Resources for Small Faith–Sharing Community Gatherings
This website offers a variety of free resources that can be used for your Small Faith–Sharing Communities such as prayers and links to music, videos, articles, and other content regarding spirituality, issues of faith as presented in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCA) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and various prayer and spiritual practices. Please feel free to explore these resources that are available at the column on the left side of this website.
Under the "Journey Through the USCCA" section, there is a link to an article on each Chapter of the USCCA (in progress) that offers an opening prayer and links to various videos and articles pertaining to the subject of each Chapter, music, and reflection questions. The blog posts that are generally published each Wednesday and Saturday on this website also offer possible areas for reflection and sharing during the gatherings. After completion of the weekly articles on the thirty-six Chapters of the USCCA, we will begin presenting weekly articles and resources pertaining to "Catholic Social Teaching," with some of these links already provided under the section “Catholic Social Teaching,” included in the “Links to Resources” section of the column on the top left-side of this website.
Articles and links to videos, music, and other resources will be presented during the periods of Advent, Lent, and Easter.
The U.S. Bishops' website presents the document "Adult Education and Small Faith Community Sharing On Faithful Citizenship," offering some suggested formats and themes for conducting small faith-sharing community gatherings. In addition, you can also conduct searches on the Internet and YouTube to obtain links to other free videos, audios, music, prayers, scripture, spiritual practices, meditations, reflections, and other articles or resources discussing God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, spirituality, faith and faith development, religion, the Catechism, liturgy, sacraments, morality, theology, philosophy, psychology, Catholic Social Teaching, social justice, the Church, Church History, evolution, and many other topics and resources that could be of interest to your Community. If members of the Community are already familiar with an author or presenter, then you can search for other videos, audios, or other articles that these same authors or presenters may have published on the internet or on YouTube.
You are only limited by your imagination and the time it may take to formulate the specific parameters for your searches, to conduct your searches, and to discern and review what is presented. You generally want to limit the length of any video or audio presentation to no more than 30 minutes per gathering. If a video or audio is longer, then it is advisable to share the video or audio over multiple gatherings. You may also find it beneficial to offer a number of shorter videos on the same subject matter to be presented during the 30-minute period. Be sure to allow sufficient time for members of the Community to share their thoughts, feelings, and comments about what they experienced from the presentation.
There are also various books, videos, audios, courses, programs, or other guides available from commercial publishers, authors, or organizations pertaining to Scripture, the Catholic faith tradition, Catholic Social Teaching, faith development, and other that topics that are designed to guide the focus and discussion of a Small Faith-Sharing Community. There are a variety of different publications specifically for the periods of Advent and Lent. These are usually not free, and they generally require each member of the Community to purchase the publication.
Follows are links to a few free resources that the group may frequently use to prepare or review for each gathering:
New American Bible Revised Edition
Daily Liturgical Readings
Lectio Divina
U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults
Catechism of the Catholic Church
United States Catholic Conference of Bishops
The Holy See (Vatican)
Living Space (provides reflections on Daily and Sunday Liturgical Readings)
Christian Music
Daily Meditations:
Under the "Journey Through the USCCA" section, there is a link to an article on each Chapter of the USCCA (in progress) that offers an opening prayer and links to various videos and articles pertaining to the subject of each Chapter, music, and reflection questions. The blog posts that are generally published each Wednesday and Saturday on this website also offer possible areas for reflection and sharing during the gatherings. After completion of the weekly articles on the thirty-six Chapters of the USCCA, we will begin presenting weekly articles and resources pertaining to "Catholic Social Teaching," with some of these links already provided under the section “Catholic Social Teaching,” included in the “Links to Resources” section of the column on the top left-side of this website.
Articles and links to videos, music, and other resources will be presented during the periods of Advent, Lent, and Easter.
The U.S. Bishops' website presents the document "Adult Education and Small Faith Community Sharing On Faithful Citizenship," offering some suggested formats and themes for conducting small faith-sharing community gatherings. In addition, you can also conduct searches on the Internet and YouTube to obtain links to other free videos, audios, music, prayers, scripture, spiritual practices, meditations, reflections, and other articles or resources discussing God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, spirituality, faith and faith development, religion, the Catechism, liturgy, sacraments, morality, theology, philosophy, psychology, Catholic Social Teaching, social justice, the Church, Church History, evolution, and many other topics and resources that could be of interest to your Community. If members of the Community are already familiar with an author or presenter, then you can search for other videos, audios, or other articles that these same authors or presenters may have published on the internet or on YouTube.
You are only limited by your imagination and the time it may take to formulate the specific parameters for your searches, to conduct your searches, and to discern and review what is presented. You generally want to limit the length of any video or audio presentation to no more than 30 minutes per gathering. If a video or audio is longer, then it is advisable to share the video or audio over multiple gatherings. You may also find it beneficial to offer a number of shorter videos on the same subject matter to be presented during the 30-minute period. Be sure to allow sufficient time for members of the Community to share their thoughts, feelings, and comments about what they experienced from the presentation.
There are also various books, videos, audios, courses, programs, or other guides available from commercial publishers, authors, or organizations pertaining to Scripture, the Catholic faith tradition, Catholic Social Teaching, faith development, and other that topics that are designed to guide the focus and discussion of a Small Faith-Sharing Community. There are a variety of different publications specifically for the periods of Advent and Lent. These are usually not free, and they generally require each member of the Community to purchase the publication.
Follows are links to a few free resources that the group may frequently use to prepare or review for each gathering:
New American Bible Revised Edition
Daily Liturgical Readings
Lectio Divina
U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults
Catechism of the Catholic Church
United States Catholic Conference of Bishops
The Holy See (Vatican)
Living Space (provides reflections on Daily and Sunday Liturgical Readings)
Christian Music
Daily Meditations:
Sacred Space (Jesuits in Ireland)
3-Minute Retreat (Jesuits at Loyola Press)
Catholic Online
My Catholic Life
Jesuit Resource Org.
Catholic Relief Services