eCatechist

Introducing the Practical Guide Series

 

New Resource

for personal reflection and small group discussion

 

The Practical Guide Series is a collection of booklets created and designed for general readers who wish to update and deepen their understanding of spirituality, scripture, and catechesis. Covering relevant topics, the booklets are written in a short format of 40 – 60 pages by respected authors who are experienced catechists and teachers. Each booklet contains questions for personal reflection and small group discussion.

Individuals will find the Practical Guide Series helpful for study and personal enrichment. It is a resource for catechists, pastoral and liturgical ministers, RCIA participants, and parents. The series is also ideal for catechetical leaders and facilitators of small groups for adult education and ministry formation. .

The Practical Guide Series is published by Faith Alive Books and is available at www.eCatechist.com as downloadable PDFs for the tablet, smart phone, and computer. Each book in the series is $5.75. 

 

Titles Include

Celebrating the Eucharist by Steve Mueller, PhD

Shaping a Gospel Spirituality: Discipleship, Conversion & Evangelization by Steve Mueller, PhD

Sacraments: Then and Now by John Alonzo Dick, PhD and STD

 

Forthcoming

Catholic Theology Basics by Steve Mueller, PhD

Reading Your Bible by Steve Mueller, PhD

The Gospel of Matthew: A Handbook for Discipling All Nations by Steve Mueller, Phd

 

Dan Pierson - publisher, Faith Alive Books and founder, www.eCatechist.com 

contact: pierson.dj@gmail.com

The Sacraments: Then and Now (pdf download)

I would like to help people realize how much the understanding and practice of the sacraments has changed over the past 2,000 years. Change is a fact of life, even in the Church. What follows are some historical observations, organized by topic which can act as a kind of “glossary” for understanding the development of the celebration of the sacraments and to inspire and engage our think- ing about the sacramental life. Sacraments are not just a Catholic concern. Sacraments are Christian realities. Jack Dick

Preview: Download Sample Pages

Sacraments: Then and Now is one book in the Practical Guide Series, which is published by Faith Alive Books. All books are available at www.eCatechist.com as downloadable PDFs for the tablet, smart phone, and computer. Each book in the series is $5.75. Use PayPal or Credit Card to buy. The link to the PDF will be sent immediately to your email.  

Buy Now for $5.75

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Shaping A Gospel Spirituality: Discipleship, Conversion & Evangelization (pdf download)

The Jesus who invited his first disciples so long ago still extends that same invitation to us today when we encounter him and his world in and through the Gospels. They provide a way to live in a personal relationship with him and “see” the world anew from the viewpoint of Jesus. Accepting and living this new vision and vocation will open up a way that will lead us through death to new life with God forever. 

Shaping a Gospel Spirituality: Discipleship, Conversion & Evangelization offers readers the invitation and resources to reflect on their call to discipleship and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Preview: Download Sample Pages_PG

Shaping the Gospel Spirituality is one book in the Practical Guide Series, which is published by Faith Alive Books. All books are available at www.eCatechist.com as downloadable PDFs for the tablet, smart phone, and computer. Each book in the series is $5.75. Use PayPal or Credit Card to buy. The link to the PDF will be sent immediately to your email. 

Buy Now for $5.75

Buy Now

Celebrating the Eucharist (pdf download)

This booklet has been written to help you and your household members grow in an understanding and appreciation of our eucharistic ritual or Mass. The eucharist has always been, and still is, the central experience and defining ritual of our Christian lives. In it, we celebrate the presence of Christ within us as individuals and among us as his beloved community. He offers us his body and blood so that we might live anew in communion with God.

Preview: Download Sample Pages

Celebrating the Eucharist is one book in the Practical Guide Series, which is published by Faith Alive Books. All books are available at www.eCatechist.com as downloadable PDFs for the tablet, smart phone, and computer. Each book in the series is $5.75. Use PayPal or Credit Card to buy. The link to the  PDF will be sent immediately to your email.

Buy Now for $5.75

Buy Now

NCCL

 

The mission of the National Community of Catechetical Leaders is to promote the ministries of evangelization and catechesis in the U.S. Catholic Church by fostering a community of leaders who proclaim and teach the Word of Jesus Christ through the witness of accompaniment, education, and formation in the Catholic faith.

Become a member today.

Links to Websites and Church Documents

https://airtable.com/shrhJkFDcomhyD8qV/tblcAGKlgMMjhunvd

Links

Spotlight on Scripture

Easter & Evangelization in Luke: Evangelization Is a Community Task (4) by Steve Mueller

Luke understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus was just the beginning of the Christian experience. He added to his gospel the story of the growth and development of the early Christian community as it assumes its responsibility to carry on the mission and ministry of Jesus. Although the book is organized around the evangelizations of Peter and Paul, its focus is the Holy Spirit's empowerment and guidance of their mission of evangelization.

Luke stresses that the whole community shares the apostolic task. As the community grows and begins its witness, Luke notes that it first goes through a process of integration before it can evangelize. In chapter one, the disciples realize that they must choose a new disciple to replace Judas so the number of disciples Jesus wanted would be maintained. The choice of Matthias makes possible the descent of the Holy Spirit to empower the community for their witness and evangelization. When the community is whole, it steps forth to evangelize.

Again in chapter six, the disciples cannot meet all the needs of the growing community. So they choose seven deacons to assist them. Their restructuring of the community provides the springboard to the greater evangelization of Hellenistic Jews by Stephen and Philip.

In chapter ten, Peter is taught in a dream that evangelization must extend to gentiles. Peter's insight hinges on a new understanding of God. Since God shows no partiality, neither should Christians. The good news must be spread to the ends of the earth. 

From chapter thirteen on, Paul's evangelizing journeys exemplify this world-wide mission which has continued to this day. His evangelization opened out to the whole Mediterranean world and resulted in the spread of the gospel and the growth of the community which made Christianity into the world-wide religion it is today.

© 2022 Steve Mueller

Steve Mueller is the author of the five books in the Catechist's Guide to Reading the Bible Series. 

Lifelong Faith: Formation for All Ages and Generations by John Roberto

Lifelong Faith provides a blueprint for Christian formation that forms disciples of all ages and transforms church communities.

Vibrant lifelong faith formation can renew and revitalize faith across generations and contribute towards a thriving congregation that lives its mission. Using the seven elements outlined in this book, churches will create a dynamic and vital plan that can be customized to meet the needs, interests, and challenges we face today and nurture the spiritual growth of all ages. 

Read an excerpt: Church Publishing

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Welcome to Lifelong Faith Providing the resources, training, & assistance to help leaders ​develop faith formation for all ages and generations.

Daily Meditations from Henri Nouwen Society

Feed your spirit with daily inspiration from one of the great spiritual masters of our time!

Continue

Spotlight on Scripture

Easter and Evangelization in Luke: Understanding Leads to Action (3) by Steve Mueller

The resurrection narratives also show is that our Christian lives never stop when we have understood the significance of our experience of the risen Christ. Curiously enough, whenever we try to hold on to Christ and bask in the enjoyment of his presence, He reminds us that we must rather go forth and become witnesses to what we have experienced.

The disciples journeying to Emmaus discover this. After their heart-warming conversation with the mysterious stranger, they finally recognize his identity in the breaking of the bread. Then suddenly, “he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:31). Despite their astonishment, they immediately set out to share their experience with the other disciples only to find out that Christ has also appeared to the other disciples.

The pattern emerging here is clear. When we understand our experience of the risen Christ, announcing this good news–evangelization--begins. Christian discipleship is incomplete until we share our belief. Luke recognized this and underlined it, so to speak, by portraying the risen Jesus as officially commissioning the disciples with the task and duty of evangelization. On the first Easter evening, the risen Christ declares to the gathered community of disciples that the good news of salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection is “to be preached to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this” (Luke 24:47-48). In his second volume of the Gospel, which we call the Acts of the Apostles, Luke shows how the early community of disciples carried this out. The chain of evangelization from God to Jesus to the community of disciples continues to today.

© 2022 Steve Mueller

Steve Mueller is the author of the five books in the Catechist's Guide to Reading the Bible Series. 

 

 

The Ministry of the Catechist

Source of Image: Exaudi Catholic News.

 

Pope Francis on May 11, 2021 formally created a new official ministry in the Catholic Church for those who teach the fundamentals of the faith to children and others, opening the position to "men and women of deep faith and human maturity."

Continue Reading from the National Catholic Reporter

 

Apostolic Letter Antiquum ministerium : Instituting the Ministry of the Catechist

 

Catechist.Com : Information and Resources

 

Celebrating the Ministry of the Catechist

 

Rite for Instituting the Ministry of the Catechist (Vatican News)

Liturgical Rite to Institute the Ministry of the Catechist (Exaudi Catholic News)

 

How To Live Like a Monk by Daniele Cybulskie

Daniele Cybulskie

The Medieval Podcast

 

Ten Great Things About Being Catholic by Alice Camille (Vision: Vocation Network)

WERE YOU BAPTIZED as a baby? If you’re like most Catholics, that’s how you first joined the church. That early support and membership is nothing to sneeze at, but there’s one drawback to starting your life as a Catholic while you’re still in diapers. You have no idea what you’re getting into! In this respect, infant Baptism might seem to have all the charm of being drafted. If you happen to meet the criteria—in most cases, simply having Catholic parents—you’re in.

Embracing a Catholic identity, however, is a whole lot more than simply being a card-carrying member of the church. Some may settle for a Baptism, wedding, and funeral in the church and feel they’ve gotten the best of it. But if you choose to live all the moments in between from the perspective of the Catholic worldview, you can enhance your life with incredible spiritual richness.

What follows are 10 good things to discover for yourself about the beauty and integrity of authentic Catholic living. See how many of these windows of grace are open to you already, and how many more you may have to explore. You may also want to add to this list the things about the church that move you to awe and wonder.

Continue fro Vision: Vocation Network

Faith Formation Should Be a Conversation, Not a Lecture by Alice Camille (US Catholic)

Most of us wear several hats in our many relationships. We may be children and parents and spouses simultaneously. We’re coworkers, neighbors, friends, and citizens, exercising these distinct roles all in a single day. We’re believers with convictions but also an openness to other points of view. Most of us are not just one thing. We play more than one role that’s of great concern to us. We don’t drop out of this constellation of identities when we actively engage one of them.

Among the primary roles I play are those of writer, public speaker, and catechist of the church. I don’t cease to be any of these while performing as another. In fact, it’s fundamentally as a catechist that I write and speak. My family members might even roll their eyes should you ask if I ever stop being a catechist for five minutes. Before I earned a certificate authorizing me to serve as a religious educator, I was in pursuit of the teachable moment in religious matters as early as the playground. I’d send my Protestant pals home with a rosary or take them on a tour of the stations of the cross around the parish church. How many childhood friends knelt beside me as I endeavored to explain the veneration of saints in front of some imposing statue? It’s a wonder, really, that I managed to have playmates at all.

Continue at US Catholic

Spotlight on Scripture

Easter and Evangelization in Luke:  Experience of Christ Demands Understanding (2) by Steve Mueller

As Luke's resurrection accounts show, the experience of the risen Christ as alive and active in our lives demands an interpretation. The fact of the resurrection needs to be understood in order for the meaning or significance of it to become influential for us. Unless we discover its meaning, the resurrection remains simply a fact without any relevance for our lives.

Luke shows how hard the first disciples had to struggle to figure out what was happening. Their first experience was of the empty tomb. But notice that the empty tomb proved nothing to them. The “what” was clear, the “why” was the real problem. It was just a fact until they could grasp its significance.

A Prayer for Ukraine by Tim Jones

Prayer

Pope Francis' Prayer Intention for May

Pope Francis in his prayer intention for the month of May invites the Church to pray for young Catholics to be courageous in their response to God's call to holiness."When I think of a model with whom young people can identify, our Mother, Mary, always comes to mind: her courage, the way she knew how to listen, and her dedication to service," the pope said in his May 2022 video prayer message.

While the Church traditionally marks May as the Marian month, it is also preparing for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in late June.

Pope Francis held up Mary's courageous and determined "yes" to the Lord, and called on young Catholics to imitate her readiness to improve the world ."Don't forget that in order to follow Mary you need to discern and discover what Jesus wants from you, not what you might think you can do," said the pope.

From LaCroix International

Pope's Video Message

Retreats: Sisters of St. Benedict

One of the new features at Benet House will be blended retreats, with both virtual and on-site options.  Ongoing Programs will have on-site and virtual options as individuals from across the country and Canada participate. We are always working for new ways to connect with our retreat friends, and we hope the blended retreats meet some participants’ needs

Sisters of St. Benedict at Benet Retreat Center, Riock Island, IL

 

Retreats and Schedule

Easter and Evangelization in Luke: Experience of Christ Demands Understanding by Steve Mueller

As Luke's resurrection accounts show, the experience of the risen Christ as alive and active in our lives demands an interpretation. The fact of the resurrection needs to be understood in order for the meaning or significance of it to become influential for us. Unless we discover its meaning, the resurrection remains simply a fact without any relevance for our lives.

Luke shows how hard the first disciples had to struggle to figure out what was happening. Their first experience was of the empty tomb. But notice that the empty tomb proved nothing to them. The “what” was clear, the “why” was the real problem. It was just a fact until they could grasp its significance.

What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundation by Thomas H. Groome

In this readable and timely work, Thomas Groome explores the basis of Catholic education, from the historical Jesus to the Didache, to Augustine and Aquinas to Merici, Seton, and Ward. Groome shows how these foremothers and fathers of Catholic education ground and shape the spirituality of Catholic educators today. It is these foundations that ensure that Catholic schools today deliver the education they promise to students—not only to Catholics but to those of many religious traditions.

Presentation at Boston College

Interview with Robert Ellsberg, Publisher of Orbis Books

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