We had a very nice class last night with 8 of 10 students present for their first class session after Confirmation (and the DRE received calls explaining the 2 absences). The kids had a very pleasant attitude about Confirmation…they seemed genuinely proud and there was no resentment about being back in class – the message had been conveyed that Confirmation is not the end! The post-confirmation guided reflection went very nicely! Several of the other […]
Congratulations to all of the 8th graders who were Confirmed yesterday, including my class of 10 students! I pray that they will feel the abundant graces of the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit, flowing in and through them all the days of their lives! As promised, I put together a guided reflection that I’m going to use tonight to help the young people reflect on yesterday’s experience. I think this will give […]
Our experience of playing a Jeopardy-like review was not bad at all last night. Of course, games can rile kids up so we were walking a fine line between having fun and laying down the law last night. However, overall, I’d have to say that fifty 8th graders in one room behaved pretty well! The nice thing was that they did a pretty good job of answering the questions. All of us were pleased that […]
This coming Monday, we’re going to do a Jeopardy-like review with all 5 of our confirmation classes in preparation for the Confirmation exam they will take the following week. Our emphasis for this will be on “Catholic literacy” – the ability to talk about what you believe in and to be more familiar with Catholic vocabulary. We’re going to impress upon the kids that, in just a few short years, when they go off to […]
Tonight is our final Confirmation Intensive for this year. It is also an Open House for parents to attend to see what their kids are up to every Monday evening…hope we get a good turnout. Anyway, for this evening’s intensive, we are reflecting on the Rite of Confirmation itself, taking each of the following five components of the Rite and putting them “under the microscope” for closer study in preparation for the sacrament which is […]
For last night’s session, we had the kids assemble Works of Mercy mini-booklets as you see pictured here. Depending on the time available, you can either have the kids assemble the pages of their booklets or you can do this ahead of time. Given the short time that I have for the mini-sessions, I chose to assemble the (blank) pages of the booklets at home. I made 60 of them in about a half-hour while listening to […]
Happy New Year everybody!!! I hope, pray, and trust that this year will be filled with many blessings for you in your role as a catechist! Tonight, when I teach, I plan to wear my Blackhawks jersey, which I’m wearing here in this picture at last night’s Hawks’ victory (my daughter Amy’s first Hawks game). I want to point out that we make a statement by what we wear. I’ll then ask the kids to […]
I made mention in my post yesterday that my initial research into the history of Las Posadas indicates some Jesuit origins. Well, you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet! Two of my colleagues – Santiago Cortés-Sjöberg and Miguel Arias – set me straight on the matter. It seems that it was the Augustinians who introduced Las Posadas as a way to evangelize the Aztecs in the 16th century. The Augustinians requested and received […]
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 […]
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 […]
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