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Feasting While Fasting
When I was little, my mother would give up all sweets during Lent and Advent. As a dutiful Catholic child, I did as well. This practice led to many school snack times and birthday parties during which...
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Promoting Catholic Identity, Part 5: An Attitude of Faith and Hope
This is the fifth and final article in a series on the five characteristics of Catholic identity and how we can nurture those in our children. In his apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope...
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Three Lessons Catechists Can Learn from St. Joseph
St. Francis of Assisi is often attributed as saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” This quote is very fitting for the life of another saint whose actions spoke louder than...
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Teaching Care for Creation
One of the first things we teach children about God is that God is the creator of everything around us. One of the most accessible examples we use to talk about God’s presence in our world is the...
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Four Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost
Pentecost has long been one of my favorite feasts in the liturgical year. Who doesn’t love a story with fire, wind, speaking in tongues, and a bold proclamation of the Gospel? Unfortunately, though,...
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Summer Planning for the DRE
As the weather gets warmer, the students are not the only ones who are restless! I love my ministry with passion, but the summer provides a wonderful opportunity to renew my programs as well as...
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Ministry Is…
What is ministry? It seemed a simple question, posed to me by a pastoral ministry student who was interning at our parish. I began thinking of an eloquent response describing the beauty and joy of...
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Three Ways to Turn Your Faith Formation Class into a Mini-Retreat
We live in such a highly-stimulated world, and no one experiences this more than our children. Their TV shows, movies, commercials, and even their school days are packed with flashes of images,...
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Celebrating Catechetical Sunday
The theme for this year’s Catechetical Sunday is essential to our ministry as catechists: Safeguarding the Dignity of Every Human Person. As catechists, we are charged with this task in different...
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Celebrating the Saints: Four Ways to Be a Catholic Superhero
As a child I always thought of the saints as Catholic superheroes. While they may have started out as normal people like you and me, I imagined that they received their super powers of holiness after...
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Challenges and Successes of Being a Catechetical Leader
Every year as a Director of Religious Education has its own unique challenges and successes. I keep telling myself that if I’m doing the same thing as the year before, then I’m doing it wrong. Here...
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The Mercy Rule: How to Teach the Works of Mercy
Are you familiar with the “mercy rule” in sports? The mercy rule states that if one team is ahead by an insurmountable lead, the game ends so as to not drag out the humiliation of the losing team....
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Keep the Lent Momentum Going: A Lesson in Spiritual Physics
If you are like me, on Ash Wednesday you make about 20 Lenten promises: I’m going to give up sweets, pray evening prayer every day, go to weekday Mass twice a week, give a weekly donation to a...
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Getting to Know God: Three Ways to Teach with Scripture
There is a difference between knowing about a person and knowing that person. I can think that I know all about a celebrity’s life from the media, but to really know that celebrity, not only do I need...
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Mary, Mother of Catechists
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching Care for Creation
One of the first things we teach children about God is that God is the creator of everything around us. One of the most accessible examples we use to talk about God’s presence in our world is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Four Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost
Pentecost has long been one of my favorite feasts in the liturgical year. Who doesn’t love a story with fire, wind, speaking in tongues, and a bold proclamation of the Gospel? Unfortunately, though,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Getting to Know God: Three Ways to Teach with Scripture
There is a difference between knowing about a person and knowing that person. I can think that I know all about a celebrity’s life from the media, but to really know that celebrity, not only do I need...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mary, Mother of Catechists
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...
View ArticleConfident Catechists: How to Prepare for the New Year
During Advent and Lent, the Church prepares for the feasts of Christmas and Easter. Similarly, summer is the season when catechists prepare for the upcoming catechetical year. The more time we take to...
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