For years, State Farm Insurance has promoted itself as being a “good neighbor” with its popular jingle, “like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRS4shfH1Pw The gospel for this Sunday challenges us to be a good neighbor but adds a definition for what it means to be a good neighbor: it means to be one who shows mercy. Being a good neighbor means more than just maintaining a clean lawn and keeping the noise […]
The New Evangelization is a renewed invitation to conversion. Unfortunately, conversion is a word that is often misunderstood. We tend to think of conversion as either the changing from one Christian denomiation to another or a dramatic bolt of lightning in which we hear God’s voice loud and clear, calling us to a major change in life. As a result of these rather limited understandings, most people don’t feel that they have experienced, are, experiencing, or […]
As we celebrate this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we turn our thoughts to the importance of dreaming. Not the kind of dreaming we do in our sleep, but the kind of dreaming that involves imagining. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, Dr. King imagined the possibility of a world that would more closely reflect God’s will. The words of his famous “I Have a Dream Speech” echo the dreams of the Prophets, most […]
If Dorothy Day stood for anything, it was the centrality of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the life of Catholics. She once said that everything a baptized person does should be, directly or indirectly, related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Unlike some who reduce Christianity to a philosophy, Dorothy Day knew that Christianity was an embodied set of practices: things that we DO for others. In his book, The […]
WEEK THREE: The Moral Life (Life in Christ) DAY 4: Learning to Detect Patterns (Social Justice) The children’s show Sesame Street has a feature called One of These Things is Not Like the Others in which they show a series of images, inviting the viewer to identify which of the things was different or doesn’t match or belong to the group. The activity is accompanied by a song with the following lyrics: One of these things is not […]
WEEK THREE: The Moral Life (Life in Christ) DAY 2: What’s Your Secret? (The Commandments, Beatitudes, and Virtues) Did you ever try to find out if someone was planning a surprise party for you or try to find out what kind of gift they may have gotten you for your birthday or Christmas? It’s not easy to pry a secret out of someone! Thankfully, we have a God who does not keep secrets. In fact, God is quite the opposite. God […]
In this segment of Catechists in Action, Marge Garbacz continues her introduction to Catholic Social Teaching by inviting the participants in her RCIA to apply the 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching to current events in the news. Watch for the following: Marge distributes copies of breaking news stories from local Chicago newspapers. Marge identifies one of the news stories and invites participants to look over the themes of Catholic Social Teaching and apply them […]
In this segment of Catechists in Action, Marge Garbacz introduces her RCIA to the concept of Catholic Social TEaching. Watch for the following: Marge welcomes the group back from break…she is always SO hospitable! She introduces the concept of the “best-kept secret” of the Catholic Church and invites one of her team members to identify that as Catholic Social Teaching Marge expounds a bit on CST and then invites participants to find the 7 themes […]
Last evening’s class was a lot of fun and very productive. I told the kids that they were going to take a “final exam” and, of course, they all freaked out. I then proceeded to calm their fears and tell them that we were going to review first and that the test was just a way to see what “stuck” and what we might need to cover on our last class. I then did the […]
Last evening’s class went very nicely, however, I really felt like I needed to ovecome some “rust” after a few weeks of not teaching (because of interruptions in the schedule). For one, I forgot to include our little ritual gesture of marking our foreheads, lips, and hearts with the sign of the Cross at the start of class! Didn’t think about it till I got home and was reviewing in my mind how the class […]
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