This evening is our end-of-the-year catechist meeting. I was asked by our DRE, Arlene, to lead the other catechists in a reflective prayer (meditation). I will be using a meditation that I wrote a couple of years ago for this very blog. You’re welcome to use this for your own reflection or with a group of catechists. We often tell our learners to use their imaginations. Now it’s your turn. Use your imagination to reflect […]
Last evening was the last teaching session for this year with my 8th graders. Next week, we gather for Mass, some presentations, and then pizza. I enjoyed last night and overall, I feel it went very nicely, a fitting ending to a good year with a good group of kids. Here are the highlights: I met the young people at the door as they arrived. I was holding a tray with their little vigil candles […]
Catechists often ask me where they can get their hands on guided reflections (meditations) for children, especially after I have introduced them to one of the guided reflections included in the Finding God program that we use at the parish where I’m a catechist. If they are not using the Finding God program, they are wondering where they can get some guided reflections. Good news! Loyola Press has now made a number of guided reflections […]
Some of you may recall one of my posts from last year at this time when I shared a meditation for catechists to reflect on their year. Here it is again: Many of us catechists are either finished or close to wrapping up the “year” in religious education. This is a good time to reflect on this past year, asking the Lord to help us learn and grow from the experience. Here is a reflection […]
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting to about 150 high school teens and their group leaders at St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange. Our topic was Living the Mass and we had a very engaging experience together. One of the parts I most enjoyed was speaking about the Lord’s Prayer. Here’s what I did: I recently purchased a replica of the Declaration of Independence (it’s poster size and only cost $9.95 from American Family Traditions […]
Many of us catechists are either finished or close to wrapping up the “year” in religious education. This is a good time to reflect on this past year, asking the Lord to help us learn and grow from the experience. Here is a reflection you may want to use to review your past year. (I’ve written it in such a way that it is best read aloud by an individual who is leading others in […]
I mentioned the other day that for the beginning of Advent, I invited the kids to pray in silence at the start of class. A friend of mine who used to be a 6th grade catechist remarked, “Oh, that’s the way I prayed with them almost all of the time.” I thought that was very refreshing. We sometimes think of prayer as a space that we have to fill up with words, when what we […]
I think that kids have a natural ability to pray and that they especially like reflective prayer. When Patti (my co-catechist) and I lead the young people in a guided reflection, they become very peaceful and seem to relish the time alone with their thoughts and with God. After one of our reflections, I told the young people that another word for reflective prayer is meditation. They were pretty impressed that they were learning how […]
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