Set the atmosphere for a faith-filled Thanksgiving by sending children home with a Thanksgiving prayer placemat. Fun for kids of all ages (even adults!), the center of the placemat includes a child’s prayer of gratitude next to a cornucopia to color. Surrounding the prayer are several activities for children to do in the classroom during a discussion on the holiday or while waiting for the family to sit down to dinner: a question to prompt […]
With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few thoughts about love. In particular, I’d like to share some thoughts about how to make a loving relationship last, since we live in a world in which love is too often seen as simply a fleeting emotion. Scripture, on the other hand, speaks of God’s love as being “an everlasting love.” Since we are made in God’s image, that […]
Every so often, the tires on our cars need realignment, or an adjusting of the angles of the tires, which affects how they make contact with the road. Without such realignment, we run the risk of experiencing uneven tread wear, the vehicle pulling to the left or right, the steering wheel being off-center when driving straight, or steering wheel vibration. In other words, the car does not operate properly. Giving thanks is a form of realignment for […]
Some years ago, I was trying to make small talk with a little child who lived on my block and wandered over to say “Hi” to me as I was raking fall leaves. I asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, and he responded, “We don’t observe Halloween. It’s of the devil. We’re Christian.” He was clearly parroting something his parents had taught him. This was not the first time I had […]
Back in the day, one of the Fruits of the Spirit—kindness—went by a different name: benignity. Now, before we go any further, we need to point out that the word benign has connotations in our culture that do not lend to a good understanding of kindness. Of course, benign is the direct opposite of the word malignant, meaning something that actively destroys. For some reason, however, the word benign has come to basically mean neutral. While it’s good news to hear […]
Thanksgiving is such a welcome break for us during these very stressful times. And, even though our Thanksgiving celebrations may not look like they usually do, we must not underestimate the power of gratitude. In her book, Spiritual Practices for the Brain, Anne Kertz Kernion points out that gratitude has a transformative power: Each of us gets knocked around by life now and again, so it’s helpful to remember that practicing gratitude can help us […]
Have you ever found yourself caught in a vicious circle? For example, you find yourself feeling a little down, so you treat yourself to a snack, a drink, or a purchase—only to find that the extra weight you’ve gained, the trouble you’ve gotten into with excessive drinking, or the piling debt you’re being buried under leads you to feeling a little down—and to make yourself feel better… The cycle continues! Well, there’s a different kind of […]
I find Valentine’s Day to be a wonderful opportunity to talk about Catholic sacramentality. It is a day on which signs, symbols, gestures, and rituals are used to convey feelings of love and, when it comes to signs, symbols, gestures, and rituals, we Catholics are the experts! Catholic sacramentality basically expresses our belief that the invisible God can be recognized and encountered through the physical world. That’s why we use water, oil, bread, wine, flame, […]
As we await on the doorstep of Christmas—the celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—I’d like to take this time to wish all of my Catechist’s Journey readers a very blessed Christmas! This is the season in which we celebrate the very heart of our faith: our knowledge that God has drawn near to his people; the Word became flesh and dwelt among us! In Jesus Christ, the invisible and intangible God became visible and […]
On those days when I drive to work on the crowded Chicago expressways, I can’t help but notice the wide variety of bumper stickers on the cars in front of me. Some of the bumper stickers announce the car owner’s allegiance to a particular sports team, his or her political leanings, hobbies, religious persuasion (or lack thereof), pet peeves, a favorite radio station, or the driver’s idea of humor or wisdom, just to name a few. […]
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