Mini faith lessons to appear regularly in Globe

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
April 19, 2007

Faith formation is a lifelong process and with that in mind the new director of catechesis and evangelization for the Diocese of Sioux City has developed some mini-lessons centered on the teachings of the Catholic Church.

"With this idea, I'm trying to give people talking points for themselves from the Catechism. It's a way of bringing them into the heavier document that they may have not tackled," noted Mark Thomason.

The plan is to feature these short lessons from the Catechism on a regular basis - usually weekly - in The Globe. (See the box below this article. That's an example of the material to appear consistently in this diocesan paper.)

"They are starting at the top with the Catholic Church, the Mass and the Eucharist," noted Thomason, who added that these themes are practically inexhaustible. "You could do a whole year on just the Mass. These are huge topics and because of their size, sometimes they are daunting."

He called these little tidbits of information appetizers. The idea is to get people - especially adults - hungry for more information about their faith. Being an artist, he has hopes that people will not only find them informational but visually appealing.

"I would like for these to reinforce what people already know in their hearts," said Thomason. "When we read theology, sacred Scripture or the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it's explaining what we already know within us."

Through these mini-lessons, he sees this as a way to help people expand their knowledge of the Catholic faith and it may possibly help them learn how to verbalize church teachings.

"It's very much an empowerment tool," said Thomason.

After they get little bits of information, from there he hopes people will go to the Catechism and the Bible to explore more about a particular topic.

While Thomason hopes that adults find value in these brief lessons, they may certainly be of value to children. These little morsels of faith knowledge can provide a starting point for faith discussions within families.

He referred to the following Scripture verse - Mt 13:44-46 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."

Once people start reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Bible, he hopes that it not only becomes interesting for them but that they can't get enough of it. He acknowledged that people are very smart when they take the time to study up on subjects in which they find interesting.

"Hopefully this will help peak interest so that people get to know their faith better and revisit something that they have lived in their own lives," said Thomason. "God himself is a lover that never gets boring. We can never know him enough. We can never love him enough. We can never serve him enough."

He mentioned that he couldn't imagine any household being without a copy of the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"It's essential that Catholics know their faith," said Thomason. "We are a church of mission. Our big goal is to spread the Gospel and we need to know what we are talking about. I am trying to empower people to be evangelists."

When people have a deeper knowledge of the faith, then going to Mass, living a moral life and trying to be a saint takes on greater meaning.