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.

8 Steps to Energize Your Faith video series

8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Step Five: Show Compassion

Joe Paprocki

Often, we come to know someone’s “true colors” as a result of an experience with that person in which he or she speaks and acts in a significant manner. For the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt, they came to know God and his true colors as a result of the Exodus/Passover experience, when God revealed his overflowing compassion for an oppressed people. Throughout Scripture, we find compassion to be a defining attribute of God, as […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: The Eucharist Is One Choice You’ll Never Regret

Joe Paprocki

When eating out at a restaurant, we have so many choices to make from the menu! Unfortunately, we sometimes make choices that we later regret. In a similar way, life offers us many choices for satisfying our spiritual hunger. Some of the things we say “yes” to, however, are not always the best choices, and we end up regretting them later. When we go to Mass, the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion […]

Pop-Up Prayer: Guest Jean Heaton

Joe Paprocki

I firmly believe that 12-step practices can teach us much about spirituality and, specifically, prayer. In this episode of Pop-Up Prayer, I ask Jean Heaton, author of Helping Families Recover from Addiction: Coping, Growing, and Healing through 12-Step Practices and Ignatian Spirituality, to share some insights about how each of us can find strength in prayer when we find ourselves at “the end of our rope” and experiencing powerlessness. For more information about 12-step practices […]

Offering Parents a Little HELP

Joe Paprocki

Recently, the National Community of Catechetical Leaders (NCCL) conducted a survey of more than 300 parish catechetical leaders, asking them to identify the most critical issues in catechesis today. At the top of the survey was “Parent Education and Formation.” Simply put, catechists and catechetical leaders recognize that, if we want to form children in faith, we need also to form their parents! Of course, this begs the question, “What resource(s) can we use to […]

8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Step Four: Build and Celebrate Relationships

Joe Paprocki

What does the doctrine of the Trinity have to do with our everyday living? Quite a bit, actually! We are all made in the image and likeness of God, and our God just happens to be a community of Persons. In other words, one of God’s defining attributes is relationality. God reveals himself to us as a community of three Persons—the Trinity—whose love is so great and so intimate that God is One. We can […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Teaching Our Children Reverence

Joe Paprocki

A few years ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Hawaii, and among the many places we visited was the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. It was extraordinary to experience the quiet that envelops the entire area as people walk and stand in hushed silence out of reverence and respect for the thousands of people who died in the attack there on December 7, 1941. Reverence, in many ways, is becoming a lost […]

Being a Catechist

Who’s Got Your Back? The Catechist’s Reliance on Church Documents

Joe Paprocki

Have you ever noticed that when an attorney gives a press conference, he or she is almost always positioned in front of a bookcase full of law books? The message is a not-so-subtle reminder that the attorney is backed by the law that is contained in those books. The placement of those bookcases represents the law stating unequivocally, “I’ve got his/her back!” Attorneys, of course, must be familiar with the contents of these books if […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: The Mass as Sacrifice

Joe Paprocki

While it is true that the Mass is a meal, it is also true that the Mass is a sacrifice. The concept of sacrifice is often lost on us in today’s contemporary culture. In essence, a sacrifice is the offering of something valued and precious to another. In Old Testament times, it was customary for the Jewish people to sacrifice animals in the Temple as an offering to God. Jesus did away with this form […]

First Holy Communion Novena

Joe Paprocki

Encourage families preparing a child to receive First Eucharist with a novena-style prayer to pray at home. Download the First Holy Communion Novena and make copies for parents, instructing them to begin praying 10 days before the day of First Holy Communion. Each day’s prayer time includes parts for children and parents, as well as a suggestion for a family practice for the next day. The text for the novena is from Christ Our Life, […]