Norma Stokes, director of religious education at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Spartanburg, spoke to her peers at the event held in September at St. Mary Church in Greenville. She explained that some children are just beginning their faith walk. It is crucial for catechists to inspire them, to give them a bounce in their step as they begin their journey to and with the Lord.

“Use Gospel stories as a jumping off point,” she said. “We have to bring … that Gospel to life.”

Stokes noted that kindergartners and first-graders are not going to sit still, listening to a Bible lecture. They are going to be wriggly, so educators have to make it fun for them, talk to them about Bible stories, and then get them active with a craft that focuses on that story or lesson.

“I was a pre-K and kindergarten teacher for 16 years,” Stokes said, noting that these children, and those in grades four through eight, are filled with joy and hope.

She encouraged catechists to build on that joy and hope.

Pilgrims of hope

“We are pilgrims of hope,” said Dr. Michael Martocchio, keynote speaker. He is the director of the Office of Catechesis and Christian Initiation for the Diocese of Charleston.

“It’s about bringing people … into an intimate relationship with Christ,” he said.

Stokes added, “We are taking that theme for the year. Be a pilgrim of hope for the children,” and meet them with energy in class. “When you walk in that classroom, you have got to be alive. You have got to be effervescent and bubbly,” she said. She told the catechists to show each child how much they care about them.

“They have to feel … like you feel they are important. They have to feel like they are the most important child in that class,” she said. 

And they are. Religious educators send children out on a mission and let them evangelize.

An excellent way to proclaim this faith, Martocchio said, is with a message from Pope Francis:

“Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life for you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”

Knowledge, love, service

Father Will Frei, parochial vicar of St. Mary, spoke on confirmation, its outward signs and effects and about the minister and recipient of the sacrament.

“The spiritual equation, if you will — i.e., knowledge plus love equals service — applies to student and teacher alike,” he noted.

The priest said that as our knowledge of God grows, so does our love for him; and as our love grows, our desire to serve God does too.

He added that, “As our catechists grow in knowledge of God … so too does their desire to teach others about him, faithfully and well.”

Pray, promote, prepare

Martocchio said we can’t build a loving relationship with the Lord unless we pray.

“We’re not just having a conversation about God. It is about having a conversation with God,” and we are always invited into that relationship.

Stokes told the catechists that the key is to rely on the Lord, because their “ministry is so vital and so important to the Church. You really keep this whole thing running.”

Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary, said that “helping young Catholics understand the act of faith as a free reply to the gift of God’s grace promotes their interior freedom.” 

It also promotes “the responsibility they each bear for being faithful students of the eternal Word made flesh: the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It’s a message catechists must hear again and again, and one of those ways is through prayer. 

“It is important that we think about praying as we prepare,” Martocchio said. “In catechesis, it is Christ himself who speaks. It should give us confidence.”