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.

Ohio Catholic Education Association

Cincinnati, here I come! I’m privileged to have the opportunity to do a couple of workshops at the Ohio Catholic Education Association conference in Cincinnati this week. I’ll be speaking on The Catechist’s Toolbox and Living the Mass. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you about how your first few weeks of teaching are going! Send in your comments.

A Walk Through the Bible

For last night’s class, I did my best  to walk the young people through the Bible. Unfortunately, as happens, we had some interruptions (a fire drill and a time out to have the kids sign a banner for the Year of the Priest) so in the end I only had about 40 minutes to teach…I got as far as getting the Jewish people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea and ran out of […]

The Story of the Bible in a Nutshell

I’ve decided that, since we’ll have no class next Monday (Columbus Day) and that when we return, we jump right into a unit on Jesus Christ, tonight will be a good night to do an overview of the Bible with my 8th graders, taking them through the story of salvation history that culminates with Jesus Christ. Click here for an outline of passages that tell the narrative of the story of salvation history in a chronological sequence […]

A Catechist of HOW MANY Years?

72 years as a catechist! That’s right…Maureen Power, 87 years of age from Marrrickville (Australia) was recently honored for her 72 years of service as a catechist! She began at the age of 16 and has never looked back. God bless her and all catechists who dedicate themselves to proclaiming God’s Word to people of all ages! Have a great weekend!

The Holy Spirit: Our Advocate

As I mentioned yesterday, one of the concepts we covered in Monday evening’s class was the Holy Spirit as our ADVOCATE. To help illustrate this point, I invited my aide, Lucy, to share her experience as a nurse, explaining how she advocates for patients. Here’s what happened: I first asked if anyone knew what an advocate is or what it means to advocate for someone. One of the young men responded that “it means to […]

A Mighty Wind!

This past Monday evening, Chicago lived up to its name as the “windy city” (although that name originated not as a description of the climate in Chicago but of the politics!) with wind gusts reaching 40-50 mph. A good night to be teaching about the Holy Spirit! Sure enough, just as I told the young people that we would be learning about the Holy Spirit, a huge gust of wind blew through an open window, […]

Teaching About the Holy Spirit and the Trinity

I’ve had just enough time to prepare my lesson for tonight and have not left enough time to tell you about it in detail! Suffice to say that we will be learning about the Holy Spirit and how we are never alone because of the Spirit’s presence. We’ll focus on the word ADVOCATE to talk about how the Spirit helps us (my aide is a nurse and I’ve asked her to talk about how as […]

A Well-Built Faith in Green Bay, WI

I spent a wonderful Friday with 200 Administrators (Catholic school principals, DREs, Adult Faith Formation Coordinators, etc.) on the topic of my book, A Well-Built Faith. The folks there really outdid themselves, creating an environment that brought the Well-Built Faith imagery to life. Take a look at these pics! Thanks to all the good folks of the Diocese of Green Bay for a great day and God bless you in your ministry! What an amazing […]

Teaching the Trinity: What's Your Opinion on This Approach?

This coming Monday, my lesson will be on the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, and I plan to also talk about the mystery of the Trinity. I’ve been observing a thread on Catholic Catechist dealing with how to teach the Trinity. One suggestion caught my eye. It is from a catechist named Cheri and I think it is a good approach: Use ice, water, and steam as a visual aid. Show your students […]

Summary of My Session on 9/21/09

I had a very enjoyable session last night! Here are the highlights: We began in church with an opening prayer service with the pastor. I met my group out in the parking lot and they were jovial and polite. I had a full class with the 2 absentees from last week being present. The kids were very well behaved in church…I was quite pleased to see that. My aide Lucy was there as well and […]

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