In today's world of so many conflicting voices competing for our attention and allegiance, the rock upon which Jesus founded His Church indeed brings clarity to our vision and and perspective on life.

The Reverend James F. Kauffmann and his altar servers show profround reverence and respect for the Sacred Scriptures by a procession from the sanctuary to the ambo with the Evangeliary held aloft before the Gospel reading at Mass. Following the Gospel reading and before the homily, Father Kauffmann and his altar servers process from the ambo to the Vatican II altar where the Evangeliary is placed for the remainder of Mass.

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In his apostolic exhortation, Catechesi Tradendae (Catechesis in Our Time) Pope John Paul II clearly emphasizes the relationship between ongoing, systematic catechesis and the faith formation both of an ecclesial community and the individuals within it (cf. General Directory for Catechesis, 176). He says, “[C]atechesis is closely linked with the responsible activity of the Church and of Christians in the world. A person who has given adherence to Jesus Christ by faith and is endeavoring to consolidate that faith by catechesis needs to live in communion with those who have taken the same step” (Catechesi Tradendae, 24).

Thus, the continual process of catechesis is woven into the regular pattern of Saint Benedict Parish, from ongoing teaching on the Christian family as the domestic church and encouraging the educating role of parents, to a myriad of catechetical opportunities where, beginning with the catechetical moment at the Liturgy and continuing throughout the week, the faithful are regularly taught the Catholic faith. For “catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of human beings” (Catechesi Tradendae, 23).

Formation in the faith cannot happen without an adequate and systematic catechesis that serves to shape deeply one’s experience of life; thus making it authentically Christian (cf. Catechesi Tradendae, 21-22).

“Catechesis aims…at developing understanding of the mystery of Christ in the light of God's word, so that the whole of a person's humanity is impregnated by that word. Changed by the working of grace into a new creature, the Christian thus sets himself to follow Christ and learns more and more within the Church to think like Him, to judge like Him, to act in conformity with His commandments, and to hope as He invites us to” (Catechesi Tradendae, 20).