pray Archives - Catechist's Journey

“I Pray for All Those Affected by the Government Shutdown.” – 6th Grader Prayer Intention

Who says that kids don’t know how to pray? Not me! Last evening, as part of our usual opening prayer, we shared prayer intentions (which I usually have the kids write down as soon as they enter the room). One young man shared the following: “I pray for all those affected by the government shutdown.” Wow. There’s someone who is not only in touch with current events, but also knows that these are the kinds […]

Prayer Intentions

Joe Paprocki

One of the things that I plan to do with my students this year is, as soon as they enter the room, to sit down and write down their prayer intention for that day/week. I will encourage them to either give thanks for something or to pray for someone in need or for a need of their own. Of course you can just have them write them down on a piece of scrap paper but […]

Lent: A 40-Day Retreat/Learning to Throw a Change-up

Joe Paprocki

The beginning of Lent often coincides with the beginning of spring training and the reporting of pitchers and catchers, so I can’t help but dip into my bag of sports metaphors to talk about Lent. Lent is nothing more than a 40-day retreat and a retreat is basically an opportunity to step back from ordinary activities to connect with God in a special way. It’s the spiritual equivalent of throwing a change-up. For those of […]

5th Anniversary Celebration – Guest Blogger #1: Gilles Côté

Joe Paprocki

To help celebrate the 5th anniversary of my blog, The Catechist’s Journey, I’ve invited a number of people to be guest bloggers here over the next week! We start with one of the first people I “met” online when I began blogging, Gilles Côté, a Canadian living in Ottawa, who is the webmaster of 4CatholicEducators.com and of its sister site Resources for Catholic Educators. Gilles taught grades 7 through 12 for 23 years in Catholic […]

The Daily Examen – Learn By Doing

Joe Paprocki

From time to time here on my blog, you’ve noticed me talking about the Daily Examen, a form of prayer promoted by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Now you have a great opportunity to learn how to pray the Examen by praying the Examen! Jim Manney, author of A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, is offering an opportunity to experience the Examen online as he leads you step-by-step so that you can learn how to pray this way on […]

Who Taught You to Pray?

Joe Paprocki

One of the best discussions we had at the Being, Knowing, and Doing seminar in Seattle, WA, last week and Rockville Centre, NY, this week centered around the questions of “who taught you to pray? and what are your earliest memories of prayer?” These are good questions to spark a discussion with catechists to get them thinking about how they pray as an adult (so that they in turn are more conscious of how they […]

My First Session – Part 3

Joe Paprocki

So far, I’ve summarized the first 45-50 minutes of my first session with my 8th graders this past Monday evening, detailing the Engage and Explore steps of my lesson. Today, I’ll detail the REFLECT step which is designed to lead the young people to pray from within the truths they are learning. Here are the details: Before class began, I had set up on my prayer center, a circle of battery operated tea light candles (I […]