FAQ

Complete, finished atrium materials are not for sale. We do have some materials available in our on line store. Some unfinished materials are available from various sources and through CGSUSA Vendor Members. See the CGSUSA Digital Source List. See “Why We Make Our Own Materials” (Document Library) . Once you are taking a formation course, we encourage you to purchase a subscription to the Materials Manuals, which are available to CGSUSA members on this website. You can find more information here.

In CGS, every child is welcomed into his or her age-appropriate atrium. What a child may have missed in a previous atrium level seems to be “picked up” simply by their living the life of the atrium.

Many parents have taken the formation courses for just this reason. Groups of home schooling parents sometimes collaborate in setting up an atrium in their area. While waiting to attend a course, parents often begin to read the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd publications that are particularly helpful in working with children at home:

• Listening to God with Children; The Good Shepherd and the Child, A Joyful Journey by Cavalletti, Coulter, Gobbi, and Montanaro;
• A Is for Altar, B Is for Bible by Judith Lang Main, and a set of five little books from Colombia, directed to parents, entitled God and the Child Collection.

First, we would like to clarify this nomenclature. A recurring member and an automatically renewing membership are two ways of describing the same option.  This is a feature that many of our members requested for years before CGSUSA was able to provide this feature.  This allows the member to complete a membership form once and have their membership payment renew automatically on the same day each year.  A member is welcome to end or change this option at any time by Contacting CGSUSA. We will be happy to assist.

While this is convenient for the member, it also provides CGSUSA with predictable source of membership income. This is a great gift to the budget process and also shifts focus onto sustaining and supporting the religious life of children and those who serve them. This option frees CGSUSA Staff time and resources from the membership reminder and renewal process to developing member and catechists resources, assisting members, and other tasks.

There are a few ways to confirm. First, recurring members will receive a letter in January confirming that their 2026 membership renewal will be at the 2025 membership dues schedule. In 2025, CGSUSA  began sending email reminders to recurring member the month before these recurring payments process. 

CGSUSA has also added this as a field to the online Member Profile and reflects the member’s status as of the 2025 membership year.  You may view this  logging in to CGSUSA.ORG.  You should be taken to the Member Homepage.  You will see a tab called My Account, the third tab.  Under your name, you will see a link View Profile.  When you select View Profile, you will see all of the information CGSUSA has on file about you except your credit card information. You cannot edit the information on this page.  However, if you do find information listed here that is incorrect, you are welcome to submit an Update Member Profile form.

CGSUSA Staff does not have access to members’ credit card information.  All credit card numbers are stored in an encrypted format with the CGSUSA payment processor only. This is for your security, and no one from CGSUSA or any of our vendors will ever call and ask you to provide your credit card number or to confirm your new expiration date and/or CCV numbers. If CGSUSA Staff return a call to you and you request to make a credit card payment by phone, we are able to take those payments by credit card at your request.

If you need to change the credit card of an existing recurring membership payment (or a recurring donation), CGSUSA Staff will stop all scheduled payments for the existing membership or donation.  You may then create a NEW membership or donation, and you may choose to make the new membership recurring (renew automatically) or not.  This is totally at your discretion when you submit your membership form.

Please note, if you have an existing RECURRING membership as of 12/31/2025 and you elect to stop payment to update your credit card, you will forego the courtesy extension of your 2026 membership renewal at the 2025 membership rate.  Likewise, should your credit card payment fail in 2026, CGSUSA Staff will be unable to process membership payments manually after February 1, 2026 at the 2025 rate.

No.  While this confusion is understandable, the courtesy extension of the 2025 membership dues will be available for the 2026 membership renewal year only.  CGSUSA cannot extend this option into 2027.  As of January 1, 2027, all renewals and all new memberships will be at the new membership dues schedules and the old/2025 schedules will be fully retired.

Thank you for your support both of CGSUSA and of your fellow members!  Join at any level as a recurring member by making sure the box beside the words, Renew Annually, is checked!  Hopefully, you find this helpful to you.  It is also a great help to CGSUSA.  First, recurring members provide a predictable income stream to CGSUSA each month.  Additionally, recurring members require less staff time and resources to manage the renewal and reminder process.

When possible, join as Benefactors, Collaborators, and Partners if your are Organization or Unified Members.  And join as Visionary, Supporting, and Companions members if you have Individual accounts.  When members who are able to give a bit more join at the higher membership levels, CGSUSA is better able to support those with more limited resources.

Give to the Annual Appeal and the Tina Lillig Memorial Fund or reach out the Philanthropy Coordinator for more information!.

Yes! We want all members to remain! Please contact the Membership Office for assistance during this time of difficulty.  As an association of friends, we are always here to help!

Yes, we can convert both your accounts to a Unified Membership but you will forego your recurring membership for 2026.  CGSUSA will set your new membership expiration date to the later of the two dates, regardless of which account expires last.  Some potential Unified Members may wish to maintain separate Individual and Organization accounts for 2026 in order to take full advantage of the courtesy rate extension for the 2026 membership year.  However, others may feel the convenience of single login access outweighs the savings.  This is truly an individual choice. Please Contact Us for more guidance about your particular case.

Formation history is always tied to an individual catechist and, therefore, an individual account.  CGSUSA never record formation history with an organization account even if the contact person is a formed catechists because the contact person may well change in the future.  The intention of the unified account is to provide both individual access (materials manuals access) and organization access in a single login.  The formation history of the individual catechist is sent to the website to grant access to the appropriate materials manuals.  This is way a Unified Membership must always be primarily associated with the individual rather than the organization.

If you have attended catechist formation in the past three years in the United States, this process of granting access to the materials manuals is fully automated.  If you have attended catechist formation course in the past 5-7 years in the United States, it is likely that CGSUSA have your full formation history on record even if you are not yet a member.  If you attended catechist formation over 10 years ago OR if you attended catechist formation outside the United States, you may need to submit a Materials Manual Access Request form to gain access to the materials manuals.

Unfortunately, this is not possible.  The Unified Membership is a single membership with a single payor.  CGSUSA is not able to split the billing between two parties.  You are welcome to select one party to pay for the unified membership and seek private reimbursement.  If this is not a suitable process for you, a Unified Membership may not be a good solution for you and your organization.

An Individual Member is any/all individual persons (catechist, formation leader, aide, director/coordinator, clergy/religious, passionate parent/grandparent). Individual Members will be granted access to the online Materials Members corresponding with the level of catechist formation they have completed

Organization Members are any entity (church/parish, school, regional group, diocese, etc.) that either offers CGS and/or supports those who serve the children as catechists, aides, or formation leaders. While Organization Members do not have access to the online Materials Manuals, there are a variety of CGS resources designed for parishes and groups that induvial members are unable to access.

The Organization Membership is an avenue for churches, schools and regions to show their support of CGSUSA and to provide additional resources for these organizations and communities. These resources are accessed by a primary contact. This primary contact is the one individual person who can access and download the organization resources that may be shared with the other catechists and faith leaders for the benefit of the community in which the organization serves. It is important to clarify that an Organization Membership is not a “group” membership in which multiple catechists would be able to access the Materials Manuals. Because the online Materials Manual is a resource for formed catechists – individuals who have participated in a CGSUSA catechist formation course — and is an extension of their album page, this feature is simply for Individual Membership in which formation is verified for each individual catechist. 

CGSUSA does not offer a multi-user membership (access for multiple individuals with different email addresses/passwords to a single membership account). There are a host of practical, technical, and data security concerns surrounding this type of design, so there are no current plans to develop this type of membership

You do not need to wait until you have completed your formation course to join the National Association. There are many great resources available in the ‘For Our Members’ section of our website that will serve you while you continue your formation as a catechist.

You can download a Hosting Packet from this website.

As a benefit of membership, a small thank you gift  is sent to all new and renewing members, to enhance your work with the children. Most years we are delighted to offer a small packet of mustard seeds.

Absolutely! The Unified Membership is primarily a response to those members who maintain an Individual Membership and serve as the contact person for their Organization Membership.  This allows members to access both accounts with a single login to the website.  It also allows the member and CGSUSA to manage and to renew the as a single membership account with one membership renewal date. 

• Your primary membership will remain with your Individual Membership as this is how CGSUSA tracks your formation history and determines your Materials Manual access. 
• You will continue to log in to the website as you do today with your Individual Membership account (email and password), but you will be able to see both the Individual Member content, like the Manuals, and the Organization Member content.  If you would like to update your email address, please let us know.
• Your Organization Member account will still be listed in the Member Directory if we maintain a name, address, and email for your Organization.
• Your membership expiration date will be set to whichever expiration date is latest.
• Automatically renewing memberships on either account (or on both accounts) cannot be transferred automatically to the new membership.  We can update your account to a Unified Membership, but without your authorization, we cannot create a new recurring payment. 
• At your next renewal (when your new Unified Membership expires), you will be invited to renew your Unified Membership.  You may always choose any membership type (Individual, Organization, or Unified) or level (Contributing, Visionary, Sponsor, Benefactor, etc.) at your Membership Expiration Date/Renewal.
• The new Unified Membership will also have four levels that equal the combined memberships of the corresponding Individual + Organization Membership (Example: Contributing + Sponsor) levels.  There is no additional charge to convert your current, separate Individual and Organization Memberships into a single Unified Membership.

CGSUSA does have materials and supplies to share for tables and booths at events.  Some of these events are yours to share and give away, while others we will need for you to ship back to CGSUSA for the next event!  We do have a form for you to complete to request the CGSUSA Event Box from the national office staff.  Staff members will be in touch to understand your needs and will provide materials and a return shipping label. Please feel free to Contact Us with any preliminary questions you may have. 

Level I Books:

• The Religious Potential of the Child by Sofia Cavalletti
• Nurturing the Whole Child
• The Good Shepherd and the Child by Sofia Cavalletti et al, and
• CGS in a Parish Setting by Tina Lillig comprise a solid overview of this work.

Level II /Level III Books:

• The Religious Potential of the Child 6 to 12 Years Old by Sofia Cavalletti
• The History of the Kingdom of God, Part 2: Liturgy and the Building of the Kingdom, also by Cavalletti, are important to understanding the work as it is given to the six to nine-year-old child.
• The History of the Kingdom of God, Part 1: From Creation to Parousia by Cavalletti is important to the work for the 9-12 year-old child. Other books, articles, and readings will be suggested for each course.

Infant-Toddler Books:

• Baptism Is a Beginning (Bautismo Es un Comienzo) Bilingual Resource
• The Joyful Child by Susan Mayclin Stephenson

Another option, if you are interested in hosting a course, is to see if an atrium exists near your parish and discuss the possibility of sharing hosting duties for a course at the other parish. We offer a packet for those interested in hosting a formation course, which will give you guidelines for your planning.

You can download a Hosting Packet from this website.

Our association regularly receives updates on material changes from the International Council. These clarifications will now be noted in the online Materials Manuals. If you have signed up for broadcast emails, you will receive an email letting you know of material changes as they are made.

Our association has a process in place to assist those who feel called to lead CGS formation courses. A catechist who begins this process must be an association member. The catechist also must have completed all three levels of formation courses (or is close to completing Level III), must have written a personal album at the level at which she/he wants to lead courses, must demonstrate at least three years of experience in the atrium with children at that level, and has an experienced formation leader as a mentor. At this point, the catechist may want to contact the Director of Formation to request a Formation Leader Application.