Do you have favorite places to pray? I know I’ve got several, and depending on what’s going on at the time, I will seek out my little locations and get connected with God. Since I’m a morning person, one of my favorite places to pray is my little patio right outside my kitchen. I’ve equipped this patio with comfortable chairs, a table, and a beautiful little terra cotta image of the Madonna and Child. Coffee […]
Setting up a prayer center in the faith-formation classroom is a key element in establishing an environment of prayer. The visual reminders of our Catholic faith invite young people to remember to quiet themselves in the presence of the holy. While we all know that God is everywhere and we can pray at any time, a dedicated prayer center is a special place where young people can gather in the presence of God. But beyond […]
For many kids, faith formation feels like just one more thing on their busy schedules. They hurry through their school day shuffling from class to class, race to extracurricular activities, squeeze in a meal (often fast-food), and get dropped off at religious education classes, where they are usually met with a flurry of announcements and activity. And here we are, as catechists, trying to get them to suddenly come face-to-face with the issue of their […]
One of the most important “ingredients” for small faith groups is establishing a climate of prayer at the beginning of a session. Small groups each have their own unique focus: exploring the Sunday Scripture readings, discussing a book, watching and discussing a video series, and so on. What remains constant, however, is the need to create a climate of prayer in which the “work” of the group takes place. Some of the resources that small […]
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 […]
Last evening was the last teaching session for this year with my 8th graders. Next week, we gather for Mass, some presentations, and then pizza. I enjoyed last night and overall, I feel it went very nicely, a fitting ending to a good year with a good group of kids. Here are the highlights: I met the young people at the door as they arrived. I was holding a tray with their little vigil candles […]
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