The Catechetical Institute views parenting as the critical catechetical role in the Church. Our desire is to help families in our challenging modern culture see God’s plan for the domestic church and the school of holiness it creates as the decisive element in bringing about a culture of life. The workshops in this track are not intended to result in any certification but instead aim at a far more fundamental end: forming adults who know how to live a missionary life in marriage and judge nothing in life as great as the work of parenting toward sainthood and striving for spousal sanctity. To foster this, a great variety of pragmatic and imaginative workshops are offered by the Catechetical Institute as electives in every track and collected together in this track.

The purpose of this three-part series of workshops is to help those working in diocesan pro-life or family life offices, as well as parish coordinators, health care workers, and employees or volunteers serving pro-life apostolates (i.e. crisis pregnancy centers, legal advocacy groups, and post-abortion healing ministries).

The demanding skill set needed for effective pro-life ministry draws from fields as diverse as health care, politics, formal theology, bioethics, counseling, sociology, catechetics, law, life sciences, and policy history. This track address all these and more, delving into related aspects of fostering a culture of life: the nature of human liberty in Catholic social teaching, the feminine genius, the masculine genius, evolution, environmental stewardship, service to the poor, outreach to those addicted, depressed, or those discarded by society, and the critical importance of prayer and spiritual combat to oppose the pervasive culture of death.

In this time of unprecedented challenge, this brief and very doable set of workshops can help parents who won’t be able to send their children back to parish-based or school programs in the normal way. It is intended to help parents attune to a more home-focused formation during the coming months at least, if not longer. There is also a couple of workshops for parish leaders trying to find creative ways to help families during this time.

But only say the word and my soul shall be healed…

Called to Him. Kept in Him. Made new in Him. God’s generosity and His Fatherly love is most fully manifest in His Son’s incarnation in ancient Israel and His continuing presence in the Blessed Sacrament upon every altar. Our lives flow from the Eucharist and lead back to the Eucharist, so that we may be filled with God’s life, sent into the world to proclaim the Good News, and be strengthened and invigorated for a life lived for others.  This pragmatic and deeply inspiring set of workshops addresses three critical aspects of the Eucharistic renewal so needed today:

• How to see God’s gift of the Eucharist, rooted in knowing Jesus personally and loving the sacred liturgy.
• How to be formed for a Eucharistic life of intimate devotion and radical trust.
• How to give the saving truths of the Eucharist to others effectively in the home, the classroom, and in any relationship.

It is our privilege to pass on this magnificent inheritance of faith to the next generation, echoing the action of faithful disciples from the centuries before us. This track is designed to help you, whether you are a priest, parent, parish catechetical leader, catechist, teacher, youth minister, or parishioner, to better understand the Eucharist and its matchless importance in God’s plan for humanity.