Children’s Liturgy

Joan Y. Edwards Web site offers children's liturgy Gospel devotionals, interactive wordsearch and crossword puzzles, skits, other resources for children's liturgy. Resources are availalble for each Sunday of Years A, B, C.

CatholicMom.com » Sunday's Gospel

The CatholicMom.com Web site contains a section called Sunday Gospel that offers a large array of resources on the Gospel for each Sunday. These include links to crafts, suggestions of activities, lesson plans helpers (tons of helpful links to resources available online) prayers, coloring pages, word search puzzles, crosswords. Resources are posted well in advanced so that you have a chance to take a look at them before any given Sunday comes around. This is quite an exceptionally useful tool. Well done!

St Anthony Messenger Special Issue on Sacraments

This month’s issue of St Anthony Messenger is a real keeper. The focus of this special issue is sacraments. As we think about signs and symbols of the Church, the natural expressions are the sacraments. This issue is required reading for every catechist. Father Tom Richstatter, O.F.M., gives a profound explanation of the initiation rites of the Church that serves as a primer for anyone who observes the drama of the Easter Vigil or wishes to understand the connection between baptism, confirmation and Eucharist. John Feister writes about the inspiring faith of actor Clarence Gilyard and what the Eucharist brings to his life. This witness is a great springboard for a junior-high or high-school discussion on the Eucharist. The rest of the issue visits the remaining sacraments with top-notch catechesis and insight. This special issue should be a mainstay in our catechist-resource library and a perfect addition to every parish RCIA program.

Quoted in the April edition of the Faith Formation Update Bulletin.

Franciscan Clipart

The Web site of the Secular Franciscan Order makes available a large number of original clipart:

Francis new additions; new additions; animals; birds; saint; Clare, praise; Clare, prayer; Francis, Saint; Francis, life; Francis, nature; Francis, praying; Plants; birds; symbols; Tau, dove; Tau, ornate; Tau, plants; Tau, simple; Francis, birds; Evangelists; Tau, passion; Saint Anthony; hands; eucharist; Brand New (2008) images

For other sources of free Catholic clipart:

Old Testament Clipart - New Testament Clipart - Gospel Clipart - Lent Clipart - Palm Sunday Clipart -Feasts & Special Days - Holy Thursday Clipart - Good Friday Clipart - Objects in a Church - Church Buildings - Sacraments Clipart - Angels Clipart - RCIA - Christian Clipart: Various - Church and School Bulletins - Advent & Christmas Clipart - Clipart Links - Catholic Clipart.

Stations of the Cross

On his blog called St. Sebastian Pastor, Msgr. Michael J Hardiman has, over the past several weeks, posted meditations on each of the stations of the cross:

The Fourteenth Station - The Body of Jesus is Laid in the Tomb
The Thirteenth Station - Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
The Twelfth Station - Jesus Dies on the Cross
The Eleventh Station - Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
The Tenth Station - Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
The Ninth Station - Jesus Falls a Third Time
The Eighth Station - Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
The Seventh Station - Jesus Falls a Second Time
The Sixth Station - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
The Fifth Station - Simon of Cyrene carries the cross for Jesus
The Fourth Station: Jesus meets his sorrowing Mother
The Third Station - He Falls
The Second Station - Jesus Carries His Cross
First Station - Jesus is Condemned to Death

Other resources on the stations of the cross are available here: Way of the Cross - Resources for Catholic Educators

Praying with Scripture / Psalms

The Web site of the Poor Clares Galway in Ireland examines three methods of praying with the Bible:

Method 1: Lectio Divina
Method 2: Using Scripture as a mantra
Method 3: Praying with the Psalms

For more resources elsewhere online: Lectio Divina - Resources for Catholic Educators

Resources for Holy Week and Easter Online

For you to explore - here is a list of resources on Holy Week available online:

• Holy Week - Resources for Catholic Educators
• Holy Thursday Clipart - Good Friday Clipart
• The Triduum - CyberFaith (Sadiler's Web site)
• Triduum - Ideas for Family celebrations and activities by Harcourt Religion
• Easter Triptych - My Friend Magazine (Coloring page)
• Three Holy Days: A Lenten Series on the Easter Triduum
• USCCB - (Liturgy) - Eighteen Questions on the Paschal Triduum
• Liturgical Guidelines for Pastoral Planning: Lent and the Paschal Triduum 2009, Diocese of Stockton
• Catholic Culture : Lent : Workshop : Lenten Activities
• Way of the Cross: Vatican Web site
• Top 10 Links for Holy Week : Easter in Cyberspace
• Paschal Triduum: The Great Three Days, by Rev. Stephen B. Harnadek and Rev. D.Jay Koyle
• Easter and Resurrection Stories and Articles for Holy Week

Apple Seeds®

The stories and the article below are from th eWeb site of Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR (Third Order Franciscan). The Web site is called Apple Seeds® and "provides quotations and short stories from eclectic sources that promote positive attitudes, and development of holistic human dignity–from tiny seeds to ripened fruit."

• Legend of the Dogwood
  
  At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross...
  


• Origins of The Easter Lily
  
  For many, the beautiful trumpet-shaped white flowers symbolize purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life—the spiritual essence of Easter.
  


• "The Parable of a Child" by Steve Goodier
  
  There is a difference between education and experience. Education is what you get from reading the small print. Experience is what you get from not reading it!
  
  But isn't it true that great learning comes from both education and experience? Let me tell you a parable...

K-3 Lessons Crafts and Activities

Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities is brimming with creativity and offers a huge amount of fun resources and ideas for teachers and catechists of K-3 children.

This site is dedicated to teaching children through crafts and activities. You will find hundreds of inexpensive crafts and activities including complete Sunday school lessons and Bible-based lessons for Christian home schools.

You may occasionally have to adapt some of the content of the resources so that it more faithfully reflects a Catholic perspective, but there is much on this wonderful Web site that you will find useful.

Growing in Faith

One extensive section called Growing in Faith on the Web site of the Daughters of Saint Paul offers articles on a broad range of topics that are of interest to Catholic faith educators:

Liturgy: the Church's Spirituality has articles on Advent, Lent, and Easter Sunday to Pentecost;

Basic Catholic Q & A's provides answers to questions on the following topics" Creed | Sacraments | Morality | Prayer;

Life Ways offers a series of articles on how to live ones faith in every day life. There are a number of reflections under each of the following headings of this section:

• Contemporary Questions
• Mary: Mother, Teacher, and Queen
• Living the Liturgical Year
• Spiritual Growth
• Steps to a Happier Marriage
• We Believe

Bible Activity Worksheets

Bible Activity Worksheets contains over 60 nicely illustrated puzzles of all types on specific passages in the Old and New Testament. Stories represented are listed below:

* The Creative Days
* The Serpent's Lie
* Cain and Abel
* The Flood
* The Rainbow Covenant
* Tower of Babel
* The Call of Abram
* Abram and Lot
* Abram Rescues Lot
* God Promises Abraham a Son
* The Three Visitors
* Sodom and Gomorrah
* Abraham is Tested
* God's Promise to Abraham
* A Bride for Isaac
* Esau and Jacob
* Isaac Blesses Jacob
* Jacob Returns Home
* Jacob's Dream and Bethel
* Jacob Returns to Bethel
* Joseph and His Brothers
* Joseph in Egypt
* Joseph's Family Reunion
* Israel Moves to Egypt
* Baby Moses
* The Burning Bush
* The Plagues on Egypt
* Crossing the Red Sea
* The Ten Commandments
* The Tabernacle
* Exploring Canaan
* Crossing Jordan
* The Fall of Jericho
* Judges
* Gideon
* Ruth
* Samuel
* Israel's First King
* David and Goliath
* David Sings Songs to God
* King Solomon & the Temple
* Divided Kingdom
* Elijah God's Prophet
* Elijah's Prayer Answered
* Jonah
* The Three Hebrews
* Daniel in the Lions Den
* Rebuilding God's Temple

New Testament

* The Angel's Announcement
* Escape to Egypt
* Jesus as a Boy
* John the Baptist
* Jesus Chooses 12 Apostles
* Blessed Attitudes
* Light of the World
* Love Your Enemies
* Jesus Heals the Sick
* Sowing Seeds
* Jesus Walks on Water
* The Lord's Prayer
* The Resurrection of Lazarus
* Jesus Goes to Jerusalem
* The Crucifixion of Jesus
* The Resurrection of Jesus
* Jesus' Appearances
* The Gift From God

Resources for Catholic Educators

The Resources for Catholic Educators Web site has now been online for 15 years when I started building it in March of 1994. At that time it consisted of a single page on the Web site of Immaculata Regional High School where I taught (That Web page - see the image below - is still there at http://immaculata.kelowna.bc.ca/RelEd/rshome.htm). Resources for Catholic Educators has since become a separate Web site and has grown to several thousand Web pages and documents.

I installed a site traffic meter in March of 2004. Yesterday, this site meter topped the 5 million visitors mark.

This post is my way of celebrating both this event and the 15th anniversary of the Web site.

Original Resources for Catholic Educators Web page below: