Catechism Answers w/ Dr. Scott Sollom — February 5, 2024

What this episode is about

Dr. Scott Sollom hosts a discussion focused on answering key questions from the catechism, reflecting on the contributions of co-hosts and the experience of the past year. During this final session, he encourages viewer engagement by inviting questions and highlights the importance of community in the exploration of faith.

Key takeaways

• Learning the catechism is like juggling—it's chaotic at first, but practice leads to grace and clarity.
• Feeling unqualified is universal; even experts are just humble servants working under the Holy Spirit's guidance.
• Every catechism discussion should radiate Christ—if it doesn't, you're probably in the wrong discussion.
• Your catechism notes should always start with Jesus; everything else is just a scenic detour to the main event.
• Teaching catechism isn't about your qualifications—it's about your connection to Christ and the humility to share it.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Dr. Scott Sollom (Host) · 28 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Catechism, Jesus, Dr. Scott Solum, Ascension Press
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Catechism, Angels, Mary, Eucharist
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Catechism, Mary, Holy Spirit, Eucharist
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Catechism, Angels, Dr. Scott Solum, Francis University
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Catechism, Angels, Holy Spirit, Eucharist
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Catechism, Holy Spirit, Angels
7. 30:00 – 30:49: Catechism, Ascension Press, Holy Spirit

Notable quotes from "Catechism Answers w/ Dr. Scott Sollom — February 5, 2024"

• Hey welcome if you're just signing in we'll we'll get started in like five seconds with catechism answers and Ascension press it's a sunny day here in Stubenville everyone…

  about Catechism · at 0:15

• Bittersweet let's go ahead and get started welcome to catechism answers I'm Dr Scott solum coming to you live from the Catal Institute here for assension press and our job here…

  about Dr. Scott Solum · at 1:07

• To say it one more time for good measure the work is always the work of Christ right Christ is the teacher Christ is the taught it's always the Holy Spirit kind of leading and…

  about Jesus · at 3:07

• The catechism which is amazing at the top of that note PID page I would simply put what does this have to do with the person of Christ and what does it have to do with my…

  about Mary · at 4:34

• To do with me and my life with Christ and it says this from its beginning until death human life is surrounded by the Angel's watchful care and intercession I just want you to…

  about Angels · at 7:38

• Those same four things there's the Creed that's the teaching of the Apostles there's the sacraments that's the Holy Eucharist or the breaking of the bread in Acts 242 242 talk…

  about Eucharist · at 9:28

• Love it I love the students I love the faculty and the staff it's it's amazing we have a lot of young students who are learning to do catechetics how to hand on the faith and…

  about Francis University · at 19:12

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Dr. Scott Solum — Person · Main speaker (host/presenter) · 2 mentions · first at 1:09
  He leads the episode of 'Catechism Answers,' framing how to use the Catechism and offering a structured set of teaching points for viewers following 'Catechism in a Year.'

Books & papers

• Catechism — Book · Primary recommendation · 30 mentions · first at 0:18
  The main text discussed, providing the structure and content for the podcast's teachings.
• Acts 2:42 — Book · Referenced work · 4 mentions
  Cited as a biblical reference for the early church's practices and the structure of the catechism.
  The four-fold life of the church we remember that we looked at acts 242 earlier this year acts 242 talks about how the early church acted right they devoted themselves to the…

Companies & orgs

• Ascension Press — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at 0:20
  The organization behind the podcast, producing and distributing religious content.
  Dr Scott solum coming to you live from the Catal Institute here for assension press and our job here really is just to try to roll with father Mike through catechism in a year…
• Francis University — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 19:09
  Mentioned as the institution where the speaker teaches, contributing to the discussion on catechetics.

Concepts & topics

• Jesus — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 3:09
  Central figure in the discussion, representing the foundation of Christian faith and teachings.
• Mary — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at 4:38
  Discussed as a model of faith and charity, illustrating the connection to Jesus and the Christian life.
• Holy Spirit — Concept · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 3:02
  Described as guiding the hearts of believers and the work of Christ in the world.
  Right Christ is the teacher Christ is the taught it's always the Holy Spirit kind of leading and guid guiding our hearts and guiding the hearts of others so really hopefully…
• Eucharist — Concept · Key argument · 3 mentions · first at 9:20
  Highlighted as a central sacrament in Christian worship and life.
• Angels — Concept · Key argument · 12 mentions · first at 4:56
  Discussed in relation to their service and adoration of Christ and their role in believers' lives.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:15 hey welcome if you're just signing in uh we'll we'll get started in like five seconds with catechism answers and Ascension press it's a sunny day here in Stubenville everyone feels happy holding complete on this Monday and I hope you're doing well too just grab your water coffee or tea and we'll get started in just a second before we get started I want to do a quick thank you and shout out to two people in the studio who have been helping all this whole year that's Becca bu and Amos and Ascension press is full of amazing people um and a number of them I took a it's a lot of people who who work on this podcast behind the scenes who are amazing people it's been a joy to get to know them as you kind of wrap up the catechism answers um Alejandra and Rob and Sean Cammy Jonathan and even uh Jonathan's son who's watching on with us as well George so this is fun to come to the last day but it's a little bit

1:07 Bittersweet let's go ahead and get started welcome to catechism answers I'm Dr Scott solum coming to you live from the Catal Institute here for assension press and our our job here really is just to try to roll with father Mike through catechism in a year and try to pick out cultivate curate the different questions that come up so if you if you're on YouTube and you have a question just put that question right in the comment section below if you'd consider actually subscribing to the channel That would be helpful and amazing as well if you want to watch on Facebook there should be a Facebook link right below if you're on YouTube that is and when you're on Facebook uh if you have a question for the videos or for the various areas you would just put them under the video for that particular week again welcome I'm only going to do one question today because it's a bit of a doozy and we're gonna take some time

1:54 with it as we're kind of wrapping up catechism answers uh here's the question question I've learned so much from father Mike's catechism study thank you there was a lot of material covered I've learned a lot I also feel a bit welmed do you have any advice for beginners trying to learn to use the catechism I'm not sure how I could ever put it all together put it all together was in quotes in a way that could possibly be helpful for someone else so basically the way I interpret the question is there's a whole lot of information it's all really good but feeling a little bit um unqualified to be able to figure out how to take it and hand it on communicate it in a way that's effective so I want to talk to that question specifically and I'm GNA try to come up with maybe nine points nine nine responses um and the first is this I if a person is reading through the catechism and feeling unqualified to

2:51 really kind of hand this on to someone else in a way that's conversional that's okay because it's true you're not qualified and I'm not qualified and nobody else on Earth is qualified to do this work it's really the work of the Holy Spirit and we've talked about this a couple different times I'm just going to say it one more time for good measure the work is always the work of Christ right Christ is the teacher Christ is the taught it's always the Holy Spirit kind of leading and guid guiding our hearts and guiding the hearts of others so really hopefully this can put us at ease a bit because it's not really up to me my job is to try as hard as I can I I definitely have a role to play my role is necessary but my role is not sufficient and it never ever will be so hopefully my job as a catechist or if I'm trying to help out a friend a family member I'm just trying to say hey here's here's Jesus and here's you and you guys

3:41 should get together and talk and if there's something I can help with and try to chime in a little bit I'm here to do that but but primarily it's God's work and um and we can kind of participate in his work that's Point number one point number two let's talk about if you're actually trying to use the catechism and your friend has a question a comment or concern and you're trying to say something helpful or let's just say you're studying the catechism and you want to do your best to really kind of deeply understand the truths that have been revealed and fulfilled in Christ what you want to do and this is going to be Point number two in terms of response what you want to do is think first and foremost how does this connect to Jesus what does this have to do with Jesus that's the most important thing so if you're like a catechist helping fifth graders or doing rcia or even for yourself and maybe you're even taking

4:30 notes there's a number of people I'm aware from Facebook who take notes on what father Mike says and take notes on the catechism which is amazing at the top of that note PID page I would simply put what does this have to do with the person of Christ and what does it have to do with my relationship with Christ that's that's that's that's the heart of the matter because as we've laughed about this over the year but um it's called catechism answers and the answer is always Jesus that really is the case so we're going to use the example of Mary maybe we'll use the example of angels as well but when you're thinking about Mary what no matter what the question is what about Mary's Assumption what about Mary Mother of God Perpetual virginity the most important thing is what does this have to do with Jesus so I'm I've I've already flipped the catechism beautiful Ascension catechism uh by the way which I've really enjoyed

5:12 using it's really awesome um I've already flipped it to paragraph 487 not page 487 but paragraph 487 and it says this this is kind of in the Creed section it's on Mary what the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ that's just a beautiful overarching explanation of why we would care about Mary because she's going to show us who Jesus is and she's going to show us teach us about our own faith in Christ and then everything else that comes after is really a message about who Jesus is and who I am so as an example Mary as Mother of God what does that say about who Jesus is but what does it say also about who I'm called to be I'm called to Bear Christ also Mary saying yes at the enunciation to Bear her son that tells us something about Jesus right Born of a woman taken on human nature it also tells us something about

6:06 my own prayer life right to say yes so we're out whatever it is we're talking about whatever we're trying to learn more about we want to connect it to Jesus let's use a secondary example we'll talk about angels for a quick second I'm gon to flip the catechism back to 333 paragraph 333 it says this about angels and again we're thinking okay Angels what what what do angels have to do with Jesus what do angs have to do with me so 333 says this from the Incarnation to the Ascension the life of the word incarnate that's Jesus of course from the Incarnation to the Ascension the life of the word incarnate is surrounded by the Adoration and service of Angels by the way before 333 there's a paragraph 331 basically says Christ is the center of the Angelic world he made them they're his they do his work so that's our Christ connection 333 uh 333 is another connection I want you just I'm going to say it one more time because I want you

7:08 to listen to the actual construction of the sentence like the like the it starts with a prepositional phrase from the Incarnation to the Ascension the life of the word incarnate is surrounded by the Adoration and service of angels so that's the connection to Jesus and then what about what about what about me and angels that was that was Jesus and angels about me and Angels me and Jesus I'm going to look down to 336 and the 336 is is about what do angels have to do with me and my life with Christ and it says this from its beginning until death human life is surrounded by the Angel's watchful care and intercession I just want you to notice it's written this way on purpose this sentence has the exact same structure as the sent sentence about Jesus but with Jesus was from its from the Incarnation to the Ascension with the human person it's from its beginning until death of course Jesus is surrounded by the

8:02 Adoration and service of angels we're surrounded by their watchful care and intercession but it's the same structure the sentence is in the same structure and that's kind of the the church's way of showing here's Jesus and Angels here's you and angels and that's why you and Jesus work together with angels which why I won't read that part you can look look at that up yourself so the the second key here is connected to Jesus keep it simple number three besides connecting it to Jesus whatever it is you're thinking about thinking about teaching whatever the case might be connected to each of the four pillars of the catechism and I'm I'm going to say this maybe once or twice during this little presentation um this takes time so try trying to discern and understand what the what what what the church is teaching it there's not like a quick sound bite thing that just kind of works um it it takes some time to really

8:53 marinate in the catechism to marinate in the scriptures to to go deep a little bit and it's and it's worth the time it's worth the journey so this is going deep a little bit but as you'll remember there's four pillars to the catechism and the four pillars to the catechism represent correspond to the four-fold life of the church we remember that we looked at acts 242 earlier this year acts 242 talks about how the early church acted right they devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles the breaking of the bread the communal life and the prayers if you were in the early church you did these four things the four pillars of the catechism manifest those same four things there's the Creed that's the teaching of the Apostles there's the sacraments um that's the the Holy Eucharist or the breaking of the bread in Acts 242 acts 242 242 talk about the communal life here it's called life in Christ but it's the same thing

9:42 and finally acts 242 talk about prayer and and of course the fourth pillar of the catechism is called prayer why is this important it's important because every divinely revealed reality everything we want to learn about who Jesus is and who we're called to be has like a fourfold um note to it a kind of a four-fold symphony we want to understand it in the Creed we want to see how it's celebrated in the sacraments how it's lived in our day-to-day lives and then how it how it's manifest in our prayer so this is really useful so for example if we're talking about Mary and I want to get to know the Blessed Mother better of course we've already been in the catechism you know talking sorry in the Creed section who is Mary Mary's Assumption Mary's imic conception Mother of God all those kind of things that that that's there in the Creed but we won't really have done our work we won't really have understood

10:31 Mary fully in the life of the church unless we look at the other the other three Avenues so to speak kind of shine those other three lights on Mary so let's let's let's do that um for a quick second I'm gonna look at 1370 this going be 1370 in the catechism and now we're in the SE in the section on sacraments right and it says this to the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on Earth but also those already in the glory of Heaven in communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice so here our blessed mother shows up in an explanation of the Holy Eucharist because what we're doing at mass is of course we're offering ourselves with in and through Christ and by the Holy Spirit but with Mary Mary's there she really is there that's that's what Mary did if nothing else Mary offered her son Jesus Christ so it turns out to

11:28 understand isn't just a credal formulation which is important we also want to understand her role with us in worship um I'm gonna I'm gonna go to 966 967 970 there's one more Point U we want to talk about here that's that's that's rather important that's that's um the third pillar of the catechism life in Christ right like the moral life so from Mary what can we understand or begin to begin to understand about how we're called to live our lives the moral life is sometimes called Just the Ten Commandments um but we know know the Ten Commandments are really really important um but that's not the kind of the fullness of the moral life that we're called to live the Ten Commandments are like the Bas line that we have to get kind of a foundational um how do I want to say this it's it's if you're thinking of like the the three the three-fold life or the the three phases of the spiritual life the

12:17 purgative illuminative and the unitive the purgative life is essentially upholding and living the moral law kind of as a standard um The Ten Commandments we want to get beyond that we're talking like Faith open charity the Beatitudes right and so anyways I say that because we're talking about Mary we've seen her in the Creed we've seen her in uh the sacraments but we won't have done our work I really understood Mary until we see what was her life like how how how does she call us on to live our lives um to the high standard that Christ has called us to so this is 967 and then 968 967 by her complete adherence to the father's will to his son's Redemptive work and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit the Virgin Mary is the church's model of faith and charity so it turns out I'm called to be Mar and I'm called I'm called to to be in complete adherence to the father's will right to be attentive to every prompting of the

13:16 Holy Spirit 968 her role in relation to the church and to all Humanity goes still further in a holy singular way she cooperated by her obedience faith hope and burning charity so we're called to cooperate in obedience in faith hope and charity we'll come back to that the main point here is as we're trying to delve deeper in understanding what the Lord has revealed to us and these truths that are contained in the catechism we want to see them rooted in the Creed celebrated in the sacraments manifest in the moral life what does that have to do with and then finally uh prayer we haven't talked about PR uh prayer yet in the prayer section so for that I'm gonna look up 2617 there's a whole bunch of stuff on prayer obviously we have the whole Hail Mary is in the prayer section um but before we get to that part and I won't even read that part here I just want to look at 2617 so what can we what

14:02 can we learn about prayer from Mary so 2617 towards the bottom of that paragraph she Whom The Almighty made full of grace responds by offering her whole being behold I am the handmade of the Lord let it be done to me according to your word Fiat this is Christian prayer to be holy God to be holy God's because he is Holy ours so it turns out Beyond just just the Hail Mary there's a whole lot we can learn about our prayer Life by imitating and recognizing Mary's Prayer life so we're studying Mary we're actually going to study her in each of the fourfold dimensions of the church's life the fourfold dimension of the of the Christian life and that's how the catechism is set up and that's how we can really begin to kind of Plum the depths of what we can learn and live by by by meditating on Mary across that four-fold life I was going to add by the way to go back to the angels example uh 1352 is is

15:07 the connection between angels and the Liturgy it turns out there's all the angels and the Saints with us offering and worshiping as well um so but let me just close by saying this uh regarding the four pillars and we'll finish up this this third point the most important thing to do is to connect whatever it is you're learning about going deeper into to connect it to the Liturgy especially the sacraments and the reason for that is because it's in the sacraments that we receive that particular Grace that Christ wants to give us uniquely available in the sacraments all four pillars are important sacraments most important and it's not even close so as you're trying to figure out what you want to maybe perhaps give to your friend as a as an explanation for our own deepening our own spiritual lives connecting to the Liturgy is is is is is absolutely essential the church has a like a Latin maximum for this the way in

16:00 which the pillars kind of work together it's um the the Fancy Pants Latin is Lexar lexend Lex vivand Lex leex it just means law you might translate it by just saying um as the church uh prays so also she believes so also she lives Lex orand Lex cende Lex vivand the law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of life but the point is the the whole Christian Life works together as a whole w l e and the four pillars of the catechism aren't like four separate compartments that are like hermetically sealed from one another but rather kind of G it shows the four-fold life and we just did that with Mary so we we'll stop we'll stop there we'll move to the next point and again the main question is here gosh if I'm overwhelmed with all the information um and and I want to hand this on to somebody else but I'm feeling perhaps insufficient what what can I do and um Point number four is this take time to reflect on the

17:01 scripture passages that are in the catechism if you if you took the catechism and and put all the scripture passages in R you'd be surprised how R the catechism would be the catechism gives its explanations by using so like scriptures speak the way the early fathers spoke and gave homilies like Ambrose and Augustine John castom it was it was like as they were teaching scripture just came right out of them it was interwoven and in the catechism it's the same thing and the cool thing about the catechism as you know is the footnotes show the scripture passages that are being used so to go back to 2617 from Mary and on prayer and uh to make God holy hours that kind of a thing there was a couple scripture passages there in the foot notes one of them was the Gospel of Luke it was Luke uh 138 and we know of course that's the whole anunciation narrative is in Luke 1 so if you wanted to go a little deeper and again take your time

17:55 there's no race there's no rush you don't have to come up with a with a a really quick sound bite apologetic that usually isn't going to work take your time to kind of marinate in those scriptures so friendly reminder in the back of the catechism there's an index a topical index so you can go back and find Mary and every paragraph that talks about Mary you can go and find angels and every paragraph that talks about angels and just really take your time like kind of delight in it um there's also an index for scriptural citations so you can go back into the scriptures and look up Luke 1 whatever whatever verse you want to look up in this case it's Luke 138 and you can see all the other places that Luke 138 is used in the catechism and just flip to those and read those and let yourself be formed by that and take your time with it so number four is just allowing ourselves to see the way in which this Doctrine is

18:45 driven by scripture it Springs forth from scripture and hopefully then if I'm if I'm in some situation where I'm trying to articulate Something About Mary those scripture passages um you know they're on my mind they're in my heart they're part of my whole understanding of Mary and they just kind of come out of me when I'm trying to give an explanation point number five this is really important think about the actual people that you're speaking to this happens a lot as you know I teach at Franc University it's a great place I love it I love the students I love the faculty and the staff it's it's amazing um we have a lot of young students who are learning to do catechetics how to hand on the faith and uh for conversion and a lot of times they have in mind they want to come up with with with their teaching on say baptism now I have a teaching on baptism this is my teaching on baptism and I'm going to use

19:30 it for the rest of my life but that's not really the case your teaching on baptism might change your teaching on Mary might change not the content not the substance not the essence that's unchangeable but depending on who you're talking to might uh kind of point to a certain way in which you want to say it a certain thing you want to emphasize at first but you have to know your people right the the the the saying we always use here at our classes is um we teach people not topics like know the person first right we're not like it's not like a sage on the stage who's going to say all these unbelievably articulate important things that's not going to do the work what's going to do the work is actually like knowing the person that you're speaking to knowing their heart knowing where they've been knowing where they're going what what what their what their hurts and their anxieties have been what their hopes are you know and

20:14 you're speaking to them as a particular person I'm going to use here the example of the road to EMAs Jesus right meets those disciples on the road to EMAs do you remember this is from like um Luke 24 I'm using passage in part because it's really really popular and the USCCB the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops uses it uh to uh in the document on our hearts were burning within us for adult catechesis and it's used in a lot of catechetical documents as a model for how we're supposed to do catechesis the road to EMAs the first part that happens the road to EMAs is they're downcast they're looking downcast they're walking away from Jerusalem they're upset about the things that have happened in Jerusalem Christ has died they don't what to do Christ draws near to them he asks them questions what are you guys talking about are you the only one who doesn't over what happened in Jerusalem all the

21:03 things and well no what things Jesus actually takes time to listen and to learn and to allow people articulate their own um kind of situation and their own feelings and then he speaks into their questions and into their feelings and we're called to do the same thing right we're following Christ's model it's about listening and knowing the person that was Point number five by the way at the end of the road to mayus Narrative of course it's in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist that their eyes are opened and it's the same thing with all catechesis the Liturgy has a kind of prime importance uh that was number five number six common misunderstandings so as you're as you're sitting there thinking well how am I going to talk about St Mary or the Angels what you want to think about is the person that I I want to say this to or maybe even from my own heart and mind what are the common misunderstandings

21:45 what are the things that like are a little bit confusing like like maybe with um with Mary obviously one of the most common misunderstandings is that the Catholic Church hold her up as like a fourth person of the Trinity or some kind of a goddess or that we worship her or that we emphasize her to the detriment of actually having a personal relationship with Jesus and so if you can kind of sense whatever Doctrine you're thinking of what the common misunderstandings might be and how you might be able to address kind of foresee and and address those questions that's really helpful number seven related Doctrine so if you're thinking about a particular doctrine of course we're using uh Mary as our example all the way through this you're thinking there's a whole bunch of other aspects of our faith that are I mean they're all related it's all related but there's a couple of of other divinely revealed realities that are that are so

22:36 closely associated with our Blessed Mother maybe maybe this almost like a cluster of of of of Doctrine uh one of them for Mary obviously we're talking about related Doctrine the Holy Spirit like how are you going to say anything about the Blessed Mother without talking about the Holy Spirit that'd be impossible turns out there's a whole section in the catechism on Mary and the Holy Spirit uh Mary and the church the Mary is the Exemplar of the church um and we kind of look for look to Mary as who we're called to be as Church there's a whole section on that in the catechism and by the way I found these again just by going to the topical index looking up Mary and then looking up all the various paragraphs and seeing some of the closer connections uh Saints you're not going to get very far talking about Mary um without also including the rest of the Saints obviously Mary has a preeminent place amongst them other aspects that

23:23 come into play virginity marriage Etc there's a lot let's talk about angels are you going to related Doctrine with Angels hard to talk about angels without talking about heaven hard to talk about angels without talking about fallen angels and Satan hard to talk about angels without talking about our guardian angels and perhaps the way they the way in which they help us like with temptation so again think of as you're trying to learn more and use the catechism be attentive to the other doctrine that are kind of clustered around the doctrine you're looking at um the related the related Doctrine and that kind of helps paint a little bit of a fuller picture right for that part of the painting that you're doing number eight I'll do my best to try to articulate this rather quickly remember that the whole point is conversion life in Christ God's life in you your life in Christ and this side of eternity life in

24:12 Christ looks like faith hope and charity the theological virtues Theo means god so other pertaining to God but really means theological virtues that that means God's life in you God's Li life being lived in and through you and the theological virtues are faith hope and charity Supernatural Faith Supernatural hope Supernatural charity so anything that we're learning about the faith it needs to help inform us that how might this cause me or point me to believing more firmly to hoping more confidently or to loving more charitably now Mary's a rather easy example um but I'm just going to repeat this from 968 because we went over it rather fast earlier her role in this is 968 her role in relation to the church and to all Humanity go still further in a holy w h l l y in a holy singular way she cooperated by her obedience faith hope and burning charity in the savior's work of restoring Supernatural life to souls

25:13 we've already read 967 but it's worth saying Again by her complete adherence to the father's will to his son's Redemptive work and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit the Virgin is the church's model of faith and charity so if I'm thinking about Mary and what does Mary have to do with Jesus it turns out Mary is my example one of one of many but a preeminent example of of believing like Mary believed in God's plan in Hope Mary trusted God she said yes in Charity she offers her own son at the foot of the cross and so any Doctrine we're looking at whether it's Angels or anything else in the catechism that you're were studying any article of the Creed it's across all four pillars but we're also thinking and keeping our eyes open like our radar open for how is this going to help me to believe more firm L hope more confidently or love more charitably because that's actually the action of God in Me and I want to grow

26:03 that and every Doctrine is meant to kind of help me grow in the theological virtues that's conversion Point number nine this is the most important one I know I said liturgy was but I lied it's Point number nine is the most important one is you um I'll just tell you my experience I I get to travel quite a bit and see lots of wonderful people in dases a lot of catechists and um there's a way in which the textbook is held up as the be all end all the most important thing C catechist desperately love to have a good textbook The Textbook will save the day stick to the textbook that's what I need and and the key thing to understand as a catechist is the textbook needs you a lot more than you need the textbook in this case the textbook is the catechism by all means we need the catechism I mean I teach catechetics obviously I'm I'm aware of the fact that we need this as a sure Norm of the faith but the

26:56 catechism by itself sits on a shelf it doesn't do anything catechism doesn't convert anyone that's you and so have some have some confidence in your desire and capacity to hand on the faith to talk about Jesus joyfully um charitably and patiently that it's actually going to come from your witness like what what's your actual relationship with the Blessed Mother like talk about that what's your actual relationship with um you know the angels and your understanding of angels and perhaps praying to your guardian angel or the archangels and talk about that that your own witness will open the eyes and the ears of people far better than any given sentence in the catechism and really your own witness is the entrance Point into actually being able to share more fully about these teachings but what what people are going to listen to is going to be your witness first and foremost and this as a final thought for

27:56 Point number nine remember remember the catechesis it comes from the word to Echo from the Greek word to echo down and what that means is really two things the first is Christ establishes upon the church uh uh the authority by the Holy Spirit to hand on his teachings Faithfully with with Integrity that that that 2024 um in the year 2024 we can we can hear and understand what Christ taught uh to the apostles it's because the truth has been safeguarded by the Holy Spirit working through the church that's like it's like a faithful echo of Christ's teaching so catechesis means Echo catechesis also means echo in the sense that it we ourselves are called to be an echo chamber like the truth of Christ and his life his grace is meant to Echo in me and and really Echo right out of me and spill over into my friends and and my family and so you're called to be if I can say um a little a catechism little a little mini catechism

28:57 by your own witness you know some people the the famous saying is uh for some people you might be the only Bible they ever read uh a lot of people don't pick up the Bible they don't know the Bible but perhaps by your own understanding of Christ you're going to communicate to them the riches of Jesus and God's plan culminating in Christ and I would say the same thing about the catechism for a lot of people you'll be the only catechism they ever read and that's okay um that sounds scary but Christ can do it in you just be humble prayerful marinate in it and when the time comes share a witness whatever you can say about your life and whatever whatever reality you're talking about and um I'm I'm going to walk through these real quick so we have them summarize then we're going to wrap up connected to Jesus connected to each of the four pillars let make sure people see that it's coming from scripture make sure you're saying it in

29:46 a way that is attuned to the actual audience the people you're actually working with address any common misunderstandings or related doctrine that helps to make sense of it show how it helps us to grow in conversion by believing hoping and loving more firmly and if you're doing that then you're being faithful to what Christ has taught us and you're being faithful to the way in which Doctrine actually works so this has been great to be with you God bless you I hope you have a great week and um I hope to see you he here or there or somewhere uh in the future sometime nearby let's close in our prayer in the name of the father son holy spirit amen all glory be to the father and to the son to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be a world World Without End Amen the name of father son holy spirit amen thanks again for joining uh catechism answers and Ascension press it's a joy to be with

30:45 you

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Catechism Answers w/ Dr. Scott Sollom — February 5, 2024"?

Dr. Scott Sollom (Host).

What is "Catechism Answers w/ Dr. Scott Sollom — February 5, 2024" about?

Dr. Scott Sollom hosts a discussion focused on answering key questions from the catechism, reflecting on the contributions of co-hosts and the experience of the past year. During this final session, he encourages viewer engagement by inviting questions and highlights the importance of community in the exploration of faith.

What is mentioned in this The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Jesus, Dr. Scott Solum, Catechism, Mary, Ascension Press, Holy Spirit. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Catechism Answers w/ Dr. Scott Sollom — February 5, 2024"?

The episode runs 31 min; the transcript is about 6,133 words in 36 timestamped sections.

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