Educating in Christ: A Practical Handbook for Developing the Catholic Faith from Childhood to Adolescence -- For Parents, Teachers, Catechists and School Administrators

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By its very nature, the Catholic school requires the presence and involvement of educators that are not only culturally and spiritually formed, but also intentionally directed at developing their community educational commitment in an authentic spirit of ecclesial communion. Unfortunately, Adam’s and Eve’s educational sequence took a wrong turn when they failed the test of just one prohibition, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (see Genesis 2:17). Notice this was a tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve desired what they would gain from this forbidden tree, and so they disobeyed God and ate. They received a kind of education, but not in the way of righteousness. Instead, Adam and Eve came to know sin, and God banished them from the garden-paradise of his presence.

If lived authentically and profoundly, the ecclesial dimension of the educational community of the Catholic school cannot be limited to a relationship with the local Christian community. Almost by natural extension, it tends to open onto the horizons of the universal Church. In this sense, the international dimension of many religious families offers consecrated persons the enrichment of communion with those who share the same mission in various parts of the world. At the same time, it offers a witness to the living strength of a charism that unites, over and above all, differences. The richness of this communion in the universal Church can and must be shared, for example, through regional or world level formational occasions and meetings. These should also involve lay persons (educators and parents) who, because of their state of life, share the educational mission of the relative charisms.Educating in Christ: A Practical Handbook for Developing the Catholic Faith from Childhood to Adolescence—For Parents, Teachers, Catechists and School Administrators - Gerard O'Shea (Hardcover) In many religious Institutes, sharing the educational mission with the laity has already existed for some time, having been born with the religious community present in the school. The development of “spiritual families”, of groups of “associated lay people” or other forms that permit the lay faithful to draw spiritual and apostolic fruitfulness from the original charism, appears as a positive element and one of great hope for the future of the Catholic educational mission. In other words, Israelite parents were to frequently teach their children the Word of God. His teachings were to be a regular part of life and passed down through the generations (Psalm 78:1–8). This includes practical teachings, as seen in the king’s instruction to his son in the book of Proverbs. “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), and such knowledge ought to lead him to be honest, hardworking, and faithful to his wife. For this reason, Catholic educators need «a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others», so that their educational commitment becomes «a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6)» [26]. In fact, even «care for instruction means loving» ( Wis 6:17). It is only in this way that they can make their teaching a school of faith, that is to say, a transmission of the Gospel, as required by the educational project of the Catholic school. Educating in Christ has come out of the substantial educational and research experience of the author. It offers guidance to parents and teachers on all of the significant areas of religious education: Scripture, Sacraments, moral formation, doctrine, and prayer.”

The Christian-inspired associations and groups that unite the parents of Catholic schools represent a further bridge between the educational community and the world that surrounds it. These associations and groups can strengthen the bond of reciprocity between school and society, maintaining the educational community open to the wider social community and, at the same time, creating an awareness in society and its institutions of the presence and action carried out by Catholic schools in the territory. The Holy Father, during the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect, approved this document and authorized its publication. This is a must have book for DREs, principals and all involved in faith formation of children. This book has a wealth of knowledge and insights. It offers a vision for catechesis essential for today."--William. God’s original plan was compromised by the sin that wounded all relations: between man and God, between man and man. However, God did not abandon man in solitude, and, in the fullness of time, sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as Saviour [11], so that man might find, in the Spirit, full communion with the Father. In its turn, communion with the Trinity rendered possible by the encounter with Christ, unites persons with one other.

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Did I dare disturb her grief or interrupt her sacred intercourse? Hesitating, I heard still more human sounds, further up the stairway. Far in the distance, thunder pealed. But closer by came whimpering. I could just about discern a small dog cowering beneath a night-stand. Educating in Christ has come out of the substantial educational and research experience of the author. It offers guidance to parents and teachers on all of the significant areas of religious education: Scripture, Sacraments, moral formation, doctrine, and prayer.” In fact, the daily dialogue and confrontation with lay and consecrated educators, who offer a joyful witness of their calling, will more easily direct a young person in formation to consider his or her life as a vocation, as a journey to be lived together, grasping the signs through which God leads to the fullness of existence. Similarly, it will make him or her understand how necessary it is to know how to listen, to interiorize values, to learn to assume commitments and make life choices.

The human being, as a person, is a unity of soul and body that is dynamically realized through its opening to a relation with others. A person is formed for being-with and for- others, which is realized in love. Now, it is precisely love that drives a person to gradually broaden the range of his or her relations beyond the sphere of private life and family affections, to assume the range of universality and to embrace – at least by desire – all mankind. This same drive also contains a strong formational requirement: the requirement to learn to read the interdependence of a world that is increasingly besieged by the same problems of a global nature, as a strong ethical sign for the people of our time; like a call to emerge from that vision of man that tends to see each one as an isolated individual. It is the requirement to form man as a person: a subject that in love builds his historical, cultural, spiritual and religious identity, placing it in dialogue with other persons, in a constant exchange of gifts offered and received. Within the context of globalization, people must be formed in such a way as to respect the identity, culture, history, religion and especially the suffering and needs of others, conscious that «we are all really responsible for all» [50].

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So the particular genius of this book is to offer practical illustrations of how such a mystagogical catechesis might form and inform the whole approach to R.E. Professor O’Shea recalls his ‘conversion’ to this approach when he was asked to speak – at no notice – to a group of eight-year-olds preparing for First Communion. Instead of lecturing them, Gerard greeted them and then wandered around the room laying out a model altar from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, some liturgical vessels and linens. Then he set up biblical dioramas of the Annunciation, Last Supper, Empty Tomb, and True Vine. He asked the children to have a good look at what he’d done, and work out what it was all about. After ten minutes’ investigation and pondering, he asked them what they’d discovered. He recounts that: While the content he suggests for his curricula is not identical - O'Shea's interest is more on general education than specifically creative arts - he provides an educational framework that is based upon the same philosophy of education and into which, in my opinion, the particular focus of the Way of Beauty could be inserted quite happily.