As I look forward to the new year, I have been trying to set some goals for myself.  One thing I’ve been considering doing for some time now is to read the Bible completely.  It can easily be a daunting task when you look at the thickness of the book itself, but there is no doubt as to the value one can obtain from reading all of salvation history in Holy Scripture.

As I’ve considered how to best tackle the undertaking, I’ve come across a number of suggestions on how to read through the Bible.  The approach I’ve settled on is to read the Bible in one year.  Many of the one year plans I’ve seen are based on the Protestant Bible, but I did come across a document from an organization called The Coming Home Network International.  They have a plan to not only read the Bible in a year, but the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well.

I’ve taken their plan schedule and also built it into a spreadsheet format that allows me to keep track of my progress right on my iPad as I use my Bible app and a CCC link right off of that device.  I can read my daily reading from anywhere, and if I miss a day along the way, it’s very easy to catch right back up.  For those interested in the plan, below are links to the original PDF as well as my spreadsheet versions. I would suggest that one always looks at the PDF first, even if they want to use the spreadsheets because the PDF contains some additional guidance where the spreadsheets are exclusively the listing of the daily readings.

Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year
– Original PDF Format
– Excel Spreadsheet Format
– Open Document Spreadsheet Format

I’m looking forward to my own personal growth as I read through the Bible fully, along with the Catechism and I know it will absolutely help in my catechetical ministries.  I hope it can be helpful to all of you as well.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

There was a lot of good information offered throughout the day, with much of the focus being around media literacy.  The overreaching message that I got from the workshop was that this form of communication is not a fad.  Whether you “love” it, “hate” it or have a “love/hate” relationship with it, is here to stay and we must embrace it.  Also, this means of communication is a game changer.  It is interactive.  It must respect open communication.  Everyone wants to have a say and if you make it one directional, you will have very little, if any impact on the world.

This seems very different from how we traditionally think of communication from the Church.  The Church preaches from the ambo, it teaches the Truth as given to us by Jesus Christ and as revealed by the Holy Spirit.  This stuff isn’t up for discussion, is it?  Unbeknownst to most, the Church’s official position on its presence within the world of media is to be an active listener, not simply and authoritative teacher.  This is contradictory of the perception, but that position places the Church in a good position to participate effectively in the use of these tools.  It listens and responds with the Truth.

I think many would comment that the Church has been slow to embrace some of the tools available in the new media space, but through the leadership of the Venerable Pope John Paul II and the current leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the Church is making great strides.  This must continue through the embracing of these technologies at the parish level.  As was made clear at the workshop, to be effective, the use of these tools must allow the opportunity for dialogue.  Pastors and catechist must listen first and teach as a follow up to that listening.  I don’t think the average parishioner is used to that, nor are many of the pastors and catechists out there; but I think our youth are definitely ready to engage us with the hope of learning and better understanding.  We need to engage them in a way that shows that we respect them, their concerns and their methods of communicating and learning.  Bishop Herzog said in his comments, “If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.”  We don’t have to change the message, only how we deliver it.  We must go to them, not expect them to come to us.

Thank you Sr. Helena and Sr. Anne for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us!  I, for one, have been given a deeper understanding of the importance of using these tools effectively.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Catechetical programs today are not like that.  Today, we see a lot less memorization and much more conceptual, story-based and scriptural-based teaching methods that help get the message across.  I have to admit that the programs of today seem a lot less dry, make it easier to keep the attention of the students and do a good job of connecting the teachings of the Church to today’s society.

So then, which one is better?  I would say neither, or maybe it’s both.  Okay, I think it’s a blend of the two.

I received a comment in class last night when we broke out into an unscheduled Q&A session that “this is what makes religious ed fun.”  My response was that Religious Education by unstructured Q&A does nothing more than give one points of Catholic trivia.  Unless it is part of a structured program, you can’t understand how it fits into the big picture.  That being said, are the current catechetical programs really answering the questions of our students?  Are we trying to beat around a teaching instead of hitting it head on, like the Baltimore Catechism did?

We have all seen it.  People don’t know their faith today.  Scarier yet, the kids in our religious education programs don’t know their faith all that well either and presumably it’s supposed to be fresh in their minds.  Why might that be?  I would submit because as we teach something, we move on and don’t continue to review it over and over again.  Let’s take the Ten Commandments.  We teach the Ten Commandments to our second graders as we prepare them for First Reconciliation.  That is integral to their curriculum.  We review the Ten Commandments in 6th grade as part of our review of the Old Testament.  By 6th grade, students have forgotten the Ten Commandments.  Sure, it may have had cursory mention in other years, but a mention is just not enough.  That’s a pretty basic thing to know, but we don’t support it from year to year so it gets dropped from memory.  I won’t even go into basic Catholic prayers!  It’s our fault for not holding our youth accountable for this knowledge; our fault and the fault of parents.

I think we, as religious educators need to balance the need to understand our faith with the need to know our faith.  Just going through a program that teaches through Q&A does not help you understand how to truly live your faith because it is not flexible enough to cover that ever developing scenarios we are faced with; but it is a great way to learn “the facts”.  On the flip side, teaching you the meaning of a particular tenant of faith in detail once without returning to it again in any great detail doesn’t really help make it stick.  Should we not have some basic items that every student should be required to show knowledge of every year?  Test on the Ten Commandments every year.  Test on Acts of Mercy every year.  Test on the Act of Contrition every year.  Test on the True Presence every year.  I can go on.

It is important to progress through topics of faith and help students understand what it should mean to them today, but not so exclusively that we never give it an opportunity to set in through repetition and memorization.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Over the past year, I’ve been looking at a lot of resources on the internet gathering ideas on class setup and lesson structure.  Part of what I plan to do next year is to throw my students off their game a bit.  The grade’s primary curriculum will be an in depth look at the Mass.  This will be a topic that will lend itself to discussion, so I’m going to move the students away from the tables and have the chairs placed in an open circle in the center of the room.  My hope is that the proximity to me and the other students will make the discussions more lively and intimate.  It should set the tone that all must participate and it doesn’t give anyone a place to hide. A huge plus is that there will be no table there to help them hide their texting under and while that hasn’t been a huge problem in the past, with an older grade I wanted to eliminate the temptation. My CRE is also working on a way to incorporate Theology of the Body into the year.  My experience is that sex is on every teen’s (and tween’s) mind, but they are uncomfortable discussing the topic with any reliable source of information.  I suggested a student retreat as an option for covering some of the material.

Intimidation aside, I’m actually excited about the change.  The Mass is such a central part of how we express our faith that I think this has so much potential.  Additionally, I’m hoping the three year difference in age will make for more intelligent discussions as compared to what I was able to have with my 6th graders.  I’m pretty sure the students will keep me on my toes, so I ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit wins out.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Anyway, Sister usually answers reader-submitted questions on her blog. Last week, she answered a question from a catechist around the use of the left hand for making the sign of the cross. This post really got me thinking about the various traditions and devotions that exist in the Catholic Church. Our faith has so much to strengthen us as we progress through our faith journeys. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through high school and was constantly exposed to ways of expressing our faith, not only through prayer but through action as well. I can clearly remember learning the Hail Holy Queen in 3rd grade, learning how to pray the Rosary, walking the Stations of the Cross every Lent, attending First Friday Mass throughout the school year, learning how to follow along using a missalette (talk about confusing!) and having Benediction periodically. (Boy, I hated the smell of incense back then!!)

All of my students go to public school and therefore they get none of that exposure. For example, I was shocked to find out that none of my students had ever done the Stations of the Cross before!?! Many of these traditions are opportunities to better understand the meaning of our faith and to strengthen us spiritually. Additionally, they are beautiful, especially when you understand their history and meaning. I would love to be able to expose my students to these practices as tools to further their understanding of Catholic faith.

I have two challenges here. The first is time. How does one go about giving their students exposure to some of these traditions and devotions when one is limited to 1 hour a week with a full lesson’s worth of material to cover? The second challenge is the fact that while they are not exposed to this at school, most are not exposed to this at home either. Even if I could find the time to do at least a cursory review of some of these practices in class, there is very little expectation that it will stick without exposure to it outside of class.

I guess I have a whole summer to figure this out. Have any of you found successful ways of exposing your students to the beautiful devotions of the Church and its faithful (and making them stick)?

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

I have been lucky enough to have participated in two excellent webinars over the past couple of weeks that have really helped me to reconsider how I should engage in my ministry.

The first webinar was presented by Jonathan F. Sullivan, who is the Director of Catechetical Ministries for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.  The webinar was titled “Catechizing Digital Natives” and focused on the different ways that today’s kids process and learn information.  Below is the video recording of the webinar and here is a link to some of the resources discussed in the video.

The second webinar was presented by Joe Paprocki from Catechist’s Journey.com and Loyola Press.  Joe is well known among Catechists as not only an author of numerous books about being a Catechist, but also as an 8th Grade Catechist himself.  His webinar was titled “Growing as a Catechist: A Self-Evaluation Based on 7 Critical Tools from The Catechist’s Toolbox” and focused on how to reflect on our own ministries with the goal of tweaking our approach and preparation to add more impact when we catechize.

I found both of these webinars so valuable that I just had to share them with you.  As Catechists, sometimes we feel like we are left to our own devices and it’s nice to know that there are others out there who share their ideas with us.  It’s amazing when you find out that the problems you face in your classrooms and parishes are not as unique as you might think.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

When I arrived at Church for Religious Education, my CRE asked if I would be willing to merge my class with another because we had a catechist out.  I figured “why not” and agreed to teach both classes.  Historically, having students that normally part of my class has been hit or miss, but I was going to make the best of it nonetheless.  The first question I get is, “Do you give homework” and I start doing a victory dance in my head.  I tell the student to ask my students that question and the standard response of “only if we don’t cooperate” puts them all in the palm of my hand.  The expectation is set and I see things looking up.  I probably shouldn’t be too joyful about using homework as a threat, but it makes things so much easier when we all understand each other.

We start class with a prayer, Come Holy Spirit, which was not only topical, but I’m convinced that prayer was answered last night.  Then my students ask if we can do the Three J’s.  For those that are not familiar with the Three J’s, it’s something that I picked up from In Between Sundays, a podcast that I frequently listen to.  It consists of sharing your Junk, Joy and Jesus Moment for the past week.  I had my students participate and made it optional for my guests.  I think my guest students were more into it then my own students!  It was a huge success last night and ended up being a great ice breaker.

Our formal topics last night were focused around the activities of the Apostles after the Resurrection.  We discussed Jesus’ first appearance in the Upper Room.  We discussed Doubting Thomas.  We discussed Pentecost and the effect the Holy Spirit had on the Apostles.  I spent time focusing on the before and after of the Apostles’ behavior, including the effects of some of the gifts they received on Pentecost.  Additionally, we discussed how we (and they) knew the Holy Spirit had arrived, namely wind and fire.

After spending some time on Pentecost, we moved on to the missionary activities of the early Church leaders.  We reviewed how they traveled and thier ministries in obedience to the command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.  We also connected this to Pentecost by discussing how those gifts they received from the Holy Spirit helped them be successful.  We spoke about the Conversion of St. Paul, and how appropriate since yesterday was the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  We also discussed why we call St. Paul an Apostle even thought he was not a follower of Jesus during his earthly ministry.  To help drive that story home, I finished the segment by showing them an artist’s representation of that conversion moment on the road to Damascus.

We discussed what martyrdom was and why the Church believes that martyrs have a special place in heaven.  We spoke about the martyrdom of St. Peter and why he was crucified upside down.  Once again, I showed them an artist’s representation of his martyrdom to help drive that story home.

I ended the class by handing out the lyrics to “Kyrie” by Mr. Mister and played the song.  After listening to it, we discussed the lyrics and what the artist was trying to say through his song.  The references to the Holy Spirit and being sent on a mission are so strong in that song that I love tying it to this lesson.

I left class last night feeling like I myself was on fire!  Not only that, but my students, and I mean all of my students last night seemed fired up as well.  I can’t beleive how much I was able to cover in one hour; and to be honest, I felt like I actually got through to them as opposed to being rushed and lost.  I’m sure it was with a little help from above.  I truly hope that the Holy Spirit can come and kindle in us the fire of His love every week!!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Our keynote speaker for the English program was Joe Paprocki from Loyola Press.  My loyal readers will recognize him from my frequent referrals to his blog, Catechist’s Journey; but besides being an insightful blogger on catechesis, he is also an author as well as an 8th grade catechist.  His address, “Catechesis That Enters Through ‘Their Door’ but Leaves Through ‘Your Door’” was all about connecting with your students’ lives with practical tips for overcoming the generational gap that can exist between catechist and student.  I think his insights were spot on since I experience what he pointed out each week with my 6th graders.

Aside from Joe’s address, there were a number of workshop options available throughout the rest of the day.  I attended a morning session called TIPS which shared creative ways to make that class more interactive and more organized to help foster a higher level of learning while keeping the students active and engaged through the class session and throughout the year.  For the afternoon session, I chose to attend a presentation by our diocesan Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults.  This session was a perfect compliment to Joe’s comments because it explored the mindset of today’s youth when it comes to God.  It focused on reading the signals that the youth are sending us and offered some practical approached to strenghting our own signals back to them regarding the Good News.

In reflection, I’m glad that I atteneded this year’s congress.  Not only did I learn a lot from those presenting at the event, but I benefited greatly from the interaction with and participation of the attendees, many of which are more experienced that me in catechesis.  As an added benefit, I got to meet some really great people there and was inspired by the focus and support that the Archdiocese of Boston places on this ministry.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

As you may know, 6th grade Catechesis focuses on the Bible, mostly the Old Testament with ties to the New Testament to show how the old foretells and connects to the new. The first week’s lesson is about what the Bible is. The first reaction of my students, of course, is that it is a book. I like to point out that is is not a book, but a library of books and I explain why that is the case. I also like to ask how many students know if they have a Bible at home and where it is. I’m generally disappointed by the result of the informal poll. This year, two kids knew they had one but didn’t know where and one knew where his Children’s Bible was. To be honest, that was better then last year so I can take comfort that we are trending up.

We also review what the purpose of the Bible is as well as the different types of writing that can be found within the books of the Bible. I’m still amazed at how many different writing styles are utilized, but my students aren’t as excited about that as I am. Maybe it’s because it’s the first class and they are being cautious? Anyway, before class ended, I handed out a letter for my students to take home to their parents, the parent interview I spoke about last week and a small prayer sheet with some basic prayers they would need to learn if they didn’t know them already. Lastly, I showed the class one of my favorite videos about the Bible. It was a fun way to show the different things we would learn this year.

For week two, we started class reviewing the results of their interview. A couple of them forgot to bring it and one I think forgot to do it, but since I wasn’t collecting them, that was disappointing but incidental. We started with discussing if anything surprised them about their parents’ responses. Since shyness fell upon the class, I started going around and asking for responses to the specific questions. Most responses were straight forward, but I think it was a valuable exercise in getting the child and the parent talking about some faith topics. I think I will tweak how I do this next year, but the concept is a keeper and may even send another interview home later in the year … maybe around Lent?

This week’s topic was the Creation Stories. This is a good way to start because it is something that most of them are already familiar with. We discuss what happens in each story, how the stories differ, what the stories tell us about God and what our roles are as human beings in relation to the rest of creation. I love how this concept of stewardship ties into the one of the Church’s social teachings. Even at 6th grade, these teachings are relevant.

During class, we got into an off topic discussion on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. I don’t remember how we got there, but there were a lot of questions around this topic, and I mean a lot:  ”Who goes to heaven?” “What is Purgatory?” “Once you go to Hell, can you ever get out?” “How long do you have to spend in Purgatory?” “Do animals go to Heaven?” “What do you mean squirrels don’t go to Heaven?” “If I die with my dog, my dog doesn’t go to Heaven?” I’m expecting some hate mail from the animal responses, but we’ll see how it goes. That being said, it was a lively discussion and it gave me a sign. There is interest on their part and there are questions that they are looking to have answered. That means that there is hope in enhancing their faith forward this year if I go about it the right way.

Before class ended, I handed out rosary beads to all of my students in honor of October being the month of the Rosary and a small pamphlet on how to pray the Rosary. I’m hoping this may spark a devotion or two at home. I found out as I was leaving class, that a few of my students asked our Pastor to bless their new Rosary so I have hope that there is interest and that the seeds that I plant may bear fruit after all.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.