Coloring Pages - sermons4kids.com

The Web site sermons4kids.com offers a fairly large selection of coloring pages. These are listed by themes and the themes are quite varied. A good resource to explore and to use.

One Pair of Hands - Video

Beautiful song and images: One Pair of Hands.

Stories from the Bible in Art

Michael Falk Art Gallery - Stories from the Bible. This site presents oil paintings by artist Michael Falk. These paintings depict various scenes from the Old Testament.

BibleMap.org

BibleMap.org allows you to select a book and chapter in the Bible, read the text and see geographical locations mentioned in that chapter on a Google style map as well as photos taken in that location.

Advent 2009 Resources

New resources for Advent 2009:

• 2009 Family Advent Calendar (PDF) - from the web site of the Diocese of Raleigh
• Churches Together in Britain and Ireland - A World in Waiting: Advent hope in an economic crisis

 Other resources on Advent can be found here:

• Advent Prayers
• Advent Wreaths & Crafts
• Advent: Meaning
• Advent Coloring Pages
• Advent Calendars
• Jesse Tree
• Advent & Christmas Clipart
• Advent: Justice and Peace

Public Domain Christian Images

The Web site Karen's Whimsy has a large collection of public domain images culled from old books and antique cards. Among these are Bible pictures and clipart, images of Mary, graphics of Christian Symbols, and a large selection of images of angels. There are also coloring pages on a variety of Christian themes. The site map contains so much material that it can be overwhelming to browse through. I therefore suggest you use the menu provided on the left of the site map page to locate what is of interest to you.

Microsoft Biblical Clipart

Microsoft provides an extensive gallery of clipart. Quite of few of the images in their collection can be useful to illustrate handouts for CCD or religious education classes, and church bulletins. I searched using the following terms, but you can tried any combination of other search terms to explore this resources: Biblical Scenes - Jesus - Virgin Mary - Nativity - Catholic - Sacraments - Vatican - Thanksgiving

Lectures in Christian Spirituality

Boston College Front Row, a Service of Boston College Magazine, offers a number of lectures on videos. Among the lectures available are the following:

The Evelyn Underhill Lecture in Christian Spirituality - Kathleen Fischer
Theologian and author Kathleen Fischer reflects on “how aging can be a spiritual journey.” She organizes her lecture around four themes: hope in the midst of loss; living in the “grace of the present moment;” discovering an “integrity based on mercy;” and creating a legacy for future generations.

Beyond Spirituality 101: Discipleship for the Second Half of Life
Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, addresses the unique spiritual needs of those in midlife and beyond. Once we have achieved the basics of discipleship, he asks, and have "come home" from the early spiritual wanderings of adolescence, what next?

Dom Henry Wansbrough: Theology Tutorials, Booklets, and Lectures

This Web site contains quite a large number of the tutorials, booklets, and lectures in exegesis and on various theological topics by Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB MA (Oxon) STL LSS.

Vatican Basilicas in Fullscreen Virtual Reality

The Beauty of the Vatican in Virtual Reality with Italian Diva Mina is a special project consisting of sixteen fullscreen 360-degree virtual reality panoramas of the Vatican’s basilicas and surroundings - including St. Peter’s, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Paolo Fuori le Mura and San Giovanni in Laterano - accompanied by Gregorian chants performed by Mina Mazzini, Italy’s legendary Diva.

New Jean Vanier Video Online

OPC has posted to its website a video of Jean Vanier's talk and a related interview given the following day. For nearly four decades, Jean Vanier has travelled the world fashioning a network of homes where people with developmental disabilities, volunteers and staff live together in L’Arche communities. He has also helped in the development of Faith and Light communities which are sprinkled throughout the world. Click on the links below to listen to Jean Vanier’s talk on the topic of Healing and Inner Liberation.

Catholic Faith Education Newsletter - November 16, 2009

The November 16, 2009 edition of the Catholic Faith Education Newsletter is now available online at http://silk.net/RelEd/ezine1.htm

Thanksgiving Resources

The Resources for Catholic Educators Web site has a page of links to various resources on Thanksgiving.

The two graphic on the left and right of this post are from a collection of  public domain Thanksgiving graphics.

Meditation DVD - Awakening to the mystery that is here

I received a request to post the following information on a new audio visual meditation DVD produced by Sr. Monica Butler (Sisters of Mercy) along with Val Goldsack:

 

Awakening to the mystery that is here

 

This audio visual meditation gives us a gentle framework in which we can choose to cast off the shadows which imprison us and awaken to the Mystery of God.  It can be our 'Advent' journey, or that of every waking day!

 

This meditation DVD can be used by individuals and groups to deepen awareness of God's presence in their lives, and an ideal resource for teachers of Religious Education in schools and colleges.

 

 A beautiful and valuable resource for reflection on perhaps the greatest mystery of all... how can I be present to God?

 

for more information please visit http://www.mercyworld.org/resources/viewresource.asp?id=323

Second Sunday of Advent - C

Resources on the Mass readings for the Second Sunday of Advent - December 6, 2009:

Mass Readings
Fr. Lonsdale's Commentaries and Clip Art
Lectionary Resource for Catholics: word-sunday.com
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Bible Study
Reflexions on This Week's Liturgy - Sadlier
Gospel of Luke 3.1-6- Articles, Commentaries, Homilies, Clipart, Coloring pages, Puzzles, Children's Stories
Lector Works: Second Sunday of Advent - C
Lector's Notes: Second Sunday of Advent - C
CNP Liturgical Planning - The Second Sunday of Advent (C) - Music Suggestions

First Sunday of Advent - C

Resources on the Mass readings for the First Sunday of Advent Year C - November 29, 2009:

Mass Readings
Fr. Lonsdale's Commentaries and Clip Art
Lectionary Resource for Catholics: word-sunday.com
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Bible Study
Reflexions on This Week's Liturgy - Sadlier
Gospel of Luke 21.25-36 - Articles, Commentaries, Homilies, Clipart, Coloring pages, Puzzles, Children's Stories
Lector Works: First Sunday of Advent - Year C
Lector's Notes: First Sunday of Advent - Year C
CNP Liturgical Planning - The First Sunday of Advent (C) - Music Suggestions

Solemnety of Christ the King - B

Resources on the Mass readings for the Solemnety of Christ the King - November 22, 2009:

Mass Readings
Fr. Lonsdale's Commentaries and Clip Art
Lectionary Resource for Catholics: word-sunday.com
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Bible Study
Reflexions on This Week's Liturgy - Sadlier
Gospel of John 18:33b-37 - Articles, Commentaries, Homilies, Clipart, Coloring pages, Puzzles, Children's Stories
Lector Works: Solemnity of Christ the King
Lector's Notes: Solemnety of Christ the King
CNP Liturgical Planning - Solemnety of Christ the King - Music Suggestions

Learn more about Saints of the Bible

TheresaDoyle-Nelson.com - If you teach a Confirmation Class, or a Middle School/High School CCD Class and would like your students to learn more about Saints of the Bible, consider trying one of these activities ... Bible Saint Trivia Who Said That? Illuminated Bible Saints

Preparing for Advent: A Webinar

I received the fllowing information from Loyola Press and thfought I would pass it on here:

Preparing for Advent: A Webinar
Practical Tips and Activities to Help You Share the True Meaning of the Advent Season

Facilitator: Joe Paprocki, DMin
Brought to you by Loyola Press, A Jesuit Ministry

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
7:15 - 8:15 pm (CST)

Advent begins on Sunday, November 29, 2009 — are you ready?

Joe Paprocki, National Consultant for Faith Formation for Loyola Press and veteran catechist, invites catechists, religion teachers, and RCIA leaders to join him in this Webinar that explores how to create engaging advent-themed faith-formation activities drawn from the Sunday Scripture Readings of Cycle C (the Gospel of Luke). Joe will take us through the readings for this Advent season, explore the theme for each week, and share some unique ways you can develop the theme into activities that inspire children, youth, and adults to enter more deeply into the beauty and holiness of Advent.

In the days following the Webinar, Joe will offer additional Advent-related activities on his blog, Catechist's Journey. If you are unable to attend the Webinar, you may view the video on Joe’s blog. It will be posted the week following the Webinar.

This free Webinar is led by Joe Paprocki, an 8th-grade catechist in the Archdiocese of Chicago with over 30 years of experience in pastoral ministry. Joe, National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, is the author of numerous books including the best-selling The Catechist's Toolbox and A Well-Built Faith as well as the host of the blog Catechist's Journey.

Register for this free Webinar today by clicking here.

Teaching About Jesus Using “New Media” — Catechist's Journey

Teaching About Jesus Using “New Media” - Joe Paprocki, on his blog Catechist's Journey, explains how he went about providing the necessary tools for his students to create their own PowerPoint presentations as part of a unit on Jesus.

Israel: an Archaeological Journey

Israel: an Archaeological Journey is a 71 page document  published by the Biblical Archaeological Society of Jerusalem. This resource is available for download in PDF format on the Web site Biblioblog.

Editor Sarah K. Yeomans in the introduction to the e-book writes:

"The following compilation of articles represents an effort to sift through some of the archaeology and history of this ancient land, offering a glimpse of these Biblically significant sites through an archaeologist’s lens."

International Catholic University: Self-Study Courses

The International Catholic University provides courses on Catholic subjects by distinguished teachers. It offers graduate level instruction in theology and philosophy, with lecture programs that can function as part of a master's degree program or can be used by students who wish to learn more about the Catholic tradition on their own.

These programs are generally available as videos of lectures on DVDs, or as audio recordings on CDs.

Eucharist: God's Embrace Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Eucharist: God's Way of Embracing Us Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Clip from the two-hour presentation available at www.videoswithvalues.org features Fr. Ron Rolheiser explaining that we are a Eucharist people, a Eucharistic church, a community formed and nurtured by the Eucharist. How does the Eucharist work? What are its various meanings?

Homilies and Exegesis for Sunday Readings

The Atheneum of Ohio Web site provides us with homilies and brief exegesis for the Sunday readings.The archives contain homilies and exegesis for the readings of the full three year cycle.

Explore Church History

I recently received a request to post the following information on this new Website produced by College of DuPage Press. Dr. Stephen Haliczer who sent this request wrote: "Our new website www.explorechurchhistory.com gives visitors hundreds of pages of information about church history and links to many other sources. One of our most interesting and innovative approaches is "meet the expert" where visitors get the opportunity to click through to reviews of a scholar's new book and to his or her personal or departmental webpage where they can find out more about the publications and research of that particular scholar."

I took a cursory look at the content of the Website. It is undoubtedly rich in content and worth exploring.

Catholic Bibles Online

Looking for the text of  Catholic Bibles Online? As far as I am aware of, there are 4 English Catholic translations of the Bible availalble online (let me know if there are others):

• New American Bible: A Catholic Bible translation first published in 1970. It was specifically translated into English by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine under the liturgical principles and reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
  
• Bible - New Revised Standard Version: The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV). This online version is searchable.
  
• Douay-Rheims Bible: See the note on this translation in the Wikipedia article. The entire version of this Bible is availalble for download on the Web site of Project Gutenberg. LibriVox has MP3 audio files of 9 of the books of the Old testamet of this translation.
  
• New Jerusalem Bible: The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985 and edited by The Reverend Henry Wansbrough, O.S.B., monk of Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire and former Master of St Benet's Hall, Oxford.

The ‘Last Things’: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

The ‘Last Things’: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory is an interesting article by Josep Giménez SJ

"On this day each year, we observe All Souls’ Day and pray for all the faithful departed. Jesuit theologian, Josep Giménez discusses concepts of heaven, hell and purgatory, which are often brought to mind on this occasion but can be so difficult to talk about meaningfully. What form can our discourse about these eschatological topics take?"

Lector's Notes

The following are two resources that help prepare lectors to read the Sunday readings:

Lector's Notes - These notes try to serve the Church by helping lectors prepare to proclaim the Scriptures in our Sunday assemblies. For each day's first and second readings (and occasionally for the gospel), the Notes give the historical and theological background, plus suggestions on oral interpretation.


Lector Works - At this site you will find:

* A series of thoughts about the lectionary readings of the day, as an oral proclamation within the church's public prayer, and how the writer would want to have them declared and received effectively.
* Three elements are always identified:
      ** the climax of the reading
      ** the contact point of the reading with our assembly
      ** one special challenge the reading poses for the

            seasoned lector

* At the end of each week's readings, a brief reflection on the transition from the Table of the Word to the Table of the Eucharist