In anxious times, this practical book is good news for parents, teachers, and catechists who introduce Catholic faith and morals to children and young people. Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics may uneasily sit side-by-side, yet those and other Christians can derive wisdom from O’Shea’s educational framework, one attuned to our senses and how they provide the material for fides et ratio. From the pre-colonial missionary period to present time the handing on of the faith has been dependent upon the ability of the catechist to make the faith relevant to the lives of his or her students. Each time we participate in Mass, we have the opportunity to encounter the Lord Jesus in the most intimate way through the reception of Holy Communion. Balancing the natural and the supernatural, the theoretical and the practical, and combining the best of traditional methods with modern educational theory and psychology (with great prudence), Gerard O’Shea describes how a mystagogical catechesis lies at the heart of Catholic education.

In the words of Pope St Leo the Great, Sacraments are the means by which Christ remains visibly present on earth. As a basic theoretical reference we have Manuel Castells (2005) contextualizing the network society. The author suggests that by our asking the question of “who” rather than “why” or “what” we come to deeper understanding of ourselves. It has educated many, at low fees, and raised the Catholic community from the bottom of the social pile.Though the statements lack canonical enforcement, they serve as instruments for technical support, academic collaboration, and expression of solidarity among Catholic schools.

Thus thirteen of our eighteen chapters and appendices address the ‘grand big mac’ picture of religious education, before we come to considering contemporary learning theory and teaching practice, and are offered the author’s ‘liturgical spiral curriculum’ with its ‘mystagogical catechesis methodology’. Receiving the Eucharist means that we enter into union with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, says that in addition to being moments of sanctifying grace, the sacraments are “a special means for passing down this fullness [of the faith], a means capable of engaging the entire person, body and spirit, interior life and relationships with others. Vokalpolyphonie zwischen Alter und Neuer Welt: Musikalische Austauschprozesse zwischen Europa und Latein-Amerika im 16.In the second part, the best of contemporary teaching practices are linked with sound Montessori principles and the Catholic understanding of a pedagogy of God.