Catechetical Program

Catechesis I

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the central text used in Catechesis I. The students study Part Two, “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” and Part Four, “Christian Prayer.”

Before they study the text itself, the students are introduced to the Catechism as an integrated whole: its organic structure, its ordered system, its principles of usage, and its relationship to the evangelical mission of the Church. Then they are made aware of their baptismal connection to Jesus Christ by reviewing the central revealed truth: the Blessed Trinity—the beneficence of God the Father, the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling action of the Holy Spirit. The students then review the revealed truths regarding Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

Oriented by these elementary truths, the students begin an in-depth study of the Church’s sacramental life: “…by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the ‘sacraments’ to the ‘mysteries’…liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the Mystery of Christ.”

Guided by this catechetical principle, the students study the significance of a sacrament’s sacred signs as found in Holy Scripture, its institution as a sacrament by Christ Himself, and the “Rite of Celebration” of each sacrament. They also attend either the administration of a sacrament or a dramatization of a sacrament’s “Rite of Celebration.” Catechesis in the Sacrament of Baptism is essential, since in this sacrament the young person received the vocational command to follow Christ and His Church in apostleship. 

In the second semester, the students continue to reflect upon their identity as a Christian by studying Part Four of the Catechism: “Christian Prayer.”  The students turn also to Holy Scripture to meet the people who engaged in intimate dialogue with God—the Old testament men and women of prayer.  Here the students discover that God initiates the dialogue and that people such as Abraham, Moses, Hannah, David, Elijah, and Ruth prefigure the great exemplars of prayer: Christ and His mother, Mary.

An analysis of The Lord’s Prayer, which is a summary of the Gospel message, completes and summarizes for the students their first year of study of the Catholic Faith in the catechetical program.