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Adult Faith Formation Does Not Take Off for the Summer

Summer provides us with the perfect time to forge ahead with plans for more robust adult faith formation in the year ahead. At Christ the King Parish, my home parish, we are taking advantage of the summer to lay the foundations for our best year ever in adult faith formation. Building on the success of our small faith groups during Lent, we are now inviting a number of parishioners to consider/discern serving on an adult […]

Saint Anthony of Padua

Paul Gallagher

I was sitting in a meeting at my parish, and in the corner of the room sat a life-size statue of Saint Anthony of Padua. Several years ago, the statue was moved up from a basement storage room, and there he now sits, with the baby Jesus in his arms. Our image of St. Anthony is a bit chipped and the paint has faded, but it’s always nice to know that he’s around. Maybe some […]

Summer Reading from Loyola Press

Joe Paprocki

Summer is a wonderful time to renew your soul! With that in mind, Loyola Press is making available some excellent books for summer reading at a very special price of only $9 each. Take advantage of these savings and enjoy reading some wonderfully inspirational books while you relax on your porch or deck, in your backyard, at the park, or on the beach. Don’t forget to take a peek at some of the books I […]

Evaluating Your Catholic School/Religious Education Liturgies

Joe Paprocki

Recently, I was invited by a pastor to observe his parish’s weekly Catholic school liturgy, which leads me to this post suggesting that it would be a good idea for every Catholic school and parish religious education program to evaluate the liturgical experiences they invite their young people to participate in. Before I go any further, let me ask you, what is your overriding concern about your school’s or religious education program’s liturgies? I’d love […]

Introducing Catholics to the Bible: Free Parent-Child Session

Joe Paprocki

Host a hands-on, engaging session to introduce children (fifth grade or higher) and their parents to how the Bible is arranged. The Bible is like a library—God’s Library—made up of 73 books, and the best way to get to know the layout of the Bible is to break it down into smaller pieces, eight sections that make up the whole. This month’s free download gives you instructions for hosting a 90-minute session in your parish […]

10 Ways to Pray Online

Joe Paprocki

You’ll notice I did NOT say that this is a “Top” 10 list of ways to pray online. I’d rather not get into ranking prayer! Rather, I’d like to offer some online prayer resources that I encourage you to pass along to parishioners by sharing the following list in the parish bulletin or in your religious education or school newsletter. Those of us in ministry sometimes forget that we may be privy to resources that […]

Ending the Year on a Good Note

Shannon Chisholm

When we approach the end of faith formation classes for the year, we can be overwhelmed by a flurry of activity. During this period, our highest priorities are the celebration of the sacraments, planning for the final classes, end-of-year meetings, and looking forward to the next year. Amidst all these priorities—as well as tying up any loose ends—we can easily forget to take a step back and reflect on some of the gifts that are […]

Changing It Up with a Craft

Lisa Jones

It was the week when all the students in Texas had to take standardized tests. Even on a good day, my third-grade faith formation class is a squirmy bunch. After being at elementary school all day, doing nothing but taking standardized tests, I knew they would be extra squirmy. I needed to do something different to keep their attention this time. I wasn’t going to follow my regular class plan, so I needed a hands-on […]

Four Tips for Making Connections Between the Mass and Class Discussions

Denise Gorss

One of the boys in my group asked, “Do you go to church?” We were discussing the Mass, and he seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that, yes, I do go to church for weekly Mass. He admits he only goes to church occasionally, and he, like many kids in our programs, is more the norm than the exception. I don’t have the secret formula for how we change this trend and encourage those […]

Celebrating (Not-so) Small Successes in Adult Faith Formation

Joe Paprocki

Numerous books and websites dealing with successful leadership strategies identify the importance of celebrating small successes (or “wins” or “victories”). Here is one such example: Brenda Bence: The Top 10 Reasons Why Leaders Should Celebrate Wins. This is precisely the reason why we are hosting a celebration tonight at Christ the King Parish: to celebrate the success of our Lenten small faith groups! Now that we are in the Easter season—a time of celebration—we are hosting […]