Catechesis

Quite early on, the name catechesis was given to the totality of the Church's efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the body of Christ.  CCC:4

Catechism of the Catholic Church - from the Vatican web site is a sure way to know the Catholic Faith. If you need to search the Catechism, here is a searchable version.  Also very helpful is the Compendium of the Catholic Church, which is in a question and answer format for easier understanding on the content of the Catechism.

The Baltimore Catechism - The Baltimore Catechism is a timeless classic.  The only changes that have been made in the Church, since it was written, are those in the area of discipline.  No changes have been made in the area of doctrine and morality.  The same Faith that was believed when the Baltimore Catechism was written, is the same Faith that is believed today.  This question and answer format catechism will be useful to anyone who wants to better know the Faith of the Catholic Church.  You can also download a version in Microsoft word format and a version in Adobe pdf format

C.R. Publications has released an excellent five-volume Catholicism Series - Catholicism & Life, Catholicism & Reason, Catholicism & Society, Catholicism & Ethics, Catholicism & Scripture. There are teacher's manuals available for each of the books in the Catholicism Series.  A committee of Catholic bishops has found the series to be in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and has highly commended the books for their "strong doctrinal approach" and their "outstanding fidelity to the Magisterium" of the Catholic Church.

Questions and Answers

Here is a Q and A that I have come up with.

RCIA information

Introduction (basic introduction to RCIA)

The Second Vatican Council called for the restoration of the RCIA which was used in the early church. I believe this was a true work of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church. During the early church years most of the society was pagan and people that wanted to convert to Christianity (The Catholic Church, the only Christian Church for over 1000 years) had to really learn to change their lives. We are habitual by nature and old habits die hard. Since the 1960's society has gone back to being mostly pagan, or at least many of the same practices are occurring. The early Church saw rampant divorce, abortion, contraception, killing for fun/gruesome entertainment (gladiator fights), etc. For deeper spiritual reading I suggest reading the Church Fathers of the 1st thru 5th century's, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. John Chrysostom, etc. Their writing are available on-line at a number of places, here is one. Also if you are interested, a lot of the Church Fathers writings are used in the Liturgy of the Hours in the Office of Readings for the second reading, so you can get a daily dose of them. The past few years I have learned so much by praying the constant daily prayer of the Church.

The RCIA is broken up into two groups:  The unbaptized and the baptized.  The baptized have a grace (faith) infused in baptism that must grow and take root.  So at times you'll see the baptized doing or saying one thing and the non-baptized another.  So don't be confused, a distinction must be made.  I have an outline of the RCIA process here.