It takes a whole village to raise a child…

In the absence of a faith environment where the child may live, of which he feels himself a part and in which he feels himself almost held, we risk cultivating hothouse flowers in the atrium, which are incapable of enduring the severity of the external climate. On the other hand, without a place where the child can come in touch with the religious reality in a way and at a pace suitable to children, there is the danger the child will pass by great things without ever being able to grasp, interiorize, and make these realities his own. The initiation of a child into Christian life is not a work that can be fulfilled by the catechist alone, nor by the parents alone. It is the whole Christian community that proclaims Christ, and the child must enter into contact with the entire Christian community. The catechist’s work, valuable as it is, must be sustained and confirmed by a community that lives what the catechist proclaims.

Cavalletti, Sofia: The Religious Potential of the Child, I, p. 60.

Surprise, Surprise, God is a surprise!

Adults who enter into the formation courses for “Good Shepherd” are in for a surprise.  The characteristics of the religious experience of the child are ones that we are personally called to embrace as we enter into “listening to God with the child.”  Wonder, openness, the pure desire to know and to love and to be known and to be loved, the capacity to receive… We hear the Good Shepherd calling each of us by name: open up our eyes and SEE!  Listen with the ears God has given, and open wide the heart to His love…
Let us share some of our surprises…

• Sofia Cavalletti, in her introduction to the first English edition of the Religious Potential of the Child, wrote that this work might more properly be named ‘evangelization.’  A bishop in Chihuahua, Mexico called it the “Catechesis of the Good Shepherd” and so it is!  Because it is systematic and unfolds in what we call a ‘spiral curriculum’ in service to the mystery of God and the growing child, we can call it ‘catechesis.’  Because it is an encounter with the living Christ, it is evangelization.  So, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (by the Good Shepherd!) is an evangelizing catechesis, or a catechesis which evangelizes.  A Missionary of Charity having just finished her Level I formation course  said, “This is evangelization! This is catechesis! This is spirituality! And it’s for big people, too!"

• The doctrinal content of the presentations has as its primary sources the Bible and the Liturgy; and for secondary sources, the body of CGS writings, particularly those of Sofia Cavalletti.  All of the presentations can be easily referenced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

• The Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa’s community) have discovered that formation in the Catechesis is a gift both for their own formation and for the fulfillment of the charism entrusted to them through Mother Theresa: to bring the light of Jesus through their catechetical work to the poorest of the poor children. 

• The contemplative nature of the child and of these Sisters is nurtured by the atrium way.  One sister said, “We have to live the atrium.” While absentmindedly preparing the cruets for Mass that day, one sister began to pay attention to the work her hands were doing and was astonished as the idea came into her mind that this wine and water would become the sacred blood of Jesus.  She was living the atrium, living the present moment and the work of her hands…the Inner Teacher was able to speak. This is our hope for the children, too. As Mother Theresa taught, “We have to pray the work.”

• Local area catechists and parents of CGS children have found a way to expand our sense of mission in solidarity with the work of the C’s:
  
  
  • Some of us have assisted with CGS for children in the MC house in Norristown. One of us has helped do informal formation with the Sisters in Chester.
    
    
  • A handful of MC’s and one A.S.C.J. Sister joined the Level II formation course offered in NJ (hosted by Tara and the parish of the Assumption in Morristown).  This really gave us an added missionary flavor to this missionary work!
    
    
  • Four MC’s on mission to four countries came to Norristown last spring for a special formation course. Betsy and Barbara worked together on that. Many area catechists and parents helped to give materials, books and binders to those sisters as well as to the formation course for the Russian Region. While preparing to leave for the Part II of that course in July, Betsy received a call from the MC in Haiti who had participated in the Level I course in Norristown.  She had become the regional superior of the Haiti Region just days before the earthquake.  At the time of her phone call, the MC’s in Port-au-Prince were in the process of rebuilding their atrium and Sister asked Betsy to put them on the calendar for a regional training next July!
    
    
  • Barbara has worked with the sisters in Chester in ‘informal’ formation sessions and Betsy and Clare, especially, have assisted with the children’s catechesis in the Norristown MC atrium.
    
    
  • This spring Betsy was called to bring the formation course to 25 MC’s in the Russian Region, who met for Part I in April and will meet for Part II in July. Betsy will be joined in July by Celine, a formation leader from the Pittsburgh Diocese, and has been supported in the preparation especially by Anna, a formation leader and Montessorian, with long standing roots in the history and the mystery of CGS, from the Greensburg, PA, diocese.
    
    
  • Having a national association and the informal networking in the Philadelphia area, along with the help of the Holy Spirit, allows for this kind of mutual assistance to emerge. 

• ANYONE is welcome to come to a formation course that is drawn there by the mystery they live.  While becoming a Catechist for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd includes completing the work of the Formation Course it also, of course, is dependent upon one's own personal call and the discernment of the pastor and others in their parish or faith community.

• Catechists and formation leaders are certified according to standards set by the National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  The National Association works with the International Consiglio in Rome, Italy.  It is the work of the Consiglio to establish guidelines for the courses and to guard the integrity of the content and the method of what is called “the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.”

• On a national and our local  level, and in some other countries as well, the CGS has been embraced and adapted to different Christian denominations by catechists who have heard the Good Shepherd’s call to enter into the mystery of God and the child. Support for one another’s work, awe at the mystery of the love of God and the child, and gratitude for this work that ‘comes from Rome’ are characteristics of these friendships.

• Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in Context:   Sofia Cavalletti encourages catechists to see ourselves in a holy triangle, serving the mystery of God and the child with both the parish and the family.   Sofia reminds us all that the Church has been around for 2000 years and has endured without the gift of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd—but surely not without the ongoing mystery of the love of God and the child!  It is our experience that the gift of “Good Shepherd” is one that answers to the cry of the little ones and the need of the church for the ‘new evangelization.’  It is for big people who want to ‘turn and become like a child,’ and for children in whom God can reveal the greatness of His love.  Truly, we are amazed.