The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

We talk about it with little kid catechesis all the time.

If people are familiar with Montessori, with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, knowledge comes through the senses.

We need to touch, we need to experience.

And so it's the same thing for adults.

So what is she trying to teach us? Like how do we inhabit this liturgical season? Like we're in ordinary time.

And I love that the ordinary time, like you learn in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, anyone that teaches it, they do such a great job of teaching you the liturgical colors.

And green means ordinary time, but green means growing.

That's what they teach you in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

And ordinary time is the longest season that we will spend our time in the liturgical calendar, but it is green and that means we are growing and it is showing us how to come to life.

But then it's also for us, This isn't something more like, oh my gosh, do I need to celebrate more feast days? It's not something to do.

I'm Anne Marie Cox.

Level one catechist formation for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd starts next weekend.

If you want to learn a Montessori method of sharing our faith with children ages three to 12, contact either St. Pius X Parish in Urbandale or St. Boniface in Waukee to sign up.

Our diocese has been blessed with a visit of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Divine Spirit.

Maria Montessori was brilliant.

Sofia Cavalletti, who came up with the Catechism of the Good Shepherd, brilliant.

Giussani, I think, brilliant.

They're not incompatible with each other, but they're part of the church, the same way the lay ecclesial movements in the church are the different religious orders.

First Witnesses, which accompanies parents from baptism to First Communion.

And then we got a second grant for Children in Worship, which is funding all of the 10 right now atriums in the diocese for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and all of the training that we're doing, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which is faith formation in a Montessori-based model from three years old to 13 years old.

So the focus of this for Bishop Frank Teaches of Faith, the focus is preschool.

Now, what's interesting is we've gotten emails and calls just over the weekend saying, my junior high love it.

But there were many things that were going on at my parish related to kids, sacraments, this co-op, timing, evenings, driving into town.

And at the end of it, I really decided not to teach Catechesis of the Good Shepherd this year.

to not be an atrium teacher.

And so for those of you that have a parish, you know what that program is.

Yeah.

So Anne Garrido is an associate professor of homiletics at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, where she founded the school's master's program in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and now serves as the grant director for the Aquinas Children's Worship project, and has spent more than 25 years teaching pastoral theology, homiletics, and catechetics while serving in a variety of leadership roles.

Yeah, she's very well qualified.

Um, before we get to the rest of her story, I wanna say she's also the award-winning author of several books, including Redeeming Administration, Redeeming Conflict, and her latest work, Redeeming Power.

Our pleasure.

You have spent more than 25 years, I think, teaching pastoral theology, homiletics, and catechetics while serving in a variety of different leadership roles.

You've worked with Dominicans, Jesuits, thank you very much, and also with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

Where did this life of teaching, preaching, and ministry begin for you?