Sunday, May 31, 2009

My God Search


My God Search is a search engine specifically for religious Web sites. Search for Catholic resources, but also for information on other Christian denominations and world religions.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Images for Father's Day

The nice images with scripture verses below for Father's Day are from the SoupArt Web site (see previous posting on this Web site) click on them to see a larger version or go to the SoupArt Web site for conditions of use:

Friday, May 29, 2009

Coloring Pages on Creation

On a Spanish Blog called Ensino Religioso you can find a set of large coloring pages on the seven days of creation. For a similar set already colored drawings see http://www.4catholiceducators.com/creation.htm

You can also find a directory of Bible related coloring pages at http://www.silk.net/RelEd/lessonplans4.htm. This directory provides access to hundreds of coloring pages.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pictures from Old Bible Story Books

Pictures from Old Bible Story Books is a Web site that offers scanned images from children's Bible story books dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. I find these fascinating to look at and some of them are quite nice indeed and can still be useful to day. Here are a few samples from the collections - click on the images to see a larger version:

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Bible Picture Gallery


Bible Picture Gallery is a source of images "for Christian teaching, preaching and outreach. They are ideal for computer projection, web pages and not-for-profit printing." Images are organised under the following headings: Old Testament; New Testament; Bible Life; Bible World.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Bible Atlas

Bible Atlas offers 132 maps organised under the following headings:

The Face of the Ancient Near East
Natural Regions of Palestine
Before Abraham
The World of the Patriarchs
The Egyptian Experience
The Exodus
Conquest and Settlement
The Kingdom of David and Solomon
The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
Judah Alone amid International Powers
The Babylonian Exile
The Persian Period
The Hellenistic Period
Rome's Emergence as a World Power
The Romans, Palestine, and Herod the Great
The World of Jesus
The Life and Ministry of Jesus
Early Expansion of the Church
The First Jewish Revolt
The Early Christian Church

Monday, May 25, 2009

Papercraft: Basilicas and Cathedrals

Canon has a Web site that offers printable patterns to create all kinds of items from paper: gifts and cards, papercraft, scrapbooks, art, calendars.

The papercraft section contains a number of patterns that you can print, cut out and assemble to create reproductions of buildings, games, animals, etc. Some of these models are of famous Catholic cathedrals and basilicas:

The Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome: download the pattern and assembly instructions

The Pope on Facebook


The application Pope2You for Facebook, lets you receive the messages of Pope Benedict XVI through the most important social network of the world.
So you can meet the Pope on Facebook, listen to his words, see his pictures, receive his messages of congratulations through "virtual postcards".

Photo by Fabio Pozzebom

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Wikimedia Commons Christian Art

In a previous post earlier this month (Life and teachings of Jesus in art) I wrote about Wikimedia Commons as a source of art depicting the life of Jesus. Today I decided to explore Wikimedia further and discovered that it is a rich source of art on other themes that that are relevant to Catholic faith education. Here are links to some of these with a sampling of the images that you can find there: Old Testament Figures - New Testament Figures - Virgin Mary - Angels - Saints


Click on the images to see a full size version

Friday, May 22, 2009

Updated Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops has updated their Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series. The latest version with the list of texts and series that have been found in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church as of May 8, 2009 is available at http://www.usccb.org/catechism/document/Currentlist.pdf.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Life and teachings of Jesus in Art

The Wikimedia Commons has a large collection images of art work depicting various aspects of the life of Jesus. Below is a sampling of some of the images you can find there - click on the images to enlarge them:

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Music CD: Harvest of Love

Deacon Chuck Stevens has been involved in parish-level music ministry at a number of Roman Catholic parishes since the mid-1970's. He has released a third music CD and is making it available on his Web site at http://www.smalltalentmusic.com/FreeCDHOL.html . scroll down the page to see the titles. You can listen to each song online or download them to your computer. Downloads are free but Deacon Chuck does makes one request: "The only thing I would ask is that in exchange for downloading the music here, that you perform some act of charity for another person, preferably the poor in your midst. " Free music and an opportunity to serve the Lord - sounds like a win win situation to me!

Saturday, May 09, 2009

The Beatitudes Stained Glass Windows

The Church of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish in Seward, Nebraska has a series of stained glass windows on the beatitudes. You can see them on their Web site. It might be an interesting experiment to have your students draw their own version of the beatitudes in the style of stain glass windows. Let me know if you do something in this sense. I would love to see the results!
For resources on the Beatitudes see: http://www.silk.net/RelEd/8beatitudes.htm

Rosary

This slide show on Flikr is simply called "Rosary". Enjoy!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Saint Lawrence Catholic Resource

Saint Lawrence Catholic Resource site is an older Web site, but it contains quite a number of resources under the following headings:

Mass/Liturgy
  • Eucharistic Adoration
  • Funeral Liturgy
  • Liturgical Calendar
  • Liturgical Ceremonies
  • Liturgy of the Hours
  • Explanation of the Mass
Sacraments - provides the rite for each sacrament and information of the order of deacons

Saints
  • Patron Saints & Biographies
  • Canonical Procedure for Canonization
Resources
  • Essential Documents
  • Reading Recommendations
  • Teachings
  • Vocation Information
Prayers

Bible Study

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Three Minutes a Day

The Web site of the Christophers contains a daily meditation, scripture verse and prayer called Three Minute a Day. These would be excellent in the context of a daily staff prayer or for a personal daily quiet time.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Audio Version of the Bible

Biblegateway.com has complete versions of various translations of the Bible in audio format. You can select any chapter from any book in the Bible to listen to it.

Friday, May 01, 2009

May Your Blessing Be Upon Them

May Your Blessing Be Upon Them is a hauntingly beautiful and prayerful song composed and sung by Sheila Hamil. She writes about this song:

"Initially this song was written for my daughter Sarah, who was working at the time, in India. She was only 18 years old. I didn't know quite what to pray, so in my mind I would take her for an' imaginary' walk through Psalm 23 and offer her up to God.. Why not as you listen to this song, pray for someone you're concerned about?"

What a wonderful and meaningful prayer it would make for a catechist or a teacher praying for his or her students!

For other songs and lyrics by Sheila Hamil see my previous post: Sheila Hamil's Music