Sacramental Preparation

[stadre]

My pastor recently asked me to work as our parish Director of Religious Education. I have found our textbooks to be severely lacking, especially for preparing for the sacraments. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut. God bless.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

stadre:

My pastor recently asked me to work as our parish Director of Religious Education. I have found our textbooks to be severely lacking, especially for preparing for the sacraments. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut. God bless.

In my experience don’t say anything or you will be out of a job faster then you can say Benzinger!

I would contact your diocese office of Religious Education and ask for a list of approved texts. Sometimes this is good sometimes this is not so good. It would depend on who is running the office and how much True Catholic teaching really counts.

 

[stbruno]

catechesis-chicago.org/publications.htm

This is the website for the office of catechesis in the Chicago area. Most of their publications are available for purchase. Most pastors are looking for a director of relig.education that will benefit their parishioners, not one that wants only to keep status quo. Say a prayer, discuss it with him. Ask him if you can look for outside information that you can review with him, and then present him with a budget. But make a working plan. Set goals. Pray on it always. Good luck.

 

[puzzleannie]

welcome to the club, you are very brave. A tip, don’t make any changes the first year, you need time to get to know your catechists, kids and families, your best resource for finding out what works and what doesn’t. Your diocese office of catechetics probably has approved texts, which will narrow your search, and guidelines for evaluating texts. To further narrow it down, select publishers that restrict themselves to Catholic books, don’t bother with imprints that belong to large mainstream publishing houses.

Finally know what we all learn after hard, expensive experience–it is not the textbook, it is the catechist who counts. We start out with the mentality that any warm body can be a catechist, just shove the book in her hand and let her go. The best catechists use the resources and book as a springboard and background for their witness and teaching. If it’s not in the heart, it won’t be in the head.

The best series are from Ignatius Press, Faith and Life and Image of God.

 

[Fr.JLT]

Yes, indeed, welcome to the club!

When I took over these parishes, I was Administrator and not elevated to pastor until I merged the parishes. In the meantime, I knew better than to buck the system. In the most populated parish, they were using Sadlier ( or, as I like to say, Sadly, Sadlier, Sadliest). “Lacking” would be a very very charitible term.

So, I left things as they were and went to the Office of Religious Education to check out all the materials. I discovered that those samples available for review were the only “approved” texts for use in our Diocese. I inquired of the Directress of the ORE who actually makes the “approval.” I discovered that she did. Now mind you, she is a priest-wanna be nun from an extremely liberal order who teaches that there are only 6 sacraments (Confession is only a sacramentAL). So I smiled and kept all of these things in my bosom, as did our Blessed Mother, and reviewed all the “approved” texts. I was saddened to find that all of them were experience-based and personal-expression based like Sadliest.

I can’t deal with those at all. They are so squishy, there isn’t an ounce of concrete in them. The way I reviewed them is simply looking into the sections on the Holy Eucharist, then the other Sacraments, then the Church tructure. If those aren’t in place, then you can pretty much conclude what the rest of the series is like.

Tell me, what natural experiences parallel supernatural experiences? NONE! What second grader is going tobe able to express his personal experience of the Blessed Sacrament? No one, of course. It’s truly sublime.

I asked, in the most politically correct way, with big innocent smile, why there were no samples of the Ignatius Press series or of the Baltimore. I was told that these are not “approved.” “Oh,” I said, “So I guess we can’t use those in my parish, eh?” “No, you absolutely cannot,” said she.

So, I knew what to do. I just waited. The week after I took my oaths of office as a Pastor, I ordered the entire Ignatius series and a bunch of Baltimores. They have been very well received. And what of the Sadliers and other series that were being used? Many wanted to just throw them out and they were happy to be able to do so. However, I decided to take a more post-Vatican II approach. Since I didn’t want the books to be in the hands of others, I did what they were doing when they were burning the Baltimores in the fire heaps with the nuns’ bras. A bunch of us got together, ripped the books to shreds so they were no longer useable, and shouted, IT’S A NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW DAY! as they all went into the dumpster. HAHAHAH

– Fr. L.

 

[puzzleannie]

so I am guessing you approved a budget for new textbooks, good for you, that is more than most parishes are willing to do. I love that series and would use it in a heartbeat if it was available in Spanish, I have to rely on nuns who travel to Mexico to bring back bootleg stuff for me.

 

[Fr.JLT]

Dear Puzzle

In terms of the finances, I simply demanded it. Threats dont’ hurt, either, and neither does tapping the folks with the higher incomes on the shoulders. I am not too proud to hold my hand/hat out for things to do with my parishioners, particularly worship and education.

Regarding the language, I am very blessed to have a handfull of very proficient bilingual people who have been willing to teach. We seaprated classes into English and Spanish, so we have two classes of all grades. Whilst the students in the Spanish Language classes do not have in-hand texts, the teachers write and copy copious notes on the particular lessons and hand them out. It’s the best (only?) compromise we’ve been able to reach.

At the same time, I am with President Bush on his more long-term ideology that sees education as a major part of the answer in terms of jobs, etc. So what we do is also offer ESL (English as a Second Language) courses.

Another thing I did was to turn everyone’s panties into a twist by doing something that had never been done at any of these parishes: CHARGE for CCD. There is something VERY important about someone paying for what they get. Living in the middle of the Ghetto, I can show you a billion reasons why that is true, but somehow, I think you know that already. I started charging $10.00 per student, with a cap of $25.00 per family. WOW! Did attendance change for the better. ))))

Believe me, we still have a LONG way to go, but we’re in this battle together and, if you are truly concerned about the long-term effects of Catholic education on our world, then take the position. ))) There are plenty of us who are willing to prop you up, support you and serve you Martinis in any incarnation you like them. Me, I prefer a Gibson, which is a MArtini with little pickled onions in it instead of the olives. Believe me, it helps! HAHAHAHAHA

I mean the support part seriously. Stick around these palces and you’ll be fine. What I do is pray to Pope Saint Pius X every day. He was the one who mandated CCD. I tell him point-blank: You mandated it, YOU deliver it." And he does deliver, believe me.

– Fr. L.

 

[Toni]

We you NCE (National Catholic Educators) and they are great colorful exciting but filled with Roman Catholic Truth.

I have used several and have seen several but of all the books I have taught out of these books are absolutely wonderful.