When I became a Catholic my primary concern, as I was not to become a pastor at my own baptist church, was for the way in which Catholics had been catechizing their young and old alike. I was keenly aware of a lack in good, orthodox catechesis in America, which was crippling the Church's ability to evangelize and keep Catholics Catholic. I did not have a difficult time as a Baptist converting unsuspecting Catholics from their faith, which at the time, I was ignorantly convinced was sending them to hell. Between my ignorance and theirs of the Catholic faith, we were both doing damage to the unity that Christ seeks for his body (John 16).

Then how can we teach our young people the Catholic faith in a way which captures their hearts, their minds, and their souls? Earlier we introduced the ecclesial method of catechesis. Using this method as well as some creativity, you can grow into a wonderful catechist that keeps your students on their feet and opens them up to diving deeper into God's Word and the Catholic Faith.

The Atmosphere

What makes your classroom special or different from every other classroom in the building? Why should coming to CCD or religion class be different? If you are going to teach students towards "the love that never ends", we should be concerned with how they receive our instruction. The famous mantra amongst students at Franciscan is to "beware of the millstone" in Matthew's Gospel. This warning of Christ tells us that it is better for us to be cast into the sea than teach any of his children heresy, or to deprive them from any of the deposit of faith. That is a rather stern warning. One of the best ways to capture your students attention is to change the atmosphere of the classroom. Dim the lights. Use candles. Play music. Just like when they enter Church, there should be a unique feeling to the classroom - that what they are about to learn here is different than what they will learn anywhere else. Use the atmosphere to draw them closer to Jesus Christ.

Set up a sacred space. Have a spot, a small table, set aside in your classroom. Don it with liturgical colors using fabric, place a beautiful copy of God's Word on it open to the passage that you will primarily teach from that day. Have a crucifix and a candle on it. Decorate it with a picture or object that you can use to catechise them. This gives them a place to focus their attention as you teach, and allows you to reach students who learn visually by not only using the chalkboard. Change your sacred space as often as you can.

Biblical Narrative

Use God's Word in your teaching, not in a dry recitation, but help the scriptures come alive for your students. If you have a topic for the day, try to pick out passages that tell a story, are not each individually too long, and that teach about the doctrine. If you are teaching about baptism, read the creation account, the Flood, the crossing of the Red Sea, the crossing of the Jordan, Jesus' baptism, and the Apostles baptizing. Read the scriptures prayerfully and have a sense of mystery in your own tone of voice. Show them by your own actions that this is something important to you.

The Story

Learn the story. Memorize it by heart. St. Augustine's First Catechetical Teaching is an excellent text to learn 'the story' of our salvation. Every time you repeat the story to your students it should send tingles down your spine when you teach them of Jesus' death and resurrection. Don't say "Jesus died. And then Jesus rose three days later." Bah. What is that? Rather

"It is the case that Jesus then, on the cross, died for us sinners. God died on the cross that day because we sinned and fell and the only way to save us was for Him to give his own life as a ransom. The disciples of Jesus sat stunned. They could not believe that this man, the man who would lead them to victory lay hanging, as if he were a robber, on a cross, with no life in Him. But for Jesus Christ, death is not the end. For death is the separation of the body and soul. For Jesus died, but in dying Jesus Christ conqured death for all time. By dying he won. He was victorious. Instead of singing songs of victory hell was about to encounter what the world would encounter - that the keys to death no longer belonged to Satan. For in Jesus' righteous death, he won victory over death. Jesus was no longer bound by death. In Christ Jesus no man has to be a slave to sin in death. For in three days after Jesus death, Jesus rose from the dead. Victorious, and to the incredible shock of the disciples, there He was - Alive! Jesus was truly the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the Almighty, the Everlasting God, Prince of Peace, Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega, [pause] Emmanuel. Jesus is I AM. He is God. And only in Him is our salvation found through the life giving cross. How ironic is it that the instrument of Roman torture is now the instrument by which all men are saved."

By conveying the story to your students by heart, you will evangelize your students. The catechist is a witness to the good news, and a witness is more readily believed and listened to than a teacher.