Catechetical Sunday 2015: Message & Resources

This year, the Archdiocese of Kuching is celebrating a combined Bible and Catechetical Sunday which falls on 12 July.

One of the initiatives of the Commission for Bible and Faith Formation (CBFF) is to promote the daily reading of the Bible. CBFF has come with leaflets (in 3 languages) with suggested daily reading of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

This is a year long exercise from Bible Sunday 2015 to Bible Sunday 2016. This exercise is also one of the Archdiocese’s activities to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Archdiocese.

Catechetical Sunday 2015 Message

Catechetical Sunday (September 2015)
Theme: Faith in Christ – to know Him, to love Him, to share Him.

Grace and peace of the Lord Jesus to all.

As Malaysians, we all love food. We have our favorite laksa or cha koay teow stalls where we will bring our family, friends and visitors to. Faith in Christ is like our “laksa” or “cha koay teow” stalls – we want to revisit it over and over again and we want to share it with others. Faith is to be loved and shared. That is the theme for this year’s Catechetical Sunday: “Faith in Christ – to know Him, to love Him, to share Him.”

What is faith in Christ? Faith is our free, personal response to believe in God. Faith in Jesus Christ is to believe that he is the Son of God, the full revelation of God the Father. Our faith in God is expressed through our worship, prayers and sacraments and the witness of life. This is our response to God’s gift of faith.

Our knowledge of Christ faces great challenges today when confronted with questions on faiths, religious extremism, racial polarisation, unethical conversions, Islamisation, the issue of the word “Allah”, various forms of injustices and other social and economic issues that we face today as Malaysians. In the face of these challenges, I will have to ask myself if I have the necessary responses.

Our response as Catholics is not a response of aggression or despair but as St. Paul says, to “stand firm and hold fast to the tradition that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter” (2 Thes.2:15). Just as we have had discussions about which stall has the best laksa, we are invited to discuss and understand faith through the Word of God – the Bible – and the Tradition of our Church in our parish communities. We hope that by our “faith seeking understanding” (St Anselm) through reading, research, and prayer we will come to know Jesus and to love him.

In enjoying our laksa or cha kaoy teow with family and friends, we remember that many of Jesus’ great teachings were shared over a meal with his friends. Just as a good bowl of laksa or cha kaoy teow is to be enjoyed and shared, in knowing and loving Jesus, we can shared our experiences of Jesus with others. We can share how Christ has answered our prayers, our spiritual experiences, our joyful relationship with Jesus, what we learn about faith or our understanding of who God is. It is hope that by sharing our faith in Jesus, others may be encouraged and strengthened in their own faith journey or be converted to believe in Jesus. Faith shared becomes more beautiful, religion becomes a joy and Jesus becomes real.

May Mary, the Mother of God, the first to know, love and share Jesus, intercede for us.

Malaysian Catechetical Commission

[Download in PDF the messages in English | BM | Chinese | Iban]

Here are the said leaflets:

(Page 1)

(Page 2)

Downloads:
English PDF | JPEG: Page 1 – Page 2

BM PDF | JPEG: Page 1 – Page 2

Chinese PDF | JPEG: Page 1 – Page 2