This year, we are marking the 15th anniversary of this blog, Catechist’s Journey. Sadly, within the first year of the blog’s creation, I found myself writing a post about helping children to cope with news about a mass shooting at Virginia Tech. A year later, I posted in the wake of a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University. Several years later, I posted again, as a result of the Newton mass shooting. Once again, within […]
When an orchestra prepares to perform together, they spend a few minutes before the performance ensuring that they are all in tune with one another. Without this effort, the audience would no doubt hear the disharmony and cringe at the discordant sound. In our human relationships, we are called to live in harmony with one another. In the area of race relations, however, we continue to experience far too much disharmony. On November 3, we […]
In my “travels” through cyberspace, I discovered that Thursday, February 20, 2020, is World Day of Social Justice (United Nations). Social justice is considered one of the “two feet” of Catholic social action. One foot is charity (taking care of people’s immediate needs), while the other foot is social justice (addressing the structures and policies in society that cause people to be deprived of what they deserve). Social justice is not a liberal or conservative issue; […]
Here again are the PDFs that I made available after last evening’s Webinar, “Teaching During a Year of Faith” (a recording of the Webinar will be available here in just a few days!) Classroom Covenant Chart for Praying the Nicene Creed Leading to Memorization Practical Suggestions for Practicing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy Resources for Leading Guided Reflections Social Justice Organization Websites PLUS, here’s a new one that I put together as a […]
Thanks so much for participating in this evening’s Webinar, “Teaching During a Year of Faith!” A recording of the Webinar will be available here on this blog within about a week. If you wish to receive a certificate toward your catechist certification, email your first and last name with your full mailing address to webinar@loyolapress.com. As promised, here are some resources I referred to during the Webinar that you can download (PDF format) for free! Classroom […]
WEEK THREE: The Moral Life (Life in Christ) DAY 4: Learning to Detect Patterns (Social Justice) The children’s show Sesame Street has a feature called One of These Things is Not Like the Others in which they show a series of images, inviting the viewer to identify which of the things was different or doesn’t match or belong to the group. The activity is accompanied by a song with the following lyrics: One of these things is not […]
In last night’s Webinar on The 7 Keys to Spiritual Wellness (if you missed it, a recording will be available here on my blog within a few days), I began by asking what folks are doing to maintain their spiritual wellness before I added my suggestions. Here’s a sampling of what folks are doing (I love the variety!) What are YOU doing to maintain your spiritual wellness? Daily mass Daily prayer active participation in […]
This past Monday, we gathered with the children in church for a Lenten Prayer Service (about 30 minutes) with the pastor. I thought the service was very nicely prepared and executed. As we waited to begin, one of the 2nd grade catechists got up and asked all the 2nd grade children to stand and sing “This Little Light of Mine” which was an appropriate pre-processional and served to gather hearts, minds, and voices. I saw some […]
At the end of Monday evening’s session, I asked each of the kids to share one thing they learned that evening: spiritual and corporal works of mercy, social justice, service, and living the Beatitudes. I was struck by how many of the young people referred to the poverty quiz that they took in the social justice session with Chris. Many of them pulled the quiz out and quoted a fact or figure about poverty in […]
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