Catechetical Issues & Topics Archives - Page 51 of 71

How to Lead Spontaneous Prayer – As Easy as Ber-a-khah!

For many Catholics, the thought of being called upon to lead a spontaneous prayer can darn near bring on a panic attack! Never fear! Our Judeo-Christian heritage provides us with a simple formula to follow that will guide you in organizing your thoughts into a cohesive, intelligent, and heart-felt spontaneous prayer. First, take a look at his prayer offered by King Solomon (2Chronicles 6:14-17). At first, it looks like a lot of words, however, we’re […]

Session 12 (Dec. 10, 2013) – God Leads His People from Slavery in Egypt to Freedom (part 2)

Joe Paprocki

For this week’s session, we will finish our exploration of the great Exodus story! BIG IDEA: God Leads His People from Slavery in Egypt to Freedom PRELIMINARY (15 mins) Begin with opening procession to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Aaron Shust). Opening prayer ritual Quiz on the first 3 Commandments (Commandments Quiz 1 to 3) ENGAGE (10 mins) Review questions 1 through 8 on the Prince of Egypt Video Discussion Guide Pick up discussion of […]

Session 11 (Dec. 3, 2013) – God Leads His People from Slavery in Egypt to Freedom

Joe Paprocki

Here is my plan for this evening’s session. BIG IDEA: God Leads His People from Slavery in Egypt to Freedom PRELIMINARY (10 mins) Begin with opening procession to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Aaron Shust). Bell ringer = Maddie Opening prayer ritual (final collection for Catholic Relief Services – Philippines) Instead of sharing petitions, sit quietly and listen again to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, reflecting on how/where we need God to come into our […]

A Delightful Evening Around the Campfire: Stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Joe Paprocki

Last evening was one of the most delightful evenings I’ve ever had as a catechist! I decided that, since we would be doing a lot of storytelling, that it would be nice to do so sitting around a campfire! I just needed to figure out how to build a pretend one indoors which luckily I found here. The kids absolutely loved it and it made for a very fun and engaging setting for getting a […]

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 […]

Summary of 10/15/13 Session: God Creates Something Good Out of Nothing

Joe Paprocki

Yesterday, I gave a couple of little tidbits (Ave Maria activity and a humorous comment from a student) about this past Tuesday’s session so now I thought I’d give a more detailed summary. For the first time, I had a couple of absentees so I was down to 7 students. As soon as students entered, I put them to work locating passages in the Bible using their Bible Bookmarks from my book The Bible Blueprint and a Scripture Search […]

Reviewing with the Bible Bookmarks

Joe Paprocki

As the kids enter the room tomorrow evening, I will have them immediately get to work finding some Scripture passages using the Bible Bookmarks (from my book The Bible Blueprint) and their bibles along with the following worksheet which you can feel free to use. Take note that page numbers are different for every edition which is why I cannot provide an answer key. Likewise, this activity will only work if all of the children are […]

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 […]