Before you think I’m getting all sentimental, let me explain that the K.I.S.S. I am ending the Catechist’s Journey blog with stands for “Keep It Super Simple.” My inspiration for this comes from a surprising source: Pope Benedict XVI. Why is that surprising? Because Pope Benedict was not a simple man! He was one of the most profound and complex theological minds of the 20th and early 21st centuries. And yet, in 2009, when asked [...]

Click through to read the full article I End This Blog with a K.I.S.S., which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

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Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

Abraham is a perfect model of someone who trusted and obeyed God. The Book of Genesis tells his story. Explore Abraham’s role in the story of salvation with an activity pack that includes a word puzzle, a diary that invites looking up passages from Genesis, and a sequencing challenge. The activities work particularly well for young people studying salvation history in grade 6.

Click through to read the full article Abraham Activities Pack, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

We wrapped up the year of family catechesis at St. Barnabas with a wonderful Pentecost celebration that included a delicious catered hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. After breakfast, we invited the children to join in a Pentecost procession led by Deacon Andy. To the sounds of Marty Haugen’s “Lord, Send Out Your Spirit/Psalm 104,” the children carried the sacred objects for the prayer table as they waved red ribbon wands to [...]

Click through to read the full article Family Catechesis at St. Barnabas: A Pentecost Celebration, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

Welcome to the final part of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! The Lord’s Prayer Who is a famous person that you wish you could meet? Often, when the occasion arises and we have an opportunity to meet someone who is famous, we find ourselves at a loss for words. I remember when my brothers and I [...]

Click through to read the full article Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: The Lord’s Prayer, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

Welcome to part two of our three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! Family Heirlooms I was born in 1959, right before the Second Vatican Council, so I remember slightly the Latin Mass and the beginnings of my religious formation with the Baltimore Catechism. Of course, the approach employed with the Baltimore Catechism included a fair amount of rote learning, [...]

Click through to read the full article Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: Family Heirlooms, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

I invite you to a three-part mini-retreat devoted to reflecting on our individual and communal prayer. May your life of prayer be enriched and filled with abundant blessings! Pray Without Ceasing I’m sure you are familiar with a game that children love to play in the swimming pool, called Marco Polo. In this game, one child moves to one side of the pool and closes his or her eyes. The other children move to the [...]

Click through to read the full article Reflecting on Our Individual and Communal Prayer Mini-Retreat: Pray Without Ceasing, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

If you were to create a pie chart showing how much time you devote to your home life (including sleeping), work, exercise, socializing, and hobbies, how big of a slice would you show for spirituality? For many of us, we might be tempted to add up the time we spend in spiritual practices such as going to church, praying, reading the Bible and other inspirational literature, and perhaps visiting a spiritual director or participating in [...]

Click through to read the full article Pop-Up Catechesis: Spirituality Is Not a Slice of the Pie, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is so many things to us: she is our mother, our help, our comfort, and our joy. She is our model disciple; she is the “untier of knots.” She is also our model catechist. Here are three ways we can be more like Mary as catechists. 1. Say “Yes.” When I invite parishioners to prayerfully consider becoming a catechist, their first response is often “Who, me?” followed by expressions of doubt, [...]

Click through to read the full article Mary, Mother of Catechists, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

It’s hard to believe that the catechetical year is wrapping up! This past year at St. Barnabas, doing the monthly parent presentations for the Finding God family catechesis program, has been such a wonderful experience! We have one more session on the calendar for Pentecost Sunday. This session will be an end-of-the-year/Pentecost celebration. Tops on the agenda is a full, hot breakfast being served to the families in the program. We will also have a [...]

Click through to read the full article St. Barnabas Family Catechesis: Pentecost Celebration, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.

Now that Catechist’s Journey is preparing to go into dormition (That sounds so much more appropriate than “ceasing” or “ending”!), we want to get a sense of your interests and needs so that we can plan future online experiences. To that end, we invite you to complete a brief survey about your experience with Catechist’s Journey. As a thank you for your completed survey, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a set of three [...]

Click through to read the full article Subscriber Survey, which appeared first on Catechist's Journey.

CatechistsJourney.com^TM is a service of Loyola Press.

Tap into the current of God’s loving grace. In 8 Steps to Energize Your Faith, Joe Paprocki offers hands-on advice to guide us out of the fog of an often-confusing world and bolster our confidence in who we are: children of God with a vision and a purpose.