2008 - Page 15 of 18 - Catechist's Journey

Words of Encouragement

After a tough night last night with my 8th graders, just 5 days before their Confirmation, I felt very much in need of some words of encouragement this morning. Thankfully, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI offered the following words a few days ago speaking to parents, teachers, priests, and catechists about the importance of education: VATICAN CITY, FEB. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Although it is difficult to educate the children and youth of today in goodness, […]

The Our Father – Our Declaration of DEpendence

Joe Paprocki

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting to about 150 high school teens and their group leaders at St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange. Our topic was Living the Mass and we had a very engaging experience together. One of the parts I most enjoyed was speaking about the Lord’s Prayer. Here’s what I did: I recently purchased a replica of the Declaration of Independence (it’s poster size and only cost $9.95 from American Family Traditions […]

Monday, Monday

Joe Paprocki

Looking forward to Monday, it will be the first time in a while that I’ve had an entire period with my students! It’ll be nice to have a solid block of time with them again. This Monday is the confirmation assessment that I’ve alluded to before. It will be very interesting to see how well the young people can recall basic information about their faith. I also look forward to talking with them about their […]

Overdoing the Celebration of Culture

Joe Paprocki

Saint Patrick’s Day will fall during Holy Week this year for the first time since 1940. This means that there will be no Mass in honor of St. Patrick on March 17 which is the Monday of Holy Week (according to the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship). Many Catholic bishops are asking for even more sensitivity to this overlap by urging parades and festivities to be scheduled outside of Holy Week. Many cities and […]

NIU – Where's the Monster?

Joe Paprocki

There’s a popular children’s book featuring Grover from Sesame Street titled There’s a Monster at the End of This Book! I remember reading this book to my daughter when she was little. Throughout the book, loveable furry Grover begs the reader not to turn the page for fear that there is a monster at the end of the book. At the end, Grover says, “oops, I am so embarrassed” because the monster at the end of […]

Pray for Our Young Catechists

Joe Paprocki

The following thoughts are from George, a young catechist from out West, who sent me an e-mail sharing some of his thoughts about being a catechist. Let’s pray for this thoughtful young man and for all of our young catechists and potential catechists out there! As you already know, being a teenager has its ups and downs. Most of the time, I am faced with the challenge of finding scholarships for college and finding time for […]

Tragic Deja Vu

Joe Paprocki

It is with great sadness that I provide a link to my 4/16/07 post that followed the Virginia Tech shootings. In that post, I offered some strategies for helping children to cope with disaster. In light of the shootings at Northern Illinois University yesterday, I’m aware of the fact that some of us catechists may find ourselves in a situation where it would be prudent for us to speak about the incident. My thoughts and prayers […]

Valentine's Day and Outward Signs

Joe Paprocki

I find Valentine’s Day to be a wonderful opportunity to talk about the Church’s sacramental life. A traditional definition of a sacrament is “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” For the most part, this is a good definition, especially the phrase “outward sign.” Catholic sacramentality basically expresses our belief that the invisible God can be recognized and encountered through the physical world. That’s why we use water, oil, bread, wine, flame, etc. […]

A Meditative Test

Joe Paprocki

In two weeks (we have no class this coming Monday), the 8th graders will be given their Confirmation Test/Assessment. As I’ve been explaining to them, this is not a pass or fail proposition, but rather, an assessment of each student’s grasp of the basic content of the Catholic faith. For those who do not do well on the assessment, my aide and I will design some steps to take to assist them in grasping the […]

Ya Gotta Laugh

Joe Paprocki

Last night, we took our classes to church for the Lenten Sacrament of Reconciliation. For the most part, they behaved very well and it was a very nice service (it includes individual confessions which means the kids need to behave for a long stretch of time). My aide, Kris, and I were talking afterwards about how funny the kids can be. While some of the behavior can be a bit maddening, most of it makes […]