Religious Education - Children
Catechist BlogSt. Augustine of Canterbury
Today there is an optional memorial for St. Augustine of Canterbury. I think it is good that we know a little more about our ancestors in the Faith - especially the missionary one. It seems especially appropriate here in the Easter Season when so many of our Gospels...
The Light of the World
In today’s first reading we meet the Jewish Christian missionary couple Aquila and Priscilla. The Emperor Claudius had expelled them and other Jews and Jewish Christians out of Rome. Paul now works with them in Corinth because they all are tentmakers. This couple,...
When Jesus Interrupts Our Lives
A woman in need of help saw a row of cars parked at a church at noontime. Hoping that someone there might be able to help, she went inside and found a group gathered in a small meeting room. She asked if the church might be handing out food, but she was told that...
Preparing For the Holy Spirit
Today’s Gospel takes place at the Last Supper just after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The disciples and many in Jerusalem saw that entry as a turning moment in their history when God through Christ would re-establish a new, great Davidic king. Being a...
St. Bernardino of Siena
Today is the feast day of the Franciscan Bernardino of Siena, OFM, (sometimes Bernardine). He was an Italian priest, missionary, and a Catholic saint most noted for his preaching and evangelizing the people of Italy during the 15th century. He is sometimes called “the...
Sharing Easter Joy
It is rather difficult to talk about the resurrection in general terms. How can we explain it? Even the symbols that we use, which are beautiful and ornate, seem to be inadequate: Easter bunnies, little yellow chicks, Easter eggs, chocolates and sweets, tulips,...
Being Part of the Body
Jesus says that some of His followers are fruit bearing branches of Himself; others are useless because they bear no fruit. So, who was Jesus thinking of when He spoke of fruitless branches? First, He was thinking of the Jews. They were branches of God’s vine but...
Talking in circles
If you are following the daily gospels for Mass, you will have noticed that we are relying on Jesus’ Farewell Discourse presented in Chapters 13 through 17. The context is the eve of the crucifixion, and Jesus knows he will be leaving his disciples shortly. In that...
Easter Joy from Indwelling of God
Much of what Jesus said in his long farewell address during the Last Supper, part of which we hear in today’s Gospel, must have been hard for the disciples to understand at first. His disciples were full of questions – some of which we hear in today’s Gospel. They had...
The Path or The Way
In his last discourse to the disciples Jesus says he is going in order to prepare a place for all in his Father’s house where there are many rooms. This is the desire of God: that all of us arrive at that place to continue on living in communion with him. Then he...