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.
As long as I’ve been writing this blog, I have emphasized that catechist formation and catechist support in general is not just some act of kindness toward catechists. Rather, it is something the Church owes catechists! Imagine someone entering a religious community and being welcomed in and assigned a ministry without first going through a novitiate and formation process! The religious community that a person makes a commitment to owes it to its members to […]
Over the years, many catechists have commented to me that they admire those who teach junior high and high school and that they opted for the “easier” age group of pre-K and primary grades. I’ve always turned it right back around on them and expressed my admiration for anyone who can teach the youngest among us! It is a gift that I never felt I had, which is why I have always gravitated toward teaching […]
Happy New Year, everyone! While I don’t make a big thing out of New Year’s resolutions, I think it is always good to set goals and to articulate them. As we begin 2024, I thought it would be fun for us to make and share some catechetical New Year’s resolutions! Mine is to cut down on the amount of talking I do during presentations so as to leave more time and space for discussion. What’s […]
The January session for family catechesis at St. Barnabas will be a children-only session on safe environment. Since my role is to facilitate the parent sessions, I’ll actually have the day off! As part of the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Archdiocese of Chicago requires its parishes and schools to provide valuable training to children and youth annually. This important training is designed to educate children and […]
As catechists, we work with the Holy Spirit to form disciples of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, we’ve been devoting attention to the concept of discipleship with help from Fr. Brice Higginbotham, author of Remaining with Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of John. In the below video, Fr. Brice explains what Jesus’ command to “love one another” has to do with discipleship. For more information about discipleship and our call to love one another, check out […]
We often describe Christmas as “Jesus’ birthday” and rightly so. It is, also, the day on which evangelization was born, modeled for us by the angels, who proclaimed to the shepherds the arrival of a newborn king. Their proclamation moved the shepherds to go in search of this king and, after they encountered him, to return to their lives filled with joy and gratitude. Evangelization is, of course, intimately related to catechesis. The Directory for […]
As catechists, we work with the Holy Spirit to form disciples of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, we’ve been devoting some attention to the concept of discipleship with the help of Fr. Brice Higginbotham, author of Remaining with Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of John. Fr. Higginbotham has been recording short videos while pursuing a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In this segment, Fr. Brice explains what we can learn […]
I know it might be hard to believe, but occasionally a catechist will encounter a young person who intentionally tries to get the class—and the catechist—off-track. I was recently at a reunion for the high school where I taught back in the 1980s, and the topic of conversation turned to a former teacher who was a favorite of many students back in the day. One of the alums gleefully remarked, “We used to get him […]
Shortly after each of my grandkids progressed from crawling to walking, they very quickly excelled at running and jumping, as most kids do! In particular, they suddenly became very adept at imitating frogs as they bounced around the house, jumping from sofa to couch, while saying, “Ribbit, ribbit!” I have no doubt, then, that they are going to love playing a new game from Loyola Press called Froggy Jumps—a game in which children help the […]
In a previous episode of Pop-Up Catechesis, we looked at virtues as good habits that we practice in order to walk the path of holiness. Traditionally, the virtues have been identified as the Theological Virtues (faith, hope, and love) and the Cardinal Virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance). In this episode of Pop-Up Catechesis, we explore the third of the Theological Virtues: charity (aka, love). For more information about virtues and charity, check out the following links: The […]
