- The Sacraments

A Dwelling Place for Jesus

nospam@example.com (CATECHIST magazine) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:48:00 -0500

by Judith Costello, OCDS, MA

Before leaving church after Mass, very few people stop to pray before the tabernacle, that special dwelling place for Jesus.

I wondered if our young students could lead the way to a church-wide change so that the tabernacle would become a focus for us. We began by creating personal “tabernacles” with special paper hosts to place inside. The children are also placing prayer requests inside their tabernacles.

Preparing Our Hearts
The tabernacle is a wonderful symbol for students preparing to receive the Eucharist. Mary is referred to as the first tabernacle for Jesus. She carried Jesus inside her pure body for nine months.

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Teaching the Eucharist

nospam@example.com (CATECHIST magazine) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 06:26:00 -0500

by Jerry McGrane

In eight years of teaching a Sacraments course, I have struggled with teaching the Eucharist. How can I capture such an immense part of our faith and still have time to cover anything else? How can I keep students engaged?

I finally developed a strategy that concisely presents a broad picture of the Eucharist and allows students to “grab on” to the aspects of Eucharist that resonate most with them.

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Loaves and Fish: A Craft and Prayer Activity

nospam@example.com (CATECHIST magazine) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:59:00 -0500

Eucharistic Generosity
by Jeanne Heiberg

Who doesn’t like food? We need food and we enjoy the taste of food—all kinds. Jesus knew this when he fed 5,000 men and their families stranded in the hills of Judea. Rather than send the people away to find food on their own, he increased five loaves and two fish so that there was enough to feed everyone.

This event is so significant that all four Evangelists include it in their Gospels (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-15). My favorite account is the one we find in John’s Gospel because it is of a child, like your students, who provides the loaves and fish with his eucharistic generosity.

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