Thanks to all the folks who spent the day with me today at the St. Charles Borromeo Pastoral Center in the Diocese of Joliet, IL, for a Being, Knowing, and Doing workshop. We had a wonderful day looking at how we can provide formation for catechists that includes these 3 dimensions. Special thanks to Tom Quinlan, the Director of the Religious Education Office, and Joyce Donahue, Catechetical Associate. I was also honored to have in attendance 2 representatives from the Catechetical Office of the Diocese of Springfield, IL, Jonathan Sullivan, Director, and Chris Malmevik, Associate Director. A great big THANK YOU to all of the catechetical leaders who came out today to talk about ways of caring for our catechists! Best wishes to you all!
Miscellaneous
Nice Thoughts About Honoring Parents
I came across some nice thoughts about parents of children in religious education from Lisa Mladinich. She relates how many catechists lament the fact the some parents take little interest in their children’s faith formation. She then goes on to offer some positive advice for honoring them instead of critizing them and provides some practical ideas for catchists to reach out to parents. Good article. Honor Their Fathers and Their Mothers I do have a […]
Catechist Training
A Catechist’s Bill of Rights – The Right to Formation and Training
Today we hear a lot about people demanding their rights! Fortunately, we live in a country that guarantees those rights according to the Constitution. If there were a “catechist’s bill of rights,” one of those rights would be training and formation and I wish that more catechists would speak up, demanding this right. I’ll never forget my friend Brian Lemoi, Director of the Catechetical Office in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, FLA, telling me that, […]
Catechetical Leaders
Help For “New” Catechetical Leaders: Through the Year with the DRE
Back in the day, when I was a “baby” DRE (Director of Religious Education), I turned to a nifty book for help. It was written by Gail McKenna and it was titled Through the Year with the DRE: A Seasonal Guide for Christian Educators (Paulist Press). The book is long out of print, however, the idea stayed with me and inspired me to create a chart a few years ago outlining the “typical” responsibilities that […]
Thank YOU, Joe! It was great. Lots of good comments after.
Joyce, you and Tom are doing great work in Joliet…keep it up!