Hi All. It's Bryan, your friendly neighborhood YAM-NW Co-Chair. Welcome to the first (hopefully of many) Catechist Corner! Before I begin, just to note: Catechist Corner isn't just a place where I (and possibly others) will be teaching different aspects of catechism - at least not solely. The purpose of Catechist Corner is to spotlight different aspects of the Catechist experience and give a glimpse into why I (and others) are called to and truly enjoy this ministry. 

First, some background about me as a catechist. As some may know, I have been a catechist for Jr. High students/Confirmation prep for about 10 years. In fact, teaching catechism is one of my favorite ministries. As a highschooler, I was an aide and have loved it ever since. When I returned from college, one of the first things I did was go to my parish and volunteer to teach. After 1 year as an aide (to get my "class legs" so to speak), I was given my own class to teach, and have been doing so ever since.

One of the things that draws me to teaching catechism is that it is a chance to make a real impact in the faith formation of these students. I love being able to share my faith and be a witness to these Jr. High students. To me, there is nothing better than seeing a student who really doesn't want to be there have a conversion experience where suddenly some part of the faith speaks to him/her, and they start putting in the effort to really get in touch with their faith. Each conversion is unique and has different parts, but there is one constant, that God finally broke through. For me, getting to play a (small) role in that is so incredibly rewarding.

Connected to being able to share the faith, another reason I enjoy being a catechist is the relationships I have with my students. With some of my former students, my relationships have evolved from teacher-student to mentor-mentee. Even today, there are some students from my very first class (and subsequent classes) that I still keep in touch with. To me, it has been such a privilege and joy to see them grow into who they are, especially since I know how they began in 7th or 8th grade.

This brings me to my quick story about #CatechistLife. For the last 9 years, I had been teaching in the Jr. High program at St. Hubert. After getting married, my wife and I settled in at St. Theresa. After becoming parishioners, the first thing I did was sign up to be a catechist. It was a new adventure for me, as the two programs had their different aspects. One of the biggest changes for me was that I didn't have my team with me for the first time in 9 years. At St. Hubert, I had high schoolers (almost all of them previous students of mine) assist me in my class as aides. They would co-teach with me in the classroom and I found them to be amazing presences - the way the students connected with them was so incredibly helpful.

Since it was my first year at St. Theresa, I didn't have any former students to ask to be my co-teacher. In fact, I wasn't even sure that such a thing existed in St. Theresa's program! This definitely was a different challenge for me, having to go solo. Never let it be said, though, that I shrink away from a challenge. There have been some rough patches, but overall the experience has been rewarding as getting to know each of my students and being able to help mold them never gets old. However, there was still a small part of me still missed having my team and the dynamics that introduced to the class.

Which brings me to about three weeks ago, when I was at the Schaumburg Library and ran into one of my former aides from last year. She mentioned how she and another one of my aides missed how last year's classes were. Jokingly, I invited them to come visit my current class. I couldn't believe how serious the both of them were when they asked me for a date and time. They are now scheduled to come to my last class for the year. Awesome right?

To me, this crystalizes just how powerful the catechism classroom is. As catechists, we are called to witness and teach the faith to our students. Sometimes, those students don't care or don't want to be there. However, our job is to try to reach them anyways. We can't just choose to interact with only the students we like, or the students we get along with, or the students we think will actually get something out of the class; we have to try to reach each one of them. I have found that the best way is to be genuine and real about my faith. Believe it or not, students know when their catechist is pretending that their faith journey is perfect or that their catechist gets it all. Students appreciate it when they see their catechist as a real person, which allows for relationships to grow and develop. From there, God can enter into that relationship and do some wonderful things.

In life, as in catechism, we are called to be real and genuine with the people around us. No one likes having fake people around them. Through our realness, we can be a witness to others and create those relationships. And as in class, when we have real relationships, that's where God can enter and do some wonderful things.

Class dismissed for the week! =)