Amazing Catechists

Teaching and learning the faith together

  • Home
  • About
    • About Amazing Catechists
    • Patron Saint of Amazing Catechists
    • Donations
  • Topics
    • Art
    • Campus Ministry
    • Catechetics
    • Catechism
    • Catechist Training
    • Catholic Spirituality
    • Church Documents
    • Columnists
    • Culture
    • Elementary School
    • Evangelization
    • Family Life
    • Featured
    • Games
    • General
    • Grief Resources
    • High School
    • Homeschooling
    • Liturgical
    • Mary
    • Middle School
    • Music
    • New Age
    • NFP/Chastity
    • Prayer
    • RCIA & Adult Ed
    • Reader Suggestions
    • Sacraments
    • Scripture
    • Special Needs
    • Spiritual Warfare
    • Technology
    • Theology
    • Therapeutic
    • Video
    • Vocations
  • Contributors
    • Alice Gunther
    • Amanda Woodiel
    • Cay Gibson
    • Christian LeBlanc
    • Christopher Smith
    • Deanna Bartalini
    • Dorian Speed
    • Elizabeth Ficocelli
    • Elizabeth Tichvon
    • Ellen Gable Hrkach
    • Faith Writer
    • Father Juan R. Velez
    • Gabe Garnica
    • Jeannie Ewing
    • Jennifer Fitz
    • Justin Combs
    • Karee Santos
    • Lisa Mladinich
    • Marc Cardaronella
    • Maria Rivera
    • Mary Ellen Barrett
    • Mary Lou Rosien
    • Maureen Smith
    • Msgr. Robert Batule
    • Msgr. Charles Pope
    • Pat Gohn
    • Peggy Clores
    • Robyn Lee
    • Rocco Fortunato
    • Sarah Reinhard
    • Steve McVey
    • Tanja Cilia
    • William O’Leary
    • Alex Basile
  • Shop
  • Contact us

Loving ~ Learning ~ Living Our Faith

By Cay Gibson

It is the beginning of the new school year and on its albs comes the new church year.

They come down our hallways and into our classrooms having spent the whole day inside a box. Most of them come forced to our classrooms. They are restless, fidgety, bored.

Every year I give our teachers plans for religious education in the classroom.  I encourage movement and hands-on and trips outside the classroom. Something…anything…to cut through the boredom, their restlessness, their fidgetiness.

I hear those passionate with conviction, desiring to enarmor and impart knowledge. They are wise to desire this transfusion of faith and Word passed from Christ to the Apostles onto the Church Fathers and now to this next generation of Catholic children who are living in a mad, mobile, wired, stressful, furious world.

I realize the church’s mission is to educate.  We must never forget that our religious education programs are to educate, to impart knowledge. I focus on this each year, a learning theme for each class, all the while inviting teachers to take the lesson and let it dance and breathe away outside the classroom.

And that has been a challenge.

I realize we only have one hour a week to connect.

That’s pretty discouraging, isn’t it?

I mean, how does one connect, inspire, and educate in only one hour a week???

It isn’t possible. Or is it?

It is a mission broader than anything we do all week because, honestly, learning about God and His church and its message is more than educating in a classroom. It’s about a relationship that prays, a message that bleeds, a life that loves, an empty tomb that reveals, and a person who teaches all this. All outside a classroom.

I believe, in order to take our religious education lessons outside the classroom, it helps if we focus on the three “L’s” of our faith this upcoming Year of Faith: Love, Lesson, and Live

Our children have to love the faith before they will learn the faith in order that they can live the faith.

This upcoming Year of Faith invites us to have Faith outside ourselves, outside our books, outside our classrooms. To explore our faith anew. I hatched it open almost a year ago in this column and have thought and prayed and harbored some ideas through the past year which are on the drafting board for this Year of Faith.

In my next column I will explore how to take this living, bleeding, breathing message outside our classrooms and into the world.

Because that is what we are called to do with the Gospel message.

{Praying for each of you as you begin this new year of loving, learning, and living our faith.}

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

If you make a purchase via a link on this site, we may receive a small commission. There will be no added cost to you. Thank you!

Read all posts by Cay Gibson Filed Under: Catechetics, Catechist Training, Evangelization, Featured

About Cay Gibson

Cay Gibson lives with her husband, Mark, and their five children in Southwest Louisiana and serves her church parish as the Director of Religious Education. She is the author of "Catholic Mosaic" and "A Picture Perfect Childhood" and blogs at Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks.

Comments

  1. William O'Leary says

    September 1, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Great post. Our Archdiocese has launched a Year of Faith theme: Faith: Love it, Learn it, Live it. Yes, it’s about teaching, proclaiming and educating these students so that the can more fully love and be transformed into the image their creator. Our goal is to lead them to a deeper communion with God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

    Do you have any sheets you hand out about those practical ways to make the faith come alive? If so I’d be grateful if you’d share them: woleary@kcascension.org

  2. Cay Gibson says

    September 3, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    I plan to share, William. Thank you and stay tuned… 🙂

Search

Follow Us!

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Sign up for our Newsletter!

Join our email list and get immediate access to the free guide 'High Impact Lesson & Classroom Management Tips'.

Help us to serve the Church by patronizing our affiliates.

FTC Disclosure: If you make a purchase via a link on this site, we may receive a small commission. There will be no added cost to you. Thank you!

Sock Religious

That One Sheep Shirts

That One Sheep Shirts

Stickers

Stickers

The Catholic Store

Catholic Bibles

Catholic Bibles

catholic-jewelry

Catholic Religious Jewelry

Holy Heroes

holy-heroes

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2023 Amazing Catechists. · Log in