How Do You Read the Catechism?

[takers]

Obviously you open it up and start but I meant more how do you go about reading it to find out more about your faith? Do you go from front to back? Read only the topics that are of interest to you? Is there a way to read it along with reading passages from the Bible? I’m finding I’m at a point where I want to know more about my Faith and what we the Church believe and thought that reading the Catechism would be helpful, but I’m unsure of where to start.

 

[TimothyH]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church should be read with Scripture. It should be read in the context of Scripture.

The Catechism has four sections, or “Pillars”.

The Profession of Faith (Creed)

• Paragraphs 26 through 1065
• St. Agustine said that the creed is God’s plan of salvation in “Tightly wound form”.
• usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/
• The first pillar is based on Scripture. The other three pillars depend on knowing the plan for our salvation laid out in scripture. Scripture is God’s plan for our salvation, and the Profession of Faith (creed) is a highy condensed form of God’s plan for our salvation.

The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (Sacraments and Liturgy)

• Paragraphs 1066 through 1698
• How we get into the story and how we take part in God’s plan through the sacraments, and how we fit in to God’s Kingdom on Earth, his Church.

Our Life in Christ

• Paragraphs 1691 through 2550
• Moral theology - how we live our lives as Christians.
• How we interact with Christians, non-Christians and all of God’s creation.
• How we live out God’s plan for our salvation and advance his Kingdom on Earth for the salvation of others.

Christian Prayer

• Paragraphs 2558 through 2865
• Prayer is intimate communication with our Creator and the Lover of our Souls.
• Prayer ensures the first three pillars.
• Covers the most sublime and most perfect prayer, the Our Father.

That is the basic framework of how the Catechism is constructed, and how it may be used. There are many subsections, but this is the explanation which opened my eyes and got me started. I hope it helps.

Remember to read the Catechism with Scripture and in the context of Scripture. Scripture and the Catechism are inseperable.

-Tim-

 

[yinekka]

I read the daily scripture readings from my daily Missal. Recently I purchased The Better Part by Fr John Bartunek… This is a book of meditations based on the Gospel of the day. At the end of each day’s meditations are references from the Catechism which tie in with the readings. I read all of some of them depending on my available time and find them very helpful.

If I wasn’t doing this I would look at the Table of Contents and pick areas in which I have an interest e.g. prayer and read that.

I haven’t come across any readings which explore in depth the links among all of the readings of the day.

 

[RPRPsych]

I have this irrational preference, probably due to training from early in life, for reading a book sequentially from cover to cover.

However, this is not always the best approach with the two most important books I own - the Bible and the Catechism.

The Catechism, in particular, can be used in several ways:

1. As a summary of official Church teaching - in which case, it can be read from start to finish, to give you an overview of all that there is. If this seems daunting, it can be broken up into units, as a previous poster has helpfully suggested.
2. As a reference book - when you have a question about a particular point or article of the Faith, or if you’re doing apologetics. The topic index here is extremely helpful, and I’ve often used it this way.
3. As an inseparable companion to the Bible - either read the Scripture references from the Catechism in context, or use the Catechism to get “the whole picture” on a particular issue that has cropped up in your Bible study.

I’m sure there are other ways too, but I’ll leave those to more experienced hands.

 

[Crumpy]

Obviously you open it up and start but I meant more how do you go about reading it to find out more about your faith? Do you go from front to back? Read only the topics that are of interest to you? Is there a way to read it along with reading passages from the Bible? I’m finding I’m at a point where I want to know more about my Faith and what we the Church believe and thought that reading the Catechism would be helpful, but I’m unsure of where to start.

I think the CCC is very remarkable, but I have not been able to read it front-to-back. I tried that with section 4 on Prayer – that section is very condensed. It’s worthy of a study all its own, looking up the related scripture verses.

Not all editions seems to have the convenient scripture listing in the back, which shows where each book is cited. I used that on occasion to get the CCC insight on that scripture.

I think the EWTN series by Fr. Corapi glossed over things too much. I couldn’t tell what he was emphasizing, embellishing, or overlooking. – or condensing. I don’t think the Catechism condenses too well.

My next forray into the catechism will be to look at what it says about faith and what faith does.

My most recent intense use was to compare the last sentence of paragraph 82 to its uncited source, 2 Thess 2:15. I was using both of those to, let’s say, argue with a Bible-alone Christian, to wit, that we are to hold on equally to both sacred tradition and scripture.

Somewhere early on in Sect 4, there is the remarkable statement we are made in the image of God, but, due to sin, we are no longer in the likeness of God.

 

[Joe_5859]

Tim did a good job in laying out the four pillars. That’s helpful to really getting a handle on the Catechism. This organizational structure is taken straight from Acts 2:42:

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles [Creed] and to the communal life [Life in Christ], to the breaking of the bread [Sacraments] and to the prayers [Prayer].”

It’s always fun to see that the Church doesn’t just randomly pull this stuff out of thin air.

The Catechism isn’t a novel, so there’s no need to read it from front to back. For those just getting started, I encourage them to flip through the index and pick topics that interest them because that’s usually the best way to keep reading it.

The Coming Home Network actually has a reading plan to read the Bible and the Catechism in a year: chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf This plan isn’t really organized by topic, though. You pretty much put a bookmark in Genesis, one in Psalms, one in Matthew, and one at the start of the CCC, and keep going.

 

[Joe_5859]

Oh, and I recommend getting the big green version of the CCC with the glossary and all the indices (most of the pocket editions don’t have the glossary or most of the indices). One of the indices organizes all the Scripture citations. That makes it really easy to read the relevant passages of the CCC alongside Scripture.

 

[Steadfast_love]

I recomend reading the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church first.

The Compendium follows the same structure as the CCC, but it’s shorter, easier to understand, more concise and has a section of formulas to memorize. (Four last things, seven corporal works of mercy, ten commandments, a bunch of prayers etc…) It’s the perfect catechism for learning WHAT the Church teaches.

The regular Compendium is better for learning WHY we believe. The regular compendium also has more depth, better poetry and is more authoritative but even our super-smart Pope says it’s a very difficult introduction to our faith.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote in 2005:

*…The Compendium, which I now present to the Universal Church, is a faithful and sure synthesis of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It contains, in concise form, all the essential and fundamental elements of the Church’s faith, thus constituting, as my Predecessor had wished, a kind of vademecum which allows believers and non-believers alike to behold the entire panorama of the Catholic faith.

In its structure, contents and language, the Compendium faithfully reflects the Catechism of the Catholic Church and will thus assist in making the Catechism more widely known and more deeply understood.

I entrust this Compendium above all to the entire Church and, in particular, to every Christian, in order that it may awaken in the Church of the third millennium renewed zeal for evangelization and education in the faith, which ought to characterize every community in the Church and every Christian believer, regardless of age or nationality.*

Compendium

 

[COPLAND_3]

I read it by the topics that I’m most interested in first, and I go to the index and the glossary in the back which leads me to the page number. The Catechism is basically a reference book, which leads me to read it as such, not like a novel that I would read from front to back. But everyone has their own preference. I have read much it numerous times, so now I find myself going to it like I would a dictionary or encyclopedia in order to verify something.

 

[DeepBlueSea]

This organizational structure is taken straight from Acts 2:42:

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles [Creed] and to the communal life [Life in Christ], to the breaking of the bread [Sacraments] and to the prayers [Prayer].”

It’s always fun to see that the Church doesn’t just randomly pull this stuff out of thin air.

I didn’t know that. Now I appreciate the structure more. Thanks!

 

[ahs]

I read it by the topics that I’m most interested in first, and I go to the index and the glossary in the back which leads me to the page number. The Catechism is basically a reference book, which leads me to read it as such, not like a novel that I would read from front to back. But everyone has their own preference. I have read much it numerous times, so now I find myself going to it like I would a dictionary or encyclopedia in order to verify something.

This is how I read it as well…when I have a question about a specific topic, I go to the index and find the pertinent paragraphs. Recently though, my wife and I have been watching Steve Ray’s “The Footprints of God” videos and each comes with a small companion study guide. Steve did a GREAT job in these study guides leading the reader to both Scripture AND the CCC. So, I’m using the CCC in Bible study now!

 

[kkollwitz]

I use it as a reference; I don’t ‘read’ it per se.

 

[Joe_5859]

I didn’t know that. Now I appreciate the structure more. Thanks!

You’re welcome. :tiphat:

 

[Joe_5859]

Another handy tip for reading the Catechism is to pay attention to all the numbers in the side margins. Those numbers are actually cross references to other related paragraphs in the Catechism. If you follow the trail, you can usually trace one doctrine through all four pillars.

 

[COPLAND_3]

This is how I read it as well…when I have a question about a specific topic, I go to the index and find the pertinent paragraphs. Recently though, my wife and I have been watching Steve Ray’s “The Footprints of God” videos and each comes with a small companion study guide. Steve did a GREAT job in these study guides leading the reader to both Scripture AND the CCC. So, I’m using the CCC in Bible study now!

Steve Ray is awesome!

 

[TimothyH]

Tim did a good job in laying out the four pillars. That’s helpful to really getting a handle on the Catechism. This organizational structure is taken straight from Acts 2:42:

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles [Creed] and to the communal life [Life in Christ], to the breaking of the bread [Sacraments] and to the prayers [Prayer].”

It’s always fun to see that the Church doesn’t just randomly pull this stuff out of thin air.

Joe, I was not aware that the structure of the Catechism mirrors the structure of the earliest Church from Acts 2.

Awesome. Thanks for that insight!

Our Church is amazing, isn’t it?

-Tim-

 

[TimothyH]

I search the Catechism with great success using google.

Format the search as follows:

catechism of the catholic church site:usccb.org

Replace with what you are looking for. The “site” keyword will restrict results to only the site you specify.

For example, entering “gambling catechsim of the catholic church site:usccb.org” into google yeilds this page. The first link on that page takes you right to the section in the Catechsim on gambling.

-Tim-

 

[57Bill]

Oh, and I recommend getting the big green version of the CCC with the glossary and all the indices (most of the pocket editions don’t have the glossary or most of the indices). One of the indices organizes all the Scripture citations. That makes it really easy to read the relevant passages of the CCC alongside Scripture.

Agree, but the references to Councils, sometimes leave me clueless or when a Pope or Doctor or an early Father is noted and other notations. It is difficult at times to “dig deeper” because these references (not scripture) are difficult to find let alone understand

It’s a great read though…Pope Benedict lead the team under John Paul II…BTW

 

[Joe_5859]

Joe, I was not aware that the structure of the Catechism mirrors the structure of the earliest Church from Acts 2.

Awesome. Thanks for that insight!

Our Church is amazing, isn’t it?

-Tim-

Definitely amazing.

I can’t really take credit for the insight, though. I’m just passing along what I heard from someone else somewhere along the line. I guess that’s the nature of all education, though.

Agree, but the references to Councils, sometimes leave me clueless or when a Pope or Doctor or an early Father is noted and other notations. It is difficult at times to “dig deeper” because these references (not scripture) are difficult to find let alone understand

It’s a great read though…Pope Benedict lead the team under John Paul II…BTW

Yes, sometimes it seems like you need a degree in Theology to decipher the footnotes. And even after you figure it out, finding the actual primary source can be challenging.

I think the Vatican (or even the USCCB) should invest in an online, searchable, user-friendly, intratext version of the Catechism. The kind where you can click on a footnote and be taken immediately to the primary source. I know Harmony Media’s “Welcome to the Catholic Church” software attempted something close to this, but they didn’t have all the primary sources available to link to. With the emphasis on the Catechism for the upcoming Year of Faith, maybe something like this is in the works.

At the very least, I hope the Vatican updates their online English version of the Catechism to the second edition.

 

[Celticnovice]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church should be read with Scripture. It should be read in the context of Scripture.

The Catechism has four sections, or “Pillars”.

The Profession of Faith (Creed)

• Paragraphs 26 through 1065
• St. Agustine said that the creed is God’s plan of salvation in “Tightly wound form”.
• usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/
• The first pillar is based on Scripture. The other three pillars depend on knowing the plan for our salvation laid out in scripture. Scripture is God’s plan for our salvation, and the Profession of Faith (creed) is a highy condensed form of God’s plan for our salvation.

The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (Sacraments and Liturgy)

• Paragraphs 1066 through 1698
• How we get into the story and how we take part in God’s plan through the sacraments, and how we fit in to God’s Kingdom on Earth, his Church.

Our Life in Christ

• Paragraphs 1691 through 2550
• Moral theology - how we live our lives as Christians.
• How we interact with Christians, non-Christians and all of God’s creation.
• How we live out God’s plan for our salvation and advance his Kingdom on Earth for the salvation of others.

Christian Prayer

• Paragraphs 2558 through 2865
• Prayer is intimate communication with our Creator and the Lover of our Souls.
• Prayer ensures the first three pillars.
• Covers the most sublime and most perfect prayer, the Our Father.

That is the basic framework of how the Catechism is constructed, and how it may be used. There are many subsections, but this is the explanation which opened my eyes and got me started. I hope it helps.

Remember to read the Catechism with Scripture and in the context of Scripture. Scripture and the Catechism are inseperable.

-Tim-

Really good post Tim… I have never seen it broken down that way before.