Monthly letters to help put the work of the catechist of the Good Shepherd into the context of the larger world · from the archives
by Catherine Maresca
This is our 20th year.
Since CCTheo began in 1995, every year during Holy Week I have completed Form 990 that non-profits submit annually to the federal government. School is closed, no catechists are placing orders, and the office is quiet enough to focus on the details this form requires. It usually feels like a somewhat penitential work, tedious and humbling.
This document is primarily a financial one, but its purpose is to determine if the organization is truly publicly supported. The income, whether for products, programs or gifts must be from a broad base of friends and beneficiaries to keep the status of “not for profit” that allow your gifts to be tax deductible. And so, by the time I am finished, I am grateful once again for the hundreds of catechists and friends who have contributed in various ways to the livelihood of CCTheo. Without you we could not operate legally or financially.
As we move from Lent into Easter our fasts are over. Our liturgies as well as our food reflect the joy of the resurrection.
We need your help to fund the work ahead: continue to publish Occasional Papers, and develop materials to serve your work and study as catechists and parents of young children.
This year, you have helped us bring our work to the International Celebration of CGS in Phoenix, before an Interfaith community gathering in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the American Montessori Society annual conference in Philadelphia, and Faith Forward, an ecumenical conference in Nashville (2014) and Chicago (2015). You have helped us publish Grace and Courtesy, which will assist catechists as they implement this key aspect of Montessori methodology, a beautiful new set of Scripture Booklets for Level I, and the History of Christianity Timeline, a wonderful resource for the 9-12 atrium. You have helped us send The Seed of God with mission trips to Latin America and Haiti, putting the heart of the Gospel into the hands of children and catechists in English/Spanish or Haitian Creole/French.
Please take this chance to visit our website and purchase a gift for a child or an atrium this Christmas, to prayerfully consider registering for our Sacramental Preparation Collaborative in June, one of our CGS courses this fall, or Weaving our Gifts in October, and to add to that a donation to support our work this year.