Advent grab bag
Advent

The Advent Prayer Grab Bag

Traditional Advent activities include Advent wreaths, calendars, and Jesse trees. While these are all great ways to help children celebrate the season, I like using something different: the Advent prayer grab bag. The prayer grab bag takes its inspiration from the popular party game of grab bags. I ask my group if anyone has ever participated in a grab bag and invite someone who has to explain the tradition of bringing one gift to a […]

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Adult Faith Formation

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 5

As we continue our series on how to host Lenten small faith groups in your parish, we turn our attention to the immediate weeks before the program starts. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago where last year, over 200 parishioners gathered to participate in small faith groups during Lent. Today’s post includes sample small group promotional materials that you can adapt for your own use. 5 Weeks Out […]

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Special Needs

Autism, the Holy Father, and Loyola Press

Recently, Pope Francis hosted a three-day conference at the Vatican (sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health) titled “The Person with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Animating Hope.” Over 600 experts from nearly 60 countries gathered with several hundred parents and children affected by autism. Loyola Press was proudly represented by Tom McGrath (Author, Speaker, Vice President for New Product Development) and Joellyn Cicciarelli (Director of Curricula Development), both of whom are intimately involved in the development of […]

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Adult Faith Formation

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 4

In our continuing series on how to host small faith groups in your parish, today’s post calls us to look at training leaders to facilitate the small groups. Our model is a parish in Chicago that gathered parishioners in homes to participate in Scripture groups during Lent. 1–2 Months Out A critical step in ensuring the success of small groups is the training of leaders to facilitate the process. Invite the potential leaders to a […]

group of young people
Junior High

Being a Disciple Takes Practice

In a recent session, my class talked about being a disciple in the context of Ordinary Time. Since this Church season occupies most of the liturgical year, the discussion centered on how we can follow Jesus in everyday life. We focused on the works of mercy as ways to practice our discipleship. I set the stage by holding up a poster-sized copy of the liturgical calendar and gave a brief introduction to how we mark […]

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Adult Faith Formation

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 3

We continue our series here on Catechist’s Journey on how to implement small faith groups in your parish. Today we look at the crucial step of identifying, inviting, and training small group leaders. This is by far the most critical step, since the small faith groups will conduct their sessions in parishioners’ homes, without parish staff present. This follows the successful model used by St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago last Lent. 2–3 Months Out Select […]

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Adult Faith Formation

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 2

Today we continue a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay out for you the steps to successfully implement small faith groups in your parish with an eye on Lent as a target. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago, where last year over 200 parishioners gathered in homes during the season of Lent to participate in small faith groups. The success of the efforts at St. Barnabas […]

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Adult Faith Formation

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 1

During these past few months, as I’ve begun exploring the world of adult faith formation, I have become convinced that one of the key principles of AFF is that it is most effective when it is relational. In other words, we can’t simply gather adults and talk at them—they need to talk to one another! With that in mind, I am proud and excited to launch a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay […]

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Adult Faith Formation

First Reconciliation Parent Session

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of facilitating the First Reconciliation Parent Meeting at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in Evergreen Park, IL, where I served as a catechist for a number of years. I had been the presenter at this meeting several times in the past, however, I was not comfortable just delivering a talk in the church to the parents who sat passively throughout. I worked with the DRE, Lori Kennedy, to create a […]