From a reader:
I teach the Confirmation class at my parish and this past class I asked them what the following words meant: ineffable, consubstantial, incarnate, inviolate, oblation, ignominy, precursor, suffused and unvanquished (these were Bishop Trautman’s words he was afraid we didn’t know or could not learn). My class is 12 kids in 8th and 9th grades ranging very widely in their knowledge of things Catholic. I presented each word and asked what they meant. They were close on several words (unvanquished, ineffable precursor and incarnate) and easily understood the rest with a short explanation. I intend to go over these words with them taking no more than 5 minutes each week. Maybe the difference is that I know and believe in these kids ability to grasp the things of God and the language that goes with it.
As I wrote here:
Words such as "ineffable" point to the nature of a mystery.
If a priest, deacon, or lay catechist could spend two minutes to explain what the word "ineffable" means that would be two minutes well spent on the people of God.
Too much to ask?
