{"id":1482,"date":"2011-04-27T23:25:15","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T05:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2011-08-09T07:58:11","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T13:58:11","slug":"the-two-essential-elements-for-catechetical-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/27\/the-two-essential-elements-for-catechetical-success\/","title":{"rendered":"The Two Essential Elements for Catechetical Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you want to be a catechetical success, you need to know and love the Scriptures.<\/p>\n

In his Wednesday Audience<\/a> on March 23, 2011, Pope Benedict highlighted St. Lawrence of Brindisi,\u00a0a Capuchin friar ordained in 1582.<\/p>\n

He was brilliant!<\/p>\n

An extremely talented preacher, Lawrence engaged all types of \u00a0audiences from different levels of society.<\/p>\n

He had a great gift for languages.<\/p>\n

In addition to Italian, Latin and French, he was fluent in German, which helped him make inroads into Protestant Germany.<\/p>\n

But like many other Saints<\/a>, his greatest assets were an immense knowledge and love of the Bible<\/strong> (he\u00a0had it memorized!) and a deep life of prayer<\/strong>. He believed that God’s Word had the power to transform hearts.<\/p>\n

Knowledge and love and of the Bible<\/h2>\n

In his audience Benedict said, “Lawrence\u2019s success helps us to realize that today too…Sacred Scripture, interpreted in accordance with the Tradition of the Church, is an indispensable element of fundamental importance.”<\/p>\n

Lawrence believed in the power of the Bible to change hearts:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word of the Lord\u201d, he said, \u201cis a light for the mind and a fire for the will, so that man may know and love God. For the inner man, who lives through the living grace of God\u2019s Spirit, it is bread and water, but bread sweeter than honey and water better than wine or milk…. It is a weapon against a heart stubbornly entrenched in vice. It is a sword against the flesh, the world and the devil, to destroy every sin\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Pope commented that his love of Scripture was the underlying foundation of all of his activity.<\/p>\n

Deep life of prayer<\/h2>\n

Meditative prayer is a must<\/a> for handing on the Faith in a meaningful way<\/strong>. You need contact with God through prayer that is a conversation.<\/p>\n

Benedict quotes St. Lawrence:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, if we were to consider this reality!\u201d, he exclaimed. \u201cIn other words that God is truly present to us when we speak to him in prayer; that he truly listens to our prayers, even if we pray only with our hearts and minds. And that not only is he present and hears us, indeed he willingly and with the greatest of pleasure wishes to grant our requests\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The kind of prayer St. Lawrence is emphasizing here is lectio divina. Benedict\u00a0often writes about the benefits of lectio divina<\/a> for the lay faithful. I think there’s great benefits here for catechists as well.<\/p>\n

Check out this post for more on lectio divina:\u00a0God is Talking, Do You Know How to Listen?<\/a><\/p>\n

The source of catechetical success<\/h2>\n

The Pope ended referencing the source of St. Lawrence’s success:<\/p>\n

“St Lawrence of Brindisi teaches us to love Sacred Scripture, to increase in familiarity with it, to cultivate daily relations of friendship with the Lord in prayer, so that our every action, our every activity, may have its beginning and its fulfilment in him. This is the source from which to draw so that our Christian witness may be luminous and able to lead the people of our time to God<\/strong>.” (emphasize added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Catechetical Takeaway<\/h2>\n

Love of Scripture and the habit of deep prayer were\u00a0the underlying foundation<\/strong> of St. Lawrence’s success as a preacher and teacher of the Faith. These two elements filled his every action\u00a0with God’s love and made them powerful!<\/p>\n

This is actually a\u00a0common theme<\/a> in the\u00a0Catechetical Saints.<\/p>\n

So, why are you waiting to start praying\u00a0with Scripture and falling in love?<\/p>\n

Image: graur razvan ionut \/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Lawrence of Brindisi teaches us the two most important elements of catechetical success. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catechesis","category-evangelization-2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Two Essential Elements for Catechetical Success - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/27\/the-two-essential-elements-for-catechetical-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Two Essential Elements for Catechetical Success - 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