Bishops – Under the Influence of Jesus

About a month ago, I sent a signed copy of my book, Under the Influence of Jesus: The Transforming Experience of Encountering Christ, to every Catholic bishop in the U.S. Since then, I’ve received dozens of cards and letters from the bishops in response! Many of them are commenting about this book being an excellent resource for the New Evangelization!

Session Two – September 24, 2013: Mass and Bible Basics

Wow! I had to rush home from my VIRTUAL Pilgrimage to Italy to get ready for my class tonight! Thankfully, cyberspace was pretty clear so I made good time! This evening will be my 2nd class with the 6th graders at St. Cajetan. One new feature that the parish is trying this year is to bring the young people to church once per month for Mass. This is a wonderful way to initiate young people […]

U.S. Catholic Book Club Selects 7 Keys to Spiritual Wellness for March!

  I was tickled to learn that U.S. Catholic Magazine has chosen my book 7 Keys to Spiritual Wellness as its selection for their Book Club for March, 2013!!! Here’s what they say about the book:   Review: In the contemporary dualism that sees spirituality as distinct from religion, Joe Paprocki admits that Christianity is too often confined to the latter and considered “less as a spiritual path and more as a code of ethics.” In […]

Helpful Resource to Deepen Kids’ Understanding of the Mass

Recently, I received a review copy of a DVD titled Understanding Sunday Mass: A Kid’s Point of View by David Yrisarri (Anchor Productions, sundaymass4kids.com). David is a visual effects producer who worked with the Diocese of Orange, CA, to produce this instructional video after his own son’s First Communion. David felt that his son and his peers learned a lot about Christ and their Catholic faith but not enough about the Mass. You can read […]

Check Out a New Online Course on Bible Basics!

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 […]

Year of Faith Retreat – Week 3, Day 4: Learning to Detect Patterns (Social Justice)

WEEK THREE: The Moral Life (Life in Christ) DAY 4:  Learning to Detect Patterns (Social Justice) The children’s show Sesame Street has a feature called One of These Things is Not Like the Others in which they show a series of images, inviting the viewer to identify which of the things was different or doesn’t match or belong to the group. The activity is accompanied by a song with the following lyrics: One of these things is not […]

Year of Faith Retreat – Week 2, Day 1: Aligning Ourselves with God (Worship and Liturgy)

WEEK TWO: Sacraments (Celebrating the Christian Mystery) DAY 1: Aligning Ourselves with God (Worship and Liturgy) httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp8cqIVUntk The secret to winning the game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey is to line yourself up as best you can with the picture on the board. This is not easy to do when you’re blindfolded and have been spun around several times! We tend to miss the mark.  The goal of the upcoming Year of Faith is […]

Online Retreat Begins Monday! Preparing for a Year of Faith

This coming Monday, our online summer retreat – Preparing for a Year of Faith – begins right here on my blog! The retreat is free and there is no need to register for it….just visit my blog each day beginning July 30 through August 24. During that time, you are invited to take a few minutes each day at your convenience to “gather” here on my blog as we seek to encounter Christ and to deepen our […]

A Different Kind of Big MAC!

  I had a great time at the MAC (Mid Atlantic Congress) conference in Baltimore this past week and enjoyed numerous opportunities to meet and talk to so many wonderful people. Thanks to all the people who worked so hard to make this conference such a success, especially the Association of Catholic Publishers. For me, the highlights were: getting a chance to listen to Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, once again and to chat with him […]

A More Robust Liturgy – More Discussion

Last week, I posted a link to my recently published article, 7 Steps to a More Robust Liturgy, in Ministry and Liturgy Magazine. I received an excellent response from Jeffrey Pinyan, author of Praying the Mass. The reason I consider it excellent is not because he agrees with everything I said (in fact, he disagrees with me on a variety of points) but because he furthers the discussion, contributes to it with well-thought-out ideas, and […]

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