Many people have never heard of catechetics, the subject I teach, and have asked me to explain exactly what it is. It's easily confused with theology (and sometimes it's just easier to tell people that I teach theology), so let me differentiate between the two.
"Catechesis" comes from the Greek word which translates "to echo down." Specifically, to catechize is to echo down or hand down the Faith to others. (I love the translation "echo" because it presumes faithfulness to the original teaching of Christ down through the ages.) "Catechetics" is the science of how to catechize, how to echo down the Faith. It prepares those who want to hand on the Faith to do so effectively. So the program has two key goals: ensure that students know the Faith, and prepare those students to become professionals in the field.
"Theology" is the "study of God." Theology takes the doctrine, the truths of the Faith that have been handed on by the Church, and then reasons what else could be deduced from that body of knowledge. Theology is more speculative, beginning with what is known and progressing to the unknown. Catechesis does not go beyond what is known, but only deals with what is held by the Church. Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body illustrates theology very well: he took what we know about Creation, the Fall, and Redemption, and speculated (beautifully) about what else might be deduced from that knowledge. Of course, he did so in a catechetical setting, and in his position as the chief catechist of the Church, so it's also very catechetical...obviously, the two dovetail quite a bit.
A couple of weeks ago, one of my theology colleagues told me he was surprised to see me at Sunday Mass at Parish A. I thought to myself, "I'm a Catholic teaching Catholicism at a Catholic University...why would he be surprised to see me at Sunday Mass?" Evidently my puzzlement showed, because one of my catechetics colleagues chimed in, "What's the difference between a theology professor and a catechetics professor? Theology professors attend Parish A; catechetics professors attend Parish B. Theology professors homeschool their children; catechetics professors send their children to school." I laughed, because while exceptions to the rule do exist, the idea has roots in reality.
When I returned to town after Thanksgiving, I noticed that many people had already decorated for Christmas. Indeed, most of my neighborhood has suddenly become very festive in these dark days of December. And some of my catechetics colleagues are right up there with the most festive of them. The theology professors, on the other hand, are not putting up their decorations during Advent (since it's a penitential season), but wait until Christmas Eve or so to decorate. So we can extend our distinction: "Theology professors don't decorate until Christmas; catechetics professors decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving."
Now that I know about the game, I'm on the lookout for other fun distinctions between theology and catechetics...
Monday, December 5, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
I can't begin to express my gratitude to God, family, and friends for all the blessings I've received this year:
- one of my best years teaching high school,
- a surprising, amazing new job opportunity at the college level,
- the quick sale of my house,
- the discovery of a beautiful new place to live,
- all the generous helping hands on both ends of the move,
- an outpouring of love and friendship from old friends,
- warm welcome from new friends,
- countless prayers offered up for me to successfully meet the new challenges,
- delightful, inspiring students,
- successes in the classroom,
- failures in the classroom (yes, I'm grateful for those too),
- beautiful Masses, inspiring homilies, and sweet moments with the Lord,
- the light at the end of the semester tunnel.
May God bless you and yours as richly as He has blessed me!
- one of my best years teaching high school,
- a surprising, amazing new job opportunity at the college level,
- the quick sale of my house,
- the discovery of a beautiful new place to live,
- all the generous helping hands on both ends of the move,
- an outpouring of love and friendship from old friends,
- warm welcome from new friends,
- countless prayers offered up for me to successfully meet the new challenges,
- delightful, inspiring students,
- successes in the classroom,
- failures in the classroom (yes, I'm grateful for those too),
- beautiful Masses, inspiring homilies, and sweet moments with the Lord,
- the light at the end of the semester tunnel.
May God bless you and yours as richly as He has blessed me!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Fall Festival
I've battled my first bad bout of homesickness in the last week or so, for several reasons. The days are getting shorter and darker (dark by 5:30 now, and by 4:30 when exams end...sunrise just beginning at 7 am). I've been overwhelmed by work: I inadvertently scheduled two major projects due the day after fall break, and I've been frantically trying to dig out from under my own self-inflicted torture. And I just flat-out miss everyone. I haven't had time to meet many people or develop many friendships here, and I haven't had the time I've wanted to be in touch with everyone from home. I'm at that point in the semester where you feel like you've been working so hard for so long, and yet you still have so far to go. All of that left me quite cranky by the end of this week.
So on Friday, when I had graded the last of the first set of projects, I left my office a little early and got in touch with my domestic side. I cleaned the kitchen for the first time all week. I made some bread (it's "Five Minute Artisan Bread," so don't get overly impressed), some pumpkin soup, butternut squash casserole, and apple crisp. I roasted some little crouton-size pieces of butternut squash to garnish my spinach salad. And I had myself one delicious fall dinner.
When the kitchen was (finally) clean, I went to CAT on Tap, a social gathering for catechetics (CAT) majors. They invited the CAT professors (of which I am one) to sit as a panel and answer their questions. They mostly wanted to know what to expect out in the field, lessons we'd learned and challenges we'd faced, so their questions were easy to answer. Afterwards we mixed and mingled, and I enjoyed talking to many of my students about themselves and not just their assignments and class concerns. Everyone considered the evening a rousing success: about 40 students were present, up from six at previous events.
Yesterday, I went to the Big City with a gal I've been getting to know. She knew of a few consignment shops and we went to check them out. I came home with a warm & cozy cashmere sweater for about $20. She found two suits for close to the same price. We took a little detour to Trader Joe's, a store I'd never visited before but which I intend to visit again - yum! We enjoyed a beautiful sunny Saturday with the last of the fall colors shining brightly. Best of all, we laughed and talked and enjoyed getting to know each other better.
One valuable lesson I learned while teaching high school: sometimes you just have to stop working. I hate the feeling that my work isn't finished; it nags at me and the black cloud hangs over me when there is work still undone. But if I keep working and trying to keep up, I end up tired and cranky and frustrated and with little joy in life. I learned that lesson again this week, as I struggled so hard to keep up with the many and varied tasks I faced. A few hours in the kitchen, a delicious meal with plenty of leftovers at the end, and some social time, all put me in a better frame of mind. I renewed my resolve to break away from work periodically, to give myself the mental break necessary to do that work well. I have to learn this lesson all over again in these new circumstances, and figure out how to make it work in my new life. But I believe it's an important lesson, and I'm glad I learned it again.
Hopefully I can live by it in these final weeks of the semester.
So on Friday, when I had graded the last of the first set of projects, I left my office a little early and got in touch with my domestic side. I cleaned the kitchen for the first time all week. I made some bread (it's "Five Minute Artisan Bread," so don't get overly impressed), some pumpkin soup, butternut squash casserole, and apple crisp. I roasted some little crouton-size pieces of butternut squash to garnish my spinach salad. And I had myself one delicious fall dinner. When the kitchen was (finally) clean, I went to CAT on Tap, a social gathering for catechetics (CAT) majors. They invited the CAT professors (of which I am one) to sit as a panel and answer their questions. They mostly wanted to know what to expect out in the field, lessons we'd learned and challenges we'd faced, so their questions were easy to answer. Afterwards we mixed and mingled, and I enjoyed talking to many of my students about themselves and not just their assignments and class concerns. Everyone considered the evening a rousing success: about 40 students were present, up from six at previous events.
Yesterday, I went to the Big City with a gal I've been getting to know. She knew of a few consignment shops and we went to check them out. I came home with a warm & cozy cashmere sweater for about $20. She found two suits for close to the same price. We took a little detour to Trader Joe's, a store I'd never visited before but which I intend to visit again - yum! We enjoyed a beautiful sunny Saturday with the last of the fall colors shining brightly. Best of all, we laughed and talked and enjoyed getting to know each other better.
One valuable lesson I learned while teaching high school: sometimes you just have to stop working. I hate the feeling that my work isn't finished; it nags at me and the black cloud hangs over me when there is work still undone. But if I keep working and trying to keep up, I end up tired and cranky and frustrated and with little joy in life. I learned that lesson again this week, as I struggled so hard to keep up with the many and varied tasks I faced. A few hours in the kitchen, a delicious meal with plenty of leftovers at the end, and some social time, all put me in a better frame of mind. I renewed my resolve to break away from work periodically, to give myself the mental break necessary to do that work well. I have to learn this lesson all over again in these new circumstances, and figure out how to make it work in my new life. But I believe it's an important lesson, and I'm glad I learned it again.
Hopefully I can live by it in these final weeks of the semester.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Jeckyll & Hyde
So, today the temperature reached 68 degrees. Beautiful.
The weatherman predicts snow for Friday.
They tell me I'd better get used to this...
The weatherman predicts snow for Friday.
They tell me I'd better get used to this...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Make your own kind of music
I heard this Mama Cass oldie the other day, and it got stuck in my head in the way catchy songs are wont to do. So I pulled it up on YouTube to hear the whole thing. The song encourages the listener to "make your own kind of music; sing your own special song...even if nobody else sings along." And that got me thinking.
Some might say that "making your own kind of music" means doing whatever you want, regardless of the ways it affects you or others. This is selfish individualism, which if left unchecked, ultimately destroys you and your relationships. But I think that to "make your own kind of music" means to follow God's call no matter what the cost.
Different musical instruments may play the same tune, but they sound different from one another. They "make their own kind of music." I've always sort of marched to the beat of my own drum. Certain life choices have placed me on a little different path than others. Sometimes people haven't understood why I would make those choices or hold those preferences and values. Sometimes "just to do your thing's/the hardest thing to do."
But I've learned that if doing "your thing" is also doing "God's thing," it becomes a beautiful kind of music, and quite fulfilling. God gives us certain interests and talents and experiences, and He invites us to use those gifts for the benefit of His people. When we do that, we may sacrifice, we may have bad days, we may experience some "rough goin'," as the song says...but we also find a certain fulfillment and joy we would not find otherwise. And that joy becomes contagious, spilling out of us to affect the people we meet.
As I live out this new adventure, I realize that more than ever I'm making my own kind of music. The circumstances of my life are rather different than I envisioned for myself, and rather different from most of my friends'. I have sacrificed some things that have been hard. Yet I am thriving, and exhilarated by the joy of doing what God called me to do. More than that, I think I am affecting others. When I decided to embrace this new adventure, I embraced a mission to model for young people, especially young women, how to live as a Catholic layperson in the world. My students' response to me indicates that I am fulfilling that mission. Just yesterday a young woman said to me, "I look at you, and I want to be like you." I have tremendous opportunities to impact others, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I want to help them make their own kind of music!
Pope John Paul said in his Letter to Artists, "All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece." As I make my own kind of music, I pray that with God's grace I am making a masterpiece. And I also pray that my life encourages others to make their own kind of music - not the cacophony of selfish individualism, but the symphony of a life wholeheartedly dedicated to God's call.
Some might say that "making your own kind of music" means doing whatever you want, regardless of the ways it affects you or others. This is selfish individualism, which if left unchecked, ultimately destroys you and your relationships. But I think that to "make your own kind of music" means to follow God's call no matter what the cost.
Different musical instruments may play the same tune, but they sound different from one another. They "make their own kind of music." I've always sort of marched to the beat of my own drum. Certain life choices have placed me on a little different path than others. Sometimes people haven't understood why I would make those choices or hold those preferences and values. Sometimes "just to do your thing's/the hardest thing to do."
But I've learned that if doing "your thing" is also doing "God's thing," it becomes a beautiful kind of music, and quite fulfilling. God gives us certain interests and talents and experiences, and He invites us to use those gifts for the benefit of His people. When we do that, we may sacrifice, we may have bad days, we may experience some "rough goin'," as the song says...but we also find a certain fulfillment and joy we would not find otherwise. And that joy becomes contagious, spilling out of us to affect the people we meet.
As I live out this new adventure, I realize that more than ever I'm making my own kind of music. The circumstances of my life are rather different than I envisioned for myself, and rather different from most of my friends'. I have sacrificed some things that have been hard. Yet I am thriving, and exhilarated by the joy of doing what God called me to do. More than that, I think I am affecting others. When I decided to embrace this new adventure, I embraced a mission to model for young people, especially young women, how to live as a Catholic layperson in the world. My students' response to me indicates that I am fulfilling that mission. Just yesterday a young woman said to me, "I look at you, and I want to be like you." I have tremendous opportunities to impact others, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I want to help them make their own kind of music!
Pope John Paul said in his Letter to Artists, "All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece." As I make my own kind of music, I pray that with God's grace I am making a masterpiece. And I also pray that my life encourages others to make their own kind of music - not the cacophony of selfish individualism, but the symphony of a life wholeheartedly dedicated to God's call.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Weather Channel
The s-word has been spoken.
Saturday's forecast calls for temperatures in the low to mid-30s, and for rain mixed with snow. We'll see if it really happens, since weather here changes on a dime, but I can't believe it's not yet November 1 and we're already talking white stuff.
I absolutely love snow, probably since I grew up deprived of it in my otherwise beautiful Southern homeland. But this winter, for the first time, I will have to shovel the driveway. And that, my friends, is nothing I'm looking forward to. Particularly since the driveway is one car-width wide, with high retaining walls on either side, and uphill backing out. And I leave the house at 6:20am.
I wonder if my love affair with snow is about to end...
SATURDAY UPDATE: Huge, beautiful snowflakes were falling out of the sky when I woke up this morning, and continued until about 11am. It melted as soon as it hit the ground, and it will warm up to 40 degrees...but it bodes ill for the cost of my heat bills if this early snowfall is a portent of things to come.
Saturday's forecast calls for temperatures in the low to mid-30s, and for rain mixed with snow. We'll see if it really happens, since weather here changes on a dime, but I can't believe it's not yet November 1 and we're already talking white stuff.
I absolutely love snow, probably since I grew up deprived of it in my otherwise beautiful Southern homeland. But this winter, for the first time, I will have to shovel the driveway. And that, my friends, is nothing I'm looking forward to. Particularly since the driveway is one car-width wide, with high retaining walls on either side, and uphill backing out. And I leave the house at 6:20am.
I wonder if my love affair with snow is about to end...
SATURDAY UPDATE: Huge, beautiful snowflakes were falling out of the sky when I woke up this morning, and continued until about 11am. It melted as soon as it hit the ground, and it will warm up to 40 degrees...but it bodes ill for the cost of my heat bills if this early snowfall is a portent of things to come.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
JPII, we love you!
Today marks the first feast of Bl. John Paul II. While certain canonical norms limit the celebration of this feast until (and unless) he is canonized, I am most definitely celebrating his life and example in my heart. A brilliant man, lover of Christ and lover of us, he showed Christians how to live joyfully and courageously in a fallen world. He is one of my spiritual fathers and heroes. I consider myself truly blessed to have lived during his life and papacy.If you'd like to celebrate as well, here is a novena in thanksgiving for his life.
Novena in Thanksgiving for Blessed Pope John Paul II
Dear Papa, John Paul II - we still love you!
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