My wife and I are raising kids, a large handful of them. Our commitment is to their faith formation. This commitment is renewed daily in the life of the family. I have seen what catechesis does, or can, look like for both young and older children.

Routinely, I challenge my kids to teach themselves about their faith by researching faith topics. I may mention a Marian apparition in Rwanda, for example, and intentionally use undefined terms, like ‘Marian apparition,’ and then tell them to “Google it” when they inevitably ask, “What is a Marian apparition?” When teaching, I don’t define terms, don’t give basic biographies, or explain the entire history, so they have to use Google to find that information. They see the information in seconds each time because they are digital natives.

Our kids benefit from the popular piety of the local ecclesial community. They have learned the rosary from that community, the cross stations, Eucharistic adoration, Church history, and theology.

Religious practices are an essential part of our lives. We display a nativity set, light an advent wreath, bring a Christmas tree inside the house, hang wreaths on doors, always go to Midnight Mass, celebrate every universal Feast Day with take-out, pray from the Book of Blessings on birthdays, gather nightly for prayer, remember baptismal birthdays, make lenten sacrifices, buy Easter dresses and suits, and saying Happy Easter! and Merry Christmas! throughout those seasons. All of that adds up to a particular style of religious socialization that prepares them “for the forms that come later and for the development of the Christian moral conscience. (DC 239)”

Their Catholic schools provide invaluable catechesis. The faith has many parts which are all connected. It is better to acquire it gradually, over many years, than sporadically and in large chunks. Their schools teach a religious curriculum daily. There is also an implicit curriculum expressed in the staff they hire, how the classrooms are decorated, and the school’s daily rituals.

Most importantly, they take the students to the Mass every week. The liturgy is “the privileged place for catechizing the People of God. (Catechism, 1074)”

Some children are being raised in families not following the precepts of the Church, not attending Catholic schools, and not being religiously socialized. The Church reminds us that the initiation of catechumens is a process that may be adapted for them and other children. The Rite of Christian for Adults describes it as a process of three steps and four periods:

1. The first step: reaching the point of initial conversion and wishing to become Christians, they are accepted as catechumens by the Church.

2. The second step: having progressed in faith and nearly completed the catechumenate, they are accepted into a more intense preparation for the sacraments of initiation.

3. The third step: having completed their spiritual preparation, they receive the sacraments of Christian initiation.

There are four continuous periods: the precatechumenate, the period for hearing the first preaching of the Gospel; the period of the catechumenate, set aside for a thorough catechesis and for the rites belonging to this period; the period of purification and enlightenment, designed for more intense spiritual preparation, which is assisted by the celebration of the scrutinies and presentations; and the period of post-baptismal catechesis or mystagogy, marked by the new experience of sacraments and community.