During Advent and Lent, the Church prepares for the feasts of Christmas and Easter. Similarly, summer is the season when catechists prepare for the upcoming catechetical year. The more time we take to prepare, the more comfortable and confident we will be echoing the Word of God in our classrooms. Prayer, Prayer, and More Prayer The most important thing we can do to prepare for the new catechetical year is to pray. Through prayer, the […]
Every year as a Director of Religious Education has its own unique challenges and successes. I keep telling myself that if I’m doing the same thing as the year before, then I’m doing it wrong. Here are some continual challenges I face and the ways I have found success amidst them. Challenge 1: Recruiting Catechists I have a large program, and even though I have some very dedicated catechists, I also have an average turnover […]
Training and retaining volunteers is a major responsibility of a DRE. In my parish, we have about 200 volunteers assisting in various ways with faith formation, and my staff and I have the responsibility of ensuring that they are equipped to do their ministry. Preliminaries for Volunteers Long before we allow someone to volunteer, he or she fills out a volunteer application, which includes reference checks. In our archdiocese, as in others, we must follow […]
When journalists report, listeners or readers want to know the source of the information and whether or not those sources are reliable. When it comes to religion, it helps to know the source of the information we are being asked to embrace as the truth. For Catholics, we identify our source as Scripture and Tradition—not two sources, but one single source that comes to us in two ways. Scripture, of course, is the written Word […]
Today we hear a lot about people demanding their rights! Fortunately, we live in a country that guarantees those rights according to the Constitution. If there were a “catechist’s bill of rights,” one of those rights would be training and formation and I wish that more catechists would speak up, demanding this right. I’ll never forget my friend Brian Lemoi, Director of the Catechetical Office in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, FLA, telling me that, […]
I spent a wonderful day in Rochester, NY, yesterday. In the afternoon, I met with about 100 catechetical leaders and in the evening with about 40 catechists – both times focusing on the concept of sacramentality and how our sacramental preparation efforts can be more evangelizing. Thanks to Jonathan Schott, Consultant for Catechist Faith Formation for the Diocese of Rochester, and to all of the staff of the catechetical office for organizing the events and […]
Our FREE Webinar – Forming a 3-Dimensional Catechist (Being, Knowing, and Doing) – takes place on Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 7:00 pm (CT). This will be a very interactive Webinar! With that in mind, here are some handouts that you’ll want to have with you as you participate in the event. BKD Webinar Handouts 1 – BEING BKD Webinar Handouts 2 – KNOWING BKD Webinar Handouts 3 – DOING There’s still time to register…just […]
On my recent trip to the Diocese of Rochester, NY, to do a couple of presentations, I had the pleasure of sharing a couple of long car rides with Jonathan Schott, the Coordinator of Adult, Family, and Catechist Formation. Our conversations were wide-ranging: sports, movies, TV, and, of course, catechesis! In particular, we talked about catechist formation and I was particularly impressed with the online approach that the Diocese of Rochester takes for catechist formation. Their […]
As promised, the recordings for Part Two of the Catechist Training Webinars are now available! I provided free Catechist Training Webinars on August 19 & 20 (Part One) and August 26 & 27 (Part Two). I’m providing the recordings for those who were unable to participate or would like to share it with others. The Webinar is broken into chapters by theme for easy viewing. The link below will lead you to another site called You Tube […]
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