Denise Gorss, Author at Catechist's Journey

About Denise Gorss

Denise Gorss is a catechist with 18 years experience, mostly in junior high. She appreciates the gifts of Ignatian spirituality and likes sharing various types of prayer with the young people in her groups. She enjoys seeing the world on pilgrimages and lives in the Chicago area, where she works as Web Editor at Loyola Press.

What's your favorite thing about being a catechist? - question and question marks

10 Favorite Things About Being a Catechist

Denise Gorss

What’s your favorite thing about being a catechist? We asked this question on our Catholic Faith Formation Facebook page and got some great responses. My first graders renewed my energy for teaching them, with their innocence and enthusiasm. My seventh graders challenge me to step it up and try to help them through the jungle of unbeliefs they are facing in their everyday world. —Ruth Campbell Spitzer Renewing my faith through sharing it with others […]

Joe Paprocki accepting the NCCL award from NCCL Executive Director Margaret Matijasevic and President Ken Ogorek

NCCL Catechetical Award Winner

Denise Gorss

Congratulations to Joe Paprocki, DMin, on receiving the 2018 NCCL Catechetical Award. Presented by the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of catechesis. Joe 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. He has authored numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox and his newest title, Living […]

Catechist's Summer Prayer - text over silhouetted woman praying

A Catechist’s Summer Prayer

Denise Gorss

Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you at the end of another year of faith formation. Thank you for all of the good this year: For the students you brought to my classroom, their laughter and participation and sharing. For my growth this year as a catechist and as a Catholic Christian developing her own faith. I ask blessings upon all of us as we go forth to summer break: For my fellow catechists and […]

Arts and Crafts in the Classroom for the Non-Artist Catechist

Denise Gorss

Arts and crafts are not my specialty. I am upfront about this with my students, but I don’t want my lack of art skill to mean that we don’t have any artistic activities in our sessions. I certainly appreciate fine art. I have asked young people to draw pictures as responses to themes we’re discussing. And I do find some projects that I can lead that appeal to the artistic side of young people. What’s […]

Story, Art, and Prayer in Holy Week

Denise Gorss

Holy Week presents a perfect opportunity for catechists to change what might be the usual format for the session and create a retreat-like atmosphere to explore themes from this climax of the liturgical year. I do that in my seventh-grade classroom by focusing on several prayer experiences and activities aimed at helping the young people grasp the story of Jesus’ Passion and Death. I’ve written before about Preparing for Holy Week in Junior High, but […]

Six Ways to Keep the Message of Lent a Focal Point All Season

Denise Gorss

How can we catechists keep the message of Lent a focal point in our classes for six weeks? Beyond keeping a purple cloth on the prayer table, here are a few ideas for keeping Lenten themes the focus of every session for the entire season. Challenge young people to silence. I started this last year with my seventh graders. At first they had a hard time settling themselves for a few moments of complete silence […]

Making Space for Questions

Denise Gorss

A recent class discussion showed the importance of building trust over time, which allows young people to feel free to ask hard questions. We were talking about the miracles of Jesus (Finding God, Grade 7, Chapter 12) and how they showed his love and respect for all people. That led to a discussion on how we are also called to respect the dignity of all life according to Christ’s example and Catholic social teaching. The […]

Improvising in a Different Space

Denise Gorss

After a few weeks in a different classroom space, I was happy to return to my regular classroom. We had spent several weeks in the parish center across the street from the school while some maintenance issues—most notably, a broken furnace—were addressed. During this time, I had to improvise on a few things. I didn’t have access to Bibles for each young person. I carried over a couple of Bibles, one to display in our […]

Celebrating the Saints All Year

Denise Gorss

Too often we think the only time to teach about the saints is during November or the end of October as we lead up to All Saints Day. While that is indeed a great time to talk about all the saints, opportunities to learn about the saints exist all year long. As we settle into the new year, let’s look at some of those opportunities. In January, many people like the tradition of picking a […]

Evaluating the Marian Learning Stations

Denise Gorss

When I wrote about the Marian learning stations, I might not have been realistic about what we could accomplish in the time allotted. Because I wanted to keep working groups small—three or four people per station—I went with more stations than I should have. As a result, we ran out of time before everyone could get through all the stations, especially since each activity took a different amount of time to complete. The idea, you […]

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