the church. Because the Spirit dwells in us, we say the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, Spirit is the soul of the Mystical Body, the source of its life, of its unity in diversity, and of the riches of its gifts.

Apostolic nature of the church

(see CCC 934-941)

The Holy Trinity

(see CCC 261-267)

The Mystical Body of Christ

(see CCC 802-810)

Click here to see the correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism

Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.

Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.

May 6, 2007

Fifth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• God’s plan of salvation
• The unity of all Christians
• The dignity of all humanity

Readings

Acts 14:21-27
Revelation 21:1-5
John 13:31-33, 34-35

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

The first reading reminds us that the mission of the gospel imposes hardships on the faithful. This isn’t a comfortable message to hear, and it isn’t always expressed powerfully enough to the catechumens. What must be stressed is that they are signing up for a mission to preach salvation to all nations. The travels of Paul and Barnabas are a metaphor for how far and to what lengths we must go to tell the whole world about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God’s deepest desire is that all people be reconciled to God, and we are the agents of that reconciliation. God’s desire to draw all people into the Divine love is so strong that even the unbaptized can be saved if they have a sincere heart. Nevertheless, we find the fullness of God’s promise in complete union with Christ.

The reading from Revelation is a vision of the end of time when the Kingdom of God will be revealed in its fullness. John’s vision takes place on the Lord’s Day, and we can conclude this vision is a liturgical vision. In other words, the Sunday liturgy is always a vision of the fullness of God’s Reign of justice. John sees the full Divinity of God dwelling with the human race. If we believe in John’s vision of humanity, we cannot tolerate any injustice or oppression that would devalue the innate dignity with which we were created. Those who have been made in the image of God must always see themselves as godly.

Our god-likeness is a pure gift that flows from the love of God. In the gospel reading, Jesus makes this crystal clear to the disciples. In the context of the story, they might not yet know the full implications of Jesus’ exhortation: “As I have loved you….” However, John’s community certainly knew and we must make sure the catechumens know that Jesus loved us all the way to the cross. We are called to love others with as much commitment and passion. Jesus could love us that much because of the love he shared with the Father. At our baptism, we are drawn completely into the Divine love of the Holy Trinity and are thereby given the strength to love each other as God loves us.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

• • The purpose of the liturgy is the gather those whom God calls. John’s vision in Revelation is just such a gather or a “convocation.” It is an assembly of those whom God’s Word calls together to form the People of God. The gathering of God’s people is nourished with the Body of Christ and becomes the Body of Christ.
  • In a very elegant way, the church of believers is both the means and the goal of God’s plan of salivation. The church comes into being through the words and actions of Jesus Christ. The ultimate action of Jesus is his death on the cross and his resurrection. Through the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church becomes the Body of Christ and therefore the sacrament of salivation. The church is, however, still human and therefore imperfect. We will be perfected in death and in the resurrection of all believers into glory of heaven just as in John’s vision of the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4).
  • The assembly of believers is both visible and spiritual. The church is the Mystical Body of Christ both, human and divine.
  • All those who have been baptized, including those who are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church, are part of the Mystical Body of Christ.
  • All who have been baptized share in the promise of God’s eternal salvation.
  • The very purpose of human existence is to be the image of God in the world. The fullness of this purpose is made manifest in Jesus, the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
  • Integral to becoming the image of God is entering fully into our relationships with other humans. God did not create us to be solitary being. From the beginning, we were intended to be in relationship, just as the Holy Trinity is in relationship (see Gen 1:27).
  • The original holiness and justice of the first man and woman before sin flowed from their friendship with each other and with God. That is the “paradise” our faith journey leads us back to.

God’s plan of salvation

(see CCC 777-780)

The unity of all Christians

(see CCC 1271)

The dignity of all humanity

(see CCC 380-384)

Click here to see the correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism

Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.

Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.

April 29, 2007

Fourth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• The Holy Trinity
• Apostolic mission of the church
• Salvation of all creation

Readings

Acts 13:14, 43-52
Revelation 7:9, 14-17
John 10:27-30

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

Through the story of Paul and Barnabas, the first reading highlights the church’s universal mission to preach the Good News of salvation to all the world. The “Gentiles” are a metaphor for all those in the world whom God loves. We, as members of the church, take the energy, passion, and courage of Paul and Barnabas as our inspiration.

The second reading gives us a vision of the “destination” of our salvation. The goal of salvation is complete love and unity, with no divisions, among all the nations and races of people and with God in heaven. This is a reflection of the unity of the Holy Trinity.

The gospel reminds us that it is the love of Christ that is the source and cause of our salvation. It is an intimate love, a love that is shared between Christ and the Father. The dynamism of their love is a creative Spirit, so real and powerful that it makes them (and us) one.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

• • The mystery of the Trinity is the core belief of all our beliefs. It is foundational to all the rest of what we believe. Like the mystery of love, we can never fully understand it. However, with God’s help, we will grow to know more and more about the Holy Trinity.
  • One of the ways we grow to understand the Trinity is through Jesus’ incarnation. Jesus reveals God to us, and we realize he is one with the Father.
  • We also know that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. The mission of the Holy Spirit is exactly the same as Jesus’ mission. That understanding reveals to us that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. “With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified” (Nicene Creed).
  • We believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This was a very important controversy in the fourth century church. It simply means that the Holy Spirit is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.
  • We also learn more deeply about the Holy Trinity because, through the grace of baptism, we are drawn into the dynamic life of the Trinity. We learn about the Trinity “up close and personal.” We are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
  • We do not believe in three Gods. This is important. We believe in only one God. And we believe that God is three separate persons, all equal in glory. It can be confusing to think about, but remember this is not about physical science. It is about an absolute unity of love.
  • Because God is an absolute unity of love, all of God’s actions are also one. We cannot assign different jobs to different persons as though the other persons are not involved. The Catechism says it this way: “Within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit” (267).
  • The church is one Body. We become part the church and part of the one Body through baptism. In baptism, we are given new life by the one Spirit for one purpose: to bring hope to the world.
  • The life given to the church by the Spirit through baptism makes the church holy. The fact that we are still sinners and yet made holy is what gives the world hope.
  • The holiness we have and the hope we offer is universal. It is for everyone. That’s what “catholic” means. We are sent to the whole world, even our enemies, even sinners greater than ourselves, to offer the one hope.
  • This universal sending, and the work we do to proclaim the message of hope, is what we mean when we say the church is apostolic. We follow the example of the apostles and we continue the work of the apostles. We do this under the leadership of the Pope and the bishops who are the successors of the apostles.
  • God is the source of all creation and has a plan for creation. Creation itself is a witness to God’s love for us. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God effects the salvation of everything in the cosmos.
  • The salvation of Creation through Christ is so transformative that it is a glorious new creation. Christ restores Creation to it’s original holiness before sin entered the world.

The Holy Trinity

(see CCC 261-267)

Apostolic mission of the church

(see CCC 866-870)

Salvation of all creation

(see CCC 315, 374, 384)

Click here to see the correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism

Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.

Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.