Beatitudes and the Catechist: Blessed Are the Meek

This is the third article in a series exploring the Beatitudes as they relate to being a catechist. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) Happy are the catechists who meet kids where they are, for they will win over the classroom. I had quickly lost control of a recent class. One of the boys kept laying his head down on the table. Another boy was more interested in having […]

9 Advent Attitudes – #8: Remaining Even-Keeled

Advent is, above all else, a season of hope—a virtue that is all too rare in our world. To live as a person of hope is to behave in such a manner as to draw suspicion that we are behaving somewhat erratically as far as worldly norms go. This new type of behavior—what some may even call erratic behavior (the behavior that led people to conclude that the Apostles were “under the influence” on Pentecost)—is […]

More About Meekness

Back when the Beatles were in business, they occasionally wrote songs that they themselves thought of as “throwaways,” meaning that they didn’t really think much of the songs themselves and yet, often these songs turned out to be hits, resonating with their fans. I have to admit that occasionally, I consider some of my posts  to be “throwaways” – something that I post because I can’t think of anything else at the moment and, it […]

Blessed Are the Meek: Redefining Meekness

We don’t use the word meek too often nowadays. For me, the only time I heard this word when I was growing up other than in the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the meek”) was in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy introduces herself to Oz, the great and powerful, as Dorothy, the small and meek. So, naturally, I grew up thinking that to be meek was to be the opposite of powerful: weak and powerless. If […]