Amazing Catechists

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Catechist’s Choice

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While sitting down with a cup of tea to write this post, I noticed a message on the tea bag label: “Your choices will change the world.”

In his mission to the ends of the earth, St. Paul frequently made choices that changed the world around him and which continue to change our world today. In fact, in today’s First Reading in Acts, I can count five occasions where St. Paul chose to stay faithful to his mission, despite the bleak conditions around him.

Instead of giving in to hopelessness or escaping when he had the chance, St. Paul used his grim prison experience to advance his mission. He stayed behind, not only to keep the jailer from taking his own life, but to help influence the jailer’s eternal life with the Word of God and the Sacrament of Baptism. St. Paul didn’t think twice about his own needs because of his resolve to preach the Gospel to every soul in need of healing.

God rescued St. Paul time and time again simply because he chose to be faithful in the face of his physical and emotional sufferings. This must be a catechist’s choice as well, for we find favor with God when, instead of despairing or running away from our own trials, we go on with a hopeful approach. Like St. Paul who, after being stripped, beaten and imprisoned, chose to pray and sing hymns to God while staked to his prison cell, we must trust that when we call to the Lord, He will answer us and build up strength within us.  As C. S. Lewis wrote, “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”  Every day a catechist has a choice to make.

The Lord completes what He has done for us through our own catechetical mission to the world. He graces us so that we too may share the message St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

About Elizabeth Tichvon

Elizabeth Tichvon is a Consecrated Marian Catechist, UCLA Certified Paralegal and Writer. Always faithful to the Magisterium, she spreads and defends the Catholic faith as a true witness of Christ, confessing the name of Jesus boldly; never ashamed of the Cross.

Elizabeth became aware of the need for the New Evangelization while in the three years of her formation as a Marian Catechist and wrote over 100 published meditations on Sacred Scripture for The Journey, www.daily-meditations.org. In 2006, she became a freelance writer for several Catholic websites, and following Jesus' example, now teaches through her own parables so that by sharing her stories through social media, might bring others closer to the heart of Christ. As a Consecrated Marian Catechist, her spiritual life is the foundation of her writing.

In 1986 Elizabeth completed UCLA's Graduate Paralegal Program With Honors and worked in the legal field for 34 years before retiring from Chrysler in 2008. She is now writing and catechizing daily and lives with her husband of 41 years.

Comments

  1. Sarah Reinhard says

    This is a really important message and one that I have struggled to learn in my own journey as a catechist. I can plan until I’m blue in the face and the Holy Spirit will still show up and, if I let him, run the show.

    Which makes my planning sort of a “joke” in many ways.

    Love how you worded this and put this piece together. Let’s change the world! 🙂

  2. Lisa Mladinich says

    I love this post, too! I always pray the Anima Christi after Holy Communion, and the line that says, “Passion of Christ, strengthen me,” has really been hitting home in this same way. When we see our share in suffering as joined to His passion, we become stronger through the suffering, by grace. So any suffering that comes along, I stand up a little straighter, expecting to be stronger. And, by golly, I do believe I am.