Looking Ahead: Sacraments of Initiation

Joe Paprocki Intermediate Grades

As I look ahead to this coming Monday’s session, I see that I am scheduled to teach about the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It’s one of those strange situations where I’ve been teaching about the Old Testament and then all of a sudden I’m supposed to teach about the Sacraments of Initiation. Personally, I want to be able to keep a connection with the Old Testament going so I plan on developing a lesson that roots these Sacraments in Old Testament experiences and images – easily done with the Exodus story for Baptism and the Passover for Eucharist. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Also, this Monday’s session will be an Open House which means that I might have a few parents popping in to see their “young’uns” in action.

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About Joe Paprocki 2742 Articles
Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.

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6 Comments

  1. joe – always make that connections with the 6th graders as we study Old Testament but forget to go back with 7th when we look at sacraments/New Testament. So, what about reconciliation? where does that fit in?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Sharon and thanks for your comment. Lots of stories of forgiveness in the Old Testament. Perhaps David seeking repentance after his sin with Bathsheba?

      Reply

  2. Leviticus is full of examples such as this one:

    When a man is guilty in any of these, he shall confess the sin he has committed, 6 and he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering…and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.

    On a more personal level, David confesses his sin to Nathan, and Nathan mediates God’s forgiveness to David.

    We cover both of these models for confession in my 6th grade class.

    Reply

  3. I am a 3rd year catechism teacher in Illinois, Springfield Diocese with your brother as our Bishop! We are struggling to find a curriculum to teach, that is set up and designed for ease of use and able to be taught by any volunteer catechist, throughout our tri-parish, parish religious education as well as in our Catholic gradeschool. Do you have any suggestions, resources that you use in Northern Illinois that would be a good place to start? The reason I ask is that I just found your website, as a result of being given your book “A Well-Built Faith” and I noticed that you were “scheduled to teach sacraments of initiation.” I was wondering what your curriculum is. Can you help?

    Reply

    • Hi Christie and thanks for your comment. I use the Finding God program from Loyola Press which meets all of the needs you stated above. I’ll send you an email with some links to info.

      Reply

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