How to Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church

In One Year – One Day at a Time

By  Michael Ciccocioppo

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Camp Hill, PA

27^th Men’s Cursillo (Wilmington Diocese 1979)

Saint Mark’s Table

            The topic of reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church came up during the sharing of formation in weekly Group Reunion.  Several guys expressed a desire to read the entire Catechism.  Most acknowledged that they had only ever used it as a reference book when questions of the teachings of the Church arise.

            Those who had tried to read it admitted to frustration at how they had become bogged down in Part I of the four-part volume.  Of course, the mere size of the tome just became too overwhelming for some guys, and they never got through it.  The fact that some of the sections are very “deep” and need to be read slowly and over and over hampered the progress of others.

            Following group, I reflected on all of this and my own unfulfilled desire to read the Catechism.  I prayed over it and asked the Holy Spirit to lead me if I am meant to read this holy book.  I was led to examine the Catechism and to see if I could figure out a way to break it down and develop a plan for reading it that would overcome some of the hang-ups discussed at my Group Reunion.

            The reading plan that follows addresses many of the common barriers to reading the Catechism.  I want to be clear that the objective here is just to read the entire book.  It is not study it.  In depth study could come later after we read it through at least one time.  Let’s face it, if we read the entire Catechism just one time in our entire life, we will be among a very small percentage of Catholics who will have ever read it even one time!

            Let’s look at the one-page reading guide.  See how the year is broken down into 52 weeks, Monday through Sunday.  So you can begin following it any Monday of the year.  And one year later you will be finished.  Notice the paragraph numbers to be read each day are listed in each cell of the table.  The first three days are devoted to the Prologue.  Then on Thursday we begin reading Part I, Friday Part II, Saturday Part III, and Sunday Part IV.  So at the end of week one, we will have read a little from all parts of the Catechism.  The idea is to keep it interesting and not get bogged down in one part.

            Notice that the columns that contain paragraph numbers from Parts I and III are white.  The columns that contain paragraph numbers from Parts II and IV are shaded.  Scanning down the form we can see that through week 39 we are reading from all parts of the book every week.  In fact, we will finish the shortest section, Part IV, in week 39. 

On average over the course of the year, we are reading about seven paragraphs a day.  When paragraphs are shorter, we read more of them—when they are longer, we read less.  Most days we stop reading at a natural break point.  So now the 2,557 paragraphs in the Catechism just don’t seem so intimidating when we take it one day at a time!  Won’t you join me?

Open Guide here.