Christmas Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Catechist's Journey

Christmas and Catholic Identity

The celebration of Christmas is unabashedly Catholic. I describe Catholic identity as being characterized by five traits: a sense of sacramentality a commitment to community a deep respect for the dignity of human life, leading to a commitment to social justice a reverence for tradition a disposition to faith and hope and not despair These five characteristics are integral to the Christmas story, and Christmas can help us to strengthen our Catholic identity. I offer […]

Thank God for the Textbook!

Joe Paprocki

On pg. 40 of my book, The Catechist’s Toolbox, I mention that one of the top ten things that can go wrong for a catechist is “You’re done with your lesson and you still have 35 minutes to go!” Would you believe 50 minutes? That’s exactly what happened to me last night! We took our 6th graders to church for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and we were told to anticipate that it would take the […]

Using Arts & Faith: Christmas with Young Adults

Special Contributor

This is a guest post by Pamela Tremblay. Christ’s Birth as an Invitation to Enter the Messiness The reflection states that Christ, “enters messily into the imperfection of our lives.” It then ends with the challenging question of “How will she bring his light to the world?” Young adults are a generation filled with passion and desire to change the world. They want to be people of greatness and are at a time in their […]

This Christmas, Light Up a Room as Mary Did

Joe Paprocki

The Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent provides us with a key for how to enter into Christmas. We hear of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth. Mary enters and Elizabeth is filled with joy. Why? Because Mary is carrying Jesus within her. She is bringing Good News into Elizabeth’s home. She is bringing the nearness of God to Elizabeth. Mary knows how to light up a room! As we gather with family and friends […]

An Advent Calendar for Grown Ups

Joe Paprocki

Here is a very helpful Advent/Christmas Calendar that is very appropriate for grown ups…it includes very substantive information and background as well as links to more resources when you click on each day’s link. This comes to us from the Institute for Christian Formation. Advent/Christmas Calendar: Year of Grace 2013

Catechists in Action – Dan Ward Segment 6

Joe Paprocki

In this segment of Catechists in Action, 7th grade catechist Dan Ward continues to work with his students to prepare them for Christmas. Watch as Dan… invites his students to take 3 minutes to think of what they need to do to prepare for Jesus’ coming invites volunteers to share their ideas shares an idea of how he and his family are going to prepare for Christmas httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2SlSHFTlvs

Catechists In Action #3 – Dan Talks About Advent/Christmas Preparations and the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Joe Paprocki

In this segment of Catechists in Action, we watch as 7th grade catechist Dan Ward talks with his students about preparing for Christmas and the coming of Christ and about preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation the following week. Watch for the following as Dan: multi-tasks: teaching while also distributing materials pauses and shushes students when they get innattentive gives the students a writing activity to do but creates a sense of urgency by […]

A Nativity Play According to Luke

Joe Paprocki

Click here for a Nativity Play that was sent to me by Karen from Elizabeth, Illinois, who writes: Hi Joe, If anyone needs a “bomb proof” script for the Nativity Play, a children’s production, for this year, please pass along the attached file. It’s based on the Gospel of St. Luke, this year’s cycle. It also starts right at the Prologue, a unique tool used by Luke. We’ve taken selected readings from Chapter 1, then continue […]

Catechist’s Journey 5th Anniversary – Question #4

Joe Paprocki

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of my blog, Catechist’s Journey, we’re hosting a little contest. Each day this week, I’m posting a video in which I ask a trivia question and, in order to correctly answer, you’ll need to go back and look at one of my posts. The first person to post a comment with the correct answer will win a prize! Here are the prizes: Monday: Three Children’s books by Amy Welborn: Book of […]

Wanna Keep Christ in Christmas? Wish People a Merry Xmas!

Joe Paprocki

It’s common today to hear Christians lament the fact that Jesus is too often overlooked or even left out in our modern secular celebration of the holiday. One example that people sometimes mistakenly point to is the use of the term Xmas which some see as a way of leaving Christ out of Christmas when actually, the complete opposite is occurring here. The X actually represents the name of Christ! In Greek, the first two […]