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 40 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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Newsworthy

Catechetical Sunday, September 16, 2012 – “Catechists and Teachers: Agents of the New Evangelization”

Joe Paprocki

This Sunday, September 16, 2012, we celebrate Catechetical Sunday with the theme of “Catechists and Teachers: Agents of the New Evangelization.” With that in mind, I offer the following Catechetical Sunday reflection/homily which you can feel free to use in your own parish. Imagine that you’re looking to go on your dream vacation to an exotic place that you’ve never visited before in which people speak a different language. One way that I don’t recommend […]

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Intermediate Grades

Off to a Good Start!

Joe Paprocki

I was very pleased with my first session of 6th grade religious education last evening! 🙂 Here’s a rundown of highlights and lowlights: Since I teach in the later session and someone is in the room before me, I don’t have much time to set up (15 mins…if I’m lucky) so it is a real whirlwind trying to get things ready. I have this notion that the kids will walk into this very serene and prayerful […]

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Growing as a Catechist

Getting Ready for My First Session with Sixth Graders

Joe Paprocki

Tonight’s the night! I begin teaching 6th graders (Old Testament)! I’ve put together a little video that shows you some of my catechist preparations not only for tonight but for the year…I hope you find it helpful.   In the video, I mention or show a number of resources. Here are links to all of them: My Session Outline – Session One 9/10/12 My Schedule for the Year PROCLAIMING THE WORD Bookmark in Word Prayer Intentions […]

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Intermediate Grades

Helping Young People to Proclaim God’s Word

Joe Paprocki

This year I am going to make a concerted effort to have a Scripture reading proclaimed from the Bible by one of the students during every class. I plan to have the Bible enthroned in the middle of the Prayer Center as always and, when it comes time to hear a Scripture passage, one of the young people will get up, bow before the Bible, and proclaim the reading from the Bible (I will have […]

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Newsworthy

Prayer Intentions

Joe Paprocki

One of the things that I plan to do with my students this year is, as soon as they enter the room, to sit down and write down their prayer intention for that day/week. I will encourage them to either give thanks for something or to pray for someone in need or for a need of their own. Of course you can just have them write them down on a piece of scrap paper but […]

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Being a Catechist

My Learning Space for This Year!

Joe Paprocki

Tonight, I got to take a peek at the room that I will be teaching in this year…it’s the school library! I’m so excited because the focus of 6th grade is the Old Testament and one of the images that I love to use to teach about the Bible is “God’s Library!” Also the room is carpeted which will be very conducive to guided reflections. I’ll have 14 students and I plan to move some […]

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Being a Catechist

A Year of Faith Online Retreat – Now in One Place!

Joe Paprocki

This summer, many of you took advantage of an online retreat titled, “Preparing for a Year of Faith” that I offered here on my blog. Over the course of a month, we reflected on and shared insights about the 4 pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Now, you can access the entire retreat in one place! Just click on the Year of Faith banner below: In the future, this will be availabe under […]

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Being a Catechist

A Couple of Helpful Resources

Joe Paprocki

As I prepare for my first religious education class (September 10), I’ve put together a couple of simple but helpful resources that I’m happy to share with catechists. The first is a Homework Notification Sheet. I’ve never had a whole lot of luck assigning homework in religious education and having kids complete it but part of it may be the fact that my assignments are probably never seen by parents. I thought it would be […]

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Growing as a Catechist

Recording of “Teaching During a Year of Faith” Webinar – Now Available!

Joe Paprocki

As promised, the recording of the Teaching During a Year of Faith Webinar is now available! Thanks to the fast work of my colleagues Nick Yonto and Rosemary Lane, the recording was made available in record time! After today’s post, this recording will be archived above under the Webinars Tab along with all of my other archived Webinars. Enjoy and spread the word!