Catechist's Journey

As we enter this holiest of weeks, I thought I’d share an article with you that came to my attention that does a very nice job of explaining why children (of all ages) are especially receptive to the images, events, and themes of Holy Week. The article is called Holy Week is for Children and it is [...]

A very effective way to lead guided reflections for younger children is to use popular children’s storybooks. You can read a story to the children and then follow it with a guided reflection so that the children can use the imagery from the story as a context for their conversation with God. Many catechists are [...]

More and more today, we hear people saying that they are spiritual but not religious, meaning that they believe in God but choose not to encounter him within the context of the institutional church. One young man has chosen to post a video on YouTube in which he recites a poem about how he loves [...]

Here’s a good example of how times have changed and how catechists need to be aware of how kids will respond to something. As I was observing a 2nd grade class last evening, the catechist was asking the kids to name the 7 Sacraments and giving them clues to help them recall each of them. [...]

Sports is HUGE with kids, so no doubt, kids are interested in the success of Tim Tebow and all the talk about the “miracles” associated with his success, including yesterday’s stunning overtime victory in the NFL playoffs. In case you’re not up-to-date on the whole Tebow phenomenon, here’s a quick summary. For kids, the question [...]

Here is an article about a great resource for teaching kids with autism. http://dreconnect.loyolapress.com/teach/autism-and-faith-our-call-to-the-community.html The article contains information about a free pdf you can download called Autism and Faith. Be sure to take a look.