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 […]
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 […]
Recently, Americans went to the polls to elect leadership that they hope will serve the country well. Before democracy came on the scene, most nations were headed by royalty, dating back thousands of years. While we tend to think of leaders like kings and queens as rulers, in truth, leaders are called to serve, and this service is called to be noble (virtuous, dignified, distinguished, extraordinary). In short, it is a call to be heroic, which means […]
Lord, thank you for all the people who have proclaimed your name throughout the past two thousand years. Many have given their lives so that today I can encounter you. I feel happy and fulfilled by my faith, knowing that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one awaited through the ages. You are the beginning and the end. You are the Lord of Life. Help me make our encounters increasingly frequent and […]
When an orchestra prepares to perform together, they spend a few minutes before the performance ensuring that they are all in tune with one another. Without this effort, the audience would no doubt hear the disharmony and cringe at the discordant sound. In our human relationships, we are called to live in harmony with one another. In the area of race relations, however, we continue to experience far too much disharmony. On November 3, we […]
Celebrate the saints with our printable saints figures. Featuring art and saints from Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gift Kindergarten, these figures are a fun and simple project to color, cut, and fold. Here are a few ideas for how to use these saints figures: Display the finished figures on a classroom shelf or prayer table, or in the background for an online catechetical session. Fold the finished picture around a toilet paper tube […]
I have long been an advocate of using engaging videos to enhance faith formation, as long as they are never used to replace the catechist. In other words, videos should always be seen as a supplement to the faith formation experience—a way of reinforcing important content visually and/or a way of telling a story that invites the viewer into a deeper experience of the theme being explored. In my years at Loyola Press, I have been […]
“My child, a saint?” That might very well be your first reaction to the title of this post! The reason we might pause when thinking of our children as potential saints is because we have the erroneous impression of the saints as perfect people, when the saints themselves would be the first to tell you how imperfect they were. First, don’t forget that we have two kinds of saints: those who have been canonized or honored […]
Throughout the history of the Church, there have been many notable men and women who have mastered the art of contemplation or resting in the presence of God. Today, another word used for contemplation is mindfulness, which, according to author Anne Kertz Kernion, can be described as “being fully anchored in the present moment.” (Spiritual Practices for the Brain) In this episode of Pop-Up Catechesis, we explore the notion of mindfulness as we prepare to […]
Lord, many people have spoken to me about you. I want to know you. I have many things in my life preventing me from seeing you, and many things not in keeping with your teachings separating me from you. They are obstacles on my way to you. I have chosen a lukewarm faith: a Christianity that is comfortable and complacent. I want to overcome these obstacles so that I may know you. I know that […]
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