First Session for 2013-14: Off to a Great Start!

I couldn’t be happier with how my first session went last evening, thanks to a great group of kids, a highly organized DRE, and a wonderful aide (my wife!) I ended up with 9 students having lost one boy and gaining one girl, so now, I have 6 girls and 3 boys. They come from 5 different schools but have “traveled” together through religious education at St. Cajetan for 6 years and have a great […]

Ready….Set…GO!

I’m all set for my first session tonight with the 6th graders at St. Cajetan Parish! I have 9 students so far, 5 girls and 4 boys. I’m blessed this year to have my wife Joanne working as my aide! As always, meet me back here tomorrow to get the summary – the good, the bad, and the ugly – of my teaching experiences! Here’s my lesson in a box! How did your first lesson […]

Session 1: God Keeps No Secrets (9/17/13)

After being postponed for one week due to excessive heat in Chicago, our first session of religious education for the 2013-14 catechetical year takes place tomorrow evening! Thank goodness temps are back where they belong for September in Chicago! The focus of 6th grade religious education is primarily on the Old Testament so, with that in mind, this first session will serve as an introduction to the Bible as one of the most important ways […]

3-Minute Retreat: A Heart Seeking Goodness

Happy Catechetical Sunday! Now before another busy week begins, take a quiet moment to pray for your ministry and for your fellow catechists. A former high school teacher of mine enjoys reminding me and my best friend that, when we were students in his class, we tried so hard to be bad and failed so miserably! It just wasn’t in us to be bad. We came from good families who instilled the love of God […]

Catechetical Sunday – Open the Door of Faith

This Sunday, September 15, 2013, is Catechetical Sunday – a day to celebrate the catechetical ministry of the Church: a “splendid ministry” as Pope Francis has characterized it! This year’s theme is “Open the Door of Faith.” As a catechist, you are responding to a call to share the gift of faith with others, even as you deepen your own faith. This call may have reached you through your pastor, the director of your parish’s […]

Join Me on a VIRTUAL Pilgrimage to Italy!

As part of the Year of Faith, Pope Francis is hosting a Day for Catechists at the Vatican during the last week of September, 2013, culminating in the International Conference of Catechesis. A delegation of religious educators will be attending via a pilgrimage sponsored by the NCEA  as well as other organizations from September 23 through September 30, 2013. For those of us unable to attend in person, I thought I would offer the opportunity […]

A Session Planning Form – For Your Convenience!

So, as it turns out, my first session of religious education for this evening was canceled due to the excessive heat here in Chicago! It is in the mid to upper 90s during this 2nd week of September! Well, that’ll give me more time to polish my own lesson which will now take place next Tuesday! In the meantime, I’ve put the finishing touches on a resource I think you’ll find helpful. It is a Session […]

3-Minute Retreat: Chosen to Love

Now before another busy week begins, take a quiet moment to pray for your ministry and for your fellow catechists. When I was a kid, we were always choosing sides to play games, usually baseball. I was always hoping to be chosen by my cousin Mona who could crush a softball farther than any of us! It felt so special to be chosen by someone that I admired and looked up to. How affirming it […]

Looking Over My Teaching Space

I had the opportunity today to get into the room in which I’ll be teaching 6th grade religious education this year! It is on the 2nd floor of St. Cajetan school…a nice spacious room with carpeted floor and dry erase boards! I’m looking forward to my first session this Tuesday evening!

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