Spiritual Growth Archives - Catechist's Journey

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Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: The Lord’s Prayer

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to prepare by dedicating time in 2024 to “promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.” With that in mind, I invite you to the final part of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! The Lord’s Prayer Who is […]

Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: Family Heirlooms

Joe Paprocki

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to prepare by dedicating time in 2024 to “promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.” With that in mind, I invite you to part two of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! Family Heirlooms I was born in […]

Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: Pray Without Ceasing

Joe Paprocki

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to prepare by dedicating time in 2024 to “promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.” With that in mind, I invite you to a three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! Pray Without Ceasing I’m sure you are familiar […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Spirituality Is Not a Slice of the Pie

Joe Paprocki

If you were to create a pie chart showing how much time you devote to your home life (including sleeping), work, exercise, socializing, and hobbies, how big of a slice would you show for spirituality? For many of us, we might be tempted to add up the time we spend in spiritual practices such as going to church, praying, reading the Bible and other inspirational literature, and perhaps visiting a spiritual director or participating in […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Spiritual Receptivity

Joe Paprocki

Being proactive and taking the initiative are good things. In fact, the late author Stephen Covey considered proactivity as one of his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Unfortunately, this line of thinking often creeps into our spiritual lives, fooling us into thinking that we can take the initiative and be proactive in our relationship with God, when, in truth, spirituality is all about receiving. God takes the initiative to reach out to us, and […]

How Star Wars Gives Voice to the Spiritual Journey: A Webinar

Joe Paprocki

I have long been a fan of science fiction. (I’m old enough to remember enjoying the original Star Trek series on TV when I was a kid and the first Star Wars film in the theater as a teenager.) One of the things I enjoy about the genre is its exploration of spiritual themes. It’s as if the genre itself provides us with a venue for exploring spiritual issues freed from any “baggage” of institutional […]

On Retreat with Pope Francis: A Webinar with Austen Ivereigh

Joe Paprocki

Often in life, certain dreams we have remain just out of our reach. I always wanted to see the Beatles perform live; however, after John Lennon’s tragic death, I realized this would never happen. Seeing Paul McCartney perform live a few years ago was the next best thing! I’ve no doubt that many of us would dream about the chance to go on a personal retreat with Pope Francis. However, for most of us, that […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Listening for God’s Call

Joe Paprocki

When St. Joan of Arc was on trial for heresy, the Inquisitor mocked her for claiming that she heard God’s voice speaking to her. He said, “It’s only your imagination!” Joan responded, “Of course! How else would God speak to me but through my imagination?” This story teaches us that we need to pay attention to how God is speaking to us through our thoughts, feelings, desires, hopes, dreams, imagination, and memories. Our vocation, or […]

Listening for God's Voice Within: A Webinar with Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ

Listening for God’s Voice Within: A Lenten Webinar with Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ

Joe Paprocki

I remember, in high school, being told by one of the Jesuit priests to listen for God speaking to me. After several weeks of listening, I told the priest, “This isn’t working. I don’t hear any voices.” He smiled and said, “Ah, I see I need to teach you to listen with your heart instead of with your ears.” It took me a while to understand what it meant to listen with my heart, but […]

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What’s Your Catechetical New Year’s Resolution?

Joe Paprocki

Happy New Year, everyone! While I don’t make a big thing out of New Year’s resolutions, I think it is always good to set goals and to articulate them. As we begin our next year, I thought it would be fun for us to make and share some catechetical New Year’s resolutions! Mine is to cut down on the amount of talking I do during presentations so as to leave more time and space for […]