The Exuberance of Catechesis

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. (Psalm 89:15)

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. (Proverbs 20:7)

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

The little ones look to their parents and especially to their fathers for their identity, for their sense of wholeness and well-being. Careful catechesis is the sure sign of parental love, and the children rejoice to receive it from their parents and especially their daddies.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. (1 Corinthians 11:28)

Loving fathers, as the head of their house, make certain that all who are of his house are baptized into Christ’s Holy Communion as members of His body so that together they dwell in the house of the Lord and taste and see that the Lord is truly good as they feast upon Him in the meal of forgiveness and life.

(For those who don’t know, catechesis is instruction. The term has long been used in the Church for the lifelong teaching of the love of God in Christ, and especially in the early stages where the chief parts of the Apostolic Doctrine are taught.)