Kairos

Kairos Catholic Journal is published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Australia, and its content therefore sometimes focusses on issues specific to the Church in Australia, but most of the articles are universal in appeal. The journal is published 23 times a year and the web site archives gives access to articles from 2003-2006. Each issue has 20 or more articles on a broad range of topics in spirituality, social justice, ethics and morality, the Church in the world, etc. and also includes reviews of books and movies, reflections on the sunday gospels and that of feast days.

Holy Bible Sketch Pad

Artist Deborah A. Reeder has made available 152 sketches based on specific verses in the Bible. 68 of the sketches illustrate Old Testament passages and the remainder depict New Testament scenes. These sketches are a feast for the eyes, drawn by an outstanding artist and one who obviously has a great love for the word of God.

The sketch above is from that collection on the Web site Holy Bible Sketch Pad. The author makes these sketches available for non-profit use, but does ask that certain conditions be met in using them, so please read the copyright notice on the home page of the web site.

The 1,000 Years of Peace Project

Invite your students to pledge some hours to build peace. This page on the Catholic.org Web site offers your students some simple concrete suggestions as to how they can build peace around them and provides an online form to pledge a certain number of hours towards that goal. This is a simple activity that is certainly appropriate for the Lenten period and requires little time to set up and it provides all kinds of opportunities to discuss peace and social justice issues during Lent.

The pledge counter on the page indicates that an impressive 1,752,884 hours have been pledged as of today - that amounts to over 200 years! This project was started in 2000 and you can read the story behind it on the web site.

This Web site was created in 2000 to gain “time pledges” of everyday peacemaking activities adding up to 1,000 years of peace—about 8.5 million hours. Our belief is that peace is built hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Your pledges of peacemaking activities—prayer, acts of charity, forgiveness, personal transformation, outreach—will help heal our nation and our world.

Faith Formation Update

St Anthony Messenger Press offers a free monthly newsletter with ideas and resources for catechetical leaders. There is a different theme for each month. The theme for this month is Healing and Reconciliation.

I copy below what they have on their site as an intro to this newsletter ( I am sure they will forgive me this enfringement of copyright laws!):

Faith Formation Update provides Catholic religious education activities and resources for children and adults in a free monthly newsletter. Great for catechetical leaders, catholic catechists and those looking for new ideas for their RCIA and adult faith formation programs.

This free monthly e-newsletter brings you:

	•	Seasonal and topical ideas for your planning.
	•	Family faith formation tips from Judith Dunlap, co-author of “God is Calling” family program.
	•	Video clips and catechetical tips from Joan McKamey, SAMP video producer and catechetical leader.
	•	Suggestions for parish-wide formation and small-group materials.
	•	The opportunity to participate in our on-going Faith Formation Forum.
	•	Best of all, Faith Formation Update comes to you monthly, in your e-mail box, at absolutely no charge.

You can take a look at their archives and sign up for the newsletter on their web site by simply providing your email address.

Jesus Decoded

Jesus Decoded is a new web site created by the Catholic Communication Campaign, an activity of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Its subtitle indicates clearly what the intent of the site is: Catholic Beliefs Versus Modern Fiction and the introduction, after pointing out some of the mistakes in the novel The Da Vinci Code concludes: this web site was developed "due to the concern about many current media portrayals of Jesus Christ and the origins of Christianity...".

A number of articles on the site concisely and clearly address questions and issues raised by The Da Vinci Code. The tone is sober with none of the histeria that have caracterised some reactions to claims made in the novel.

Catholic Educators Newsletter - March 2006

This is part of Resources for Catholic Educators Celebrating ten year on the Internet! In this Issue: Table of Contents
Sunday Readings	Readings, clipart, commentaries and puzzles
General Roman Calendar	March - April - May - June
Online Resources:	In the Footsteps of Jesus - Power Point Presentations Online - Web Sites Worth Visiting - Featured in Previous Issues - Resources for Lent
New/Updated on the Resources for Catholic Educators Web Site	New Sections: Lectio Divina The following sections have been updated: The Latest Scoop: latest edition See our "What's New" page for a listing all the new resources added on the Resources for Catholic educators Web site in June, July and August
Articles	Articles available online from various sources.
In Review	Christian MP Free Christian pop & rock music from The Grace Project Fishers of Men - A film on vocation to the priesthood. Time for your Daily Breakfast with fr. Roderick
And more:	A Time to Smile - Previous Issue - Archives
Who am I? Mission statement.	The who and why behind this newsletter.
Contributions to the Catholic Educators News	Submitting articles, lesson plans, reviews, information... - Advertising / sponsoring
Keeping up!	Join the Catholic Faith Education Yahoo Group

Catholic Educators News is proud to introduce a new regular Feature: Kim & Jason, a daily comic strip created by Kim Kotecki. You can see today’s strip and read about the artist at: http://www.silk.net/RelEd/ezine03_2006.htm#humor

Kim & Jason by Jason Kotecki

Let others know about the Catholic Educators News!

A New Film on Vocations

Fishers of Men, a film requested by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. You can see a trailer on the Web site of GrassrootsFilms.com at http://www.grassrootsfilms.com/ . Click on "Projects" and then on the image above the title of the film. The intro on the Web site reads as follows: "It documents the lives of some of the most influential and courageous men in history. This film on vocations to the priesthood has been described as the best vocational film ever produced for the Catholic Church."

I transmit the following request by the people at Grassroots Films: "We ask for your prayers that we may continue producing films for evangelization."

Praying Lent

The Web site of Creighton University has a section of very good resources for Lent and Easter under the following headings: a Lenten Audio Retreat with Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J.; Printable two-sided handouts about Lent; Choosing Lent - Acting Lent; Holy Week Resources; Easter Resources.

This is well worth a visit.

Videos with Values

Videos with Values, a Web site of Oblate Media and Communication offers a Lent & Easter Reflections written by Rev. Ron Rolheiser, OMI. There is one short reflection every day and they are read by professional actors and you can listen to them online or on your iPod. You can also subscribe to receive the reflections via email or listen to past reflections in the archive.

The site also offers access to 60 second God Squad reflections by Father Harry Schlitt. These are punctuated with popular music.

While you are on the site, you can glean through their Religious and Educational Resources pages. They have some interesting things there.