As the culture around us focuses on resolutions for the New Year, let us pause to consider ways we can make a mid-year “fresh start” in our catechetical ministry. The work of a catechetical leader is never done. (In fact, I’ve heard some people joke that DRE stands for “directly responsible for everything!) Starting new initiatives are difficult in the fall when catechetical leaders are busy with so many beginning of the year details. Consider doing something different, beginning in January. Here are a few suggestions:

 

1.     Engage your parish staff in a weekly prayer meeting or a study series. This might be a good time to plan for a staff study of a book during the weeks of Lent. Or perhaps you could agree to meet at 3 pm every Friday to recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

2.     Plan a new gathering for families in the coming calendar year. Perhaps this could be a one-time event around your parish patron saint’s feast day or on another occasion in the Church calendar. Or perhaps you could host a potluck of religious education families.

3.     Reflect on one way you could “dive deeper” in your own faith life. We cannot share with others what we do not have. How can you grow in this new year in your own faith life – perhaps through reading a good book, taking a theology class, or spending more time in prayer?

 

Don’t try to tackle everything at once, but use this new year to do just one thing that’s different. A fresh start can give us new results and a renewed spirit!