Amazing Catechists

Teaching and learning the faith together

Hope in Rising

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Today’s First Reading from St. Paul to the Thessalonians is a verse that is special to my soul.  When my Sister-in-Law’s beloved Mother died, she asked that I choose and give one of the Readings at the funeral Mass.  While I was honored that she wanted me to participate, I saw it as complete obedience to our Lord – to share the immense hope that can only be found in Him.

As a catechist and disciple of Christ, I am moved by the Holy Spirit to bring this good news to those He puts in front of me.  My heart ached for my dear Sister-in-Law and her family, but at the same time was burning to share the hope that’s in our own Resurrection. Yes! Our own Resurrection.  I knew that, although many there were Christians, they did not know.  So I chose this verse by St. Paul because it consoles us with hope.  Hope, because like Christ, we will rise.

“We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.” (Catechism, Para. 989)

Today the Reading came up in the Liturgy again, and once more it ignited the flame in my heart to share it.

Did you know?

________________________

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

about those who have fallen asleep,

so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

so too will God, through Jesus,

bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,

will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, with a word of command,

with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,

will come down from heaven,

and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left,

will be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air.

Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, console one another with these words” (1 Thes 4:13-18).

Elizabeth Tichvon, Catechist Daily

Mass Explained App Review

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I was recently contacted by Dan Gonzalez and asked to check out his new iPad app, Mass Explained.  As someone who loves both the Church and technology, I was so happy he did!

I have gone through a dozen or more “apps” in the last couple of years which focus on Catholicism. As of today, I may only use three or four of them.  As for the others, I got rid of them because I found the application either lacked intuitiveness or the depth of material was just not sufficient.

It is critical, from a technology standpoint, for an application to have a good “flow;” it must make sense when the user is interacting with it.  If a user has to “hunt and peck” to find what they are looking for, then they’ll quickly become frustrated or lose interest.  With the number of apps available today, a user will not waste time navigating a cumbersome product; they will just simply delete it and move on to the next one.

As someone who has spent over two decades studying the Catholic faith, I have found “apps” lack the level of detail and scholarship I would like to see in a product.  I have concluded most Catholic applications built for smartphones and/or tablets are for people only seeking information at the introductory level.

Mass Explained for iPad hits a home run both in its easy functionality and for its scholarship! I can’t think of any other Catholic app which allows you to zoom in and out of pictures, spin 3-D objects, and view 360 degree panoramic images?

Mass Explained allows the user to use buttons, drop down menus, or swiping gestures to navigate through the material.  That type of flexibility, allowing the user to customize their experience, is a great feature!  The use of pop up windows also allows the user to stay a page while “drilling down” to the information they want.

From a scholarship perspective, Mass Explained, succeeds where others have failed!  Hundreds of quotations and references to scripture, the Early Church Fathers, the Catechism, church councils, papal encyclicals and more!  Mass Explained even has audio files, allowing users to hear prayers in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English.  This is great application for people looking to go beyond a basic understanding of the Mass.  I could easily see RCIA catechists using Mass Explained to introduce the Mass to prospective Catholics.

The current Mass Explained app is “Volume 1,” which looks at the Introductory Rites and the Liturgy of the Word.  A planned “Volume 2” will cover the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Concluding Rites.

Congratulations to Dan on creating a beautiful, easy to use and informative product for Catholics and non-Catholics alike!  I heartily recommend adding Mass Explained to your list of Catholic iPad Applications!

 

Mass Explained

This is a slightly modified version of a post under the same title which appeared on Christopher’s Apologies on 17 Feb 2014.

Liturgical Catechesis: Learning By Heart

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How does the Holy Mass help us learn the Faith?  The General Directory of Catechesis says:

“Effective catechesis also incorporates learning “by heart.” For centuries the living
tradition of the faith was handed on principally through the oral tradition. From the
earliest time, catechesis has relied on the Creed, the sacraments, the Decalogue, and
prayers, especially the Our Father, as primary instruments of transmitting the faith.
In order to learn the principals truths of the faith, these instruments were easily
committed to memory in lieu of textbooks or other printed materials and could be
recalled often as the basis of catechetical instruction. “Use of memory, therefore,
forms a constitutive aspect of pedagogy of the faith since the beginning of
Christianity” (GDC, no. 154).”

There are many ways the liturgy, which by its very nature catechizes, helps us learn the faith “by heart”.  I want to briefly focus on one profound way it does this.

The Church in her wisdom reads the same Scripture readings every 3 years (as well as each year we often hear the same readings during certain liturgical days).  This allows the faithful learn “by heart” the Word of God and then respond by living it in our lives and proclaiming its truths to those around us.

Wow, this reality, in my opinion, is awesome.  I love the wisdom of the Church!