Christians believe that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to teach us how to live and how to die, to free us from our own self-centeredness so that we might worship and love the Lord and care for each other and our world. Jesus was the Word-made-flesh: He not only taught about God but shared life eternally with His Father. Faith formation for a Christian is not just about information or content to be memorized; ultimately it means developing a relationship with the Lord Jesus. We study so as to grow in love of the Lord. We believe because we have first experienced self-less, generous love, the love of Jesus who lived and died for us.
"Catechesis" comes from the Greek "to echo": it means "hearing" in ever new ways the faith-encounter we have experienced with the Lord through worship, service and family living. Catechesis is necessary at every moment of the life journey; as we face the challenges and opportunities of growth and adulthood and even our senior years, we need to deepen our relationship with the Lord and part of that happens through study of the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church, always seeking a deeper appreciation of the Mass and the Sacraments and how to respond to the moral questions of our times.