A week ago Friday something new started in our parish: it’s called Family-Based Catechesis.  It’s based on the principle that we hear in our Baptism ritual that parents are the “first and best teachers of their children in the ways of the faith.”  So a week ago Friday, eleven families, parents with their children, gathered in our cafeteria to begin this new experience.   We heard the Gospel and shared on it.  Did I forget to mention that we began with pizza?  We eventually broke into three groups: two groups of children and one group of parents.  We all worked on the theme of Discipleship: knowing Jesus Christ and making a commitment to Him.  Overall, it was a great two hours!  Parents seemed as enthusiastic as their children.

One of the things I addressed with the parents was ‘fear’.  Among many parents can be that unspoken sense of “I don’t know if I know how to do this.  I don’t know if I know enough to pass on faith to my children.”  As I shared with the parents: Faith is caught, not taught.   Yes, there is a brain part to this faith business.  But long before faith and religion were taught in classrooms, faith was passed on in the home (Pope John Paul II called the family the domestic church.)  This is where we are returning with these families: giving parents the opportunity to share their faith, their stories of God, with their children.  We suggested that on their way home from Mass, they could have the “car-ride-home chat”: what did you hear in the Gospel?  What did you hear in the homily?  What do you think that means? 

No one knows their children better than their parents.  We are going to help them overcome their fear that they don’t have what it takes to pass on our Catholic faith; that they are not holy enough to do this.  The truth is, all of us are learning and growing in our faith.  None of us has arrived.  We are all disciples on a journey to the Lord.

Fr. Andy Prachar