Articles by Joe Paprocki

About Joe Paprocki

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.

Helping Adults Deal with Holiday Stress

Joe Paprocki

Advent is fast approaching and, along with it, the stress that comes with the secular holiday season. Often, the Church’s message for Advent is that we need to slow down and find some quiet time. Too often, that message is delivered as a scolding accompanied by a condemnation of the fast-paced and noisy secular celebration of the holidays. While there is plenty to critique about how our culture celebrates Christmas, the scolding approach offers little […]

Celebrating National Bible Week: November 15–21, 2015

Joe Paprocki

Since the Second Vatican Council and the issuing of Dei Verbum (the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) 50 years ago, there has been an explosion of renewed interest in Scripture among Catholics. Against that backdrop, it’s exciting to know that Catholics will observe National Bible Week in the United States, November 15–21, 2015. This is a great opportunity for your parish to promote reading, studying, and praying with Scripture. The USCCB has put together a number of […]

Parent Reconciliation Gathering

Joe Paprocki

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is like receiving an embrace from God, but too many Catholics fear the sacrament because they don’t understand it. When we invite parents to a meeting before their children receive First Reconciliation, we have an opportunity to help adults learn more about the sacrament. Use this opportunity to encourage parents and invite them to come to confession when their children do and be embraced by God. To help you do this, […]

Recruiting Responders for Adult Faith Presentations and Parish Missions

Joe Paprocki

If you’ve been following Catechist’s Journey for a while, no doubt you’ve read my lament that one of the mistakes we make in adult faith formation is that we assign participants a passive role: we bring in a speaker to do a presentation, perhaps open it up for some Q & A, and call it a night. One way to ensure that there are more voices being heard than the guest speaker is to recruit several […]

Service Within the Context of Faith and Discipleship

Joe Paprocki

More and more, I am finding that many parishes have numerous adults involved—under the radar, in many respects—in giving service to others. On a weekly basis, folks are visiting/staffing food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and so on. They are preparing sandwiches, folding clothing donations, and delivering meals to people. All of this is wonderful. However, we are not doing enough to help people see their efforts through the lens of faith. There are numerous […]

Viewing Oprah’s “Belief” Series From a Catholic Perspective

Joe Paprocki

Beginning this Sunday, October 18, 2015 (8 p.m. ET/PT), a worldwide phenomena of sorts will take place as Oprah Winfrey launches a seven-night event, Belief, on the OWN network. This series will explore humankind’s ongoing search for connecting with something greater than ourselves. It is part of Oprah’s ongoing quest to have a conversation on the topic of spirituality. No doubt, Oprah’s Belief series will be the topic of water-cooler conversations in the week to […]

How to Make a Portable Labyrinth

Joe Paprocki

One of the mistakes we make in adult catechesis when it comes to prayer—one of the six tasks of catechesis—is that we talk about prayer instead of simply engaging people in experiences of prayer and then unpacking those experiences later. I have learned that a very effective tool for engaging people, especially beginners, in the life of prayer is the labyrinth. A labyrinth is a circular pattern with a cross at its center, and a person […]

First Mercy Project: Care Packages for the Homeless

Joe Paprocki

This past Tuesday, the fifth graders in St. Cajetan’s RE program assembled care packages of personal hygiene items for the homeless. This took place as part of a unique partnership between the fifth-grade class and the Action for Others campaign at Loyola Press. Employees at LP were invited, over the past two weeks, to purchase and donate personal hygiene items or cash toward the project. I delivered the items to the parish and assisted the catechists and […]

Strengthening Adult Faith at Christmas

Joe Paprocki

Adult faith formation leaders are always planning ahead. With that in mind, here is a suggestion for an effective strategy for Christmas. Many parishes are finding that the celebration of Christmas in the parish is a wonderful opportunity to focus on strengthening the faith of adults (many of whom do not regularly attend Mass) by doing a book giveaway at all of the Christmas Masses. Loyola Press is ready to assist you in such an effort […]

Who Do You Recruit to Animate Adult Faith Formation? Try a “Regular Guy”

Joe Paprocki

My favorite radio station in Chicago—WXRT, 93.1 FM—features a movie critic who goes by the name of “The Regular Guy.” Since 1984, DJ Marty Lennartz has portrayed a stereotypical gritty Chicagoan giving his take on the current motion picture hits. The bit is brilliant, of course, because listeners fashion themselves as “regular people” who can relate to this movie critic who has no airs about him. That explains my answer to the question, “Who do you […]