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Intermediate Grades

Telling the Greatest Story Ever Told

Yesterday was my last teaching class for this year! Next week, we’ll have a closing Mass and then a little time left in class for a small celebration and farewells. I was pleased as punch, then, to have had a wonderful class last night! Here’s the scoop. Seven of my students still needed to complete their final assessment so I had them go over to an empty classroom with my aide Daneen where they completed […]

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Miscellaneous

“Catholic Artists Today Are Virtually Invisible”

Interesting post on Deacon Greg Kendra’s blog today about the dearth of Catholic influence in the arts today: Catholic Artists are Virtually Invisible. I would disagree with Dana Gioia’s conclusion, however, that American culture is to blame. While there may be some truth to that, I believe we have no one to blame but ourselves. I don’t think we encourage artistic expression in catechesis as much as we should. As a child, I remember drawing, […]

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Easter

Alleluia! The Easter Vigil

The Easter Vigil last night at St. Julie Billiart Parish in Tinley Park was exquisite! What a beautiful experience of celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord! Here are the catechumens and candidates gathered around the soon-to-be-lit fire. The Easter fire is lit in the darkened narthex of the church. The Deacon did a wonderful job of singing the Exsultet…the Easter Proclamation…in the darkened church lit now by the candles held by all the faithful. The […]

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Joys and Frustrations

Positive Doodling

On Monday evening, we presented a segment of the video Jesus of Nazareth, focusing on the death and Resurrection of Jesus (about a 40-minute segment leading up to the end of the film). As part of the viewing exercise, the young people have a viewing guide that they fill in as they watch (we pause the video at each scene that has a question connected with it). At the end of the evening, one of […]

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Lenten Activities

40 Ideas for 40 Days: Resurrection Eggs

Today’s Lenten activity comes from an eighth-grade catechist in Ohio who just loves her kids and wanted to share something she does with them during Holy Week. She calls them “Resurrection Eggs,” but they could easily be referred to as “Holy Week Eggs” or “Passion Eggs,” since they help children to recognize various elements of the Passion reading. Resurrection Eggs I found some “Resurrection Eggs.” They are plastic eggs that have a symbol of the Passion, Death, […]