The Gospel Truth is intended to be used by adults and then for them to share their faith with at least one child. I used the book with my two teens as a part of their homeschool Religion studies. I decided we would read/discuss each Friday so that we would be better prepared for Sunday Mass.
Each Sunday has the Gospel Reading, Truths of Our Catholic Faith (a few paragraphs of instruction), three types of questions - for Me (the adult), For a Child in My Life, My Role in the Community, followed by For Depth and Further Life Application (seems to be the remaining readings for that Sunday), a referral to the Catechism and a short reflection.
The first week we used the book was The Baptism of the Lord. It was nice to have the Gospel reading readily available to start our session. We were able to use the Truths of Our Catholic Faith as a springboard for discussion. The teens had difficulty coming up with a verbal answer to the Question for Me; they felt it was more suited to pondering over time. They were also unable to verbalize how they would encourage someone toward Baptism (My Role in the Community) because they're not sure they know anyone that is unbaptized.
We were surprised that the For Depth and Further Life Application scripture readings were not those for Sunday's liturgy. Another thing that struck us is that in each lesson there is a picture of an open book followed by the words "United States Catholic Catechism for Adults" with a page number; we discovered very quickly that those are not page numbers but rather CCC paragraph numbers.
Our second week was the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. A Question for Me led to good discussion but again the teens were challenged by My Role in the Community. We were happy to find that readings listed For Depth and Further Life Applications were the ones for the coming Sunday. We were a bit perplexed by the choice of paragraphs for study in the CCC since they focused on Creation.
I look forward to continuing to prepare with my teens each week for Mass with the guidance of The Gospel Truth. This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Gospel Truth- A Lectionary-Based Catechism.
2 comments:
I greatly appreciate your comments about my book. One of my goals was to make each week's additional Scripture passages simply be the other readings for Mass. If that doesn't happen it's an error on my part. :( Also, the USCCA references are indeed page numbers in the USCCA--not the CCC. Am glad you read the book. God bless you in all your great work!! :)
Now I see my confusion about USCAA - I had no idea there was such a book since I own a copy of the CCC and thought they were one and the same.
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