Edward Beck, "Failing to See"

Fr. Edward Beck, author of "God Underneath" and "Unlikely Ways Home," talks about the ways in which we fail to see what is, and the ways in which we see what is not.

7 Articles by Bloging Catechists

Blogger and catechist Joe Paprocki celebrated the 5th anniversary of his blog Catechist's Journey ealier this month by publishing guest posts by 7 catechists who, like him, are bloggers. Below are links to the 7 guest posts that appeared on Catechist's Journey. They make for good reading and each article provides links to the author's blog, all of which are well worth exploring. The seven guest posts that appeared on Catechist's Journey are the following:


1. Evaluating Online Resources for the Faithful by Jonathan Sullivan

"The internet is a cornucopia of resources on the faith. There is no shortage of voices talking about what Catholics believe, how to pray, or what to wear to Mass! But with so many resources, how can we know which are trustworthy or not?"

2. Mom, the Catechist by Lisa Hendey

"Being the primary catechist in my children’s lives means more than simply making sure they get to Mass on Sunday. It means helping them to foster an active prayer life, a love of the Eucharist and the sacraments, and a fervent desire to serve the world around them."

3. How Knowing Your Students Can Help Them Know Christ by Marc Cardaronella

"Think about how Jesus dealt with people. He took the time to listen to them. He asked them what they desired. He spoke to their hearts. We can’t have the same insight as God. But it’s important for catechists to get to know their students as much as possible. When you understand what’s going on inside, you can tailor your catechesis to meet their needs."

4. Using Prayer Effectively in Catechesis by Jared Dees

"The most important role for a catechist is to plant seeds. The short time you have with your students is an opportunity to introduce them to a variety of prayer methods and help them integrate prayer into their daily lives."

5.  Fired Up by Lisa Mladinich

"When I teach my workshop for catechists, the thing that lights people up the most is the notion of our supernatural partnership with Christ; the conviction that we’re never alone in the classroom, especially when we are prayerful, and that the work is always His."

6. 10 Ways to Grow As a Catechist by William O’Leary

"Our own growth as catechists is essential in bearing fruit and drawing our students closer to Christ. I recently was reading something St. Bernard said about the need to not merely be a channel of God’s life but a reservoir. A reservoir does not empty out but overflows. It is with this in mind that I would like to share 10 ways to grow and be renewed as a catechist."

 7. Catechesis on Prayer: Learning to Walk on Holy Ground by Gilles Côté

" There is not a moment, not a fold of our existence that he [God] does not fill with his love.  We are always standing on holy ground. Catechesis on prayer aims at making students increasingly aware of this and to teach them how to walk and even run freely on this holy ground where God is waiting to meet them."

The Christmas Story

Top Ten Advent Songs and Other Catholic Songs

This is our second post revisiting popular articles on the Catholic Faith Education Blog since 2005. One of these articles, Tops Advent Songs, received over 8,000 hits. This post was about the Web site topcatholicsongs.com/ on which you can find a variety of "Top 10 lists of songs". Links are provided for each of the songs in the lists and, by following these, you can obtain information on the artists and the albums as well as listen to excerpts of the selected songs. Here are a few of the lists that might be of particular interest to you:

• Top Ten Children's Songs
• Top Ten Holy Spirit Songs
• Top Ten Mary Songs
• Top Ten Easter Songs
• Top Ten Holy Week Songs
• Top Ten Adoration Songs
• Top Ten Songs for Lent
• Favorite Graduation Songs
• Favorite Trinity Songs
• Twenty Exceptional Divine Mercy Songs
• Ten Exceptional Pro-Life Songs
• Nancy Krebs' Christmas Songs
• Personal Favorite Christmas Songs

Advent Coloring Pages – Prayer for Teachers – Models of the Church

Over 1400 articles have been posted on the Catholic Faith Education Blog since its creation in September of 2005. More than 50 of these articles have attracted one thousand or more readers. I thought I would revisit some of the resources that were highlighted in these articles in a series of posts in the upcoming weeks.

Three articles topped 10,000 visitors and should be mentioned first:

 1. Advent Coloring Pages was extremely popular, in fact so popular that I decided to provide additional resources on Advent and Christmas coloring pages in one of my other Website: Nativity Coloring Pages. That page has also been extremely popular and offers links to a large number of coloring sheets for the season.

2. A prayer for Teachers was an even more popular article. It refers to a beautiful document with scripture verses and prayers than can be used as for a prayer service at the beginning of the school year, at the start of a semester, or at any other time. . Other posts on prayer have also been fairly well received:

Prayer Before Class;
Back to School Prayers;
 End of Year Prayer Services;
In Celebration Earth Day – Prayer Service;Meditation with Children;
Children Learn to Pray;
Prayer Forms;
Apostolship of Prayer – Reflections for Children;
Stations of the Cross. 

3. Models of the Church also drew a large number of visitors. This post provides links to a number of resources related to Avery Dulles and his work in which he examines 5 differing perceptions of the nature of the Catholics Church and activities and lesson plans to help reflect on the implications of these varying perceptions.  

Catholics in Search of Identity

Guest Post by Joe Paprocki, DMin

Joe Paprocki has been involved in the catechetical ministry for over 30 years, first as a religion teacher at a high school seminary in Chicago, where he taught for nine years while pursuing my master’s degree in pastoral studies, then as a director of religious education and a pastoral associate at a parish on the southeast side of Chicago. He then worked  as the consultant for catechist formation as the Office for Catechesis of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Since 2002 he serves as the National Consultant for Faith Formation with Loyola Press. He is the author of a number of books, notably The Bible Blueprint: A Catholic’s Guide to Understanding and Embracing God’s Word; Living the Mass: How One Hour a Week Can Change Your Life; The Catechist’s Toolbox: How to Thrive as a Religious Education Teacher; A Well-Built Faith: A Catholic’s Guide to Knowing and Sharing What We Believe; Practice Makes Catholic: Moving from a Learned Faith to a Lived Faith (all from Loyola Press). He also maintains the blog Catechist’s Journey. This excellent blog is marking it’s 5^th anniversary this month!

One of the challenges that we catechists face is instilling a solid sense of Catholic identity in those we teach. I am convinced that this is something that we need to be more intentional about today than we needed to be in years past. Back in the day, it was common for Catholics to “huddle” together in neighborhoods and communities that were almost exclusively Catholic. Growing up in such Catholic enclaves was like being marinated in Catholicism – Catholic identity just sort of seeped into our bloodstream. Today, more than ever, our neighborhoods and communities are increasingly pluralistic and secular. As such, Catholic identity is not something that simply gets absorbed. We need to intentionally instill it.

Here’s an exercise to get you thinking about Catholic identity. You may want to do this on your own or with some fellow catechists or other group. Imagine that a Hollywood director has hired you to be a creative consultant for a film he’s making. He wants his film to have a Catholic flavor to it but he himself is not Catholic. He’s hired you to give him advice on 2 things in particular: suggestions for what he can do to make the set (a home of a Catholic couple with children) look more Catholic and suggestions for what the characters can do or say that will make them appear more Catholic.

Not only will you have fun doing this activity but you will find that Catholics have many unique customs, traditions, devotions, etc. that express and form our identity as Catholics. These expressions of our faith are not arbitrary nor are they merely nostalgia or fluff. Rather, they represent what I consider to be 5 unique characteristics of the Catholic vision. They are:

·   A sense of sacramentality – we Catholics use outward, tangible, visible signs to express our understanding of the inward, intangible, invisible encounters we have with God.

·   A commitment to community – rather than a “me and God” approach to spirituality, we Catholics take a “WE and God” approach.

·   A respect for the dignity of human life and a commitment to justice – we Catholics firmly believe that love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated.

·   A reverence for Tradition - we Catholics find God revealing himself to us through, not only through Scripture, but also through a living, breathing Tradition that teaches us and guides us.

·   A disposition to faith and hope, not despair – we Catholics do not wear rose-colored glasses, however, we refuse to allow despair to get the upper hand when faced with suffering.

In my book, Practice Makes Catholic: Moving From a Learned Faith to a Lived Faith, I delve into these characteristics and explore the many Catholic practices that both express and form our Catholic identity. My prayer for you as a fellow catechist is that you will reflect on your own Catholic identity and explore ways of intentionally instilling that identity in those you teach so that they can move through life with a concrete and clear notion of how their faith speaks to everyday life. To help you in this endeavor, I’m happy to pass along to you this PDF of resources that we can draw from to integrate Catholic identity into our catechetical environment. Also, here is a link to a Webinar I offered on the topic of Practice Makes Catholic and Catholic identity.

Blessings during this Advent season and always!

Joe Paprocki, DMin
www.catechistsjourney.com

Resources - 4th Sunday of Advent - Year B

Articles, Commentaries, Homilies, Clipart, Coloring pages, Puzzles, Children's Stories for the upcoming Sunday Gospel readings: December 18, 2011: 4th Sunday of Advent (B) -  Luke 1:26-38

Our Lady of Guadelupe - Resources

Painting of God painting the Virgin of Guadalupe.
 Anonymous author, eighteenth century

Our Lady of Guadelupe - Resources: Online videos, coloring pages, crafts ideas, and various other resources for the upcoming feast day of Our Lady of Guadelupe on December 12.

Resources - 3rd Sunday of Advent (B)

Articles, Commentaries, Homilies, Clipart, Coloring pages, Puzzles, Children's Stories for the upcoming Sunday Gospel readings: December 11, 2011: 3rd Sunday of Advent (B) - John 1:6-8, 19-28