YOUCAT for Kids

By Ignatius Press

An exciting and fun new way to help children and parents to discover their Catholic faith together, and a great help for teachers in the classroom.

In child-friendly language, accompanied by talking points for parents and teachers, YOUCAT for Kids explores:

* Creation * The Creed * The Sacraments * The Ten Commandments * Prayer * The Life of Jesus

All the much-loved characteristics of the bestselling YOUCAT series - including fun graphics, quotes from Saints, and thought-provoking images - have been adapted to suit a younger audience.

Designed in consultation with parents and families, YOUCAT for Kids is an essential addition to every family bookshelf and Catholic school classroom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Release date: Jul 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781642291001

Book preview

Foreword

Dear Children and Parents,

An eight-year-old boy from Canada once asked me: What did God do before he created the world? I thought about it and then said: Before God created anything, he loved. That is what he did: he loved. God always loves. That is why, when he created the world, he wasn’t doing anything but loving.

Thumbing through the YOUCAT for Kids, I encounter the questions that children ask their parents and catechists millions of times. That is why I think it is just as useful as the great Catechism, where we can find answers to the most important questions in life: Where does this world come from? Why do I exist? How and what should we live for here in this world? What happens after death? The YOUCAT for Kids is a catechism that is very different from the one I used. It is suitable for children and parents to spend time together in order discover the love of God more and more.

Dear parents, keep this catechism on hand and find the time to look at it with your children—page by page, mystery of the faith by mystery of the faith, question by question. Help your children to discover the love of Jesus! It will make them strong and courageous. I entrust the YOUCAT for Kids to you. Do not grow tired of asking questions and of telling children about your faith. Do not remain silent when you are pressed by your children’s questions; instead, always have the strength to be a mediator of the faith, which you, too, have received from your parents. Be a living chain that makes it possible for the Gospel to be present in our families, communities, and in the Church from generation to generation.

I bless you from the bottom of my heart. Please pray for me.

Preface

Dear Parents, Grandparents, Godparents, and Teachers,

Parents and catechists have repeatedly asked us for a catechism for children. Catechisms have existed in the Church for a long time. A catechism is a kind of manual that contains everything children and adults need to know in order to deepen their knowledge of the Christian faith, step by step, and in order to develop a living relationship with Jesus Christ. A catechism is always authorized by the Church. The Church vouches for the accuracy of its content. Next to Holy Scripture, the catechism is the Church’s most important medium.

In the fall of 2013, parents, teachers, priests, and leaders of children’s groups from Austria, Slovakia, and Germany set out together to write this catechism for children. It was supposed to be cheerful and modern and to appeal to children between the ages of nine and thirteen. We did not want to develop this book as an armchair enterprise, and we agreed right at the beginning to test our results with groups of children. We realized soon that nothing is more difficult than saying something great in a simple and clear way.

And something else became clear to us: a book about the faith can only ever be an aid. It is not enough to thrust the YOUCAT for Kids at a child with the comment, Read this sometime, and then hope that surely the child will find his way to God or deepen his faith on his own. We realized that we would have to write a book for children and their parents. Books can help—but ultimately, sharing the faith cannot be delegated to books or media. Faith can be awakened only by the oldest means in the world: from heart to heart, from person to person. The best books, the coolest movies cannot substitute for parents or grandparents who say, I believe in Jesus. May I show you how wonderful that is? Or, Come, let’s set out together and learn more about our loving God.

We are convinced that the decisive space for sharing the faith is not the classroom, and not even always the church building. Perhaps it is a corner in the nursery, a beach chair by the sea, a bench in the yard, or the edge of a bed. Nothing can substitute for the conversation between people who love and trust each other. Only in a space of loving closeness can the treasure of the faith be shared, passed on, or discovered together. One can ask questions and learn from and with another person. An exciting guide can be part of this endeavor—the YOUCAT for Kids.

Children have lots of questions, for example: Why do I exist? How do we know that God exists? Why was Jesus nailed to the Cross? These are wonderful starting points for using the YOUCAT for Kids. You can look for answers together. The bedtime ritual is the best opportunity for browsing through the YOUCAT for Kids. Of course, you can also select one question or another. It makes most sense to follow the proposed order of questions, because the Church’s understanding of the faith has grown over a period of two thousand years. That is why actually no part of it can be left out without running the risk of leaving out or misunderstanding something important. Sunday, for example, can be understood only on the basis of the Resurrection. If you know something about the Resurrection of Jesus, you can explain Easter. If you have understood Easter, you will be able to tell what happens after we die. This way, one thing leads to another. It is fun to set out and discover God. And it is not only the children who learn something. How often have parents said, It was only when I explained it to my child that it really made sense to me.

How to use the YOUCAT for Kids

We recommend following these steps:

• If you want to prepare, read the page you would like to look at with your child. First, what is it about? Do you understand what is meant by it? Do you have your own understanding of it? Do you need further information? Is there a passage in the Bible you should look up? Consider the illustrations—your child is going to discover them first. The texts with the colored background along the bottom of the page have information for you. You will be able to convey some of it to your child in your conversation.

• When you are with your child, first just look at the page that has a question written on it. There is a lot to discover there, and often there is something to laugh at, too. The two cheeky little kids, Lilly and Bob, make sure there is something to laugh at.

• Now turn to the question. Often, the illustrations will provide a good starting point for a conversation between you and your child.

• Perhaps at this point you will even close the YOUCAT for Kids. Your child has ideas. It is important that your child be allowed first to formulate initial understanding or knowledge about a topic. It is okay if you are uncertain about certain points. It will actually impress your child if you embark on this exploration together.

• After these steps, you can check the YOUCAT for Kids for answers. It is the Church’s common answer, as it has been acquired from the Bible and from two thousand years of the history of the faith. Thus, this answer has a certain weight. Sometimes, the answer you find with your child will not exactly match the experience of the Church. Not everything has to be clarified right away. Turn to the next question. Some things will become clearer as you go along.

• If at the end of your exchange you say a prayer with your child that brings the contents of your conversation before God, you have accomplished something wonderful!

• And there is something else: Pray to the Holy Spirit for the time that you spend in conversation with your child. Even if it seems strange to you initially, you will experience a deepening of your faith.

By the way, we, the authors of this book, did the same thing: we shared our faith. We projected a question onto a wall; and then we tried to find a common answer to it, in accordance with the Bible and the teachings of the Church. We called our method community writing. Thus, the answers in the YOUCAT for Kids, are not from one, but from all of its authors.

And we did something else: throughout all these years, we prayed that we might accomplish something that truly helps children, their parents, and their other teachers of the faith to discover Jesus’ message for their lives.

— The authors of the YOUCAT for Kids

Why do I exist?

You are here because God wants you.

He knows you. He loves you beyond measure, and he wants to make you happy.

God who is love

Jesus appeared to St. Teresa of Avila in a vision and said to her: I would create the universe again just to hear you say that you love me. That’s how important we are to God.

Vision

We speak of a vision (from Latin videre = to see) when God shows himself to a person in a wonderful and miraculous way.

It is a Christian duty . . . for everyone to be as happy as he can.

CS. Lewis (1898—1963), British author and literary scholar

How do we know that God exists?

We know that God exists because we see his traces everywhere.

Look at everything: the sun in the sky, the stars at night, the forests, the mountains, the seas, and the rivers, the big animals and the small, the people on all the continents. God has made all that.

As St. Paul said, In him we live and move and have our being.

Acts 17:28

The fish in the sea said to one another, They say that our entire life depends on water. But what is water? We have never seen it. So they asked a wise old fish to show them water. The old fish said, Oh, you foolish fish! You live in water, and you don’t notice it? Just as fish live in water, so man lives in God. He cannot live without his Creator and sustainer. And still man asks, Where is God? One needs to know two things: first, God is everywhere, and nothing exists without him. Second, God is not everything, but the cause of everything. He is infinitely greater than the things he has made.

Source unknown

Can we know God?

Yes, but not without his help. God is greater than all of our images and all of our thoughts. God is a great mystery.

God wants us to know and love him. That is why he shows himself to us. That is called revelation.

Revelation is what God has shown us about himself. In the YOUCAT, it says: Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love.

See Question 7: Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?

Too big

There is a story about St. Augustine (354-430) going for a walk by the seashore in order to think about God. A child had dug a hole in the sand and was running back and forth with a shell to fill the hole with water. What are you doing? Augustine asked. I’m pouring the ocean into this hole! the child said. That is not going to work, said the saint. The sea is far too big! To which the child replied, And you, Augustine, won’t be able to fit the greatness of God into your little head!

Can I talk to God?

Yes. Talk to him! Ask him to make himself known in your heart.

Not only can you talk to God, God is already waiting for you. It does not matter if you are riding your bike or waiting for a bus. Just talk to him.

Does God really make himself known?

Whoever opens himself to God in silence and in prayer discovers how God