PLENARY COUNCIL PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.Amen.Our Parish Sacramental Life
DAILY AND SUNDAY MASS ONLINE: Please go to the following link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MLCP1Mon 14th Sept No Mass Exaltation of the Holy Cross Tues 15th Sept Devonport 9:30am Our Lady of Sorows ... ALSO LIVESTREAMWed 16th Sept No Mass Sts Cornelius & Cyprian Thurs 17th Sept Devonport 12noon St Robert Bellarmine ... ALSO LIVESTREAMFri 18th Sept Ulverstone 9:30am Sat 19th Sept Devonport 6.00pm ... St Januarius Ulverstone 6:00pmSun 20th Sept Devonport 10:00am ... ALSO LIVESTREAM Ulverstone 10:00am If you are looking for Sunday Mass readings or Daily Mass readings, Universalis has the readings as well as the various Hours of the Divine Office - https://universalis.com/mass.htm
Your prayers are asked for the sick:Sydney Corbett, Merv Jaffray, Delma Pieri, Allan McIntyre, Marlene Clarke, Val Laycock, Lauren Lloyd, Vinco Muriyadan, & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently:Fr Neville Dunne MSC, Shane Kirkpatrick, Graeme Wilson, Piet Kappelhof, Joy Carter, Sr Julianne Tapping
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 9th - 15th September, 2020Roma Magee, Fabrizio Zolati, Cameron McLaren, Russell Foster, Fr Tom Bresnehan, Joan Williams, Rodney O’Rourke, Anna Leary, David Windridge, Silvano Paladin, John Kopplemann, Fausta Farrow, John Hill, Jan Deeka, Cyril Scattergood, Cyril Smith, Sybil O’Connor, John Hall, Mervyn Kiely.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest
in peace. Amen
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL
I begin my
prayer slowly, then ponder how these words touch me.
When I may
have needed forgiveness, how did I feel? How did that change, knowing I had been
forgiven? Relieved? Grateful? Reconciled? Renewed?
The message
of the Gospel is that the Lord expects me to forgive freely too.
How do I
respond as I hear the answer to Peter’s question, ‘Lord, how often must I
forgive?’ Can I hear Jesus speaking to me, too, through this parable?
Perhaps
there have been times when I have struggled to forgive … to let go of anger,
resentment, grievances … or I have failed to show compassion? I share this with
the Lord, and listen to what he has to say.
I may find
the response to today’s psalm helpful, ‘The Lord is compassion and love, slow
to anger and rich in mercy.’ I thank God for the gift of forgiveness, and ask
him to help me keep it close in my heart.
Our Father
...
Weekly Ramblings
This
weekend as we move to Masses at both OLOL and Sacred Heart we will be using a
template based on previous weeks to record those who are attending – hence the
decision not to require people to book to attend Mass. However, it is essential
that we maintain a contact list so your assistance in maintaining the current
Covid Protocols is greatly appreciated.
Next
Tuesday I will be in Hobart for a meeting of the Council of Priests followed by
a meeting of the Consultors. Some parishioners may have heard the news that Fr
Brian Nichols has been appointed to Vice-Rector of Corpus Christi College, the
Seminary for Tasmania & Victoria. He will be taking up his appointment in
January 2021 so an appointment will need to be made to Sandy Bay parish and it
is likely that other moves will be necessary. Last weekend the Gospel told us –
’if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to
you by my Father in heaven’ – please pray that we will make the right
decisions that ensure that all parishes are well cared for.
Some information
regarding the Month of Prayer during October is available in the Newsletter
this weekend. Each Sunday in October there will be a gathering after the 10am
Mass in one of the centres as an introduction to the prayer type that is being
foreshadowed that week with an opportunity for those interested to be able to
participate in the style of prayer. Obviously, we know that people have their
particular prayer type and we encourage you in your prayer – this time is
simply a time for people to have the opportunity to experience a new and/or
different style of praying.
If you
haven’t already found the Parousia Site for the Spiritual Rosary Pilgrimage you
can use this link: https://parousiaondemand.com/programs/steve-ray-on-the-visitation-v3mov-54252e
and go to the bottom of the page where you will find all the videos so far.
Stay safe, stay sane
and stay warm
Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
would like to welcome and congratulate the following children who are receiving
The Sacrament of Baptism this weekend.
Eliza Joan Hathaway, daughter of Daniel & Bianca Hathaway
and
Evie Jane Atkins, daughter of Kurt & Melissa Atkins
May this sacred day bring many blessings and much happiness to you all.
The Spiritual Rosary Pilgrimage is
an online activity that runs between September 8th (Birthday of Our
Lady), –October 7th (Feast of the Holy Rosary). Please go to the
website https://www.parousiamedia.com/the-spiritual-rosary-pilgrimage/
and sign up.
HOLY LANDS COLLECTION
Your donation supports the missionary work of the Church in
the Holy Land by providing financial assistance to Schools, Medical Centres, Parishes,
Orphanages, Welfare Projects and poor Christians and it helps to preserve the
sacred shrines associated with the life of Jesus.
Donations can be made directly at any time to: Holy Land
Commissariat, 47 Victoria Street, Waverley, N.S.W. 2024 or envelopes are
available from Our Lady of Lourdes Church Devonport and Sacred Heart Church
Ulverstone this weekend.
Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Month of Prayer - October
2020
Events will include:
- the Parish Rosary Pilgrimage
- Introduction to praying the Divine Office
- Prayer of Chanting
- Creation Walk
- Ignatian Imagination
Introductory
sessions to these different types of prayer will be advertised and held on
Sunday mornings post the 10am Mass.
Details available next week.
NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE BOOKS
November is the month we remember
in a special way all those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be
remembered, write the names of those to be prayed for on the outside of an
envelope and place the clearly marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass
or deliver to the Parish Office by Thursday
22nd October
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY RAFFLE
The
lucky winners for the recent Father’s Day raffle are: P Flower, L Williscroft,
J Bosworth, B Griffiths, J Keen, J Keen, J Saltmarsh, E Gullick, K Foran.
Thank you to all who supported this
great fundraiser.
CATHOLIC STANDARD is available from Our Lady of Lourdes Church Devonport and Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone this weekend.
Make sure you grab a copy!!
SILENT RETREAT EXCLUSIVELY FOR WOMEN
Come and join us in this beautiful experience with God! Latin Mass, Rosary, Adoration, Conferences, Confession, Spiritual Direction and the Way of the Cross.
Emmanuel Centre, 123 Abbott Street, Newstead. Date: 26th – 31st October, 2020. Cost $550.00 per person. RSVP 0418 183 411 email palavravivatasmania@gmail.com
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL
I begin my
prayer slowly, then ponder how these words touch me.
When I may
have needed forgiveness, how did I feel? How did that change, knowing I had been
forgiven? Relieved? Grateful? Reconciled? Renewed?
The message
of the Gospel is that the Lord expects me to forgive freely too.
How do I
respond as I hear the answer to Peter’s question, ‘Lord, how often must I
forgive?’ Can I hear Jesus speaking to me, too, through this parable?
Perhaps
there have been times when I have struggled to forgive … to let go of anger,
resentment, grievances … or I have failed to show compassion? I share this with
the Lord, and listen to what he has to say.
I may find
the response to today’s psalm helpful, ‘The Lord is compassion and love, slow
to anger and rich in mercy.’ I thank God for the gift of forgiveness, and ask
him to help me keep it close in my heart.
Our Father
...
Weekly Ramblings
This weekend as we move to Masses at both OLOL and Sacred Heart we will be using a template based on previous weeks to record those who are attending – hence the decision not to require people to book to attend Mass. However, it is essential that we maintain a contact list so your assistance in maintaining the current Covid Protocols is greatly appreciated.
Next Tuesday I will be in Hobart for a meeting of the Council of Priests followed by a meeting of the Consultors. Some parishioners may have heard the news that Fr Brian Nichols has been appointed to Vice-Rector of Corpus Christi College, the Seminary for Tasmania & Victoria. He will be taking up his appointment in January 2021 so an appointment will need to be made to Sandy Bay parish and it is likely that other moves will be necessary. Last weekend the Gospel told us – ’if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven’ – please pray that we will make the right decisions that ensure that all parishes are well cared for.
Some information regarding the Month of Prayer during October is available in the Newsletter this weekend. Each Sunday in October there will be a gathering after the 10am Mass in one of the centres as an introduction to the prayer type that is being foreshadowed that week with an opportunity for those interested to be able to participate in the style of prayer. Obviously, we know that people have their particular prayer type and we encourage you in your prayer – this time is simply a time for people to have the opportunity to experience a new and/or different style of praying.
If you haven’t already found the Parousia Site for the Spiritual Rosary Pilgrimage you can use this link: https://parousiaondemand.com/programs/steve-ray-on-the-visitation-v3mov-54252e and go to the bottom of the page where you will find all the videos so far.
Stay safe, stay sane and stay warm
Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
would like to welcome and congratulate the following children who are receiving
The Sacrament of Baptism this weekend.
Eliza Joan Hathaway, daughter of Daniel & Bianca Hathaway
and
Evie Jane Atkins, daughter of Kurt & Melissa Atkins
May this sacred day bring many blessings and much happiness to you all.
The Spiritual Rosary Pilgrimage is
an online activity that runs between September 8th (Birthday of Our
Lady), –October 7th (Feast of the Holy Rosary). Please go to the
website https://www.parousiamedia.com/the-spiritual-rosary-pilgrimage/
and sign up.
HOLY LANDS COLLECTION
Your donation supports the missionary work of the Church in
the Holy Land by providing financial assistance to Schools, Medical Centres, Parishes,
Orphanages, Welfare Projects and poor Christians and it helps to preserve the
sacred shrines associated with the life of Jesus.
Donations can be made directly at any time to: Holy Land Commissariat, 47 Victoria Street, Waverley, N.S.W. 2024 or envelopes are available from Our Lady of Lourdes Church Devonport and Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone this weekend.
Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Month of Prayer - October
2020
Events will include:
- the Parish Rosary Pilgrimage
- Introduction to praying the Divine Office
- Prayer of Chanting
- Creation Walk
- Ignatian Imagination
Introductory sessions to these different types of prayer will be advertised and held on Sunday mornings post the 10am Mass.
Details available next week.
November is the month we remember in a special way all those who have died. Should you wish anyone to be remembered, write the names of those to be prayed for on the outside of an envelope and place the clearly marked envelope in the collection basket at Mass or deliver to the Parish Office by Thursday 22nd October
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY RAFFLE
The
lucky winners for the recent Father’s Day raffle are: P Flower, L Williscroft,
J Bosworth, B Griffiths, J Keen, J Keen, J Saltmarsh, E Gullick, K Foran.
Thank you to all who supported this
great fundraiser.
CATHOLIC STANDARD is available from Our Lady of Lourdes Church Devonport and Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone this weekend.
Make sure you grab a copy!!
SILENT RETREAT EXCLUSIVELY FOR WOMEN
Come and join us in this beautiful experience with God! Latin Mass, Rosary, Adoration, Conferences, Confession, Spiritual Direction and the Way of the Cross.
Emmanuel Centre, 123 Abbott Street, Newstead. Date: 26th – 31st October, 2020. Cost $550.00 per person. RSVP 0418 183 411 email palavravivatasmania@gmail.com
Letter From Rome Brothers and Sisters All!
How a longstanding suspicion of inclusive language is killing the Church's message
- Robert Mickens, Rome, September 11, 2020.
This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete full access is via paid subscription
Last week's "Letter from Rome" reported that an Italian bishop had rather casually let slip at a press conference some days earlier that Pope Francis was about to publish a new encyclical on human fraternity.
Just hours after the "Letter" went online, the bishop's forecast was confirmed.
The Franciscan Friars in Assisi announced that the pope was not only issuing a new encyclical called Fratelli tutti, but he was coming to their idyllic hilltop town on October 3rd to celebrate Mass privately at St. Francis' tomb and then sign the document.
It seemed odd (and still does) that the pope chose October 3rd instead of the saint's October 4th feast day to visit Assisi. And what a short visit it is to be.
Francis is scheduled to arrive, presumably by helicopter, just before 3 pm. There are only sketchy details right now, but it appears that he will go directly to the friary known as the "Sacro Convento" and then proceed to the crypt of the adjoining Basilica of St. Francis to celebrate Mass.
Oh, brother! What about the rest of the human race?According to the Holy See Press Office, which also clarified that the encyclical is on "fraternity and social friendship", the pope will return to Rome immediately afterwards.
There has been no announcement pertaining to when the document, in its various translations, will actually be made available to the public. But it is understood that Francis would like that to take place in a more ceremonious, high profile way the next day – Feast of St. Francis.
However, the launch could be less a bang and more of a shot in the foot if the translators of the text don't get their act in order and quickly. As of now, Vatican Media is reporting that the English version of the encyclical is titled, "All Brothers."
This understandably caused uproar among those who are sensitive to gender inclusive language. And if the title sticks it will serve only to further alienate women (and men) who see this obstinate refusal to acknowledge that language develops as yet more proof that the Church is being run by those who also refuse to disavow themselves of misogyny and paternalism.
This should not be that difficult to fixThis can be easily remedied. Call the encyclical Fratelli e sorelle tutti, right from the start. "Brothers and sisters all" or "We are all brothers and sisters", makes more sense anyway.
We've heard the explanation that the papal documents traditionally are named by the first words in the text, usually in Latin. For example, Evangelii gaudium is rendered "The Joy of the Gospel".
And we've heard that Fratelli tutti is directly from a 13th century text by St. Francis, so it cannot be altered.
Nonsense. If the pope or his advisors really believe that, then they should choose another text or just give it another title.
Don't be afraid to changeIn Evangelii gaudium, Francis actually calls for this sort of departure from longstanding customs when they hinder the message the Church is trying to convey.In her ongoing discernment, the Church can also come to see that certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some which have deep historical roots, are no longer properly understood and appreciated. Some of these customs may be beautiful, but they no longer serve as means of communicating the Gospel. We should not be afraid to re-examine them (EG, 43).
In any case, "fratelli" means "brothers". As in many languages, including English, it originally was understood to include both brothers and sisters. But that is no longer the case.
And even as the Vatican first condemned the use of inclusive language in Church documents back in the early 1990s, the pope had stopped long before that from addressing groups with the customary "Cari fratelli" and was using the more sensible, "Cari fratelli e sorelle".
You can credit (or blame) Pope John Paul II for that, as you wish.
Being sensible and sensitiveUp until his election to the papacy, the popes routinely addressed crowds (of Catholics, at least) as "Figli" – "sons". Obviously, at the time it was still accepted that this included women, too. But times change. And so does language.
When Karol Wojtyla appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica immediately after becoming Bishop of Rome on Oct. 16, 1978, he addressed the massive crowd in the square below as "Carissimi fratelli e sorelle" – "Dearest brothers and sisters".
That was 42 years ago. And the popes have used this commonsense form of address ever since.
Inclusive language is, admittedly, more of an issue in the English-speaking world than it is in Latin language cultures. But even in France and Italy, for example, sensitivity towards its usage is growing.
A misguided zeal to defend orthodoxy against radical feministsIt is discouraging that Pope Francis still does not seem to appreciate just how unnecessary and unhelpful using masculine language is in the year 2020.
But, then again, he's an elderly priest from Latin America, from a generation and culture where this was never an issue.
Nonetheless he's the one who says in Evangelii gaudium:I dream of a "missionary option", that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church's customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today's world rather than for her self-preservation (EG, 27).
And then further along he writes:There are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one another (EG, 41).
Don't kid yourself, the culture warriors, clericalists and social conservatives in the Church who refuse to use inclusive language do so purposely as part of their misguided zeal to defend orthodoxy.
In their paranoia, they see inclusive language as some sort conspiracy by radical feminists and sympathetic homosexuals to overthrow the Church.
There's nothing of the sort going on here. The fact is that we no longer speak like we did in the 13th century. It's as simple as that.
If the title of an encyclical is going to distract people from its central message or reinforce negative attitudes about the Church, there's only one thing to do – change the blessed thing!
That would be at least one example of how to "apply the guidelines found in [Evangelii gaudium] generously and courageously, without inhibitions or fear" (EG, 33).
Mysticism and Eco-Spirituality
This article is taken from the Daily Email sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the email by clicking here
When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and
remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every
mortal being that is on the earth. —Genesis 9:16
Franciscan alternative orthodoxy emphasized mysticism over
morality. Moralism is the task of low-level religion, concerned with creating
an ego identity that seemingly places us on moral high ground. But moralism is
normally not a primary concern for love, the focus of mature spirituality.
Scripture, Jesus, the mystics, and the saints recognized that the goal of
religion is not a perfect moral stance, but union with God. Mysticism is about
connection not perfection. [1] Perfectionism always leads to individualism—as
if the individual could ever be perfect.
The single biggest heresy that allows us to misinterpret the
scriptural tradition is individualism, revealed now in the problems we are
facing with climate change, pollution, the loss of biodiversity, and the
extinction of many species. We became so anthropocentric and self-referential
that we thought God cared not about “every living creature” nor about the new
heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1), but just about “us people” and not
even very many of us. That’s what happens when we go down the track of
individualism and lose the mystical level of perception.
Eco-spirituality could be considered another gift of
Franciscan alternative orthodoxy. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of
ecology because he granted animals, elements, and the earth subjectivity,
respect, and mutuality. In his Canticle of the Creatures, Francis the mystic
describes a participatory universe in which God loves and cares for us through
Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire,
and “through our sister, Mother Earth.” [2] At the same time, God receives
praise, honor, glory, and blessing through each of God’s creations. On the
mystical level, Francis could see the transformational power of Love’s presence
within all creation.
I often wonder if the one thing we all share in common—our
planet—could ultimately bring us all together. We stand on this same “sister,
Mother Earth” and we look up at this same Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Could it
be that the Mystery of God is already hidden and revealed here? I believe so.
Naming the universal Christ helps us to recognize the inherent sacrality,
holiness, goodness, and value of the whole material world. For those who see
deeply, there is only One Reality; there is no distinction between sacred and
profane. [3] Humanity is becoming capable of a truly global spirituality which
is desperately needed for the common good to be realized.
God has come to save us all by grace. No exceptions. The
mystics have no trouble surrendering to such fullness. For Bonaventure, God is
a “fountain fullness” of outflowing love, only flowing in one positive
direction, always and forever. There is no wrath in God. There is only
outpouring love.
Mystical Experience And Everyday People
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here What kinds of things help induce mysticism in our lives? I was asked that question recently and this was my immediate, non-reflected, answer: whatever brings tears to your eyes in either genuine sorrow or genuine joy; but that response was predicated on a lot of things.
What is mysticism? What makes for mystical experience?
In the popular mind mysticism is misunderstood badly. We tend to identify mysticism with what’s extraordinary and paranormal, and see it as something for the spiritual elite. For most people, mysticism means spiritual visions and ecstatic experiences which take you outside of normal consciousness.
Mysticism can be that sometimes, though normally it has nothing to do with visions, altered states of consciousness, or states of ecstasy. Rather it has to do with a searing clarity of mind and heart. Mystical experiences are experiences that cut through all the things that normally block us from touching our deepest selves, and they are rare because normally our consciousness is cut off from our deep, true, virginal self by the influence of ego, wound, history, social pressure, ideology, false fear, and all the various affectations we don and shed like clothing. Rarely are we ever in touch with our deepest center, without filters, purely; but when we are, that’s what makes for a mystical experience.
Mysticism, as Ruth Burrows defines it, is being touched by God in a way that’s beyond words, imagination, and feeling. God, as we know, is Oneness, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. So any time we are genuinely touched by oneness, truth, goodness, or beauty, without anything distorting that, we’re having a mystical experience. What might that look like?
Ruth Burrows describes a mystical experience which radically changed her life when she was eighteen years old, a senior at a private high school for young women operated by an order of nuns, on a retreat preparing for graduation, and not very mature. She and one of her friends were not taking this retreat very seriously, passing notes to each other and pulling pranks during the conferences. At a point, their antics were disturbing enough that the nuns pulled them out of the group and had them sit in silence in a chapel, chaperoned by a teacher, whenever the rest of the class was at a conference. At first, Burrows confesses, they continued their joking around, but the hours were long and the silence eventually wore her down. Sitting alone, bored and irritated, a mystical experience graced her, uninvited and unexpected. And it came upon her not as a vision or an ecstasy, but as a moment of searing clarity. At a certain moment, sitting alone, she saw herself with absolute clarity for who she really was, in all her immaturity and in all her goodness. It changed her life. From then on she knew who she was – beyond ego, wound, immaturity, peer pressure, ideology, and all affectation. In that moment she knew her deepest self purely (and the only thing that was extraordinary was its extraordinary clarity).
So, what kinds of things might induce mystical experiences in our lives? The short answer: anything that takes you beyond your ego, your wounds, your affectations, and the powerful social pressures within which you breathe, that is, anything that helps put you in touch with who you really are and makes you want to be a better person. And this can be many things. It might be a book you read; it might be the beauty of nature; it might be the sight of a newborn baby, a crying child, a wounded animal, or the face of someone suffering; or it might be what you feel deep down when you receive an expression of love, bless someone, express genuine contrition, or share helplessness. It can be many things.
Several years ago while teaching a course, I assigned the students a number of books to read, among them Christopher de Vinck’s, Only the Heart Knows How to Find them – Precious Memories for Faithless Time. This is a series of autobiographical essays within which de Vinck simply shares very warmly about his marriage, his children, and his home life. At the end of the semester a young woman, with de Vinck’s book in her hand, said to me: “Father, this is the best book I’ve ever read. I’ve always fancied myself a very free, liberated person and I’ve slept my way through several cities, but now I realize that what I want is what this man has. I want sex to take me home. I want a home. I want the marriage bed. I know now what I need!”
Reading Christopher de Vinck’s book had triggered a mystical experience inside her, not unlike the one described by Ruth Burrows. Reading the Story of a Soul by Therese of Lisieux generally does that for me.
So, here’s my counsel: seek out what does that for you. It doesn’t have to bring tears to your eyes, it just has to point you with searing clarity towards home!
The Trouble With Catechesis
The new Directory for Catechesis issued earlier this year sets out the ways in which teaching the faith and forming people to teach the faith serve the goal of enabling relationships with Christ. Thomas Flowers SJ surveys the history of catechesis, and the particular contribution made by a Jesuit saint, to ask how easy it is to define methods of inviting people to a life with Christ when that invitation will be heard in so many different languages, cultures and contexts. Thomas Flowers SJ is a member of the USA West Jesuit Province and is studying for a PhD in Jesuit History at the University of York.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
In March of 1550, Peter Canisius wrote an anxious letter to his Jesuit superiors in Rome, pleading for their prayers and counsel, and that they send him ‘a catechism for the Germans.’[1] Dismayed at the religious ignorance of his students at the University of Ingolstadt and the popularity of Lutheran ideas among the Catholic faculty, Canisius saw a new, Jesuit-created catechism as an essential tool for restoring the Catholic faith in Bavaria. In June of 2020, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation issued a new Directory for Catechesis. Its authors note that ‘in the current situation, marked by a great distance between faith and culture, it is urgent to rethink the work of evangelisation with new categories and new languages that may serve to emphasise its missionary dimension.’[2] The question of how to teach the faith to people grown sceptical and suspicious is not new. But as often as we attempt to answer it, we are dismayed to discover that the world has changed again and our catechetical methods have not kept pace with the language, needs and doubts that permeate our culture. Yet the work of St Peter Canisius – Doctor of the Church and one of history’s most successful catechists – holds particular hope for the challenge offered by the new Directory for Catechesis. For Canisius’s catechism demonstrates the inherent adaptability of Catholic catechesis, and so how we might better meet the moment in which we find ourselves today.
The new Directory for Catechesis makes clear that the goal of catechesis must always remain enabling ‘intimate communion with Christ,’ and in pursuit of this end, the local Church is called to inculturate the general principles of catechesis laid out by the Directory.[3] Increasing our knowledge of doctrine serves as a means toward the end of deepening our relationship with Christ. Yet if we present doctrine in a language people do not understand, if our theological constructions are arcane or bound to an irrelevant cultural context, then people will not understand the faith well enough to desire to know Christ. Given this challenge, the Directory does not itself attempt to engage in a definitive exposition of doctrine, but rather considers carefully the principles that ought to govern both how we teach the faith and how we form people to teach the faith.
The Directory makes its most significant foray into the content of catechesis in its discussion of the continued relevance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published and promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 and issued in its definitive form in 1997. The Directory presents the Catechism as the Church’s official and ‘indispensable’ guide for catechesis and its four parts – the Profession of Faith (the Creed), Liturgy (the sacraments), the Life of Discipleship (the commandments) and Prayer (the Our Father) – as ‘the fundamental dimensions of the Christian life.’[4] The Directory holds that the Catechism is ‘a dynamic instrument, suitable for inspiring and nourishing the journey of faith in the life of every person.’[5] While the Catechism itself does not contain a universally-applicable methodology, the Directory nevertheless regards both its content and its approach as fundamental for any current-day catechetical endeavour.
The Directory roots its claim that the four-fold structure of the Catechism represents the ‘fundamental dimensions of Christian life’ in a line from the Acts of the Apostles: ‘These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers’ (Acts 2:42, NJB). It then goes on to assert that the same four-fold structure of the Catechism was used by the catechumenate in the early Church and by ‘various’ catechisms throughout the centuries. There has always been, according to the Directory, a four-fold approach to catechesis that uses the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments and the Our Father as a way of teaching the four pillars of Christian life. Admittedly, the Directory is not primarily interested in the history of catechesis, and so some degree of historical over-simplification is understandable. Yet an appreciation of how much more complex the actual history of catechesis is serves to advance the goal of the Directory.
The life of the Apostolic Church described in Acts 2:42 evokes the sort of holistic approach to catechesis we all desire: one that involves not just teaching, but public liturgy, private prayer and community. But this line from Acts did not provide the early Church with a four-fold structure for catechesis. In the early Church, the process of becoming a Christian – the catechumenate – involved both ritual actions and instruction. As the catechetical sermons of St Cyril of Jerusalem testify, teaching the Creed was often a key component of preparation for sacramental initiation, and once new Christians had been baptised, confirmed and begun to participate in the Eucharist, they were further taught about these sacraments they had received. Other Church Fathers, like St Augustine of Hippo, point to the centrality of the Lord’s Prayer in early Church religious instruction. But there was no fixed programme for the catechumenate that was standard in all parts of the Church. No codified set of catechetical pillars existed.
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, books of catechesis were written – what we would now call ‘catechisms.’ Many of these taught the Christian faith using key texts and lists: for example, the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father, the Cardinal and Theological Virtues, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments. But there was no one curriculum, and many popular catechisms lacked one or more of the four texts the Directory and the Catechism regard as pillars. For example, the Lay Folks’ Catechism issued by the Archbishop of York in 1357 did not include the Our Father or any teaching on prayer, and the popular 1535 German catechism of Georg Witzel did not teach anything on the sacraments. The array of approaches and texts included among the Catholic catechisms produced up through the sixteenth century is vast, and while they are all clearly Catholic, they just as clearly do not agree on pedagogical principles or content.
Peter Canisius was the inheritor of this confused catechetical tradition. He also witnessed the enormous popularity and influence of the Protestant catechism written by Martin Luther in 1529. Luther’s purposely simple catechism taught the Christian faith using the texts of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed and the Our Father, with an appendix on the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The popularity of Luther’s catechism was part of what drove Canisius to desire the creation of a new Catholic catechism. The request that Canisius made of his Jesuit superiors in 1550 for a new catechism eventually resulted in Canisius writing the catechism himself. He published his first catechism in 1555, and then, over the next few years, he wrote smaller, simpler versions for young adolescents and children. Since there was no clear set of principles governing how to write a catechism, Canisius created his own. He included nearly everything: it is hard to find a catechism before or after Canisius that treats a more extensive set of topics. He certainly covers the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments and the Our Father, but he also teaches the Seven Deadly Sins, the Beatitudes, the Evangelical Counsels (poverty, chastity, obedience), the ‘Principle Good Works’ (prayer, fasting, almsgiving), and many more obscure topics, such as the four sins in Scripture that are said to ‘cry unto heaven’ and the list of the ‘sins of another in which some fault is our own.’
But the breadth of subjects he covers is not nearly as revealing of his catechetical approach as the way he arranges them. According to the new Directory for Catechesis, the commandments properly appear in Catholic catechesis as an exposition of the Life of Discipleship. Thus, the section on ‘Life in Christ’ in the Catechism of the Catholic Church prominently features the Ten Commandments as categories to explain the moral life, outlining the obligations these commandments impose upon us and the particular sins they call us to avoid. On the other hand, Canisius frames his teaching of the Ten Commandments as an elaboration of the theological virtue of love. In this, he follows not only Christ’s teaching on the greatest commandment, but also a catechetical tradition going back at least as far as St Augustine, linking the theological virtue of love to teaching the commandments. Canisius’s explanations of each commandment are relatively brief, eschewing the sort of elaboration of Catholic moral teaching provided by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The reason for this choice lies in the structure of the catechism. Canisius’s catechism has two parts: one on Wisdom and one on Justice. The part on Wisdom contains his teaching on the Creed, the sacraments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The part on Justice offers a first chapter on ‘fleeing evil’ and a second on ‘pursuing the good.’ This is Canisius’s primary vehicle for moral instruction. It begins with a description of sin and why we should avoid it, and builds toward a portrait of blessedness based on imitating Christ in a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. When Canisius made the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, he had learned from his retreat director, St Pierre Favre, that in order to follow Christ, we need to know our sins, so we can reject them, and then to know Christ, so we can follow him. Canisius could think of no better way to frame the moral life than this, so in his catechism he used traditional Catholic lists of sins and virtues as a means to teach his students how to reject evil and pursue the good.
In so many ways, Canisius’s catechism bears the marks of its age: he speaks in the theological language of the sixteenth century, he uses texts and lists made popular by medieval catechesis, and his understanding of the Church and who can be saved, by our post-Vatican II standards, is severely limited. But the spirit of his catechesis embraces the most fundamental message at the heart of the new Directory for Catechesis: catechesis must be oriented towards ‘intimate union with Christ’ and adapted to the language and particular needs of the people whom it addresses. By teaching morality according to the logic of the Spiritual Exercises, Canisius offers a way to present the moral teachings of the Church in a way that is significantly more Christocentric than any catechetical programme simply derived from the Ten Commandments. He did not deny the importance of the commandments, but found them a more apt way to describe the Wisdom of God than to ground our life of Christian discipleship.
The new Directory for Catechesis again and again calls for a renewal of catechesis along evangelical lines, so that as we teach people the faith and help them to grow in it, all our efforts keep ‘the person of Jesus Christ, living, present, and active’ at their centre.[6] This enterprise, the Directory makes clear, requires that we know the people whom we teach and that we respond to their questions and concerns in a way they will understand. Catechesis must be adaptable. Yet the Directory presumes a consistency in catechetical methodology and structure over the centuries that the complicated history of catechesis belies. Our somewhat erratic efforts at catechesis over the centuries suggest that perhaps we need worry less about specific texts and catechetical pillars and more about how to bring people to Christ while keeping grounded in the teachings of the Church. St Peter Canisius has been consistently lauded by popes – including St John Paul II and Benedict XVI – for the wisdom and effectiveness of his catechetical efforts, and yet his approach to catechesis does not cling to what we tend to assume are necessary catechetical norms. Perhaps his ability to adapt catechesis so radically while staying true to Christ and the Church’s teaching has something to tell us about how to teach the faith today.
[1] Otto Braunsberger SJ (ed.), Beati Petri Canisii, Societatis Iesu, Epistulae et acta, vol. 1 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1896), p. 313. The original letter is in Italian; the translation is my own.
[2] Directory for Catechesis (New Edition), §44.
[3] Directory for Catechesis, §3-10.
[4] Directory for Catechesis, §184.
[5] Directory for Catechesis, §192.
[6] Directory for Catechesis, §169.
When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on the earth. —Genesis 9:16
Franciscan alternative orthodoxy emphasized mysticism over
morality. Moralism is the task of low-level religion, concerned with creating
an ego identity that seemingly places us on moral high ground. But moralism is
normally not a primary concern for love, the focus of mature spirituality.
Scripture, Jesus, the mystics, and the saints recognized that the goal of
religion is not a perfect moral stance, but union with God. Mysticism is about
connection not perfection. [1] Perfectionism always leads to individualism—as
if the individual could ever be perfect.
The single biggest heresy that allows us to misinterpret the
scriptural tradition is individualism, revealed now in the problems we are
facing with climate change, pollution, the loss of biodiversity, and the
extinction of many species. We became so anthropocentric and self-referential
that we thought God cared not about “every living creature” nor about the new
heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1), but just about “us people” and not
even very many of us. That’s what happens when we go down the track of
individualism and lose the mystical level of perception.
Eco-spirituality could be considered another gift of
Franciscan alternative orthodoxy. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of
ecology because he granted animals, elements, and the earth subjectivity,
respect, and mutuality. In his Canticle of the Creatures, Francis the mystic
describes a participatory universe in which God loves and cares for us through
Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire,
and “through our sister, Mother Earth.” [2] At the same time, God receives
praise, honor, glory, and blessing through each of God’s creations. On the
mystical level, Francis could see the transformational power of Love’s presence
within all creation.
I often wonder if the one thing we all share in common—our
planet—could ultimately bring us all together. We stand on this same “sister,
Mother Earth” and we look up at this same Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Could it
be that the Mystery of God is already hidden and revealed here? I believe so.
Naming the universal Christ helps us to recognize the inherent sacrality,
holiness, goodness, and value of the whole material world. For those who see
deeply, there is only One Reality; there is no distinction between sacred and
profane. [3] Humanity is becoming capable of a truly global spirituality which
is desperately needed for the common good to be realized.
God has come to save us all by grace. No exceptions. The
mystics have no trouble surrendering to such fullness. For Bonaventure, God is
a “fountain fullness” of outflowing love, only flowing in one positive
direction, always and forever. There is no wrath in God. There is only
outpouring love.
Mystical Experience And Everyday People
What kinds of things help induce mysticism in our lives? I was asked that question recently and this was my immediate, non-reflected, answer: whatever brings tears to your eyes in either genuine sorrow or genuine joy; but that response was predicated on a lot of things.
What is mysticism? What makes for mystical experience?
In the popular mind mysticism is misunderstood badly. We tend to identify mysticism with what’s extraordinary and paranormal, and see it as something for the spiritual elite. For most people, mysticism means spiritual visions and ecstatic experiences which take you outside of normal consciousness.
Mysticism can be that sometimes, though normally it has nothing to do with visions, altered states of consciousness, or states of ecstasy. Rather it has to do with a searing clarity of mind and heart. Mystical experiences are experiences that cut through all the things that normally block us from touching our deepest selves, and they are rare because normally our consciousness is cut off from our deep, true, virginal self by the influence of ego, wound, history, social pressure, ideology, false fear, and all the various affectations we don and shed like clothing. Rarely are we ever in touch with our deepest center, without filters, purely; but when we are, that’s what makes for a mystical experience.
Mysticism, as Ruth Burrows defines it, is being touched by God in a way that’s beyond words, imagination, and feeling. God, as we know, is Oneness, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. So any time we are genuinely touched by oneness, truth, goodness, or beauty, without anything distorting that, we’re having a mystical experience. What might that look like?
Ruth Burrows describes a mystical experience which radically changed her life when she was eighteen years old, a senior at a private high school for young women operated by an order of nuns, on a retreat preparing for graduation, and not very mature. She and one of her friends were not taking this retreat very seriously, passing notes to each other and pulling pranks during the conferences. At a point, their antics were disturbing enough that the nuns pulled them out of the group and had them sit in silence in a chapel, chaperoned by a teacher, whenever the rest of the class was at a conference. At first, Burrows confesses, they continued their joking around, but the hours were long and the silence eventually wore her down. Sitting alone, bored and irritated, a mystical experience graced her, uninvited and unexpected. And it came upon her not as a vision or an ecstasy, but as a moment of searing clarity. At a certain moment, sitting alone, she saw herself with absolute clarity for who she really was, in all her immaturity and in all her goodness. It changed her life. From then on she knew who she was – beyond ego, wound, immaturity, peer pressure, ideology, and all affectation. In that moment she knew her deepest self purely (and the only thing that was extraordinary was its extraordinary clarity).
So, what kinds of things might induce mystical experiences in our lives? The short answer: anything that takes you beyond your ego, your wounds, your affectations, and the powerful social pressures within which you breathe, that is, anything that helps put you in touch with who you really are and makes you want to be a better person. And this can be many things. It might be a book you read; it might be the beauty of nature; it might be the sight of a newborn baby, a crying child, a wounded animal, or the face of someone suffering; or it might be what you feel deep down when you receive an expression of love, bless someone, express genuine contrition, or share helplessness. It can be many things.
Several years ago while teaching a course, I assigned the students a number of books to read, among them Christopher de Vinck’s, Only the Heart Knows How to Find them – Precious Memories for Faithless Time. This is a series of autobiographical essays within which de Vinck simply shares very warmly about his marriage, his children, and his home life. At the end of the semester a young woman, with de Vinck’s book in her hand, said to me: “Father, this is the best book I’ve ever read. I’ve always fancied myself a very free, liberated person and I’ve slept my way through several cities, but now I realize that what I want is what this man has. I want sex to take me home. I want a home. I want the marriage bed. I know now what I need!”
Reading Christopher de Vinck’s book had triggered a mystical experience inside her, not unlike the one described by Ruth Burrows. Reading the Story of a Soul by Therese of Lisieux generally does that for me.
So, here’s my counsel: seek out what does that for you. It doesn’t have to bring tears to your eyes, it just has to point you with searing clarity towards home!
The Trouble With Catechesis
The new Directory for Catechesis issued earlier this year sets out the ways in which teaching the faith and forming people to teach the faith serve the goal of enabling relationships with Christ. Thomas Flowers SJ surveys the history of catechesis, and the particular contribution made by a Jesuit saint, to ask how easy it is to define methods of inviting people to a life with Christ when that invitation will be heard in so many different languages, cultures and contexts. Thomas Flowers SJ is a member of the USA West Jesuit Province and is studying for a PhD in Jesuit History at the University of York.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
In March of 1550, Peter Canisius wrote an anxious letter to his Jesuit superiors in Rome, pleading for their prayers and counsel, and that they send him ‘a catechism for the Germans.’[1] Dismayed at the religious ignorance of his students at the University of Ingolstadt and the popularity of Lutheran ideas among the Catholic faculty, Canisius saw a new, Jesuit-created catechism as an essential tool for restoring the Catholic faith in Bavaria. In June of 2020, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation issued a new Directory for Catechesis. Its authors note that ‘in the current situation, marked by a great distance between faith and culture, it is urgent to rethink the work of evangelisation with new categories and new languages that may serve to emphasise its missionary dimension.’[2] The question of how to teach the faith to people grown sceptical and suspicious is not new. But as often as we attempt to answer it, we are dismayed to discover that the world has changed again and our catechetical methods have not kept pace with the language, needs and doubts that permeate our culture. Yet the work of St Peter Canisius – Doctor of the Church and one of history’s most successful catechists – holds particular hope for the challenge offered by the new Directory for Catechesis. For Canisius’s catechism demonstrates the inherent adaptability of Catholic catechesis, and so how we might better meet the moment in which we find ourselves today.
The new Directory for Catechesis makes clear that the goal of catechesis must always remain enabling ‘intimate communion with Christ,’ and in pursuit of this end, the local Church is called to inculturate the general principles of catechesis laid out by the Directory.[3] Increasing our knowledge of doctrine serves as a means toward the end of deepening our relationship with Christ. Yet if we present doctrine in a language people do not understand, if our theological constructions are arcane or bound to an irrelevant cultural context, then people will not understand the faith well enough to desire to know Christ. Given this challenge, the Directory does not itself attempt to engage in a definitive exposition of doctrine, but rather considers carefully the principles that ought to govern both how we teach the faith and how we form people to teach the faith.
The Directory makes its most significant foray into the content of catechesis in its discussion of the continued relevance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published and promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 and issued in its definitive form in 1997. The Directory presents the Catechism as the Church’s official and ‘indispensable’ guide for catechesis and its four parts – the Profession of Faith (the Creed), Liturgy (the sacraments), the Life of Discipleship (the commandments) and Prayer (the Our Father) – as ‘the fundamental dimensions of the Christian life.’[4] The Directory holds that the Catechism is ‘a dynamic instrument, suitable for inspiring and nourishing the journey of faith in the life of every person.’[5] While the Catechism itself does not contain a universally-applicable methodology, the Directory nevertheless regards both its content and its approach as fundamental for any current-day catechetical endeavour.
The Directory roots its claim that the four-fold structure of the Catechism represents the ‘fundamental dimensions of Christian life’ in a line from the Acts of the Apostles: ‘These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers’ (Acts 2:42, NJB). It then goes on to assert that the same four-fold structure of the Catechism was used by the catechumenate in the early Church and by ‘various’ catechisms throughout the centuries. There has always been, according to the Directory, a four-fold approach to catechesis that uses the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments and the Our Father as a way of teaching the four pillars of Christian life. Admittedly, the Directory is not primarily interested in the history of catechesis, and so some degree of historical over-simplification is understandable. Yet an appreciation of how much more complex the actual history of catechesis is serves to advance the goal of the Directory.
The life of the Apostolic Church described in Acts 2:42 evokes the sort of holistic approach to catechesis we all desire: one that involves not just teaching, but public liturgy, private prayer and community. But this line from Acts did not provide the early Church with a four-fold structure for catechesis. In the early Church, the process of becoming a Christian – the catechumenate – involved both ritual actions and instruction. As the catechetical sermons of St Cyril of Jerusalem testify, teaching the Creed was often a key component of preparation for sacramental initiation, and once new Christians had been baptised, confirmed and begun to participate in the Eucharist, they were further taught about these sacraments they had received. Other Church Fathers, like St Augustine of Hippo, point to the centrality of the Lord’s Prayer in early Church religious instruction. But there was no fixed programme for the catechumenate that was standard in all parts of the Church. No codified set of catechetical pillars existed.
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, books of catechesis were written – what we would now call ‘catechisms.’ Many of these taught the Christian faith using key texts and lists: for example, the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father, the Cardinal and Theological Virtues, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments. But there was no one curriculum, and many popular catechisms lacked one or more of the four texts the Directory and the Catechism regard as pillars. For example, the Lay Folks’ Catechism issued by the Archbishop of York in 1357 did not include the Our Father or any teaching on prayer, and the popular 1535 German catechism of Georg Witzel did not teach anything on the sacraments. The array of approaches and texts included among the Catholic catechisms produced up through the sixteenth century is vast, and while they are all clearly Catholic, they just as clearly do not agree on pedagogical principles or content.
Peter Canisius was the inheritor of this confused catechetical tradition. He also witnessed the enormous popularity and influence of the Protestant catechism written by Martin Luther in 1529. Luther’s purposely simple catechism taught the Christian faith using the texts of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed and the Our Father, with an appendix on the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The popularity of Luther’s catechism was part of what drove Canisius to desire the creation of a new Catholic catechism. The request that Canisius made of his Jesuit superiors in 1550 for a new catechism eventually resulted in Canisius writing the catechism himself. He published his first catechism in 1555, and then, over the next few years, he wrote smaller, simpler versions for young adolescents and children. Since there was no clear set of principles governing how to write a catechism, Canisius created his own. He included nearly everything: it is hard to find a catechism before or after Canisius that treats a more extensive set of topics. He certainly covers the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments and the Our Father, but he also teaches the Seven Deadly Sins, the Beatitudes, the Evangelical Counsels (poverty, chastity, obedience), the ‘Principle Good Works’ (prayer, fasting, almsgiving), and many more obscure topics, such as the four sins in Scripture that are said to ‘cry unto heaven’ and the list of the ‘sins of another in which some fault is our own.’
But the breadth of subjects he covers is not nearly as revealing of his catechetical approach as the way he arranges them. According to the new Directory for Catechesis, the commandments properly appear in Catholic catechesis as an exposition of the Life of Discipleship. Thus, the section on ‘Life in Christ’ in the Catechism of the Catholic Church prominently features the Ten Commandments as categories to explain the moral life, outlining the obligations these commandments impose upon us and the particular sins they call us to avoid. On the other hand, Canisius frames his teaching of the Ten Commandments as an elaboration of the theological virtue of love. In this, he follows not only Christ’s teaching on the greatest commandment, but also a catechetical tradition going back at least as far as St Augustine, linking the theological virtue of love to teaching the commandments. Canisius’s explanations of each commandment are relatively brief, eschewing the sort of elaboration of Catholic moral teaching provided by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The reason for this choice lies in the structure of the catechism. Canisius’s catechism has two parts: one on Wisdom and one on Justice. The part on Wisdom contains his teaching on the Creed, the sacraments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The part on Justice offers a first chapter on ‘fleeing evil’ and a second on ‘pursuing the good.’ This is Canisius’s primary vehicle for moral instruction. It begins with a description of sin and why we should avoid it, and builds toward a portrait of blessedness based on imitating Christ in a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. When Canisius made the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, he had learned from his retreat director, St Pierre Favre, that in order to follow Christ, we need to know our sins, so we can reject them, and then to know Christ, so we can follow him. Canisius could think of no better way to frame the moral life than this, so in his catechism he used traditional Catholic lists of sins and virtues as a means to teach his students how to reject evil and pursue the good.
In so many ways, Canisius’s catechism bears the marks of its age: he speaks in the theological language of the sixteenth century, he uses texts and lists made popular by medieval catechesis, and his understanding of the Church and who can be saved, by our post-Vatican II standards, is severely limited. But the spirit of his catechesis embraces the most fundamental message at the heart of the new Directory for Catechesis: catechesis must be oriented towards ‘intimate union with Christ’ and adapted to the language and particular needs of the people whom it addresses. By teaching morality according to the logic of the Spiritual Exercises, Canisius offers a way to present the moral teachings of the Church in a way that is significantly more Christocentric than any catechetical programme simply derived from the Ten Commandments. He did not deny the importance of the commandments, but found them a more apt way to describe the Wisdom of God than to ground our life of Christian discipleship.
The new Directory for Catechesis again and again calls for a renewal of catechesis along evangelical lines, so that as we teach people the faith and help them to grow in it, all our efforts keep ‘the person of Jesus Christ, living, present, and active’ at their centre.[6] This enterprise, the Directory makes clear, requires that we know the people whom we teach and that we respond to their questions and concerns in a way they will understand. Catechesis must be adaptable. Yet the Directory presumes a consistency in catechetical methodology and structure over the centuries that the complicated history of catechesis belies. Our somewhat erratic efforts at catechesis over the centuries suggest that perhaps we need worry less about specific texts and catechetical pillars and more about how to bring people to Christ while keeping grounded in the teachings of the Church. St Peter Canisius has been consistently lauded by popes – including St John Paul II and Benedict XVI – for the wisdom and effectiveness of his catechetical efforts, and yet his approach to catechesis does not cling to what we tend to assume are necessary catechetical norms. Perhaps his ability to adapt catechesis so radically while staying true to Christ and the Church’s teaching has something to tell us about how to teach the faith today.
[1] Otto Braunsberger SJ (ed.), Beati Petri Canisii, Societatis Iesu, Epistulae et acta, vol. 1 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1896), p. 313. The original letter is in Italian; the translation is my own.
[2] Directory for Catechesis (New Edition), §44.
[3] Directory for Catechesis, §3-10.
[4] Directory for Catechesis, §184.
[5] Directory for Catechesis, §192.
[6] Directory for Catechesis, §169.
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