sacramental preparation Archives - Catechist's Journey

Adaptive Sacramental Preparation Kits from Loyola Press

Bringing Children with Disabilities to the Sacraments

Most of us are familiar with the tool for cropping an image on our computer or smartphone. While we intentionally crop images to center attention on a specific focal point, sometimes we unintentionally crop out features that are critical to telling the whole story. For too long, people with disabilities have been “cropped out” of the total picture of our faith communities. When Loyola Press courageously decided to create faith formation resources for people with […]

children on school bus - kali9/E+/Getty Images

Let’s Think Kerygma Rather Than Catch-Up

Joe Paprocki

In the great movie, A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks’s character, Jimmy Dugan, made famous the phrase “There’s no crying in baseball!” I have to admit that I’m coming very close to exclaiming, in that same incredulous voice, “There’s no catch-up in catechesis!” Now, you might attribute this to the fact that I was born and raised in Chicago, where there’s no ketchup on hot dogs, and I just don’t like the phrase “catch […]

Responding Compassionately to Families Whose Children Are “Out of Sequence” for Receiving the Sacraments

Jayne Ragasa-Mondoy

“Good morning! My son is in the fifth grade and hasn’t received his First Holy Communion yet. How can we get started?” “Hi there! My daughter is a senior in high school and would like to be confirmed before she leaves for college. What does she have to do?” For Roman Catholics, there is a traditional sequence to receiving the Sacraments of Initiation and First Penance and Reconciliation: Baptism in infancy, Reconciliation and Eucharist at […]

father and daughter watching video on tablet computer

Enhancing Sacramental Preparation with Engaging Videos

Joe Paprocki

I have long been an advocate of using engaging videos to enhance faith formation, as long as they are never used to replace the catechist. In other words, videos should always be seen as a supplement to the faith formation experience—a way of reinforcing important content visually and/or a way of telling a story that invites the viewer into a deeper experience of the theme being explored. In my years at Loyola Press, I have been […]

Speaking God’s Language at Home

Joe Paprocki

It is an established fact that language and culture go hand in hand. Language is a crucial part of identity. When a language becomes endangered, the culture associated with that language also becomes endangered. According to linguist Noam Chomsky, “Language embodies the world view of a culture and is unique to the culture that created it. It reflects values and concepts that are deemed to be the most important by a culture. A language describes the culture […]

Communicator Award for Loyola Press Eucharist Video

Sacrament Video Wins Award!

Joe Paprocki

In ministry, as in many walks of life, affirmation does not always come easily. That’s why when it does come along, it is really something to celebrate! With that in mind, I am happy to share some good news with you: a video that I wrote and hosted for the God’s Gift: Eucharist program for Loyola Press recently won an award! The Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts announced that the “Sacrament of the Eucharist” […]

Active Learning That “Sticks”

Joe Paprocki

I’ve always been a proponent of active learning—making sure that learners are actively involved in the process of accessing new information—and I’ve written about this here previously. Now, let me give you a specific example that I find very effective. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved stickers! Who doesn’t? I know that my wife and I found stickers to be one of the best ways of keeping our kids occupied on car rides. […]

Helping Parents Connect Faith and Daily Living

Joe Paprocki

One of the saddest things I hear is when people explain that they don’t practice their Catholic faith because they don’t find a connection between it and daily living. I believe that it is the job of every catechist and every homilist to show how our faith connects with daily living. Too often, when we talk about getting parents more involved in their child’s faith formation, we jump to the fact that they don’t know […]

words language of mystery on background of stars

Sacramental Preparation Should Rely on a Language of Mystery

Joe Paprocki

When my mom was 13 years old and unbaptized, she hung around with her best friend Ramona who, like the rest of her family, was a practicing Catholic. Once, when my mom went with Ramona’s family to Sunday Mass, she observed them all go up to receive Communion and come back to their places to kneel in prayer with a look of joyful contentment on their faces. After Mass, my mom asked Ramona’s mother, “What […]

Celebrate, Remember, and Appreciate: Mystagogy for Children

Joyce Donahue

Mystagogy is a time for the community and the newly baptized to “grow in deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery and in making it part of their lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the eucharist and doing the works of charity.” (RCIA 244) Mystagogy is clearly a period of encounter, accompaniment, and integration. Both the community and the newly initiated grow together. Unlike adults who are instructed and mentored prior to Baptism, […]