The path followed for catechetic renewal especially after the Second Vatican Council, has emphasised that "the introduction to the mystery of Christ" definitely implies not only the learning of moral customs and rules, but also the birth of an authentic way of life, determined by Christ’s continuation in the community of His disciples. Simultaneously however it also implies that this is not possible without the intelligence of faith, without the understanding and knowledge of the truth of faith, in which children, the young and adults must encounter the light that illuminates an entire existence and all its difficulties.

Catechesis, as the central element of evangelization and education in the faith, thereby emphasises the Christian’s fundamental dimension: only he who lives within the faith welcomes the faith and is introduced to its understanding, he who somehow shows responsibility for his own existence through a free and personal gesture. The content of faith in fact is not a doctrine that needs to be integrated within the rational framework of those who listen, but is instead the person of Christ who, with His words and His acts reveals the Father’s love, consigning Himself to mankind for mankind’s redemption, to deliver mankind from evil, awakening all in all men the deepest freedom and opening the pathway to truth and glory. Hence only he who allows himself to be renewed by a constant relationship with Him, knows and welcomes the Lord: "Like two friends who, through frequenting each other, also wish to be similar to each other in their customs, we also are able, by informally speaking to Jesus and to the Virgin, (...) and together establishing a life of communion, within the dimensions of our own smallness to achieve a similarity to them...".

This constant relationship with the Lord, a personal knowledge of Him, is made possible only thanks to the novelty of the Church’s life, a Church He Himself founded as a "communion of life, of love and of unity", a place in which it is possible to experience the fullness of the faith and of the teachings received. The catechist, a witness and a teacher, is a member of God’s people and can accomplish his mission because he is already travelling the pathways of faith with his entire existence; this way his task of education in the faith also has a fundamental personal dimension, like a testimony of his intelligence, his belonging to the Church, and in which his whole person are involved, observing the pupil with authentic mercy and love. One might say that the catechist’s task consists in cooperation with Christ’s mission, following Mary’s paradigmatic footsteps: the catechists has a certain maternal dimension, cooperating with his own dedication to the generation of God’s children.

The radicalism of this requirement for every good catechesis helps us to understand Mary’s indispensable presence. Neither the catechist nor he who is receiving instruction can in fact can fulfil their journey if they consider their belonging to the Church only partial, if they forget that the Church is a "communion of faith, hope and love" present throughout history with the necessary means for her visible and social unity.

Mary’s presence within the framework of catechesis emphasises on the contrary with great realism that the Church is the congregation of all those who from the very beginning have believed in Jesus as a Saviour, united in time and in space beyond all limitations. In this way the task of catechesis is rendered possible, a task that can only really be achieved through the names and faces of real people, in an adventure of freedom that welcomes the gift of faith. Such is above all Mary herself, the beginning and perfect fulfilment of the believer’s answer to the Word of God, preceding and forever accompanying the Church, the pathway in faith for all Christian believers.

In this manner therefore Mary is not only present within catechesis as the object of study and meditation, for her unique mission in the fulfilment of the divine plan, as the Immaculate, Mother of God and forever Virgin, risen to celestial glory with her body and her soul; in fact she is also present as a member of the Church, "super-eminent and totally singular", accompanying with love and maternal kindness the event of catechesis, helping the Christian faithful to know and to love God the Father and His Son.

Turning to Mary, requesting her help as a mother and as a teacher, her intercession that she may allow us to accept the gifts of the Spirit, represents in fact a necessary aspect of the great work undertaken by catechesis, with the objective of rendering possible the successful achievement of the catechist’s mission, as a living member of the Church and bring he who is learning closer to the authentic mystery of communion in Christ, a path we men follow, united with Mary, towards the fullness of life and redemption.