Catechists in Action – An Evening with Nick

Last night, I attended 5th grade catechist Nick Yonto’s religious education session at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Cary, IL. This was the first installment of my new feature, Catechists in Action, in which I will be visiting and videotaping catechists in the Chicago area, and posting about the experience here on my blog. I thoroughly enjoyed Nick’s class last evening and am working with my colleagues here at Loyola Press to ready the […]

An Interesting Update

Some time ago, a catechetical leader shared her comments here about the total revamping of the catechetical program at her parish. I invited her to update us which she has done. Some interesting and innovative approaches: Dear Joe,  I shared with you how we completely revamped our religious ed. program.  You invited me to share more, so “here goes.”   I had been a catechist for about 16 years before I became the Director of Faith […]

Stories on the Journey, Week Four: “Oopsies! I Goofed”

Welcome to Week Four of Stories on the Journey! Thanks for all of the great stories you’ve shared so far! Betty from Arizona sums it up pretty well: Thanks for sharing these inspiring stories that keep me motivated to continue facilitating adult religious education at my parish! In case you missed the stories, here they are: Week One: How Did I Get Into This? Week Two: Kids Say/Do the Darndest Things  Week Three: Touching the […]

Remembering Why I Drive 30 Minutes to Go to Mass on Sunday

Recently, my wife and I got in the car to drive to church for Sunday Mass. We typically make this half-hour journey each week even though we have a half-dozen parishes within 10 minutes of our home! Why? Because we’re liturgical snobs! Seriously though, our experience of the local parishes has been mediocre at best, with liturgy celebrated (I hesitate to even use that word) in a very perfunctory manner. We typically seek 3 things: […]

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