2014 Formation Day
Dozens of catechists filled the Assemblies Room at the Catholic Center in Evansville on Aug. 23 for the Office of Catechesis’ 2014 Formation Day.
Bishop Charles C. Thompson welcomed them – and keynote speaker Father Bob Hater from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati – and set the tone for the day during the opening prayer service.
“We are here to celebrate our participation in the great story of God,” he told the stand-room crowd. “Our primary focus is on the salvation of souls and the kingdom of God.
“God has given us a glimpse of our stories’ (of our lives) endings,” he added, “and He has assured us that we won’t be disappointed in the ending if we keep connected to the Word of God.”
Father Bob, an internationally known catechist, author and speaker, also focused on the concept of our lives’ stories.
“We find faith in the stories of our lives,” he said. “We find God in the little things of life.”
After defining evangelization as sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, Father Bob called it a process of fostering ongoing conversion in those we connect with.
“The New Evangelization is new via ardor, expression and method,” he noted. “We find that the secular world challenges us tremendously.” He noted that those who immerse themselves in secular interests are “de-evangelized” as a result.
His talk noted that a major reason catechists face so many challenges today is found in the fact that true evangelization is rooted in families – and families are being attacked from many sides.
He went on to suggest that to truly evangelize, all of us must connect with each other on personal levels. He told the story of buying a set of chairs at a farm auction for practically nothing. He soon learned that the farmer whose death had forced the farm auction built those chairs by hand in the latter days of the depression so that his then-new wife and he would have something to sit on.
As he left the auction, the man’s widow stopped and expressed her gratitude that he had gotten the chairs. “She told me about all the ways and all the years and all the stories of her life – and his – those chairs had been parts of,” Father Bob recalled.
“At first, those chairs had only secondary meaning for me,” he added. “I knew that I would have them for people to use when they visited. Then, I learned of the farmer building them, and they took on a primary meaning. That went even deeper after his widow approached me … to the core meaning of those chairs.
“The core of life is the same for every human being,” he added. “We must connect with each other at that core.”
However, that isn’t enough. Father Bob emphasized that, for the ongoing conversion to take place, our stories must connect with the Gospel. “My prayer for all of us,” he said, “is that we try to help others connect with their stories and with the message of the Gospel.”
The day concluded with a series of breakout sessions on a variety of topics related to catechesis and evangelization. Leaders included Father Bob, and priests, religious and laity of the diocese.
