praying Archives - Catechist's Journey

Pop-Up Catechesis: Praying the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Love

In the movie Ghost, Sam (Patrick Swayze) never says the words, “I love you” to Molly (Demi Moore), instead opting for the response, “Ditto.” His inability to say the words, “I love you,” cause Molly to question Sam’s commitment to their relationship. She rightly wants him to say the words as an action that confirms his commitment to her. The truth is, some words we speak are “efficacious,” which means that speaking the words achieves […]

Pop-Up Prayer: Guest Fr. Kevin O’Brien, SJ

Joe Paprocki

In this episode of Pop-Up Prayer, educator and author Fr. Kevin O’Brien, SJ, talks about the need to “keep it real” when it comes to our prayer. Fr. O’Brien practiced law and taught high school before joining the Jesuits in 1996. He has taught theology and spirituality at Georgetown University, Santa Clara University, and Fairfield University, and is the author of the award-winning book, The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Daily […]

Getting to Know Jesus: A Retreat Inspired by Dear Pope Francis

Joe Paprocki

Invite children to get to know Jesus through a special retreat inspired by Ignatian spirituality and the book Dear Pope Francis. The retreat includes Scripture passages with the theme of getting to know Jesus. Each passage provides the basis for one session. The sessions can be prayed with over the course of a week in a Catholic school or in shorter sessions over the course of a one-day or weekend retreat for parishes. Three options […]

Not Done with Prayer Yet

Denise Gorss

We had just finished a silence challenge, and I called the young people to our regular opening prayer when I was disheartened to hear one boy mumble, “What, we’re not done with prayer yet?” Prayer time is usually not met with such resistance in my classroom. In fact, I think many of the young people enjoy the quiet and reflective experiences built in to our time together, whether they are able to vocalize it or […]

Praying with a Classroom Visitor

Denise Gorss

The DRE told me that one of the parish priests would be stopping by sometime during class to talk to the young people about becoming altar servers. He was visiting several classrooms, and I didn’t know how much time he would spend in each one nor the order in which he would visit. So I started class knowing that at some point we’d have a visitor, though I didn’t know exactly when. Of course, he […]

Prayer That “Fits” Current Science

Joe Paprocki

In late November my daughter got married, and it was a wonderful experience. In the days leading up to the wedding, my wife was fervently praying for good weather. For several weeks before the wedding date, Chicago experienced unseasonal warmth and lots of sunshine. Forecasters, however, warned that “big changes” were coming, and the target date for those big changes turned out to be our daughter’s wedding day. Needless to say, my wife was not […]

Why Do We Pray?

Lisa Jones

Have you ever asked kids why they pray? We spend a lot of time teaching children to say their prayers, teaching them about different ways to pray, and even spend time teaching them to write their own prayers, but we don’t often talk that much about why we pray. In class this week we began by reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of […]

Three Ways to Nurture a Catechist’s Prayer Life

Darcy Osby

Prayer is an essential component in the life of a catechist. Prayer helps us stay connected to Jesus Christ, the Master Catechist who works through us in our ministry, who strengthens us with the grace to do our ministry well, and who desires to be in relationship with us and with our students. How can we help our catechists maintain a life of prayer? Here are three ways. 1. Keep it simple. We often think […]

A Guided Reflection on Praying, Fasting, and Almsgiving

Joe Paprocki

Tonight, we begin in church with a Lenten prayer service that should be about 30 minutes. With all the coming and going between the church and school buildings, I should have about 35 minutes left with my kids. Since I haven’t been able to do a guided reflection with them for a few weeks, I thought I would go right into that when we get back to the classroom. Here’s the script that I put […]

And a Child Shall Lead Them…

Joe Paprocki

This phrase, of course, is from Isaiah 11:6, and is used from time to time in catechesis with regards to children taking leadership roles. I experimented with this concept on Monday evening by having one of my students lead the guided reflection! This was a big risk for me and I have to admit that I have a very hard time of letting go of things like this because I know how it should be […]