Essential Tools for Catechists Archives

I used to bring the Catechism of the Catholic Church to the first day of class, hold it up and announce to my students that this book, all 900+ pages, contains everything that we, as Catholics, believe. After reassuring the class that we would not be reading the book, I would then share with them the Table of Contents. I showed them that the Catechism is organized into four main parts, which are the pillars of the faith, the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments, and Prayer, which would be the focus of our studies. And that was pretty much the full extent of our use of the Catechism in the classroom. But, all that changed a few years ago when I stumbled across the YOUCAT, which presents the compendium of our faith to today’s youth, in a language and style that is understandable and above all, engaging.

I have found the YOUCAT invaluable, not only as resource material during my lesson preparation but to share directly with my students. The book is written in a Q&A style, like the old Baltimore Catechism, with additional commentary. Perhaps what I like best about the YOUCAT can be found in the margins, which are filled with relevant Scripture passages, definitions, and inspirational quotes from the saints and religious leaders.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote the foreword, and I think he sums up quite eloquently why this book is so important for young Catholics:

“You need to know what you believe. You need to know your faith with that same precision with which an IT specialist knows the inner workings of a computer. You need to understand it like a good musician knows the piece he is playing. Yes, you need to be more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation of your parents so that you can engage the challenges and temptations of this time with strength and determination.” – Pope Benedict XVI

As catechists, we want to take every opportunity we can to introduce scripture into our classrooms. We use the New American Bible – Revised Edition (NABRE), which of course corresponds to the text that the children hear in Mass. But, there are other texts which are perfectly acceptable to use. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops provides a listing of all approved Bible texts that Catholics can use for their personal study. That being said, I like to tell my students, that the version of the Bible they should use – is the one that they will read!

In all seriousness though, many students simply are not comfortable reading the Bible for a number of reasons – everything from words they can’t pronounce, to places they’ve never heard of, to feeling that the Bible is out of touch with what is happening in their lives 2000 years later. In a future post I’ll go into more detail on ways to make the Bible more approachable for your students, but one place that I like to go for ideas of how to connect Scriptures to our youth is The Catholic Youth Bible by Saint Mary’s Press. I confess that I have an older edition (from 2000) that I use, so it may be time to upgrade to the latest edition. The good news (pun intended) is that Amazon sells used books and I found a listing for the current edition in “like new” condition for less than $5 -Sold!

Essential Tools – YOUCAT

Essential Tools – Youth Bible