You searched for prayer - Page 41 of 139

10 Tips for Teaching Religion Lessons to Your Children at Home

In the midst of this COVID-19 threat, many parents find themselves in the position of doing a certain amount of homeschooling with their children, including teaching religion lessons that would normally be taught in Catholic schools or parish religious education programs. Teaching religion lessons is different from teaching other subject areas, because in faith formation, we do not teach a subject, we facilitate an encounter with Jesus Christ! With that in mind, here are 10 […]

healthy salad - image by RitaE from Pixabay

Lent: Helping People to Live Differently

Joe Paprocki

Many advertisements not only entice us to purchase a product, but they also invite us to prioritize our lives around an idea. Some of the best examples of this are diet plans, which are no longer just about losing a few pounds but adopting a new lifestyle. When I stroll into the kitchen at Loyola Press during lunchtime, I see various coworkers meticulously preparing their dishes according to the philosophy and strategy of whatever plan […]

baseball pitcher in blue against red background - via CatsWithGlasses at Pixabay

Lent: Learning to Throw a Change-Up to Keep the Enemy Off-Balance

Joe Paprocki

The beginning of Lent often coincides with the beginning of spring training and the reporting of pitchers and catchers, so I can’t help but dip into my bag of sports metaphors to talk about Lent. Lent is an opportunity to step back from ordinary activities and to make some shifts in our approach to life in order to keep “the enemy” off-balance and to deepen our connection with God. It’s the spiritual equivalent of throwing […]

Bible Bell Work

Cindy Coleman

I always have “bell work” for children to begin as soon as they arrive in the classroom. These are short activities that engage early arrivals as the rest of the class arrives during the first 10–15 minutes. While students are doing their bell work, I can take attendance, check homework, hand back completed work, and attend to other tasks, like notes from parents. One of the easiest forms of bell work I have is Bible […]

Why Ignatian Spirituality Speaks to Children

Joe Paprocki

I’m very excited to see the newest revision of Finding God becoming a reality! I was hired by Loyola Press back in 2002 to contribute to the creation of this wonderful faith formation program that is steeped in Ignatian spirituality—something that is near and dear to my heart as someone with 12 years of Jesuit education. Ignatian spirituality resonates with so many people, mainly because St. Ignatius developed his Spiritual Exercises for lay people, while […]

Celebrating Lent: A Season of Sobriety

Joe Paprocki

While Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, right now, for catechetical ministers, is a season of preparation for Lent. With Ash Wednesday looming right around the corner, this is the “acceptable time” for catechetical ministers to be solidifying plans for celebrating the season of Lent with those you teach. That’s right, I said “celebrating!” Lent is not a somber time but a sober time, and achieving sobriety is something to celebrate! We human […]

Teaching Young People How to Meditate

Bob Burnham

Just as Jesus taught his disciples to pray, catechists are called to teach young people how to pray. As a Secular Franciscan, prayer is not something I do; prayer is who I am. When I teach young people how to pray, I am sharing with them the essence of who I am. I recently had the privilege to share my prayer life with a group of eighth- and ninth-graders. Specifically, they invited me to teach […]

catechist and young person work on a craft project

Creating a Climate of Encounter in Faith Formation

Joe Paprocki

Today, more than ever, we are keenly aware of the term climate because of the issue of climate change. Climate refers to the prevailing weather conditions in a region over a long period of time. In a climate-controlled environment, we can control those conditions (heat, humidity, barometric pressure, etc.) to suit our purposes, such as growing plants and flowers in a greenhouse. A faith formation environment must be “climate-controlled,” not so much in terms of temperature—although we definitely […]

Three Wishes activity from Catechist's Journey

Helping Young People Write Intercessions

Joe Paprocki

While many parts of the Mass are always the same (we use the same words for the Gloria; the Holy, Holy, Holy; the Lord’s Prayer; the Lamb of God; etc.), several parts are always different from one Mass to another: the Scripture readings, the homily, and the Prayer of the Faithful. This, of course, gives us an opportunity to invite young people to shape some of the words we use at Mass. In particular, inviting […]

Organizing Materials

Kathleen Butler

Is your January resolution to get your religious education materials organized? I used to make this resolution every single year. I was pretty good at first, but like so many resolutions, my momentum faded, and by summertime I had a box of things that needed to be filed into folders, and it felt like a huge chore. Now, I keep materials in plastic sleeves in three-ring binders, organized by topics and lessons. Behind each divider, […]