Congratulations on your choice! When you choose to become a catechist, you take what may ultimately be the most important and rewarding step in your life. You have answered God’s call, the call you first heard at your baptism.
This calling to the ministry of catechist is a vocation. That call is the voice of the Holy Spirit. (NDC, 228) The word catechist comes from a Greek root word that means “to echo.” Through your life and your teaching as a catechist you are a person who echoes the Word of God.
Being a catechist includes a desire and effort to share one's time and talent in catechizing others, as well as commitment to one's own continued growth in faith, focusing one's energies through understanding and the enhancing of catechetical skills. Catechist Formation helps to bring catechists to a unified vision of Sacred Scripture, Catholic doctrine, spiritual and moral development, prayer, and service.
Catechesis has four aims:
*To proclaim the Christian message *To prepare for prayer and worship *To build community*To motivate for Christian living and service.
In order to achieve these ends, catechesis involves an essential collaboration with the Catholic Christian family, the parish community, and with catechists who serve at all levels of the ministry. Since catechesis is about faith-sharing, it is a people intensive ministry. It requires faith-filled, skilled and knowledgeable people who are striving to grow in faith themselves and who desire to share that faith with others. The people who serve the Christian community as catechists, carry out, in the name of the Church, the systematic and intentional efforts to enable people to grow in their faith. This makes the parish one of the most critical and central focal points for the carrying out of the catechetical ministry. It is in support of the local parish's catechetical efforts that most of the catechetical energies at the diocesan, national and even the universal levels are aimed.
Your Director of Religious Education may be the first person you should talk with to start your journey as a catechist in our parish.
The Archdiocese of Newark's Catechetical Office is ready to help you achieve your goal in being an excellent catechist and a strong person of faith. They provide many opportunities for spiritual growth and ministry courses to supplement your goal towards catechetical certification.
Also, click on the links (orange sub-tabs above left) for additional information pertaining to catechists, such as available courses and child safety procedures with "Protecting God's Children".
In order to achieve these ends, catechesis involves an essential collaboration with the Catholic Christian family, the parish community, and with catechists who serve at all levels of the ministry. Since catechesis is about faith-sharing, it is a people intensive ministry. It requires faith-filled, skilled and knowledgeable people who are striving to grow in faith themselves and who desire to share that faith with others. The people who serve the Christian community as catechists, carry out, in the name of the Church, the systematic and intentional efforts to enable people to grow in their faith. This makes the parish one of the most critical and central focal points for the carrying out of the catechetical ministry. It is in support of the local parish's catechetical efforts that most of the catechetical energies at the diocesan, national and even the universal levels are aimed. 
