Catechist and Co-Catechist gathered together for a workshop Saturday, August 13, 2022 in the gym and enjoy special guest speaker Auxiliary Bishop Gary Janek and his encouraging words to our catechist. We were also blessed with the unexpected presence of our Archbishop Gustavo and support of our pastor Father Dennis and the presence of one our deacons. The clergy supports and prays for us, let us do the same, support and pray for them and their religious vocations. We pray that maybe one of our students is called and they are inspired to answer God’s call to the priesthood or religious life.


The following are main points by Bishop Gary’s Keynote presentation:
• Bishop Gary loved our theme for our session, Souls on Fire!
• As catechist, you are important to the Church! You are important to the lives of young children. You play a vital role.
• Teach the faith, teach the Gospel (Good News) according to Christ, not according to “you”!
• Teach with love, like Jesus did, with your heart.
• Teaching consists more than just presenting course material.
• People did not come to Jesus as much as Jesus came to the people.
• Be a WITNESS, be a witness with conviction and others will follow!
• The risen Savior Jesus Christ loves you, loves us, loves His Church!
• Young children are under tremendous pressures and challenges from society, so be there. Your presence teaches them that you care! Teach them how much more the Church care for them.

• According to survey, the sadness and hopelessness of youth, of our children has risen from 46.6% last year to 56.6 %. More than half of our children are sad and depress.
• Children for the first time are afraid to go to school due to the recent occurrence in Uvalde. When he (Bishop Gay) was young, he loved going to school, he felt safe and secure. His parents would drop him off at school in the morning and would pick him up until late in the afternoon. Now our schools have implemented safety security measures, high fences and metal detectors in our high schools. Those “safety measures” have a psychological effect on our children, which reflects their spirituality.
• Being a Catechist is not easy work, it takes persistence; “the persistency of love.”
• The fruits of your love as catechist are not immediately evident. Unlike a spiritual retreat that you can get instant results, being a catechist takes persistency, week by week. To all children in our care, especially to the difficult ones, the indifferent ones, the ones in the back of the room.
• Yes, you make a difference-continue to “Show Up!” Showing up means that you care.
• Yes, there will be difficulties and it will not be easy, but more the reason that being a catechist requires Prayer!
• Pray everyday - let your day be a prayer.
• Most important, have a strong devotion to the Holy Eucharist –
the source and summit of our faith!