This coming Monday, November 12, I am going to be on the road and will not be able to teach my 6th graders 🙁 so I prepared a simple lesson plan for the substitute catechist to complete in my place. The focus continues to be on Moses and the Exodus/Passover event. Here’s what I sent to my DRE: Hi Arlene, For Monday (11/12), please have a sub do the following: Distribute Finding God student books (they […]
I was honored to write a new course for the University of Dayton Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (VLCFF). It is called Bible Basics and the required text for the course is my book, The Bible Blueprint: A Catholic’s Guide to Understanding and Embracing God’s Word. Thanks to Richard Drabick, the Assistant Director of the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives for inviting me to write the course and to Sr. Angela Ann Zukowski, MHSH, the Director […]
Here’s the final installment of a summary of this past Monday’s session on Abraham and God’s plan for salvation. After completing the Bible activity on Abraham, we still had time to pray a decade of the Rosary in order to mark October as the Month of the Holy Rosary and most of the kids had brought one in as requested…I had extras for the few that didn’t. We dedicated our prayer to the people in […]
Last week, we began an excellent conversation about the catechetical process and, in particular, the principles of divine pedagogy and the role of human experience (the shared praxis approach of Dr. Thomas Groome). Thanks to all for your rich insights and thoughts. Today, I’d like to continue that conversation by offering my critique of Dr. Caroline Farey’s article, “The Truth Will Set You Free”), Faith Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 5, Sept-Oct 2009) which I referred […]
Yesterday, I posted about a current hot catechetical topic which is the role of lived experience in the catechetical process and we’ve begun an excellent conversation (see the comments below that post). I am pleased and honored that Drs. Thomas Groome and Caroline Farey have responded to my invitation to contribute to the conversation. Dr. Groome asked me to post his email (since he doesn’t “do blogs”) and Dr. Farey will join in the conversation […]
What a delightful evening last night with my 6th graders! I had an ambitious plan and I am happy to report that it came off without a hitch. When it was all over, some of them even left singing How Great Thou Art! More about that in a second. Here’s the summary: Since I was relying on a number of video segments, I needed to get there early to set up my laptop and projector. That’s […]
On this Columbus Day, it seems appropriate to talk about the New Evangelization. Why? Because the treks of Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries epitomize the “old” evangelization: the quest to bring the Gospel to foreign lands. For many centuries, evangelization was thought of as something relegated to missionaries who traveled to faraway exotic lands to convert pagans. Today, we are in need of a New Evangelization – an effort that includes ALL Catholics in “re-proposing” […]
This is a guest post by David and Mercedes Rizzo. Around the time of our daughter’s fourth birthday, she was diagnosed with autism. We refer to this period as when the autism bomb dropped. When faced with a diagnosis like that many thoughts flood the mind. One of the thoughts we had was how would Danielle be able to make her First Holy Communion and her other sacraments? We were fortunate that a parish close […]
Here is the outline for my session on Monday, October 1, 2012: Big Idea: The Bible Tells Our Story Action Plan Preliminaries: (15 mins) Instrumental music in background (CD/player) Prayer intention slips and pens at places Prayer center objects on side table Hold bowl of holy water at the door Greet students at door with holy water – bless selves Students are seated and write out prayer intentions Take attendance Do Prayer Center Procession Opening […]
WEEK THREE: The Moral Life (Life in Christ) DAY 1: Before They Were Famous (Human Dignity, Sin, and Mercy) httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWmZ98dOEEA Every so often, on the Internet, you come across these fun features that show pictures of celebrities when they were young – before they were famous – and ask you to guess their identity. Try your hand at some of these. Recognizing someone’s true identity can be challenging. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable […]
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