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Comings & Goings

Jammin’ in Joliet!

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 […]

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Intermediate Grades

Beatitudes – Don’t Be Fooled

Although I probably won’t have time to do the following during today’s class (we have some time to look at the Sermon on the Mount but then we’ll be attending the Living Rosary), I thought I ‘d share with you an idea I had for talking about the Beatitudes (which, of course, is the Gospel for All Saints Day, so you may be able to use this quite soon!) The challenge is to help young […]

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Intermediate Grades

The Sermon on the Mount – Beatitudes

For this coming Monday’s session (10/25/10), we will be taking the children to the church for the Living Rosary. We will most likely still have time left for class – probably 20-30 minutes. Our schedule calls for us to learn about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. To introduce the idea of the Sermon on the Mount, I’m going to talk about examples of great speeches in history. To assist, I put together […]

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Intermediate Grades

Yesterday’s Class – Concern About Those Who Are Homeless

Last evening’s session went very nicely as we looked at Jesus’ Law of Love (Love one another as I have loved you) and learned about how we are called to imitate Jesus’ love for others. Here’s a summary: We had a nice review of our last session which was 2 weeks ago. I held up a can of Play-Doh and asked, “Anyone remember what we learned?” and one girl said, “That we can shape our […]

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Intermediate Grades

Jesus’ Law of Love

I’ve had a few ideas for my next class kind of percolating for a while but haven’t had a chance to sit down and create an actual lesson plan until now. Here’s what I have planned for this Monday (Oct. 18), Session 5: Theme: Jesus’ Law of Love Big Idea: We imitate Jesus’ love Review last session Show can of Play-Doh and ask what we learned last session (God can shape us into holy people; God […]

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Prayer/Guided Reflections

A Handout for Leading Spontaneous Prayer

One person who participated in my Leading Prayer Webinar (I’m still gonna get that recording up here for y’all…hang in there!) was Jonathan Sullivan who is the Director of the Catechetical Ministries Office for the Diocese of Springfield, IL. Jonathan posted about how much he enjoyed the Webinar (thanks for the shout-out, Jonathan!) and has developed an excellent handout describing how to lead spontaneous prayer relying on the “you, who, do, through” method. Pay attention […]

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Comings & Goings

BKD in Omaha, NE

I’m on my way home from a very nice day and a half in Omaha, Nebraska (my first time in this lovely state) where I did a Being, Knowing, and Doing workshop for about 35 catechetical leaders. We enjoyed a very nice day together looking at ways we can take better care of our catechists and provide formation for them that includes all 3 dimensions: being, knowing, doing. Here’s a big SHOUT OUT to the […]

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Miscellaneous

If You Have a Moment

The American Catholic Publisher’s Pastoral Leadership Ministry Conference needs to hear from you- parish staff members, school and diocesan leaders, and leaders of other Catholic ministries. The New Ministry Conference Survey takes a few minutes to complete and will be tremendously helpful in guiding the future work of the Conference. Click here to add your comments. If you have already received an invitation to provide feedback from another publisher, please excuse this additional request.

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Creative Moments

Using Current Events – Rescue in Chile

A very effective way to begin any religious education class is to focus on some current event and use it as an opportunity to segue into your lesson. The current story of the amazing rescue of trapped miners in Chile is a perfect example. I had no class this week because of Columbus Day however I have no doubt that I will find a way to use this story in my class for this upcoming […]