Miscellaneous

Today is the 10th anniversary of my Dad’s passing into eternal life. My Dad was a pharmacist, owner of his own store Paprocki Pharmacy which he inherited from my grandfather who started the business in1919. The picture below is of the store’s 2nd (more contemporary-looking) location, taken in the mid-1980’s when the store literally became a “mom & pop” operation. All of us children (there were 9 of us) were grown and moved away and […]

In our book, Living the Mass: How One Hour a Week Can Change Your Life, Fr. Dom Grassi and I include a feature in every chapter called The Other Six Days of the Week in which we strive to show the connection between what we do at Mass and how we live the Mass the other six days of the week. Now, there is a website titled www.other6.com that encourages people to “find God” not […]

One of the challenges we have faced with our 8th grade schedule is combining the general curriculum/textbook with the Confirmation preparation curriculum/textbook while doing justice to both of them. This year, we’re trying something new. Typically our classes are 75 minutes long. Of course, it never feels like we have enough time. And, as our DRE can attest to, it’s simply not that easy to increase times across the board. So, instead, we are trying […]

I’m delighted to pass along this “gift” to visitors to my blog, authorized by Loyola Press: As the Christmas season draws near, we often find ourselves under the pressure of finding the perfect gift for friends and family. We want the gifts to reflect the wonder and love of Christmas – Jesus becoming man for us. A spiritual book is such a gift that can give inspiration well after the Christmas decorations have been put […]

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I thought the Holy Father used a poor word-choice in speaking about catechists, saying, “Educators of the faith,” said the Pope, “cannot run the risk of looking like some sort of clown, who is simply playing a role.” I neglected to include the link to the whole story. (Link no longer available.) I mentioned in one of my comments yesterday that I don’t think for a minute that […]

Tomorrow I’m off to Milwaukee for their Lifelong Faith Formation Conference…I’m presenting a session on the Old Testament. I did a quick look ahead to this coming Monday’s session and I find that we will be focusing on the Cross of Jesus and our understanding of suffering. Our textbook points out the fact that vivid portrayals of the Crucifixion did not become commonplace until Middle Ages when suffering was so prevalent in the lives of […]

On my train ride this morning, I saw a marquee for a church that announced, “It’s All About Jesus!” I realized right then and there that this is the theme of my class this upcoming Monday evening! We’re beginning the unit on Jesus and, in essence, focusing on the notion that, for us Christians, it’s all about Jesus. By the way, in my last class, one of my students asked, “what’s the difference between Catholics […]

Let’s not forget that October is the Month of the Holy Rosary. I’ve spent some time on previous posts talking about reflective prayer, aka, meditation. The Rosary is a unique form of meditation for Catholics. By focusing on the mysteries – events in the lives of Jesus and Mary – we encounter the Lord in a special way, through the intercession of Mary. It occurs to me now that praying the Rosary with my 8th […]

Please permit me a day off from being a catechist (we have no class tonight…Columbus Day) so that I can share my reflections on the demise of the 2007 Cubs. Alas, Lucy has pulled the football away from Charlie Brown once again, just when we thought that maybe, just maybe, this will be the time that he’ll finally get to kick that ball! Don’t we know any better? Like Jeremiah, we Cubs’ fans are lamenting (and […]

In addtion to our regular session tonight, we will be presenting Confirmation packets to our 8th graders. This packet lays out the immediate preparation for Confirmation, including information about doing service, choosing a sponsor, and selecting a confirmation name. For each of these, the young people are asked to reflect upon what it is that they are doing. Reflection is key to making sure that this is not just some kind of “jumping through hoops” […]