Homework

Homework

• Read Introduction and Chapters 1-3 in U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults
• Read the handouts in Session II.

Make Up Assignment

If you were unable to attend this class, please read all of the handouts in Session I and answer the following questions:

Catechesis and the person of the Catechist:

1.       The word catechesis comes from the Greek katechein, which means to “echo down”.  How has the Church been able to conserve the authentic transmission of the Faith handed down from Christ to the apostles?  How is that related to the action of “echoing”?

2.       What is the “definitive aim” of catechesis?

3.       What is missionary zeal?  Why is this important for a catechist to possess?

4.       Why is it important for a catechist to be knowledgeable of Scripture and Tradition?

5.       Pope Paul VI said, “Modern man listens more to witnesses than to teachers, and if listens to teachers it is because they are witnesses.”  Does this ring true in your own experience?  What does it mean for us as teachers?

The Story

1.       What is the Story? How should it be organized and told?

2.       Why is it important for catechists to tell the Story?

3.       What are the key moments of the Story, and what are some salient points of each?

How the World Lost Its Story

1.       Jenson states, “ Modernity was defined by the attempt to live in a universal story without a universal storyteller...Neither you nor I nor all of us together can so shape the world that it can make narrative sense; if God does not invent the world’s story, then it has none, then the world has no narrative that is its own.”  What happens when people are not in touch with the Story?

2.       In a world that seems to have “lost its story” what gift does the telling of the story of salvation bring? 

3.       How can the Church be the “narratable world” of which Jensen speaks?   Why is it important that she be faithful to the Gospel and the liturgy?