Teaching for Discipleship
Mike Carotta, EdD
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
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Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur
✠ Kevin C. Rhoades
Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend
March 13, 2015
The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book is free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.
Excerpts from National Directory for Catechesis © 2005 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the permission in writing from the copyright holder.
Excerpts from the General Directory for Catechesis, Congregation for the Clergy. © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The English translation of Nicene Creed from The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2015 by Mike Carotta. Published 2015.
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Table of Contents
Part 4: Teaching Informally and Keeping Heart
Introduction
After a life in this work, the Church’s call to teach for discipleship has made me more excited than ever before, and it is exactly what is needed at this time.
This book addresses several questions:
What is the Church’s catechetical call to us and why does it make sense?
What are the challenges contained in this catechetical call?
How is it different than our past approaches?
What are some key characteristics of teaching for discipleship?
How might we sustain our ministerial commitment?
We carry the weight of the Church’s catechetical hopes on our backs and in our hearts. It is good and noble work. I so hope that you find this book helpful and worth the read.
Our passion for this ministry sometimes fuels professional arguments about the correct way to approach catechetics. Critical reflection on our work is a good, constructive, and necessary thing. But sometimes … not so much.
Working on her doctoral research several years ago, my wife, Cathy, showed me something the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Rumi wrote:
Out beyond right doing and wrong doing
there is a field.
I will meet you there.
I tried to write this book from that place.
Part 1
The Call
Three major documents of the Church point to forming disciples as one of the principle goals for catechesis and evangelization — the National Directory for Catechesis (NDC), the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC), and Renewing the Vision (RTV).
The U.S. bishops tell us:
Jesus formed disciples by making known to them the various dimensions of the Kingdom of God. He entrusted to them “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 13:11); he taught them how to pray (Cf. Lk 11:2)…. The fundamental task of catechesis is to achieve the same objective: the formation of disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus instructed his disciples, he prayed with them, he showed them how to live, and he gave them his mission. (NDC, 20)
The Vatican tells us:
Faith is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, making of oneself a disciple of him. This demands a permanent commitment to think like him, to judge like him, and to live as he lived (Cf. CT, 20b). In this way, the believer unites himself to the community of disciples and appropriates the faith of the Church (Cf. CCC, 166-167). (GDC, 53)
And:
The disciple of Jesus Christ deeply shares the “joys and hopes, the sadness and the anxieties of the men today” (GS, 1). He gazes upon human history and participates in it, not only from the standpoint of reason but also from that of faith. (GDC, 16)
And the U.S. bishops’ Office of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth states:
All ministry with adolescents must be directed toward presenting young people with the Good News of Jesus Christ and inviting and challenging them to become his disciples….
We need to provide concrete ways by which the demands, excitement, and adventure of being a disciple of Jesus Christ can be personally experienced by adolescents — where they tax and test their resources and where they stretch their present capacities and skills to the limits. Young people need to have a true opportunity for exploring what discipleship ultimately involves. (RTV, Part Two)
Regardless of what age group you work with, this book offers some thoughts on the call, the challenge, and the differences found in teaching for discipleship.
But what is a disciple?