I absolutely love Holy Week, especially the Triduum. It’s what we are all about. It is also Catholicism at its best. Today, we celebrated Palm Sunday Mass at St. Julie Billiart in Tinley Park…what a beautiful liturgy and a splendid way to enter into Holy Week. When I say that Holy Week and the Triduum are Catholicism at its finest, I mean that the power of the liturgies…word and sign…touch us at our deepest core. Catholicism […]
My friend and colleague Sr. Julie Vieira sent this to me via her blog, A Nun’s Life: I just recently read an article about your website and decided you might be able to help me. I teach a Sunday class of 12-14 year olds.It is a basic doctrine class and these young people have been baptized and are preparing for the sacraments of Confession & Eucharist. They struggle with understanding the Holy Trinity and who […]
Summer is a good time for catechists to get some spiritual enrichment from reading. More often than not, however, catechists I speak to are not sure of where and how they can locate Catholic publishers to explore their reading materials. I recommend the following resource: the Member Directory of The Catholic Book Publishers Association (www.cbpa.org/members.html). From their Web page, you can identify various Catholic publishers and then follow the links to the publishers’ own Web […]
A few days ago, I wrote about ten things than can and will go wrong. Well, wouldn’t you know it, one of those things (#9 to be precise) DID go wrong last night! The catechist who was “on” for leading the class last night (I was scheduled to just sort of “co-pilot”) did not show up. I had nothing planned and a room full of 8th graders to keep occupied for 75 minutes! Luckily for me, […]
Kids are very familiar with the tradition of people decorating their homes for Christmas with creche scenes that draw from Scripture. Here’s an idea to prod the imaginations of young people and help them to focus on Scripture images from the Easter stories: Invite your students to imagine that they own a business that manufactures home decorations. First, have them brainstorm all of the figures that need to be manufactured for a creche scene (Mary, […]
Religious education classes at the parish where I serve as a catechist are 75 minutes. That’s not a bad amount of time although it really seems like 90 minutes would be more effective, especially to allow for more substantive prayer experiences. I think it would also be nice to have occasional “extended” sessions that last 2 to 3 hours, perhaps once a month or at least quarterly. Where is it written that classes must be […]
This past Monday, we gave an end-of-the-year assessment to our 8th graders that covers all of the basics of the Catholic faith: the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, parts of the Mass, and so on. First, we spent the week before reviewing, especially the Ten Commandments, which far too many of the kids seemed fuzzy on. Then, we gave the assessment, and, I’m happy to report, they did very well on. There were a handful of […]
I love the Opening Prayer for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: “God our Father, your Word Jesus Christ, spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death he endured. TEACH US, THE PEOPLE WHO BEAR HIS NAME, TO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE HE GAVE US: may our faith, hope, and charity turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, death to eternal life. We ask this through Christ our […]
With the end of the program year coming up soon, Patti and I are thinking of planning a pizza party for our class following our last session. We’ve received the DRE’s blessing as long as we have permission slips, etc. (the pizza place is right across the street from the church!) Several catechists have commented on this blog that they have done similar things to bring closure to their time together. The program has a […]
From my experience as a catechist, I’ve compiled a list of the top ten things that can go wrong when teaching a class. These are not in any order. Do these resonate with your experience? What else would you add? Your audiovisual equipment either didn’t show up or doesn’t work You find yourself short on the amount of books, handouts, or materials needed You are emotionally and/or physically run down and can’t find the energy […]
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