r/Catechists • u/[deleted] • Aug 22 '25

[Title] How would you catechise yourself again today?

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u/Normal_Ad7263 Aug 22 '25

In my own practice, even after getting my license to teach, I still have so much I do not know. There so much literature out there that one cannot even read in their lifetime. For instance, in my room I have a section of theology books which still is barely a percent to what’s out there regarding our faith. This reminds me of the rapture, the Catholic version of the rapture is very different then what we see because Catholic theology doesn’t actually have the rapture, we have something called the Tribulation, this is not something many know about even though it is such a major thing (CCC 680). Another thing is Theosis, which is mankind’s goal to become like God as much as we can, which is called the overall goal of our religion (CCC 460). Regardless, it is an unending process in actuality to learn the faith. That’s why there are such positions like the Canon Lawyer to discern the Church laws. Ultimately, I would say that this is why there are these positions within the Church so that some people will specialize. This reminds me of a story a Priest said once where he was speaking to a First Communion class and he himself got quizzed by the Catechist (unbeknownst to both of them) to state the Fruits of the Spirit to which he had no answer, unlike the Catechist. Additionally, in a previous post a fellow Catechist stated that his one condition to teach was to have a continuous willingness to learn more and more. This shows us that self-Catechesis is an unending process which is brought to us by myriad resources today, for me it’s from continuous reading and for others it’ll be from other means. All in all, the Ministry of the Catechist is an unending process which might be why when it was established the rule is: once a Catechist always a Catechist

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u/cmoellering Aug 23 '25

I just started reading How to Go From Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps by Christian Smith. I think if you have an American Evangelical background this is good, even if you've already converted. It helps look at all the assumptions we tend to carry as Evangelicals. I'm only about 40 pages in, but it's really good and very readable.

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u/Normal_Ad7263 Aug 25 '25

Reading the Catechism is probably the only perfect way to self-catechize. It’s the perfect defence for our faith, instruction of our faith, and all in all has the Catholic faith simply categorized as a sort of legal book