Lessons and Activities

Helping teens and tweens to love prayer BY LISA MLADINICH “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the Lord—plans for...

Teresa liked living in a convent, so in 1534, when she was 19, she became a Carmelite nun. Teresa loved God with all her heart. She called God her best friend. She was a person of prayer in all things. Her favorite prayer was the Our Father.

It started with a "noise like a gust of wind," explained the fourteen-year-old teen we now know as St. Bernadette Soubirous. Today, more than 150 years later, millions of pilgrims still travel to the once-small town in southern France where that gust of wind first heralded the presence of our Blessed Mother. The pilgrims come to pray for healing and reconciliation, to bathe in the waters, and to remember the 18 appearances, or apparitions, of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette at Lourdes.

Francis has been called the universal saint because almost every religious tradition recognizes and honors him. Of all the stories and legends that swirl around this great saint, one of my favorites is the story of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. It is particularly meaningful for me as a parable of true discipleship for our times.

This Complete-A-Project Bible Search activity is for teacher and students (grades 4-6) working together. It is based on Mark 10:46-52.

Sitting in the dentist's chair waiting to have a tooth pulled, I used my time to do some meditating from a favorite daily prayer guide. The title of that day's mediation was "The Golden Key." It said that when things get difficult, don't think of the difficulty. Think of God.

This Complete-A-Project Bible Search activity is for teacher and students (grades 4-6) working together.

A Family Together October 2011

We have a new saint in Carlo Acutis—a millennial saint! Today, as the Jubilee year advances, Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis, a...

These are extremely difficult financial times for many people. Many of us and our friends, spouses, and other family members are being called to shift our lives—and in the call to do that, we pray for assistance.