Prayer/Guided Reflections Archives - Page 11 of 14

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 […]

3-Minute Retreat: A Heart Seeking Goodness

Joe Paprocki

Happy Catechetical Sunday! Now before another busy week begins, take a quiet moment to pray for your ministry and for your fellow catechists. A former high school teacher of mine enjoys reminding me and my best friend that, when we were students in his class, we tried so hard to be bad and failed so miserably! It just wasn’t in us to be bad. We came from good families who instilled the love of God […]

3-Minute Retreat: Chosen to Love

Joe Paprocki

Now before another busy week begins, take a quiet moment to pray for your ministry and for your fellow catechists. When I was a kid, we were always choosing sides to play games, usually baseball. I was always hoping to be chosen by my cousin Mona who could crush a softball farther than any of us! It felt so special to be chosen by someone that I admired and looked up to. How affirming it […]

3-Minute Retreat: We Are on a Mission

Joe Paprocki

As we start the month of September and look forward to Catechetical Sunday and a new year of faith formation, I’ll be sharing my reflections on several 3-Minute Retreats the next few weeks. Please add your own reflections on this retreat in the comments. Now before another busy week begins, take a quiet moment to pray for your ministry and for your fellow catechists. Relationships have a way of changing us. Perhaps that’s why we […]

Prayer Intentions

Joe Paprocki

One of the things that I plan to do with my students this year is, as soon as they enter the room, to sit down and write down their prayer intention for that day/week. I will encourage them to either give thanks for something or to pray for someone in need or for a need of their own. Of course you can just have them write them down on a piece of scrap paper but […]

Year of Faith Retreat – Week 4, Day 3: In the Mood (Forms of Prayer, Part II)

Joe Paprocki

WEEK FOUR: Prayer DAY 3: In the Mood (Forms of Prayer, Part II) During the “Big Band” era of the 1940s, bandleader Glenn Miller topped the charts with his #1 hit “In the Mood.” While appearing well before the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the title of the song is, of course, highly suggestive. In the mood for WHAT? Intimacy, of course. That should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the history of the […]

Resources for Teaching Meditation to Children

Joe Paprocki

While in Tucson, AZ, at their catechetical conference last week, I spent some time at a booth in the exhibit hall sponsored by The World Community for Christian Meditation. There, I found some very nice resources for teaching Christian meditation to children. The WCCM traces its contemporary roots to London, 1975, when John Main established the Christian Meditation Centre. It considers itself a “monastery without walls.” Recently, Bishop Michael Putney of the Diocese of Townsville […]

40 Ways to Foster Prayer in Your Home

Joe Paprocki

During the Hofinger Catechetical Conference in New Orleans last weekend, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a couple of excellent presentations given by my friend and colleague Tom McGrath, whose specialty is family faith. Tom distributed and made reference to a handout that he has developed called Forty Ways to Foster Prayer in Your Home which is drawn from his book Raising Faith-Filled Kids. Although I have seen this handout before, I was […]

Tim Tebow, Sports, and Prayer

Joe Paprocki

Sports is HUGE with kids, so no doubt, kids are interested in the success of Tim Tebow and all the talk about the “miracles” associated with his success, including yesterday’s stunning overtime victory in the NFL playoffs. In case you’re not up-to-date on the whole Tebow phenomenon, here’s a quick summary. For kids, the question that the whole Tim Tebow experience raises is whether or not God answers our prayers when it comes to things […]

5th Anniversary Celebration – Guest Blogger #2: Jared Dees

Joe Paprocki

To help celebrate the 5th anniversary of my blog, The Catechist’s Journey, I’ve invited a number of people to be guest bloggers here over the course of a week! Today, I’m featuring Jared Dees, the creator of The Religion Teacher, where he shares practical resources, activities, lesson plans, and teaching strategies for catechists and Catholic school religion teachers. He is the Digital Publishing Specialist at Ave Maria Press, where he manages websites, eBooks, and eTextbooks. He […]