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Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: The Lord’s Prayer

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to prepare by dedicating time in 2024 to “promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.” With that in mind, I invite you to the final part of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! The Lord’s Prayer Who is […]

Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: Family Heirlooms

Joe Paprocki

In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to prepare by dedicating time in 2024 to “promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.” With that in mind, I invite you to part two of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! Family Heirlooms I was born in […]

Pop-Up Prayer: Guest Amy Welborn

Joe Paprocki

In this episode of Pop-Up Prayer, Amy Welborn, popular blogger, speaker, and writer, shares her insights about praying with traditional prayers. Amy is the author of many books, including The Words We Pray and her most recent book, the Loyola Kids Book of Seasons, Feasts, and Celebrations. Here, she shares about what St. Paul means when he writes, “We do not know how to pray as we ought.” (Romans 8:26) For more information about […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: A Walk Through the Mass—The Lord’s Prayer

Joe Paprocki

We live in a culture that prizes independence. One of the biggest national holidays that we celebrate in the United States is, of course, Independence Day. When it comes to raising our children, we strive to prepare them to be autonomous and independent so that they can lead healthy and productive lives. In the spiritual life, however, there is no such thing as independence. Rather, the key to a healthy and thriving spiritual life is […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Praying the Angelus

Joe Paprocki

We live in a world of notifications! A notification is an icon, a vibration, a ding, or some other sound that pops up on an electronic device to let us know that something new has happened or to remind us about something. Before the world of electronic devices, one notification that Catholics relied on was church bells, which would ring, not only when Mass was beginning on Sunday, but also daily at 6 a.m., noon, and 6 […]

Pop-Up Catechesis: Teaching Traditional Prayers

Joe Paprocki

Traditional prayers are like family heirlooms that we pass on from one generation to another. In today’s episode of Pop-Up Catechesis, we explore the practice of teaching traditional prayers to children. For more information about traditional Catholic prayers, check out the following: Traditional Catholic Prayers Beyond Memorizing Words to Meditating with Traditional Prayers Traditional Prayers: Family Heirlooms Taking Prayers to Heart The Prayer List The Words We Pray Traditional Prayers in ASL Traditional Prayers […]

Book Club Bonus: John M. DeJak and Amy Welborn on Traditional Prayers

Book Club Bonus: Traditional Prayers with the Family

Special Contributor

Editor’s note: In our online book club, we’re reading Jane Knuth’s The Prayer List…and Other True Stories of How Families Pray. Each Tuesday through August 7, 2018, we’ll bring you Book Club Bonus Days—sharing additional stories of family prayer, continuing the weekly conversation, and more. Find all the book club posts here. Family Rosary Daily prayer with a large family is a bit like being a circus performer where one has to keep a bunch […]

Beyond Memorizing Words to Meditating with Traditional Prayers

Bob Burnham

This past year I was a substitute catechist for my parish’s faith-formation program. When a young man in one of the classes learned that I had written a book of meditations based on the lives of the saints, he said, “Of course it’s a book of meditations. It’s Bob.” Even though we didn’t spend much time together, he knew that prayer and contemplation are the source of all that I am and all that I […]

Singing Grace Before Meals

Joe Paprocki

As I continue my quest to encourage Catholics to sing more when we gather for faith formation and various other activities in our parishes, I would like to suggest a simple melody for singing Grace before mealtime. Rather than create a new melody, I suggest we use the melody from the traditional “Agnus Dei” and use the words of our traditional Grace Before Meals prayer: Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we are […]

Three Ways to Teach the Creed to Younger Children

Darcy Osby

I was teaching a class of second graders the Nicene Creed when I started reciting it phrase by phrase. I asked them to repeat the lines after me. A group of children who attended Mass regularly realized they knew what came next and excitedly continued on without waiting for my prompts. I let them go, curious to see how far they would get. They spoke the words very quickly; whenever they paused or thought about […]