Lenten Resources

Here are links to the various Lenten resources that we have to offer. We hope they are helpful to you as we journey together through this holy season! Resources to Download 7 Ways to Practice Lent—Free eBook Lent with the Saints Lenten Actions Cards A Whole Bunch of Values Lenten Countdown for Children Lent Activities Pack Stations of the Cross Booklet Praying with the Stations of the Cross—With Station to Station Questions for Reflection and […]

40 Ideas for 40 Days

Ash Wednesday Wednesday, February 14 My Lenten Calendar: 40 Crosses Color a cross each day for 40 days showing good deeds done out of love for Jesus. Thursday, February 15 Lenten Actions Cards Encourage families to take practical steps toward practicing the traditional Lenten pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Friday, February 16 A Prayer for Fasting Pray with young people to help them understand the purpose of fasting. Saturday, February 17 Hooking Your Students: […]

Studying the Gospel of Mark

As we hear the Gospel of Mark proclaimed during this Year B of the Lectionary cycle, I’d like to point out a few resources that are available for your own enrichment or for use in a group. First, a new resource offered by the Archdiocese of Chicago is a website called The Word Made Clear featuring a course study on the Gospel of Mark led by Fr. James McIlhone, the Director of Biblical Formation for […]

An Extraordinary Day at NCCL

Today was a most extraordinary day at the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership in Atlanta! First, the NCCL is a phenomenal opportunity to meet and mingle with some of the most innovative and successful catechetical minds (and hearts) in the United States. It is also a tight-knit group (all 600-700 of us!) so each year’s conference is like a family reunion. It is so wonderful to see and chat with peoplethat I never get to […]

Ten Commandments

It feels as though I have not taught my 4th graders for a few weeks now, because of guest speakers and Presidents’ Days, etc. Tonight, that all changes as I get back to the basics with my li’l ones and focus on the Ten Commandments one last time! As you may recall, back in January, we made a DVD of the kids doing mini-presentations on the Ten Commandments. For tonight’s class, I put together the […]

We Encounter Jesus through Signs

Here’s my lesson plan for Monday, November 15, 2010 Big Idea: We encounter Jesus through SIGNS (the Church and the Sacraments) Engage As the kids enter, hand them the Signs and Symbols worksheet and have them get busy with it. When all have gathered, do opening prayer ritual and then review correct answers for worksheet Explain that today we will be learning about signs and symbols of our faith Invite 3 volunteers to come forward for […]

Closing the Year

I believe I’ve been paid the ultimate compliment from an 8th grade student who wrote those words on his evaluation: “flippin’ sweet class, Dude!” That’s a first for me! 🙂 I’d like to borrow his language to describe how things went last night: it was “flippin sweet!” It was one of those times when everything went according to plan and, in fact, exceeded my expectations. This was the last class that I will be teaching them (I’m […]

Here’s My Presentation from L.A.

As promised, here is the pdf of the Powerpoint presentation (notes view pages) from my workshop in Los Angeles: “The Spirituality of the Catechist: Re-igniting the Flame.”  LA – Spirituality of the Catechist

A Jeopardy-Like Review

This coming Monday, we’re going to do a Jeopardy-like review with all 5 of our confirmation classes in preparation for the Confirmation exam they will take the following week. Our emphasis for this will be on “Catholic literacy” – the ability to talk about what you believe in and to be more familiar with Catholic vocabulary. We’re going to impress upon the kids that, in just a few short years, when they go off to […]

A Light Shines in the Darkness

Happy Advent! I hope that your Thanksgiving weekend was an opportunity to enjoy family, friends, and some recreation and renewal! Well, it’s back to “work” for me tonight, wrapping up the short unit on Church history. Here’s my plan: As the kids enter, I’ll give them pages from daily newspapers and set them to work finding examples of “bad news.” Each of the kids will share their examples of bad news stories with the group and I’ll talk […]

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