Catholic Faith Formation Resources

OPENING PRAYER A Blessing by Parents for Their Children Father, inexhaustible source of life and author of all good, We bless and we thank you for brightening our communion of love by your gift of children. Grant that our children will find in the life of this family such inspiration that they will strive always for what is right and good and one day, by your grace, reach their home in heaven.... Amen. Source: Books of Blessings , no. 190 "THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT: STRENGTHEN YOUR FAMILY" — CCC , Nos. 2196–2257 What is your experience of being a member of your family? How have you treated your parents and brothers and sisters? The Fourth Commandment calls us to “Honor your father and your mother.” This Commandment concerns all aspects of family life—dealing with the love, responsibilities, and respect between parents and their children, and between brothers and sisters. It also concerns the duties of the government and...

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT! PLEASE VOTE ON OR BEFORE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2022 OPENING PRAYER God, forgive us for the times we’ve failed to treat each other as Your creation. Forgive us for celebrating unloving behavior in our candidates and our leaders. Call our leaders and political candidates to a new level of respect and civility. Remind them that You are sovereign and that the wisest choice we can make is to serve You and serve others. May there be a new movement of collaboration and respect in our nation’s capital and throughout the country. Give Your people the strength to lead by example with radical, world-changing love. Amen. Source: Worldvision.org "OUR RIGHT AND RESPONSIBILITY TO VOTE" "Let us not see each other in the divisive light of Democrat or Republican or any other political party, but rather, let us see the face of Christ in our neighbors, especially the suffering or those with whom we may disagree.” —Archbish...

In an earlier post we raised the question of whether God, through the person and Way of Christ, is the focus and center of your life—of your being, thinking and acting. If not, then ask yourself what distractions do you succumb to that prevent you from allowing God to be the centrality of your life, around which all of your other relationships are to be organized? This doesn't mean temporary distractions that may be required to allow your brain time to relax from too much focused attention. Rather, this is when you habitually spend too much time focusing on what may not be important, and will not help you to grow in your relationship with God. For example, ask yourself how much of your "free" time do you spend writing, reading, and responding to group text messages or to postings on social media sites, or in surfing the web, or watching television, or speaking on your cellphone, or searching through online shopping sites, or in spending an inordinate amount of time ...

We do not always have a choice as to the adversities or sufferings we may experience in our lives. But we do have the freedom and responsibility to decide how we will respond to these events. As stated by Viktor E. Frankl, a doctor of neurology and psychiatry, and a survivor of Auschwitz and other concentration camps during World War II, “Everything can be taken from a [human being] but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way” ( Man's Search for Meaning ).  We have the potentiality to be a person who chooses to respond to life's many challenges with love, goodness, and compassion, or a person who chooses to harm ourselves or others instead. Which one is actualized depends on our decisions. An informed conscience, and surrendering ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, can guide us to make the appropriate choices. We cannot and should not abdicate to others our responsibility to cho...

Ludwig Nobel died in 1888. A French newpaper mistook Ludwig's death for that of his brother, Alfred, and erroneously published an obituary for Alfred, who is one of the few people to read their own obituary. The newspaper condemned Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, claiming he "became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before," and giving him the infamous title "The Master of Death." Nobel was very distressed by what people thought of him and how he would be remembered. Reading his obituary transformed his life and he thereafter sought to improve his image, and for people to remember him using his wealth for the benefit of society. He proceeded to change his will to provide that ninety-four percent of his total assets would be placed in a foundation and used to create five "prizes" for those who bestowed the “greatest benefit on mankind” in the fields of medicine, literature, chemisty, physics, and peace. Today, there are p...

OPENING PRAYER The Divine Praises Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation. Let us greet him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms. For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods, Who hand hold the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains.... Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. —Ps 95:1-4, 6 Source: USCCA , p. 371 "THE THIRD COMMANDMENT: LOVE THE LORD'S DAY" — CCC , Nos. 2168–2195 What days are most important for you—birthdays, anniversaries, planned trips, holidays, or weekends? What about Sundays—The Lord’s Day? The Third Commandment calls us to: “Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the Lord, your God, commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your works; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord” (Dt 5:12-14). The Sabbath is the seventh day on which the Lord rested after the previous six ...

We best evidence our love of our God by the love we give to one another. "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers and sisters,' are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters' also" (1 John 4:20). Many believe that Jesus is the model for our life's journey, calling us to follow in his footsteps by striving with a pure heart and spirit to be faithful to God’s will: to be loving, virtuous, truthful, kind, caring, prayerful, humble, life giving, inviting, welcoming, inclusive, communal, courageous, just, peaceful, non-violent, a healer, joyous, kind, patient, merciful, forgiving, compassionate, and by freely giving ourselves in selfless, sacrificial, and loving service to others. No doubt there are others who have also exemplified or modeled all or some of these virtues, su...

During Mass we proclaim the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed: "For us men and our salvation [the Son of God] came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father...." Is anything missing between these dogmatic statements? Specifically, why isn't there any mention of Jesus' life and ministry between the time of his birth and his crucifixion under Pontius Pilate? Where is Jesus' call to "Come, follow me" (Luke 18:22)? Where is the mention of the two "greatest" commandments to love God, and to love one another as God loves us? (Mark 12:30; John 13:24, 15:12). Where is the "Golden Rule" ("Do to others whatever you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12))? Why is ...

OPENING PRAYER The Divine Praises Blessed be God. Blessed be his holy Name. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. Blessed be the name of Jesus. Blessed be his most Sacred Heart. Blessed be his most Precious Blood. Blessed be Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the altar. Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception. Blessed be her glorious Assumption. Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother. Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse. Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints. Bless the Lord, my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name! —Ps 103:1 Source: USCCA, p. 359 "THE SECOND COMMANDMENT: REVERENCE GOD'S NAME" — CCC , Nos. 2142–2167 What does your name mean? Do you take offense when people do not acknowledge your name, or fail to call you by your correct name, or make fu...

How much of what you think, say, or do is intentional? How much is habitual? How much is driven by your judgmental reactions to others or things based on your preconditioned thoughts or emotions? Are you in control of your thoughts, words, and actions or are they in control of you? Do you experience the present moment of reality as it is, not as you expect or desire it to be? Do you see others as they really are, not as you want them to be? Do you see the inherent dignity of another person without comparing them with some preconceived standard or expectation created in your mind? Do you take time daily to reflect on your thoughts, words, and actions that occurred during the day? One resource for doing this is through the practice of&nbsp The Daily Examen , a modification of the Examen practice described by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises . The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and d...

Jesus calls us to "Come, follow me" (Mark 4:19), because Jesus is "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). The earliest disciples of Jesus identified themselves as followers of "The Way," 1 , that is both a journey and a path of "love" that you follow. The word "love," used throughout the New Testament, is a translation of the Greek term agapē , which meaning comes closest to identifying the unconditional, self-giving, limitless, and overflowing fullness of Divine love. For example, the word agapē is translated as love in such passages as "For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16); or Jesus's teaching of the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39); and Jesus' "new commandment" to his disciples to " Love one another. A...

OPENING PRAYER The Gloria Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father. Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. "THE FIRST COMMANDMENT: BELIEVE IN THE TRUE GOD" — CCC , Nos. 2083–2141 Do you worship any “idols” or other “gods” besides the one, true God? Idolatry exists in many forms—whenever God’s existence is denied or not acknowledged, or something or someone ...

The underlying immaterial or Spiritual Reality of all existence is Ultimate Mystery. Many call this Reality "God." God creates out of love. Love is expansive, it is generative and cannot contain itself, otherwise it is not love. God's love is always expressed in some manner through what God creates. God manifests the Godself through creation. Christ, who is at the beginning and center of all creation, is where the Divine Spirit and matter meet. All of creation is united in and through Christ. Every one and every thing is included and nothing is excluded. Christ is at the depth of all Reality and gives our material existence its meaning and purpose, which is to love all of creation as God loves us, and calling us to be co-creators with God in manifesting God's reign of love, truth, peace, justice, healing, compassion and salvation in our spheres of influence. Although Christ dwells within all of creation, not all of creation is conscious of Christ's presenc...