Category: Catechesis

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Kindle Books for Catholic Educators: Basics

This week we feature two books to help you or your students brush up on the essentials of our faith.

Catholicism for Dummies, by Fr. John Trigilio and Dr. Kenneth Brighenti. For Dummies. Print Length: 432 pages. Kindle Price: $13.19.

There are more than one billion Catholics in the world, and each one has a similar set of basic beliefs and practices that he or she follows. Some of the teachings of Catholicism are thousands of years old, while others are more recent. So what is the Catholic culture like and what do they believe? Catholicism For Dummies answers these and many other questions.

Whether you-re a Catholic or not, you may be totally clueless or just unaware of some aspects of Catholic traditions, history, doctrine, worship, devotion, or culture. No sweat. Regardless of whether you-re engaged, married, related to a Catholic, or just curious about what Catholics really do believe, this book is for you.

Catholicism For Dummies is not a catechism or religious textbook, but a casual, down-to-earth introduction for non-Catholics and reintroduction for Catholics. It gives commonsense explanations so that the next time you-re invited to a Catholic wedding, Baptism, funeral, Confirmation, or First Communion, you won-t be totally confused. You-ll also discover other important topics that can help you better understand the Catholic culture-from morality and devotions to worship and liturgy. This book will familiarize you with Catholicism by showing you:

  • What it means to be a Catholic: traditions, prayers, beliefs, and holidays
  • Who is who in the Catholic hierarchy
  • How Catholics worship
  • What the Seven Sacraments and Ten Commandments are
  • The book regarded as the holiest to Catholics: The Bible
  • The Church-s stand on some sticky issues

Catholicism For Dummies presents a rich tapestry and history of the Catholic faith-from devotions to doctrines. This intelligent and faithful look at Catholicism will open your eyes to this religion and answer many of the questions you may have about it. — Amazon.com

The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You, by Michael Debruiel. Our Sunday Visitor. Print Length: 272 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99.

Maybe you are a recent convert, or perhaps you’ve attended Mass your whole life, but there are still things that puzzle you, like: when you should genuflect and when you should bow; what the different books used at Mass are and what they contain; the meaning of words like “Amen,” “Alleluia,” or “Hosanna”; what to do during the sign of peace.

You aren’t alone.

The How-to Book of the Mass not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.

In this complete guide to the celebration of the Eucharist you get:

  • Step-by-step guidelines to walk you through the Mass
  • Biblical background of the prayers of the Mass
  • Insights from the Tradition and teaching of the Church
  • Practical aid to overcoming distractions
  • Concrete ways to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ at every Mass
  • A handy study guide for individual or group use

— Amazon.com

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Kindle Books for Catholic Educators

In light of news this week that e-books are outselling hardcovers at Amazon.com, I’m beginning a new feature here at Catholic School Chronicle: The Catechist's ToolboxKindle Books for Catholic Educators. Catholic education is a pretty narrow market, so chances are you won’t be finding too many of these books in your local bookstore; with the Kindle, however, you can be reading any of these books within seconds of ordering them. And remember, with a Kindle you can download a sample to see if the book is right for you.

Our first two books come from 8th grade catechist Joe Paprocki and popular Catholic author Amy Welborn.

The Catechist’s Toolbox: How to Thrive as a Religion Education Teacher by Joe Paprocki. Loyola Press. Print Length: 148 pages. Kindle Price: $7.95.

Each year, roughly one-third of the more than five hundred thousand volunteer catechists in Catholic parishes are new to the job; they come with little formal training for their work and are essentially students themselves, quickly needing to learn how to prepare a lesson, lead a discussion, supervise children, apply discipline, and help kids grow in their faith. The Catechist’s Toolbox by Joe Paprocki is an invaluable collection of techniques, tips, methodologies, and advice for all catechists who must learn on the job. Paprocki shares the wisdom he has gleaned in two decades as a catechist, high schoolteacher, and religious educator. Employing the metaphor of a homeowner’s toolbox, Paprocki explains how a catechist is like a do-it-yourself builder who needs the right collection of tools to do the job; throughout the book, Paprocki explains what the tools are, what they can do, and how to use them skillfully and effectively. The Catechist’s Toolbox will help first-time catechists feel at home in their new role and will empower catechists at all levels of experience to thrive as educators of the faith. – Amazon.com

Loyola Kids Book of Saints by Amy Welborn. Loyola Press. Print Length: 307 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99.

Who are the saints, why are they important, and what can today’s children learn from them? In Loyola Kids Book of Saints, the firstLoyola Kids Book of Saints book in the Loyola Kids series, author Amy Welborn answers these questions with exciting and inspiring stories, real-life applications, and important information about these heroes of the church. This delightful collection of saints’ lives, written in a storybook style for children eight to twelve, explains how saints becomes saints, why we honor them, and how they help us even today.

Divided thematically, the book features more than sixty saints from all over the world and from all across time, including our newest saints, such as St. Katharine Drexel; popular saints, such as St. Anthony of Padua; and Blesseds, such as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. Each story tells about a saint and encourages readers to consider how they might apply what they learn from the story to their everyday lives. – Amazon.com

Full disclosure: Catholic School Chronicle benefits from every sale of an Amazon product that is purchased by visiting Amazon.com via a link here. It’s a great way to support the work of Catholic School Chronicle, and if you were going to purchase an item anyway, it doesn’t cost you anything extra.

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The Educational Value of Failure

Are your students afraid of failure?

  • Do they worry about being made fun of for appearing too “religious”?
  • Are they afraid to raise their hands in class out of fear of being wrong?
  • Do they hesitate to come forward and tell you about how they or their friends are being mistreated?
  • Is it safer for them to ignore their homework, rather than take the risk that their work might be judged less than perfect?

The following video might be a good way to begin a discussion about the educational value of failure and the importance of taking healthy risks.

Afterward, students could be given one of the following questions to either discuss in small groups, act out in a short skit, or write about:

  • What are some risks Jesus took, and what was the result?
  • Describe some moments that Jesus’ disciples failed.
  • When did you experience failure that ended up being good for you?
  • Talk about a time that you took a risk and it paid off.
  • Comment on the following: “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.”
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Maddie’s Story: Inspirational Video from an Aspiring Teacher

Maddie

Maddie hopes to be a Pre-K teacher someday, just like thousands of other college students. What makes Maddie’s hope unique is, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story:

My favorite line from the video: “She has broadened what I understand as the Body of Christ.” I hope to see Maddie visiting this site some day as a Catholic educator.

Here are some ideas for using the video in the classroom:

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A 5-Minute Video Summary of Catholic Teaching

In marketing parlance, there is a concept known as the “elevator speech,” in which one tries to deliver a compelling idea in less than two minutes, or the length of an elevator ride.  Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk comes close to an elevator speech summary of Catholic beliefs in this video from TeamRCIA:

Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk from TeamRCIA on Vimeo.

Okay, so the speech was eight minutes, but the summary didn’t begin until about 3 minutes in. In any case, it’s a terrific distillation of Catholic teaching. It’s simple enough that it could be presented to young children, yet profound enough that it could be meditated upon. Here’s my transcription of just the summary portion of the archbishop’s presentation:

The most important thing in the world is that God is madly in love with us. There’s no reason for it, God just loves us. That’s why there is a world. That’s why each of us is here. God has loved us for a long time, ever since the beginning of human history. And God has never stopped loving us, even when human beings made a mess of things and did their best to forget about God’s love for them.

But that’s not all.

God loves us so much that he wanted to be one of us. In Jesus God became a human being not just to tell us who and what God is, but also to show us who and what we are supposed to be. Jesus was faithful to that mission even when it cost him his life.

But that’s not all.

Jesus is still alive, because his heavenly father wouldn’t let him stay dead. Jesus is with us still and has sent us the Holy Spirit that unites him and the Father to make us live God’s life in addition to our own. To be part of that life, we don’t have to earn it, and we don’t have to deserve it. All we have to do is accept what Jesus offers us, and then act in accord with what he has made us to be.

But that’s not all.Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk

Jesus has established a community of those who have accepted him so that none of us ever needs to be alone. Jesus nourishes that community with himself and he marks every major moment in the life of every member with his personal action in the sacraments.

But even that is not all.

God loves us so much that this life of Jesus that we have been given to share will never end. God wants us with him forever. No matter how confusing and painful our life may be, we have God’s guarantee of final fulfillment. In the most literal sense, God has promised us that everything is going to be all right. God invites us to take constant joy in hope.

But there’s still more.

Because we share the life of Jesus, we share the mission of Jesus. Each of us is called to extend the love and care of the Lord to those around us. We may not seem as individuals to have all that much to offer, but what we do have to offer is eternally important because it’s not just ourselves that we offer, but the Lord Jesus himself. The Lord has chosen to need each one of us to get his work done. Nobody’s life is insignificant.

The long and the short of it is that God is crazy about us, and once we accept that, everything else falls into place.