Mary and the Saints Archives - Page 12 of 14

What Can the Saints Teach Us about the New Evangelization?

Let’s identify some saints that we can look to as models for the New Evangelization. I’d like to be able to take credit for this notion of saints serving as evangelization models, however, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI beat me to it when he canonized seven new saints in 2012: Jacques Berthieu, Pedro Calungsod, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Marìa Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, Marianne Cope, Kateri Tekakwitha, and Anna Schäffer. In doing so, he referred to these […]

A Little Help Brainstorming: Saints and Blesseds

Joe Paprocki

I could use your help! I am trying to think of saints and blesseds who fit the following 3 characteristics: Saints and blesseds known for their undying enthusiasm and determination Saints and blesseds known for innovation in proclaiming God’s Word Saints and blesseds (especially lay people) who founded movements in the Church Please send me names and brief descriptions of which category they fit and why (see Leave a Reply below). Thanks!

Happy Feast Day, St. Ignatius of Loyola!

Joe Paprocki

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola – a saint who has had a major impact on my life. I attended a Jesuit high school (St. Ignatius College Prep), a Jesuit college (Loyola University of Chicago), a Jesuit graduate school (Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University of Chicago), and have now worked for Loyola Press for 13 years! That’s 25 total years of Jesuit influence…almost half my life! To celebrate, I […]

Preparing for the Month of All Souls – A Virtual Wall of Remembrance

Joe Paprocki

Catholics refer to the month of November as the “Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory” – an opportunity to take the spirit of All Souls Day (November 2) and to observe it all month long, recalling those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. Many parishes provide what they call a Wall of Remembrance, often a bulletin board in the church vestibule, in which they invite parishioners to post pictures […]

How Do YOU Pray the Rosary?

Joe Paprocki

One of the most difficult things for a Catholic publisher to do (in terms of pleasing everyone) is to explain how to pray the Rosary! You would think this would be easy, however, there are so many variations in the ways people pray the Rosary that it can make your head spin! I was reminded of this last night when we took the kids to church to pray the Rosary. Two weeks earlier, I taught […]

Reviewing the Rosary – Ave Maria

Joe Paprocki

At the beginning of class tomorrow, I’ll ask for a volunteer to step forward and to demonstrate how to pray the Rosary based on our experience from last week. I’m also going to do the following activity with them to introduce them to Schubert’s beautiful version of the Ave Maria and to expose them to a little bit of Latin, which is part of our heritage as Catholics. I will have the words of the […]

Putting the Kids to Work

Joe Paprocki

A while back, I posted about a very good book I read – Dedication and Leadership (Douglas Hyde) – and how, back in the day, the Communist Party experienced success by employing strategies which included the following: putting demands on their own people (expecting a “heroic” response); deliberately and immediately sending new members into action; developing new leaders. Douglas Hyde, a convert from Communism to Catholicism, strongly recommended that the Catholic Church employ many of […]

Session 3 (10/1/13) – Bible Boot Camp and Intro to the Rosary

Joe Paprocki

For this evening’s session, I have two main things planned: complete the “Bible Basics Learning Stations” that we started last week introduce the Rosary as we begin the Month of the Holy Rosary (PowerPoint presentation) I’ve created a Mysteries of the Rosary Note-Taking Sheet for the young people to use during the PowerPoint presentation. It’s always a good idea to have students doing something so that they don’t think they are passively sitting back and being […]

The Visitation: Model for the New Evangelization

Joe Paprocki

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. In this great story, we find a model for evangelization: fresh from her encounter with God, Mary swings into action (she went “in haste”), joyfully carrying (literally) the Word of God to others and being of service to someone in need. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth was not to brag about her new-found status as the Mother of the Savior. Mary did […]

May Crowning Update

Joe Paprocki

Last week, I posted about the beautiful Catholic tradition of May Crowning and my quest to find out how to either acquire or make a small “crown” for my backyard Mary Statue. As it turns out, the miniature floral crown that I ordered was WAY too mini! So, instead, I went to Michaels and found resources to make my own which I placed on Mary on Mother’s Day! I’m just a regular Martha Stewart! […]