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.

God in the Ordinary Bingo Cards

Joe Paprocki

Where have you experienced God in the ordinary moments of life? That’s a great question to start a discussion with youth groups or adults exploring spirituality. And to encourage people to think about finding God in all things, some less-than-obvious, we’ve created a God in the Ordinary Bingo game, available for free download by filling out the form within this post. Play the game with rules similar to Human Bingo. Participants get a card and […]

Make This Word Part of Your Catechetical Vocabulary: Mystagogy

Joe Paprocki

When I worked for my Uncle Joe at his pharmacy back in the day, he once had me use his car to make some deliveries. With the sun shining in my eyes, I pulled down the visor, which resulted in a number of small slips of paper falling into my lap. I glanced at the slips of paper and saw a list of words with definitions. When I asked my uncle about those slips, he […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: It’s Always About Joy! (Gaudete Sunday)

Joe Paprocki

It’s unfortunate that Christianity is too often perceived by some as a dour religion. I’m reminded of the pop song that claims it’s preferable to laugh with the sinners than to cry with the saints! The fact is, at times, Christian spirituality has lost its balance by focusing solely on the suffering of Jesus and the saints and martyrs while losing the joy of the Resurrection. In this episode of Pop-Up Catechesis, we explore how […]

Bearers of Hope presentation by Juliane Stanz - presentation cover image

How We Can (and Must) Be Bearers of Hope

Joe Paprocki

How are you holding up? Let’s face it, this pandemic is really taking its toll on us in a variety of ways. We know already that the holidays can be a time of despair for some people—a situation that will be made even worse with shelter-at-home orders that will prevent holiday gatherings from happening. More than ever, we need some hope! As catechists, we are called to be bearers of hope, bringing the hope-filled message […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Putting On Christ This Christmas

Joe Paprocki

We often lament the fact that stores begin putting up Christmas decorations around the time of Halloween! Oddly enough, I find a link between Halloween and Christmas. On Halloween, children put on costumes and proceed to act like the characters they are portraying. My granddaughter, Livvy, two years of age, wore a kitty-cat costume and crawled about meowing and purring for a week. Well, on Christmas, we celebrate the person whose “costume” we have donned […]

The 12 Books of Christmas from Loyola Press

12 Books of Christmas: A Respite from Screen Time

Joe Paprocki

Parents and children are no doubt eager to catch a break from all of the screen time that comes with working and schooling from home during the pandemic. The Christmas holidays provide just the kind of respite that is so needed—an opportunity for families to gather around something other than a computer screen! I’d like to suggest reading books as a family as the perfect option for the Christmas holidays. Loyola Press is making that […]

Giving Thanks Is Transformative

Joe Paprocki

Thanksgiving is such a welcome break for us during these very stressful times. And, even though our Thanksgiving celebrations may not look like they usually do, we must not underestimate the power of gratitude. In her book, Spiritual Practices for the Brain, Anne Kertz Kernion points out that gratitude has a transformative power: Each of us gets knocked around by life now and again, so it’s helpful to remember that practicing gratitude can help us […]

Laying the Foundations for Bible Literacy

Joe Paprocki

Talk about the impact a book can have on a child: my wife and I (who were a grade-level apart from one another) both recall a set of Bible storybooks that the grade school we attended used over 50 years ago! It was a two-volume set—Old Testament and New Testament—with the story on one side of the spread and a color picture on the opposite side of the spread. Unfortunately, neither of us saved a […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Thanksgiving and the Virtuous Circle of Gratitude

Joe Paprocki

Have you ever found yourself caught in a vicious circle? For example, you find yourself feeling a little down, so you treat yourself to a snack, a drink, or a purchase—only to find that the extra weight you’ve gained, the trouble you’ve gotten into with excessive drinking, or the piling debt you’re being buried under leads you to feeling a little down—and to make yourself feel better… The cycle continues! Well, there’s a different kind of […]

Welcoming, Accompanying, and Evangelizing Young Families

Joe Paprocki

In his book, Excellence in Ministry (part of The Effective Catechetical Leader series), my good friend Tom Quinlan makes a powerful plea for a significant shift in how we approach families when it comes to faith formation: I like to say that the “cement is wet” at Baptism and that by Confirmation (and even First Eucharist) the cement of family faith identity and practice has greatly or fully hardened. My strong exhortation for parishes today […]