"Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift, and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing." CCC 2626

Here are different forms of this type of prayer you can teach to your participants:

Grace (Bless us O Lord...)

The Gloria (Glory to God in the Highest...)

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

A blessing, such as the blessing of the animals we often hold in October, is a sacramental. Learn more about blessings in this brief article from the USCCB. This explains who should be called upon to give blessings and what a blessing should look like.

Catholics believe God has appointed an angel to care for each person. October 2 is the Memorial of the Guardian Angels. You can teach this simple prayer along with a lesson on Guardian Angels.

Angel of God, my guardian dear,

to whom God's love commits me here,

ever this day be at my side,

to light and to guard, to rule and to guide. Amen.

Here are some ways you can encourage families to observe the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi and connect to this revered saint who is the patron saint of animals and ecology, the patron of Italy, and a peacemaker!

1. Visit the zoo and upon returning home talk about the beauty of God's creation and then amazing variety of beings in our universe!
2. Pray the Prayer of St. Francis (Lord Make Me and Instrument of Your Peace...) and create a peace sign to hang on the front of your home to let neighbors know you are peacemakers!
3. Go on a walk with bird seed and nurture God's creatures in the wild!
4. Read the Canticle of the Sun and create your own illustrations of it!
5. Cook an Italian meal together and learn about the town of Assisi where St. Francis lived and ministered.

Want to learn more about contemporary teaching strategies being used in Faith formation today? Leslie Barkin will explore some of the popular methods used today that are seeing good results!

An afternoon session and an evening session will be provided for your convenience. Please register for one of the sessions by clicking on the buttons below:

How can you meet the needs of all your serve? This webinar helps us to think about all the people in our parish and take it to heart in this month during which we observe Disability Awareness Month, let us be more conscious of how we can include all.

Published in 2022 from Twenty-Third Publications

The book begins with an important reminder: "We remember 20% of what we HEAR, 30% of what we SEE, 50% of what we SEE AND HEAR together, 70% of what we SAY and 90% of what we DO. The DOING is the focus of the publication and comes with fresh ideas to connect those we catechize to how to use your text in your sessions, and how to engage media, images, video, story, drama, music drawing and questioning! It also offers chapters on knowing your learners and fostering discipline. This is a great resource to help you infuse more depth into your programming. Remember, you do not need to be an artist to be creative. These are two different things! Here is a great quote from the book that clarifies this:

"The power to be creative rests in a capacity to sense-to have an idea- that something can be done to a place, to a thing, or with persons to make it or them more beautiful. Jesus did this over and over again." That's all we have to have, a desire to make the catechesis we share more beautiful!

During October, we observe the Memoria of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church on October 1. We can connect to the missionary spirit by looking at her famous "little way." Here are some ways to talk about this important ministry of the Catholic Church during the month of October by focusing on Saint Thérèse.

Debtor in Possession

Email: leslie.barkin@dor.org
Website: oec.dor.org
Phone: (585)328-3210