The Norbertines at Saint Michael’s Abbey in California have launched an online educational program for parents, catechists, teachers, and administrators of Catholic schools to help deepen their formation in the faith as they pass it on to future generations.
“All of us are in the business of helping Our Lord to save souls, and one way we do this directly is to share the fullness of our Faith with those whom God has given us to form and to educate,” Father Ambrose Criste, one of the program’s instructors, told Zeale News in a March 17 interview. “The Evermode Institute serves to help these educators to become the kinds of apostolic and evangelical catechists whom Our Lord needs, people who will help Him to save souls.”
Named after Saint Evermode, one of Saint Norbert’s closest companions, the institute offers a four-year online curriculum broken up into short class sessions, taught by the Norbertine canons, so as to be easily accessible to people working full time. The classes are taught by the Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey and Corpus Christi Priory in Illinois.
“The Evermode Institute is the living apostolate of our Norbertine community of priests who have dedicated our lives to the renewal of Catholic education,” Fr. Criste said.
He explained that the institute’s creation was inspired after Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, invited the Norbertines at the California abbey several years ago to help his efforts in Catholic education renewal in his diocese.
According to Fr. Criste, there is currently “a real crisis in catechesis: the last two generations of American Catholics have not learned what every believer should know about our Holy Faith, and that means that they are not equipped to teach it to others.”
The Evermode Institute is working “to fill in those gaps,” he said. “In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, we aim to ‘raise the Eucharist high over the miseries and errors of this world.’”
The catechetical program serves diocesan Catholic school systems, individual schools, and parish catechesis formation programs, he explained. Overall, the Norbertines created the institute “to teach the Faith to those who are most responsible for sharing the Gospel: to Catholic School teachers and administrators, to catechists in parishes, and to parents in families,” Fr. Criste said.
Recalling a classic philosophical saying, he quipped, “‘You cannot give what you do not yourself already possess.’”
A program suitable for new catechists and longtime teachers
Recognizing that people have busy lives with family, work, and limited time, the program was designed to have about 4-5 hours of content per semester, with the short sessions designed for added flexibility, he explained.
The curriculum for the first year goes “back to basics,” as the website says, teaching foundational philosophical principles, basic theology and anthology — answering questions like, ‘Who is God?’ and ‘Who is man?’ — and fundamental truths about the Church. Year two focuses on Scripture, Tradition, Faith, the Creed, and basic philosophical logic. Year three examines Christian ethics, virtues, and the Commandments, and year four examines the sacraments, prayer — such as how and why one should pray — and apologetics.
Fr. Criste explained that the curriculum is accessible to both those who are newer in their faith formation journey and those who have been cultivating it for years.
“We have created the curriculum so that it helps to fill in the gaps of the folks who may not have received a thorough catechetical formation in their own upbringing, but it also works well to solidify and strengthen the knowledge of those who already know the truths of our Holy Faith well already,” he said.
The program has received positive feedback from many pastors and principals who have seen the overall Catholic identity of a school improve “when the entire faculty, administration, and staff work together through the Evermode curriculum, however complete or incomplete their previous formation in the Faith has been,” according to Fr. Criste.
Many schools and parishes have adopted a “watch-party” style for the classes, but for individuals taking it, there are also interactive features on the platform to help connect with other participants, according to Fr. Criste. He added that Norbertines are available for follow-up questions and there is also tech support.
The content of the curriculum acknowledges unique challenges faced by believers in the modern age. The Evermode Institute’s website also mentions that “for too long, catechesis has failed to recognize the unique faithlessness and ubiquitous secularism of our age” and that the curriculum is addressing a new catechetical need.
Fr. Criste noted that the philosophical basics in the program “helps to elucidate the errors of secularism and post-Christian modernity so that everyone can see why the fullness of Catholic truth is so necessary as an antidote to contemporary errors.”
The content of the curriculum is not the only means by which the institute seeks to help remedy these issues; the video classes themselves “are beautiful and compelling,” along with the clear, consistent instruction, he noted.
The role of a catechist: ‘To help Jesus Christ win souls for the Kingdom’
Fr. Criste emphasized that there is a deep responsibility held by catechists, saying that “every parent, teacher, and parish catechist is an evangelist, an apostle.”
Everyone learns what being a Catholic Christian believer means through concrete examples from others — people “who love us enough to share the Faith with us directly and personally,” he said.
Fr. Criste added, “This is the role of Catholic families, Catholic parish communities with their catechists, and Catholic schools: to help Jesus Christ win souls for the Kingdom!”