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!
Approaches/Techniques
The Catechist as COACH
I’m always amazed at how many men I see coaching their kids’ soccer, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and even lacrosse teams! And yet, so few men feel called to serve as a catechist when, in my mind, it is another form of coaching. Perhaps too many men view being a catechist as a feminine/nurturing role that they are not comfortable with. Fortunately, a growing number of men are discovering how to serve as catechists in […]
Roman Missal Changes
A Catechist’s Guide to the New Translation – from the Diocese of Lansing
Thanks to my colleague Denise, here’s a resource for catechists to use to implement the new translation of the Roman Missal. It’s from the Diocese of Lansing, MI, and it is quite thorough. http://www.dioceseoflansing.org/catechesis_k12/Roman_Missal_Children_Adolescents.pdf It basically constitutes a mini-curriculum on the Mass that would require 8 sessions. What I’m hearing from a lot of catechetical leaders, however, is that they are not planning on setting aside such large chunks of time from their regular curriculum (for […]
Catechists in Action
Catechists in Action – An Evening with Nick
Last night, I attended 5th grade catechist Nick Yonto’s religious education session at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Cary, IL. This was the first installment of my new feature, Catechists in Action, in which I will be visiting and videotaping catechists in the Chicago area, and posting about the experience here on my blog. I thoroughly enjoyed Nick’s class last evening and am working with my colleagues here at Loyola Press to ready the […]
Thank YOU, Joe! It was great. Lots of good comments after.
Joyce, you and Tom are doing great work in Joliet…keep it up!