In last week’s bulletin, Fr. Stasys reminded us of the importance of all of us being present at Mass every week to support one another and to truly build our community of faith.  As important as worshiping together every week is, we must also seek to continue to grow in our faith, continuing to learn more about God and to build our relationship with God through prayer, reading, sharing and reflection.
From the day we are born until the day we leave this life, we are on a journey.  It is a journey of learning, growing, and developing into the person our loving God created us to be and developing all the gifts God has given us.  God sent Jesus into the world to walk with us and teach us how to live our lives.  To truly appreciate and understand all of this, we must continue throughout our lives to seek greater understanding of God through on-going and life-long faith formation.
This week we celebrate those who serve our parish as catechists, “people who facilitate the process of faith formation by echoing the word of God in their own lives and by helping others to do so.”  (Joe Paprocki)  Every “Christian” is a catechist in some way, as parent, sibling, co-worker, or friend.  And every Christian is also a “student,” continuing to be formed in the faith throughout our lives in community with one another.      
At our Masses this weekend we will call forward those who have accepted the official role as catechists for our children, youth, and adults to be commissioned and blessed for their ministry.   Called to share their faith and their experience of God, catechists take the people they work with on a faith journey and walk with them along the pathway to a closer relationship with God.  By sharing with others, they, also, grow in their faith.  All of us are called to be a catechist to someone by virtue of our Baptism:  to hand on the faith and be a witness to the Gospel to the people we encounter, especially the friends and family around us.  This weekend is a chance for us to rededicate ourselves to this mission as a community of faith.
As we thank our catechists for their commitment, let us acknowledge our own need to continue forming ourselves in the faith, remembering the words of St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in [God].”
                                          Susan Lee Olsen, Director of Catechetical Ministry