The mission of the National Community of Catechetical Leaders is to promote the ministries of evangelization and catechesis in the U.S. Catholic Church by fostering a community of leaders who proclaim and teach the Word of Jesus Christ through the witness of accompaniment, education, and formation in the Catholic faith.
Lifelong Faith provides a blueprint for Christian formation that forms disciples of all ages and transforms church communities.
Vibrant lifelong faith formation can renew and revitalize faith across generations and contribute towards a thriving congregation that lives its mission. Using the seven elements outlined in this book, churches will create a dynamic and vital plan that can be customized to meet the needs, interests, and challenges we face today and nurture the spiritual growth of all ages.
Read an excerpt: Church Publishing
Feed your spirit with daily inspiration from one of the great spiritual masters of our time!
Source of Image: Exaudi Catholic News.
Pope Francis on May 11, 2021 formally created a new official ministry in the Catholic Church for those who teach the fundamentals of the faith to children and others, opening the position to "men and women of deep faith and human maturity."
Continue Reading from the National Catholic Reporter
Apostolic Letter Antiquum ministerium : Instituting the Ministry of the Catechist
Catechist.Com : Information and Resources
Celebrating the Ministry of the Catechist
Rite for Instituting the Ministry of the Catechist (Vatican News)
Liturgical Rite to Institute the Ministry of the Catechist (Exaudi Catholic News)
WERE YOU BAPTIZED as a baby? If you’re like most Catholics, that’s how you first joined the church. That early support and membership is nothing to sneeze at, but there’s one drawback to starting your life as a Catholic while you’re still in diapers. You have no idea what you’re getting into! In this respect, infant Baptism might seem to have all the charm of being drafted. If you happen to meet the criteria—in most cases, simply having Catholic parents—you’re in.
Embracing a Catholic identity, however, is a whole lot more than simply being a card-carrying member of the church. Some may settle for a Baptism, wedding, and funeral in the church and feel they’ve gotten the best of it. But if you choose to live all the moments in between from the perspective of the Catholic worldview, you can enhance your life with incredible spiritual richness.
What follows are 10 good things to discover for yourself about the beauty and integrity of authentic Catholic living. See how many of these windows of grace are open to you already, and how many more you may have to explore. You may also want to add to this list the things about the church that move you to awe and wonder.
Most of us wear several hats in our many relationships. We may be children and parents and spouses simultaneously. We’re coworkers, neighbors, friends, and citizens, exercising these distinct roles all in a single day. We’re believers with convictions but also an openness to other points of view. Most of us are not just one thing. We play more than one role that’s of great concern to us. We don’t drop out of this constellation of identities when we actively engage one of them.
Among the primary roles I play are those of writer, public speaker, and catechist of the church. I don’t cease to be any of these while performing as another. In fact, it’s fundamentally as a catechist that I write and speak. My family members might even roll their eyes should you ask if I ever stop being a catechist for five minutes. Before I earned a certificate authorizing me to serve as a religious educator, I was in pursuit of the teachable moment in religious matters as early as the playground. I’d send my Protestant pals home with a rosary or take them on a tour of the stations of the cross around the parish church. How many childhood friends knelt beside me as I endeavored to explain the veneration of saints in front of some imposing statue? It’s a wonder, really, that I managed to have playmates at all.
Pope Francis in his prayer intention for the month of May invites the Church to pray for young Catholics to be courageous in their response to God's call to holiness."When I think of a model with whom young people can identify, our Mother, Mary, always comes to mind: her courage, the way she knew how to listen, and her dedication to service," the pope said in his May 2022 video prayer message.
While the Church traditionally marks May as the Marian month, it is also preparing for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in late June.
Pope Francis held up Mary's courageous and determined "yes" to the Lord, and called on young Catholics to imitate her readiness to improve the world ."Don't forget that in order to follow Mary you need to discern and discover what Jesus wants from you, not what you might think you can do," said the pope.
One of the new features at Benet House will be blended retreats, with both virtual and on-site options. Ongoing Programs will have on-site and virtual options as individuals from across the country and Canada participate. We are always working for new ways to connect with our retreat friends, and we hope the blended retreats meet some participants’ needs
Sisters of St. Benedict at Benet Retreat Center, Riock Island, IL
In this readable and timely work, Thomas Groome explores the basis of Catholic education, from the historical Jesus to the Didache, to Augustine and Aquinas to Merici, Seton, and Ward. Groome shows how these foremothers and fathers of Catholic education ground and shape the spirituality of Catholic educators today. It is these foundations that ensure that Catholic schools today deliver the education they promise to students—not only to Catholics but to those of many religious traditions.
Presentation at Boston College
Interview with Robert Ellsberg, Publisher of Orbis Books
The mission of Jesus Christ is alive and well in the Florida panhandle. Taking their cues from the great Vatican II document of the same name, the Gaudium et Spes Podcast chronicles the Holy Spirit’s amazing work in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee through bi-weekly episodes alternating between teaching and storytelling.
Bishop Wack begins his newest teaching series on the Scriptures by offering an introduction to the sources of divine revelation and outlining the composition of the Bible
Episode 15 - Gaudium et Spes: a Teaching from Bishop Wack on "What Is the Bible"
Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
The Holy Spirit is alive and active, renewing the church in every age. That is not what one might expect to hear, in light of the challenges, divisions and vitriol that are so evident in our world and in the Catholic Church. But I am convinced that God is leading us back into the heart of the Gospel. Though it is hardly novel to God, it may feel radical to us.
St. Paul VI wrote, “The Church exists to evangelize.” It is our raison d’être. If this is true, then why does this charge feel so revolutionary? Have we not been doing this for 2,000 years? Well, yes and no. There have been periods of great missionary fervor in the history of our church, but in the last few centuries, it would seem as though the people of God have chosen largely to focus more on building up and maintaining our beautiful institutions. The harsh reality is that if we were graded on our faithfulness to the Great Commission, we might not even get an “A” for effort.
As you pray with these reflections each week, pay attention to the many large and small ways you are being called to transformation in your own life. How does your own personal transformation translate to the good of the world? This Easter season, like the disciples on Easter morning, may our weary souls find compassion and hope in the least likely of places, and may we be offered renewal in our welcoming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.