RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION

REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION RESOURCE:


Resources: Catechist’s Guide

Title: Confirmed in a faithful Community: A Senior High Confirmation Process

Printing Date: Winona: St. Mary’s Press, 2006, Third Edition.

Authors: Therese Brown et al.

Reviewed by: William, March 15, 2009



The Confirmed in a Faithful Community for a Senior High Confirmation Process is effective Guide Manual which the senior high students preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation will appropriately find fascinating, engaging, and fun to enjoy.
This Catechist’s Guide follows the themes, readings, and list of activities in corresponding Candidates’ Handbook, Catholic Catechism, and Scriptural Readings. Its design envisions flexibility allowing parish components like orientation, parent and sponsors meeting, announcement, to be incorporated. The idea is to offer individual candidates an opportunity to enter into faith journey through personal discernment and reflection of thoughts and doubts of faith, curiosity to come and see if they are ready to be prepared for the Sacrament of confirmation.

The students’ handbook and Guide emphasize faith lived in baptismal promises and the Eucharistic nourishment as being witnessed in a faith community celebration. The Guide wants the Confirmation candidates and the religious education process to see the connection of Confirmation Sacrament together with the baptism they received and the Eucharist frequently received as part of Sacrament of Initiation.

It is encouraging to note the intention of the authors on the role played by the Christian community. As the Confirmation process begins already the entire faith community opens up themselves as the supportive resource, witnesses, and stewards of candidates for sacramental preparation.

The whole resource book divides the entire preparation process program into four parts with different sessions for each part. The youth ministry leaders and religious educators are companions of the candidates on their faith journey. They offer guidance and help for the students to discover the gifts of the Holy Spirit working within the sacrament as well as encouraging them to face the challenge of practicing baptismal and Eucharistic love and discipleship for service, mission for human welfare, and heralds of Good News.

The first part of the division is the invitation to personal uniqueness. The sessions help the youth to deal with promise and pain; find their identity, faith, trusting in God and be a community of disciples in an active church. This is the foundation and basis of self knowledge in order to know God.

Personal Formation is the second part and sessions are centered on God, his kingdom, personality and mission of Jesus, death and resurrection, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Any body reading the handbook and following the Catechist’s Guide will find its programs very welcoming and self motivating. In the third part, the candidates are to concentrate on period of reflection where the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit is inter twined with sessions of prayer, Christian morality, service and social action and justice, in depth look at each of the Sacraments of Initiation, and Rite of celebrating Confirmation.

After going through periods of invitation, Formation, Reflection, the program concludes with Period of Mission in the fourth part. It has only one session on Life after Confirmation. The Mother Church shall entrust and commission her newly confirmed children into the mission in the Spirit of Jesus.

This is a very interesting and fun-oriented religious education resource. The authors were influenced and guided by the church’s old metaphor of a farmer who first prepares the ground, then tills the ground, plants the seeds, weeds them, continues to water and prunes the seeds till they produce abundant fruits.

I highly recommend this resource to any youth ministers and religious educators who want to help young people in the faith journey and mission.