Faith, Knowledge, and Service: Celebrating Catholic Schools Week

The last Sunday in January always begins a special week that Catholic school teachers find both exhilarating and exhausting: Catholic Schools Week. This week is sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association, and this year Catholic Schools Week will be celebrated from Sunday, January 31 to February 6. As a teacher who has spent her entire career teaching in Catholic schools, I know how much we can celebrate! Catholic Schools Week is unlike any other […]

Advent Is Just Around the Corner!

With Advent being just around the corner, I want to let you know about a number of great resources at your fingertips to enhance your faith community’s experience of this wonderful season! Advent Moments of Mercy This Advent coincides with the beginning of the Year of Mercy that Pope Francis has declared. What greater act of mercy is there beyond God sending his only Son Jesus to save us from sin? The Advent season provides […]

Looking for Ideas for Do-it-Yourself Service Projects

I’m looking for ideas for “do-it-yourself” service projects—things that can be done on site at the parish with 20 or 30 adult volunteers in a couple of hours. One such idea, albeit quite ambitious, is the Helping Hands project from Catholic Relief Services. This requires 40 volunteers and a minimum of two hours to package 10,000 meals! For the upcoming Year of Mercy, I hope to work with a local parish to organize opportunities for […]

Advent: Sharing Stories of Hope

Recently, my wife Joanne and I went on a trip to Cabo, Mexico, for our best friends’ daughter’s wedding. We spent four wonderful days in Mexico with our best friends, and when we returned home, we gathered with them, just three days later, to look at pictures and share stories. That might seem like a strange thing to do, since we had just been together for this shared experience. However, it is human nature to […]

The Growing Popularity of Advent Calendars: A Teachable Moment

Have you noticed that “Advent calendars” are all the rage these days? I put that in quotes because the “Advent calendars” I’m referring to are secular in nature and have become a big part of holiday marketing and sales. There are “Advent calendars” for wine, tea, chocolate, books, gemstones, spices, cookies, and a host of other delights, most of which have nothing to do with the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, I’m not […]

Lenten Disciples: The Woman at the Well

In the Scriptures, we see examples of disciples at different stages of their journeys. For the next few weeks of Lent, we will explore three different encounters with Jesus and what these encounters tell us about discipleship. We will focus first on perhaps one of the best-known stories in the Bible: Jesus and the woman of Samaria (John 4:1–42). In this story, Jesus approaches a Samaritan woman and strikes up a conversation with her at […]

The Act of Contrition and the Sacrament of Penance

If you are preparing children to celebrate their First Reconciliation (Penance), you might want to be aware of a couple of small changes that have been made in the wording of the order. Last year, the Vatican approved a new translation of the Order of Penance (previously the Rite of Penance). The only significant change to be aware of is a slight change in the wording of the priest’s prayer of absolution. The changes are […]

Catechists as Mystagogues: Leading Others to Encounter the Risen One

There’s a big difference between telling someone, “I can tell you a lot about __________” (Fill in the blank with the name of any celebrity.) and “I’d like to introduce you to ___________.” (Fill in the blank with the same name.) Often faith formation has been thought of and approached as a version of the first option above: a vehicle for telling others about Jesus Christ. This boils down to the teaching of a subject. […]

Proclaiming the Miracles (the Mighty Deeds) of Jesus

When a company promotes a product, it goes to great lengths to convince us of what it can do for us. When candidates seek votes, they will provide long lists of accomplishments as proof that they can deliver. When we invite others to embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we need to provide “evidence” of what Jesus has done, is doing, and can do for each of us. A crucial part of the […]

Small Group Facilitator Training

I have long been an advocate of parishes forming small groups for adult faith formation and sharing, and I have blogged previously about the importance of small faith groups. I have also talked about the importance of training people to serve as small group facilitators. While it is helpful, it is not necessary for a small group facilitator to have formal theological training. What is needed are basic facilitating skills. With that in mind, I […]

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