Priest holding a host with text from scripture

What’s New? Leadership Institute and more Catechetical Sunday Resources in various formats will be made available on an on-going basis. Additionally, the Catechist Prayer and Prayer for Catechists are new, and we are offering the images in Vietnamese in addition to English and Spanish.

These online resources are offered free of charge to all interested individuals. It continues to serve the needs of diocesan leaders. Many of the resources are also of interest to parish catechetical leaders and catechists, youth and young adults’ ministers, Catholic school principals and teachers, and other individuals who provide faith formation to diverse age groups and settings.

This year, the Church will celebrate Catechetical Sunday on September 20, 2020. The 2020 theme is I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you. Those who the Community has designated to serve as catechists will be called forth to be commissioned for their ministry. Catechetical Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the role that each person plays, by virtue of Baptism, in handing on the faith and being a witness to the Gospel. Catechetical Sunday is an opportunity for all to rededicate themselves to this mission as a community of faith.

September 20, 2020

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Green Vestments
Readings:IS 55:6-9/ PS 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18/ PHIL 1:20C-24, 27A/ CF. ACTS 16:14B/ MT 20:1-16A
Theme: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.

Purchase Resources

Catechesis of the Images

The Supper at Emmaus

This image of The Supper at Emmaus by the famed Spanish artist Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez(1622-23) depicts the moment after the Resurrection when Jesus is finally recognized by two disciples as "he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.”¹ This beautiful image invites us to enter into that moment as we, too, recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Velázquez explored the contrasts in reactions through gesture, and expression. With our hearts burning within, we remember this encounter with Christ as the substance of what we received from the Lord, and what we are called to hand on. Like the two disciples, our response as catechists will be unique on our own road back to Jerusalem as we proclaim the Good News and accompany those within our communities along their own road to encounter the Risen Lord.

Eucharist Image

The reality of Lumen Gentium’s description of the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian Life”² was felt deeply this last year as the COVID-19 pandemic limited the faithful’s ability to receive the Eucharist, sacramentally. However, the reality of the Eucharist cannot ever be limited. The Person of Jesus, alive today as He was on the road to Emmaus, remains in us as the source and summit of our lives. The unity of the living Body of Christ is eternal in Him. At those moments when we are unable to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, sacramentally, we are invited to fully enter into that spiritual hunger, to allow ourselves to fully embrace the desire for Christ; for the greater our desire for Him, the more we allow ourselves to be fulfilled and nourished by Him. We are called to deepen our own understanding of how and why we are called to be Eucharistic people, especially at times when we feel distant from Him and from others. We must remember that offering our lives in service to one another and uniting our daily sacrifices to the Eucharistic sacrifice, transforms us into living witnesses of the living God to others. Through our communion with Christ, through the Eucharist, we are nourished, strengthened, and prepared to pass on to others what we have received from the Lord.

1 NABRE Luke 22:19
2 Lumen Gentium no.11

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A Message from the Chairman

The 2020 Catechetical Sunday theme is taken from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “I Received from the Lord what I also Handed on to You.” This theme focuses on the essential work of catechesis, which is an invitation to a whole new life given by Christ Himself. It emphasizes that living faith necessitates movement, inspiring all those who hear the Word to share it as witnesses of the true and living God.

This year, we also invite everyone who is involved in the work of catechesis to consider earnestly the importance of catechist formation. Since catechists are the instruments through which many come to encounter Christ and hear this invitation, they have a unique role in keeping people connected to the life of the parish. The new Directory for Catechesis describes the following goal of catechist formation: “making catechists aware that as baptized persons they are true missionary disciples, meaning active participants in evangelization, and on this basis are enabled by the Church to communicate the Gospel and to accompany and educate believers in the faith” (DC 132). Therefore, catechists must first be accompanied by their pastors and catechetical leaders to encounter Christ, in order to facilitate encounters with Christ for others.

We have produced a variety of articles, videos, and podcasts exploring our baptismal call to be active participants in the evangelizing mission of the Church, as well as the unique role of catechesis in the whole process of evangelization. In our baptism, we received a living faith and, deepened by a true kerygmatic catechesis, this faith propels the missionary work of the Church. Since “all members of the community of believers in Jesus Christ participate in the Church’s catechetical mission” (NDC 217), our resources aim to support and inspire the faithful to live out their baptismal vocation.

This divine movement of faith, gratuitously given to us by Christ, flows generously from a personal and growing relationship with Him. Rooted in and nourished by our encounter with Christ in the Eucharist, this beautiful ministry of the Church’s catechetical and evangelizing mission helps to further actualize the Body of Christ in our world. May our lives be instruments of faith, which we have “received from the Lord [and…] handed on to you”!

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Bishop Robert Barron, Chairman
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops