Got Lent On My Mind

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Lent will be here before you know it!  It feels like we just finished Advent.  I’ve been wondering what I can do to grow as a catechist but even more importantly as a disciple of Jesus this Lent.  I recently heard it said that we don’t have a crises of priesthood today, but a crises of discipleship.  The more people that are growing to as faith-filled disciples of Christ the more holy our world will be.  The world longs for holy witnesses.

Since Lent is around the corner it’s worth taking some time to consider how you might grow in your relationship with God this year.  Lent is often seen as a time to “give up” something, but too often it doesn’t make a lasting impact beyond the 40 days of Lent that we had hoped for. It is something like saying, I’m going to diet for 40 days and then gain all the weight back after those 40 days.  How can this year be different?

Here are a few things to consider as we approach Lent:

1) Nothing is more important to the happiness we long for than growth in our spiritual lives.  What can you do during Lent this year to grow in your spiritual life?  Some ideas are to pray 15 minutes a day, go to Mass one more day other than Sunday, keep the radio off in the car and pray instead, be positive toward everyone instead of complain, etc.

2) Focus on a virtue each week (consider the cardinal (moral) virtues of Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, and Prudence or a theological virtue: Faith, Hope and Love.  Growth in virtue is key to growing in our prayer life and relationship with Christ.

3) Less is more… take the attitude of eating less, watching less TV, being on the internet less often.  In their place help out more at home, be more attentive to the needs of others, spend more time with family and friends and/or pray more.

 

These are just a few preliminary considerations as we prepare for the upcoming Lenten Season.  Being an amazing catechist depends on our own personal spiritual growth.  It’s not easy in our busy world and it can be very challenging, but I promise it’s worth it!  May Christ be with each of you!!!!

 

 

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Making Movies for Christ

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Online videos are popular right now. Did you see the Darth Vader Christmas carol or the one about the adults eating their kids’ Halloween candy?

Hilarious.

How about the Silent Monks Hallelujah Chorus or the elderly couple playing the piano?

Great videos, right?

According to Media Post, 184 million people watched more than 42 billion videos in October.

Online videos can reach millions, so as evangelizing Catholics we need to be in this medium.

There is an upward trend of online videos that deliver a powerful message. Did you see the one about what the nativity would be like if social networking was around at the time of our Lord’s birth? Very clever. Or did you see the short film about the good one man can achieve with just change for a dollar? I bet you could name ten more that you’ve watched and forwarded along for others to enjoy.

So why can’t a Catechesis video have the same effect?

I believe it can and it starts with your students.

What about assigning a video competition for your class (most computers come with a free copy of Windows Movie Maker or iMovie). Pick a theme about the Eucharist, their favorite saint or a moral dilemma. Not only can they get excited about this medium, but you know they will post it on facebook and show it to their group of friends. They would be evangelizing without even knowing it!

I would like to share a stop-motion video that I put together for my Catechesis class. This video was homemade with my nieces and nephews as the actors.

The assignment was to read C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters and then rewrite one of the letters in a creative way. I chose to highlight some of the themes from Book 7 about distraction.

In an age where kids chat with their friends on facebook, watch their favorite shows on Hulu, play games instantly on their smart phones (and all at one time!) we miss God’s quiet whisper. This is an important message for today, but especially in this time of waiting for Christ’s birth.

It is my hope that this video will make people aware of how the devil can so subtly distract us from our path to God. I also hope that those who are multi-media users (me included) will learn how to use media in moderation and for the greater glory of God.

I would love to hear what you think of the video. Please leave me your feedback. Here is the youtube link: Seeking God in the Quiet

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Guest Post: Joe Paprocki

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A Template for a Worshipful Catechetical Session – by Joe Paprocki, DMin

 The General Directory for Catechesis (#85) tells us that the most effective catechesis takes place within a climate of prayer. With that in mind, I constantly urge catechists to do all they can to make their sessions resemble going to church more than going to school. We do this by incorporating the language of liturgy – a language of mystery that includes sign, symbol, and ritual – into our catechetical sessions. Following is a template that I offer to catechists as a way of structuring a typical 75-minute catechetical session in such a way as to make it more worshipful.

  1. Preliminaries (15 mins)
    1. Greet students at the door with bowl of holy water (held by yourself, your aide, or one of the students) and invite them to bless themselves.
    2. Liturgical music playing in the background as students enter.
    3. Students write on a slip of paper their prayer intention for the week, fold it, and place it in a basket.
    4. Introductions, attendance, and business.
    5. Setting of prayer table – each child retrieves from a table one object that will be placed on the prayer table (cloth with color of the liturgical season, bible stand, bible, battery operated pillar candle, basket of prayer intentions, crucifix, bowl of holy water, icon, etc) and line up for procession. Child with the cross leads as they slowly process around the room as an appropriate song is played on CD or a song is sung. Students place their objects on the prayer table one at a time and return to their seats.
    6. Opening Prayer:

i.      All Stand and pray the Sign of the Cross

ii.      Ritual greeting:  (e.g.) “This is the day the Lord has made!” “Let us rejoice and be glad!”

iii.      Threefold sign of the cross on forehead, lips, and heart: “And let us pray tonight that God’s Word will be…(perform gesture)

iv.      Pass battery operated candle around and invite each child to pray in thanksgiving for something or to pray for someone in need.

v.      End with a traditional prayer (alternate prayer each month)

  1. Engage (15 mins)
    1.  Introduce (announce clearly) the theme/topic/big idea of the lesson
    2. do an engaging activity that enables you to “enter through their door” (i.e. draw from their lived experience, current events, popular culture, etc. to grab their attention in a way that connects with the direction you intend to take with your lesson)
    3. Your catechist manual often has ideas and suggestions for ways to introduce the theme of your lesson
  2. Explore (25 mins)
    1.  Invite a minute of silence to prepare to hear God speak to them in the lesson
    2. Invite a child to come forward, bow before the Bible, and read a passage that pertains to the lesson (Scripture is usually referenced in the textbook). End with “The Word of the Lord/Thanks be to God” or “The Gospel of the Lord/Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ”
    3. Read from the textbook (or deliver content in some other appropriate manner) and relate to the big idea of the lesson
    4. discuss/do activities that further clarify, flesh out, reinforce the content and big idea
    5. Play a CD or sing a song/hymn that flows from the theme
  1. Reflect  (10 mins)
    1.  Invite students to come forward one at a time to take a battery operated tea light candle from the table and proceed to their “sacred space” (the place they will remain during the guided reflection)
    2. Lead a guided reflection that flows from/connects with the theme/big idea of the lesson.
    3. Allow at least a minute of silence at the end of the guided reflection
  2. Respond  (10 mins)
    1. Read/do activities in textbook that invite the students to apply the lesson to life
    2. Give an assignment that invites/challenges the young people to put into practice what has been learned (invite sharing the following week about experiences)
    3. Closing prayer – either a traditional prayer, a decade of the Rosary, a Mass part (Confiteor, Gloria, Creed, Holy, Holy, Lamb of God, etc.)
    4. Exchange a Sign of Peace
    5. Bless selves with Holy Water as leaving

Joe Paprocki, DMin

www.catechistsjourney.com

About Joe

First and foremost, I am a catechist! I am presently serving at a parish in Evergreen Park, just outside of Chicago. I have been involved in the catechetical ministry for over 30 years.

When I was in high school, I wanted to become a teacher, and I really felt called to teach religion. My girlfriend (now my wife) and I served as catechists at our parish, and I enjoyed helping others learn about their Catholic faith in a way that was engaging and imaginative.

I went to Loyola University Chicago, where I studied theology and history and entered the secondary education program. I became (and continue to be) certified to teach social studies in grades 6 through 12. However, since day one, I have used my teaching skills to teach religion.

I began my professional teaching career as a religion teacher at a high school seminary in Chicago, where I taught for nine years while pursuing my master’s degree in pastoral studies at the Institute of Pastoral Studies (Loyola University Chicago).

When the school I was teaching at closed, I became a director of religious education and a pastoral associate at a parish on the southeast side of Chicago, where I served for seven years. I loved working with the catechists there and learned so much from them.

When a new pastor came along and decided he didn’t need a DRE, I moved on to the Office for Catechesis of the Archdiocese of Chicago. There I served as the consultant for catechist formation, working with my favorite people in the whole world: catechists! I had the opportunity of directing the faith-formation program for catechists, leading to their certification.

After five years at the Office for Catechesis, I had the opportunity to join up with Loyola Press to work on creative and cutting-edge catechetical resources. I have been here since 2002 and now serve as the National Consultant for Faith Formation.

Along the way, I have had the privilege of authoring a number of books, most 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).

Oh, by the way, I recently completed my Doctor of Ministry degree at St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein, Illinois. My wife and I have been married for 29 years and we have two grown children.

—Joe Paprocki

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The Annunciation

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The Baker-woman in her humble lodge
Received a grain of wheat from God.
For nine whole months the grain she stored

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Make us the bread, Mary, Mary
We need to be fed…

Traditional hymn, translated from the French by Hubert Richards.

 

Theotokos is the Greek term used to describe Mary, Mother of God. The Madonna God’s instrument in redemption; the virgin-mother who fulfils Isaiah 7:14 and links heaven and earth.

The central focus of this feast is the Incarnation of God Made Man, of whom it was said “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” [John 15:13].  The Gospel of Luke tells us that Archangel Gabriel proclaimed to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of the Christ. Since it is practical to presume that Jesus was conceived then, immediately after this.

We celebrate the Annunciation nine months before Christmas Day, on 25 March. The word is from the Latin annuntiare, to announce.

We are all encouraged to emulate Mary, Mother of God – and yet sometimes, we are discouraged from doing so because we know we can never be as holy, as blessed, as at one with God. But the point is that just as Mary gave her “fiat” (let Your will be done) and consented to do God’s will, so must we be “handmaidens of the Lord”.

 “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31-34)

Jesus, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, became the Logos (“Word”), and dwelt among us. This is why in the Nicene Creed we say by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.

Mary and Joseph were not yet married; so she asked Gabriel how that would come to pass. He replied that the Holy Spirit and the power of God would descend upon her, and that the child to be born would be called Holy; the “Son of God.”

Gabriel had another surprise; he told Mary that in her old age, her cousin Elizabeth had also conceived a son in her old age; for God, “nothing is impossible”.

In the Annunciation, which is not a Holy Day of Obligation, we remember both that Jesus was made man to save us, and also that Mary said yes to God. Most of the paintings of the Annunciation present the occasion as one of prayerful joy, with the angel on the left side and Mary looking towards him in wonder, or in prayer.

In some pictures, Mary is kneeling – in others, she is seated on a chair that looks like a throne, to show her high holy status.

Sometimes, Mary is spinning yarn of a red hue, recalling the curtain of the Temple in Jerusalem. In some other pictures, Mary’s hand is raised, to indicate that she has accepted the blessing, and the invitation to become the Mother of the Saviour.

Different paintings give different interpretations of the Annunciation – it is interesting to note how in some of them Gabriel appears to be running, as if he is in a hurry to spread the Good News. Sometimes, however, the Archangel is presented kneeling, and his right hand and that of the Virgin Mary reach out to one another, but do not touch.

When we see the Archangel holding a staff, it is to indicate that he is a messenger – if he holds a lily, it symbolises the purity of Mary.  When the right hand of the angel extends toward Mary, it signifies that he is passing on God’s blessing. Sometimes, the angel’s hand is raised, his finger pointing towards heaven.

The Annunciation is usually the first of The Seven Joys of the Virgin, which date from medieval devotional literature and art. However, different lists give different instances in the life of Our Lady. It is noted that originally, there were five joys of Mary; later lists had seven, nine, and even fifteen.

Mother Church teaches that the divine nature of the Jesus remained distinct from His human nature; He was God and man simultaneously. Saint Athanasius taught that Jesus was the incarnation (“made flesh”) of the second person of the Trinity.

The First Council of Nicaea (AD 325); the Council of Ephesus (AD 431); and the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451). These councils affirmed that Jesus Christ was begotten from, but not created by, the Father; and fully man, and that He took His human nature from His Mother. In layman’s terms, Jesus is Son of God on his paternal side and Son of Man from his maternal side. The essential nature of Jesus Christ is that in which the divine and the human are hypostatic, and the Son of God became a man so that he could save us from our sins.

Many people still abstain from meat during all of Lent, and not just on Fridays. This brings us to the question of whether, especially if the Annunciation and Saint Joseph’s Day fall on a Friday, it would be permissible to eat meat.

The Annunciation (also known as Lady Day) is a solemnity, like Easter, Pentecost Sunday, and Christmas, Trinity Sunday, the Feasts of Saint John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Joseph, as well as other feasts of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A solemnity, for which the Liturgical Vestments are generally white, is the highest-ranking of any feast in the Catholic liturgical calendar, considered as important as a Sunday, which is never a day of abstinence or fasting. Indeed, the Code of Canon Law (Can. 1251) states that:

Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.

 

The Angelus

The Angelus reminds us of the Incarnation.  The name of the prayer is derived from its opening words.

V. Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ.
R. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.

V. Ecce Ancilla Domini.
R. Fiat mihi secundum Verbum tuum.

Ave Maria…

V. Et Verbum caro factum est.
R. Et habitavit in nobis.

Ave Maria…

V. Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus: Gratiam tuam quæsumus, Domine,
mentibus nostris infunde;
ut qui, angelo nuntiante,
Christi Filii tui Incarnationem cognovimus,
per passionem eius et crucem,
ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur.
Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

—————————–

V. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived by the power of Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to your Word.

Hail Mary…

V. And the Word was made flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary…

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Glory be…

 

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Touch This Moment ~ Helpful Advent Ideas

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The next two weeks find catechists trying to focus on a huge liturgical feast while still in the penitential fasting period. Many children in our catechism classes will be released for the rest of December and the last sigh of 2011 to the secularization of these holy days as though they were just another linkage of days in just another ordinary life.

What do we do with that? We have such a short amount of time. How do we touch these children in the brief hour or two they sit at our side learning about a faith full of mystery and tradition? How do we help these children connect to sights and sounds and smells which some only greet when at our classroom door?

This calls for catechism teachers to pull out all the stops and unwrap a few sweet surprises. We want our young Catholics (who might not have any other exposure to the faith except in our classrooms and hallways) to leave class this month with a sense of beauty and awe for the faith handed down to them from the friends of Jesus; the friends who walked and talked and ate and sang and cried and laughed at the side of our Lord.

It is not a dried up crust of a religion. It is a milk and honey and living bread religion.

Do you offer it to your students as though it were a living faith? Do you allow them to feel and taste and see and smell the goodness in these early years so that as they grow and mature they can reach a higher realm of understanding the Christ who sat and walked and talked in their presence?

Remember what Pope Pius XI told us in Quas Primas, an Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King written in 1925:

(21) “For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church (emphasis mine). Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year—in fact, forever. The church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God’s teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life.”

Yes, it’s that time. Time to speak to both the mind and heart of our children through the feasts of the church. Time to wrap these external festivities into our plans and unwrap the sacred truths of our faith in our classrooms.

Little minds can not comprehend the total mysteries of the faith and certainly they cannot understand any official pronouncements. But they can and do understand the inner joys of the faith made known through annual celebrations.

And so we touch this moment within this season.

It’s that time. Time to touch the children’s senses and, by doing so, capture their spirit and invite them into a faith that is anything but lacking.

This Monday is the Feast of St. Lucia. Here is a simple but delightful idea taken from Pinterest. Bake it for your family that morning and bake an extra pan for your catechism class. Find a white dress, red sash, and a crown of greenery—perhaps St. Lucia-in-the-making will happily pay your classroom a visit and serve these sweet treats.

We have one more purple candle to light on our Advent wreath before the birth of our Savior. Do the children know that the Advent Wreath lights a visual path for their heart to follow? Does your classroom have an Advent Wreath? It should!

Why not let the children make their own during the class Christmas party.

Edible Advent Wreaths—I call this my Doughnut Ministry. :-)

 

Items needed:
  • plain doughnuts (glazed, cake, or however you like them)
  • vanilla frosting tinted green
  • red hot candies (for berries)
  • a plastic knife so they can frost their doughnut
  • 4 birthday candles per wreath (I was unable to find purple candles so we used 3 whites and 1 pink)
  • For my class I added (because it heightened the suspense in this sweet treat):
    • green sprinkles
    • transparent sugar sprinkles (for snow)

Make a Christ Candle in class. All that is needed is a thick white candle, plastic spoon for carving, glue gun, beads and pretty fabric, and a small plastic baby (found in baby shower section of stores). Children love to carve, love secret compartments, and especially love Baby Jesus, safely tucked out of sight until Christmas morning.

Go here for the how-to: Make a Christ Candle and make sure they all take home this prayer wrapped around their own Christ Candle:

God of love, Father of all,
the darkness that covered the earth,
has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh.
Make us a people of this light.
Make us faithful to your Word
that we may bring your life to the waiting world.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 (From The Roman Missal, Catholic Book Publishing Co.)

And, for the older children in your programs, don’t forget to make use of meditation and candlelight.

It might sound simplistic but sights, sounds, and smells truly do speak to the child’s spirit long before official pronouncements and teachings penetrate their mental atriums.

Childhood is so brief, so fleeting. Make it beautiful!

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An Advent Meditation to Use

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Around the world…Across the country…Among churches and neighborhoods…the spirit of Christmas is alive and well within many homes and church communities. It is the same spirit which St. Francis of Assisi caught in a vision back in 1223 and which St. Bonaventure wrote about in great detail in Life of St. Francis of Assisi:

“It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem. A certain valiant and veracious soldier, Master John of Grecio, who, for the love of Christ, had left the warfare of this world, and become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvellously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep. This vision of the devout soldier is credible, not only by reason of the sanctity of him that saw it, but by reason of the miracles which afterwards confirmed its truth. For example of Francis, if it be considered by the world, is doubtless sufficient to excite all hearts which are negligent in the faith of Christ; and the hay of that manger, being preserved by the people, miraculously cured all diseases of cattle, and many other pestilences; God thus in all things glorifying his servant, and witnessing to the great efficacy of his holy prayers by manifest prodigies and miracles.” ~ St. Bonaventure

The tradition continues today. Many religious programs are reenacting the “living” nativity within churches, prayer gardens, and church halls. It’s a beautiful physical reminder of the divine embracing the world. And, yet, after all these years, the story is taken for granted and the message becomes mundane though, each year, the season of Advent is a reminder not to fall victim to everyday monotony when viewing the face of God.

It was with these thoughts that I wrote the following meditation which I offer to all of you trying to reach the mind, hearts, and souls of our young Catholics in our religious ed programs this Advent season.

Having taken the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for almost 10 years now, I personally think meditation is one of the most productive, calming, spiritually divine ways to pray. It’s something many religious ed program miss the opportunity to introduce to our young people. Our young Catholics are not comfortable with silence, calm, or peace if they have never experienced it or welcomed into its presence on a regular basis.

Yet it is beautiful. It is holy!

Through meditations, we welcome the youth into a pause that greets them without expectations, without discomfort.

Perhaps I’ll discuss meditations in more details within a separate post at a later date. For this month, let’s look at the divine.

This meditation was the one presented to our 6th-12th grade classes during our Advent Presentation. I share it with all of you in hopes that it will bless and guide your Advent preparations.

Advent Meditation by Cay Gibson (PDF file)

{This meditation includes visual props but may be done with only a reader and a flashlight—read slowly, meditatively, pausingly—in a dark setting which invites the youth to visit with God and no one else around them.}

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Prayers: Line-by-Line Game

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One very popular activity for children, is taking the 4 basic prayers line by line, putting one line on each desk. Then ask who has a line from the Our Father. Then have the children come up with the lines to the front of the room. If they are not in order have the children who are sitting down figure our which line comes next.

Teresa Bobe, Patchogue, NY

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Prayer Puzzles

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Take a printout of each prayer [in a large font] to Staples or Kinko’s and have it blown up and laminated on brightly colored card stock. Then cut it into strips, making sentence fragments, like puzzle pieces. Last, give a prayer to each table or small group of children and have them work as a team to put it all together in the right order.

 

Lisa Mladinich, St. Matthew Church, Dix Hills, NY

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Hail Mary and Holy Souls!

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It’s October again, and time to re-focus on and honor our beautiful Blessed Mother, Mary; our perfect model of faith, humility and modesty. Praying a decade each time you gather with your students – year round – can work wonders of grace! Click here for an article from a website devoted to Our Lady of Fatima, which tells — among other things — the story of the famous Battle of Lepanto, in which Catholic military ships were victorious against a much greater Islamic force, because so many Catholics devoutly prayed the Rosary. This victory is commemorated on October 7th. Time to celebrate with your students!

Here’s a great, kid-friendly Rosary resource that was shared by Lisa Sanchez, the Director of Marketing at CCC [you know, those animated saint videos for kids that we all love!]. This month would be a great time to order a copy of CCC’s “The Day the Sun Danced,” which tells the true story of the Miracle of the Sun, which occurred during the Blessed Mother’s final apparition at Fatima in 1917. Enjoy it!

And here’s a charming blog post on how to get your whole family in the super grace-filled habit of a daily Rosary!

It’s Pro-Life awareness month, too! Follow this inspiring blog  from the wonderful folks at Forty Days for Life. And take time to make your voice heard! Look for the film version of the life of St. Gianna Molla. If you look for it on Amazon, be aware that it has been erroneously listed as a book. You have to look at the image to see that it’s a DVD. Here’s an excerpt from the press release: “’St. Gianna Beretta Molla: A Modern Day Hero of Divine Love’ was produced by Catholic Action for Faith and Family which includes the St. Gianna Physician’s Guild. The mission of the Guild is to unite and encourage Catholic physicians and health care professionals, to promote and defend Catholic principles in a public way by word and example, and to inspire sanctification in their lives.”

I also highly recommend that you and your middle school, high school, and RCIA students enjoy and share the phenomenal bioethics/pro-life work of Dr. Gerard Nadal, an inspiring speaker and blogger, Catholic researcher, academic, and medical microbiologist who I am proud to call a friend.

I have more GREAT links for you, this month, to some fantastic teaching resources – they’re at the bottom of this brief article. But first, in this beautiful month of October, I want to ask you a “November Question”:

Wouldn’t it be weird to raise a child without ever introducing him to his extended family – just to forget about them, like you would something of no importance – especially if they were good and holy people? We would never do that, of course. And anyway, how could we forget our own family?

But that’s just what it’s like when we forget about the Holy Souls in purgatory. Many of them are strangers to us, humanly speaking, but can legitimately be called our family in Christ. Some, however, are people who we have actually loved in this life, and without whom we feel a great emptiness. To say that they mattered to us while they were here is an absurd understatement. They mattered, all right. They mattered a great deal. So why do so few Catholics pray for the Holy Souls?

“Thirty-Day Devotions for the Holy Souls,” by Susan Tassone, is a deceptively small, inexpensive book, which I highly recommend you order this month, so you have it in time for November. It’s a day-by-day novena for the whole month of November, and it’s beautiful, moving, powerful, and highly-doable in terms of the time it takes – which is just a few minutes a day. November is the month in our Church calendar that is devoted to the remembrance of the Holy Souls. I mention it now, because at the end of October we’ll enjoy the festivities of Halloween – which began as a Catholic tradition – All Hallows Eve – on the eve of the feast of All Souls. Beginning with All Hallows, we are meant to reflect seriously and prayerfully on The Last Things – on death, judgment, heaven and hell. Susan Tassone’s tiny novena book will teach you so much, especially the value of praying for and asking for the intercession of the Holy Souls.

So, as we find our thoughts turning toward autumnal celebrations, lets draw our students into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and teach them the Catholic tradition of honoring and praying for those who have gone before us, “marked with the sign of faith.”

Enjoy our other new columns, this month! We’ve also got wonderful Bible stories, as retold by Tanja Cilia, our Malta correspondent! And our RCIA columnist, Peggy Clores has a new review of Alexander Basile’s wonderful book, “Finding Faith in a Godless World: A Catholic Path to God.”

And check out my new blog, devoted to interracting with the thousands of catechists who have already bought my booklet, “Be An Amazing Catechist: Inspire the Faith of Children,” and all the wonderful folks who have been attending my workshops, this fall. Stop by and leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Here are those great links I found!
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Front Royal, VA, provides wonderful resources on chastity and more!

Domestic-Church.com has loads of great resources, for instance:

How to pray the Rosary!

Author and publisher, Matt Pinto, on starting a youth group.

Great teaching ideas by age group.

Sacraments!

Here are a few more from other sources:

Everything faith, family and fun from a Catholic perspective.

Catholic Activities to use in your home or classroom.

Catholic products for teaching faith and virtue to children.

Great article on the seers and the miracle at Fatima!

More on Fatima.

Have a blessed and beautiful month in Our Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary!

Sincerely in Christ,

Lisa Mladinich
Author, “Be An Amazing Catechist: Inspire the Faith of Children”
Founder, AmazingCatechists.com

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