Catechist's Journey

In his book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg talks about how we form habits and how we can change them. He specifically describes habits that he refers to as “keystone habits,” explaining that “success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead [...]

Alas, the catechetical year with my 6th graders ended with more of a whimper than a bang last evening! Suffice it to say that their eagerness to be done with Monday night religious education sessions outweighed any anguish they were feeling about not seeing Mr. Paprocki any more! Part of the problem stemmed from the [...]

Here are some excellent and proven evangelization & catechesis strategies. At the end, I”ll tell you where they are from and you will probably be surprised. Appeal to young people since youth is a time of idealism. Make demands on people and you will get a heroic response. Convince people that change is necessary and [...]

I came across this very nice post – The Calling of a Catechist – by Lorrie Lane Dyer in which she reflects on her call to serve as a catechist. This might be helpful for recruiting new catechists (along with a number of other resources I’ve compiled in my Becoming a Catechist feature that can always [...]

I have long been an advocate of assessment in catechesis. At the same time, I have always made it clear that assessment in catechesis is to be used as a tool to address needs (both individual and corporate) and to address deficiencies in the catechetical program. I don’t advocate using assessments to assign report card [...]

In ministerial circles, it is not uncommon to hear the phrase “Faith is caught, not taught.”The point of the phrase is that faith is something that involves more than just transmitting information. With that in mind, it might be helpful to know just what makes a message go “viral” – what makes a message “contagious.” [...]