A Prayer for Those Who Have Shared Their Faith—Free Prayer Card

While it’s true that there is a private dimension to our faith, faith comes to us through others first. Maybe you remember your parents teaching you mealtime or bedtime prayers or taking you to participate in a service opportunity. Maybe a favorite teacher or catechist showed you the power of imaginative prayer, invited you to a meaningful communal prayer service, or led an activity that made some aspect of the faith “click” for you. Maybe […]

The Six Tasks of Catechesis #4: Teaching to Pray, or Praying Our Faith

Special Contributor

The fourth of the Six Tasks of Catechesis is teaching to pray, or in terms of the remembering phrase HELP ME, praying our faith. Read what the bishops say: Conversion to Christ and communion with him lead the faithful to adopt his disposition of prayer and reflection… His prayer was always directed toward his Father. Catechesis should invite the believer to join Christ in the Our Father. Prayer should be the ordinary environment of all catechesis […]

Celebrating Catechetical Sunday: How Do You Pray the Faith?

Joyce Donahue

How do you pray? What is your favorite form of prayer? When was the last time you thought about your personal prayer life and the way you pray in the classroom? The theme for this year’s Catechetical Sunday, which falls on September 18, is “Prayer: The Faith Prayed.” The USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis offers resources for catechists, adults, and families to explore what prayer is, how to pray, how to prepare for prayer, […]

10 Ways to Pray Online

Joe Paprocki

You’ll notice I did NOT say that this is a “Top” 10 list of ways to pray online. I’d rather not get into ranking prayer! Rather, I’d like to offer some online prayer resources that I encourage you to pass along to parishioners by sharing the following list in the parish bulletin or in your religious education or school newsletter. Those of us in ministry sometimes forget that we may be privy to resources that […]

Listening

Kathy Henry

From time to time I find it helpful to stop what I am doing and listen. I mean really listen. My family has learned to recognize when I am no longer hearing what they are saying to me. I am completely honest when this happens and no longer feel guilty when I say to my spouse or child, “You know, I’m just not listening to you anymore.” We know that any further attempts to convey […]

Pray as the New Year Begins

Chris Sullivan

As you and your catechists begin the new learning year, what might you say is the most important thing that you can do to prepare? When I consider that question in light of my own ministry work, I may be tempted to say something about having my materials and my space in order. But when I pause to reflect more deeply, I remember that the most important thing I can do to prepare is pray. […]

Where Have You Been, Lord? Praying the Examen with Your Families

Eric Gurash

I always found our opening prayers for Confirmation and First Eucharist meetings to be challenging. Normally these involved something written down, something we would all read together, or maybe a pertinent piece of Scripture, or maybe both. It often felt dry and mechanical. What I wanted to do was engage our families, invite them to get to know the Jesus I knew—a Jesus who was active, interesting, and intensely interested in their lives. The question […]

The Spiritual Life of Catechists, Part 3: Personal Prayer

Joyce Donahue

Editor’s Note: Several of our new Catechist’s Journey contributors will be familiar to those of you who read DRE Connect. Today, we share with you one article in a series by Joyce Donahue. This post originally appeared on DRE Connect. This is the third article in a series about the spiritual life of catechists, inspired by the list of characteristics in the National Directory for Catechesis. Catechists are called to a strong prayer life, having […]

Successful REP Kick-Off Event!

Joe Paprocki

Thanks be to God, we had a wonderfully successful kick-off event for the Religious Education program at St. Cajetan that focused on the adults as well as the children. The goal was to begin to chip away at the “drop-off” mentality and I think it is safe to say that last night we made a significant dent! I counted at least 100 adults present and we prepared 115 folders! Here’s a pictorial summary: Signage was key […]

Dry Run for REP Kick Off Nite

Joe Paprocki

Last evening, I got together with Deb, the DRE at St. Cajetan, to do a “dry run” in preparation for next Tuesday’s Kick-Off for the Religious Education program. We had many logistics to go over such as the sound system, the lighting, the video, the music and so on. In particular, I realized that I have to practice my timing with the songs/videos that I’ll be projecting throughout the prayer service…it’s as if I’m the […]