When I pray with my first-grade students, I often tell them they have to listen for Jesus’ voice not with their ears but with their hearts. Granted, it’s an abstract concept for young ones to understand. This year, when I taught a lesson on the Good Shepherd, I decided to try something new. Before class, I slyly arranged for two of the fathers to wait in the hall and asked them not to tell their […]
I attended the celebrations of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion at several different churches last year. While I was able to experience the joy of the sacraments in many different ways, I often heard the same Gospel reading: the parable of the Good Shepherd. This parable is a natural choice for these sacraments. It is a beautiful passage that depicts the intimate love and relationship between God and God’s people, and helps us to […]
This coming Sunday, we will hear a number of references to the “shepherd” in the Liturgy of the Word. The First Reading (Jeremiah 23:1–6) speaks of the shepherds who are scattering the flock. The Responsorial Psalm speaks of the shepherd who leads us to green pastures. In the Gospel, Jesus has compassion for the huge crowds because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Pope Francis reminds us that this image of a shepherd and […]
This Sunday, May 11, is World Day of Prayer for Vocations which coincides with the 4th Sunday of Easter or Good Shepherd Sunday. Here is a link to the Web site for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations: http://www.worlddayofprayerforvocations.com/ Likewise, here is a link to the USCCB Web site with further links to resources such as prayers for vocations and the message of the Holy Father. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/world-day-of-prayer-for-vocations.cfm Let us pray that God will call […]
Last evening was thoroughly enjoyable and, for the most part, very effective, as we focused on David as shepherd and king who points the way to the Good Shepherd/Christ the King. I decided to give the technology a rest since I’ve been using PowerPoints and videos a lot in recent sessions. Instead, I went all out on props which the kids loved. 6th graders are very much into this kind of theatrics! Here is one […]
We don’t use the word meek too often nowadays. For me, the only time I heard this word when I was growing up other than in the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the meek”) was in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy introduces herself to Oz, the great and powerful, as Dorothy, the small and meek. So, naturally, I grew up thinking that to be meek was to be the opposite of powerful: weak and powerless. If […]
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