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.

Take a Peek at My Video: Welcome to God’s Library

Joe Paprocki

Not so long ago, I announced the availability of my (previously out-of-print) video, Welcome to God’s Library, on DVD! In the year 2000, I filmed a video titled Welcome to God’s Library which provided a basic introduction to the Bible for Catholics (intermediate/junior high through adult). The video summarizes the thrust of my book God’s Library. Several years ago, this video and the original edition of the book went out of print. Since then, I’ve been receiving […]

John Allen’s "Mega-Trends" That Are Shaping the Church

Joe Paprocki

At the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL) in Houston this week, I was blown away by the presentation by John Allen, NCR’s Senior Vatican Correspondent and CNN’s Senior Vatican Analyst, who spoke about what he calls the Mega-Trends in Catholicism: The Forces Turning the Catholic Church UpsideDown. What I like about Mr. Allen’s presentation (aside from being very engaging) is that he sees his job as informing…he informs all of us of what is happening inside […]

Tonight’s Class: The Ten Commandments

Joe Paprocki

For this evening’s class, I plan to focus on the Ten Commandments. One of the things that the Confirmation assessment revealed is that many of the young people in my group do not know the Commandments well at all. Here’s my plan: Two Sides to Every Coin – I’ll begin by flipping a coin several times, asking different young people to call out “heads” or “tails.” I’ll use this to illustrate that, just as every coin […]

The Pope’s U.S. Visit

Joe Paprocki

Some people have been asking me about resources for the Pope’s upcoming U.S. visit (April 15-18). Kids may have questions and this could be a good teaching moment. The U.S. bishops have an official Web site for the papal visit at http://www.uspapalvisit.org/ In particular, there is a link there for teaching resources.

RCIA for Children

Joe Paprocki

Here’s an exchange I recently had with a catechist working in RCIA for children: Dear Joe, I am a catechist teaching RCIA for children. This is my first time teaching RCIA. If you could recommend some approaches to answering questions to children grades 3rd through 5th RCIA, I would really appreciate your help. Here are some of their questions: Why do we decorate the church with a barren looking tree during Lent? Who made God and […]

Did Jesus Have to Die?

Joe Paprocki

On Monday evening, one of the young people asked, “Would it have been better if Jesus didn’t die? Like, if I went into a time machine, went back in time and prevented him from being killed, would that have been better?” What a wonderful question! I responded by explaining that Jesus came to save us, not to be saved and that, by dying, he showed us the greatest love that anyone can have – selfless […]

More on JESUS OF NAZARETH

Joe Paprocki

Showing a segment of the DVD Jesus of Nazareth worked out beautifully last night. As I mentioned yesterday, I showed the segment beginning with the Way of the Cross, leading up to the end of the film as the Risen Christ assures his apostles (and us) that he will be with us always. This is about 40 minutes. I paused the video frequently, pointing out information and asking questions and inviting the young people to ask […]

Jesus of Nazareth

Joe Paprocki

For class tonight, I am going to show the final scenes of Zefferelli’s Jesus of Nazareth focusing on the death and resurrection of Jesus. (I had planned to do this a couple of weeks ago, but that night we were invited to attend a special presentation by the 6th graders). I’ve always thought that Jesus of Nazareth was a very good portrayal and is very educational for the young people without the uneccessarily extreme graphic […]

Bishop Cupich at NCEA

Joe Paprocki

I had the pleasure of listening to Bishop Blase Cupich (pronounced soopich) of Rapid City, South Dakota, speak at the NCEA convention in Indianapolis the other day. He spoke about exploring “proven pathways” for facing the challenges that we face in the catechetical ministry in our culture and times. In particular, he presented an Augustinian model of passing on the faith, grounded in St. Augustine’s communications to Deogratias (A.D. 403) titled “On the Catechizing of […]

NCEA

Joe Paprocki

Maybe I’ll see some of you at the NCEA conference in Indianapolis! See you back here Friday!