Catechetical Leaders Archives - Page 21 of 22

Confirmation This Sunday – Hope They Come Back Monday!

This Sunday, my 8th graders will celebrate their Confirmation! I look forward to the opportunity to participate in this wonderful celebration and to witness the completion of their Christian Initiation, knowing that I had a hand in bringing them to this day. Thank you Jesus! On this coming Monday evening, we cross our fingers and hope that they all come back for class! Luckily, the DRE has established a culture over the years that expects […]

Catechesis and Latino Culture

Joe Paprocki

My friend and colleague, Santiago Cortés-Sjöberg, is doing a presentation at NCCL in April titled Latino Culture and Catechesis 101 and he is interested in hearing from catechists and catechetical leaders who have experience ministering to and catechizing Latinos to talk about the unique challenges and opportunities involved. If you have such experience, would you be willing to take a few moments to compose an email to send to Santiago to share some thoughts about your experiences […]

Now Available: Recording of Part Two of Catechist Training Webinar

Joe Paprocki

As promised, the recordings for Part Two of the Catechist Training Webinars are now available! I provided free Catechist Training Webinars on August 19 & 20 (Part One) and August 26 & 27 (Part Two). I’m providing the recordings for those who were unable to participate or would like to share it with others. The Webinar is broken into chapters by theme for easy viewing. The link below will lead you to another site called You Tube […]

First Catechist Meeting of 09-10!

Joe Paprocki

Last night, we had our opening catechist meeting for the 09-10 catechetical year! It was great to see my fellow 8th grade catechists as well as all of the other catechists and aides who gathered for the evening. There was a palpable sense of excitement and enthusiasm in the air. Here are a few highlights: Arlene, our DRE, demonstrated how we can all start our classes by enthroning the Bible. She invited 4 volunteers: one […]

Caritas in Veritate – For the Average Joe (and Jane)

Joe Paprocki

By now, I’m sure you are aware of the fact that Pope Benedict XVI has issued a new encyclical – Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) – which deals with the economic crisis and related social issues. Encyclicals are important to Catholics because we believe that God’s Revelation comes to us in Scripture and Tradition (the two being so closely related that we refer to them as a single deposit of faith). An encyclical is […]

Videos for Religious Education

Joe Paprocki

Here is a resource that you’ll find very helpful: it is a correlation of catechetical video resources for grades 1-8. While it is specifically correlated for the Finding God program, I have no doubt that the resource list will prove handy for folks using any curriculum. The list provides publisher and ISBN information to assist you in tracking down resources through your diocesan media center or directly from publishers.

Arts Contest

Joe Paprocki

Here’s an idea for engaging young people in grades 7 through 12 around the Church’s social teaching, helping them to recognize the root causes of poverty and injustice. It is the 2010 Catholic Campaign for Human Development Mulit-Media Arts Contest. Schools and parish religious education programs can participate in this as a tool to help young people engage in Catholic social action. The 2010 contest theme is “Empowering Neighborhoods, Uprooting Poverty.” The contest invites all […]

Looking Back on the Year

Joe Paprocki

Another element that I’ve developed for this coming Monday’s session is a look back on our year together, inviting the young people to select what their favorite session(s) was/were and what they learned from it/them. I put together a handout that summarizes briefly what we did in each session and asks them to rate the sessions on a scale of 1-10 (1=poor and 10=excellent). After we’ve read through the descriptions of the sessions and the […]

A "Typical" Year in the Life of the DRE

Joe Paprocki

I realize that a lot of DREs regularly visit Catechist’s Journey, so I thought I would ask for some help. I’m piecing together a chart of what a DRE is thinking about/doing at various times throughout the year in a traditional religious education program (realizing that today there are numerous catechetical models being employed throughout our parishes). Please note that I am NOT including seasonal liturgical celebrations such as Advent prayer service, Lenten Stations of […]

First Communion "Wars"

Joe Paprocki

From time to time, I do a presentation at a Parent’s Meeting for First Communion. Usually, I go up first and offer a catechetical approach to the Eucharist. When I’m done, the DRE usually follows with specific details about the First Communion Day. It never fails – folks politely sit through my presentation and I get a few nods and smiles but relatively little reaction. THEN…folks amazingly come to life when all the details are […]