In a recent session, my class talked about being a disciple in the context of Ordinary Time. Since this Church season occupies most of the liturgical year, the discussion centered on how we can follow Jesus in everyday life. We focused on the works of mercy as ways to practice our discipleship. I set the stage by holding up a poster-sized copy of the liturgical calendar and gave a brief introduction to how we mark […]
Last week, we focused on how the Prophets “got in the face” of the people of Israel to remind them to be faithful to the Covenant and to live justly. For this week’s session, we will look at the “flip-side” of the Prophets: their efforts to proclaim hope to an exiled people. The Prophets Give Hope Big Idea: We need HOPE to survive and we find HOPE in God’s MERCY Preliminaries (15 mins) Welcome and […]
For years, State Farm Insurance has promoted itself as being a “good neighbor” with its popular jingle, “like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRS4shfH1Pw The gospel for this Sunday challenges us to be a good neighbor but adds a definition for what it means to be a good neighbor: it means to be one who shows mercy. Being a good neighbor means more than just maintaining a clean lawn and keeping the noise […]
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. In this great story, we find a model for evangelization: fresh from her encounter with God, Mary swings into action (she went “in haste”), joyfully carrying (literally) the Word of God to others and being of service to someone in need. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth was not to brag about her new-found status as the Mother of the Savior. Mary did […]
Over the past couple of years, in an apparent effort to ensure orthodoxy of content, some Catholic dioceses in the United States have invested countless man hours and who knows how much money implementing lengthy and tedious processes to mandate a limited number of catechetical textbook series in their dioceses. This, despite the fact that dozens of textbook series have gone through rigorous scrutiny and have already been determined to be in conformity with the […]
This is the time of the year when many of us begin to experience the winter doldrums. As mild as winter has been in Chicago this year, the lack of light and color still gets to you after a while. My students came into class last night with a collective case of the doldrums! Several had just come from basketball practice and were a bit tuckered out but got their second wind a half hour […]
My lesson for tonight dovetails nicely with last week’s session since we are continuing to talk about the Prophets. Last week, we focused on how the Prophets challenged the People of Israel. This week, we look at how the Prophets spoke words of HOPE to the People when they were in Exile and as they returned to their destroyed homeland. You may recognize the Works of Mercy exercise from a lesson I did a couple […]
If Dorothy Day stood for anything, it was the centrality of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the life of Catholics. She once said that everything a baptized person does should be, directly or indirectly, related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Unlike some who reduce Christianity to a philosophy, Dorothy Day knew that Christianity was an embodied set of practices: things that we DO for others. In his book, The […]
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 […]
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