Forming Disciples: Lessons from the Healing of the Man Born Blind

As catechists, we work with the Holy Spirit to form disciples of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, we’ve been devoting some attention to the concept of discipleship with the help of Fr. Brice Higginbotham, author of Remaining with Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of John. Fr. Higginbotham has been recording short videos while pursuing a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In this segment, Fr. Brice explains what we can learn […]

The Luminous Mysteries: The Wedding at Cana and a Banquet Mentality

We continue our reflections on the Luminous Mysteries. Today, we focus on the second Mystery of Light, which is the Wedding Feast at Cana. Perhaps one of the most striking images of God’s generosity and what I like to call a “banquet mentality” can be found in the story of Jesus’s first miracle at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11). Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were attending a wedding feast in Cana when the […]

Proclaiming the Miracles (the Mighty Deeds) of Jesus

When a company promotes a product, it goes to great lengths to convince us of what it can do for us. When candidates seek votes, they will provide long lists of accomplishments as proof that they can deliver. When we invite others to embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we need to provide “evidence” of what Jesus has done, is doing, and can do for each of us. A crucial part of the […]

Miracle Workshop: Talking about the Miracles of Jesus

I knew we had a lot of ground to cover when I asked for examples of miracles Jesus performed and one of the students said, “When he gave fish to two guys.” That didn’t sound too miraculous, so I asked the boy if he thought that sounded impressive, and he admitted it didn’t. One of his classmates helped by offering that he thought there were 2,000 people fed with fish—getting closer to the famous miracle […]

The Wedding Feast at Cana: A Call to Community

Have you ever noticed that many heroes in popular culture are loners? These heroes save the day, but they tend to do it all by themselves. Think of Batman, Superman, Ironman, Wolverine, and for those of us who are a little older, the Lone Ranger. Our heroes tend to be rugged individuals who, even if they engage in an alliance or loose affiliation with others, do so reluctantly. A good example of this is Han […]

Finding God’s Love in Tragedies

In a recent lesson about the saints, my third-grade faith-formation class wanted to know how people become saints. They asked about the process of canonization by which the Church names someone a saint. While describing the process, we got sidetracked talking about miracles. The kids weren’t sure that miracles actually happen anymore; some thought a miracle was something like a magic trick. To help them see that miracles still happen in our world, I shared […]

Tim Tebow, Sports, and Prayer

Sports is HUGE with kids, so no doubt, kids are interested in the success of Tim Tebow and all the talk about the “miracles” associated with his success, including yesterday’s stunning overtime victory in the NFL playoffs. In case you’re not up-to-date on the whole Tebow phenomenon, here’s a quick summary. For kids, the question that the whole Tim Tebow experience raises is whether or not God answers our prayers when it comes to things […]