Visit my new site; Amazing Catechists. com

I am writing a bilingual Spanish column for Amazing Catechists.com

“To teach the Faith truthfully, it must be taught thrillingly,” says Lisa Mladinich, founder of AmazingCatechists.com, an exciting new website for Catholic catechists with an inviting format designed to encourage participation by its readers. “Our mission is to share the very best teaching methods available for transmitting pure, honest Catholicism to students of all ages. But to do that, we need help.”

AmazingCatechists.com, loyal to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and dedicated to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, is designed to provide a place for Catholic catechists from all over the world to share teaching tips, insights, experiences, resources, and true inspirational stories from their classrooms, whether they teach in their homes, parishes, or schools.

Volunteer catechists write monthly or bi-monthly columns on subjects from elementary education through special needs, confirmation, chastity training, teen ministry and adult programs, like RCIA and NFP. Several of the columns are translated into Spanish and the site’s forums also include a Spanish-language section. Mladinich hopes to expand bi-lingual offerings in the future.

Other features include, “Your Galleries,” a place for sharing photos, artwork, video links and sound files related to teaching faith and morals from a Catholic perspective. Catechists and parents are invited to share digital images of theirs and their children’s faith-related arts and crafts, dramatic presentations, you-tube and audio links that teach, inspire or entertain.

A point-and-click archive of teaching ideas and stories is found under “Tips & Insights,” with categories including every grade level, sacramental and adult programs. Readers are invited to submit their tips and stories through a simple online form that makes sharing easy. The “Events” page contains an automated calendar for readers to submit their program dates and descriptions in order to publicize and promote good Catholic events more effectively. The “Speakers” page features several AmazingCatechists.com volunteers who also have public ministries as speakers and workshop leaders.

Other sections include charming, original Catholic cartoons by Ellen and James Hrkach, interviews with “amazing” Catholics, links to great Catholic resources, a fundraising “Store,” “Book and Product Reviews,” “Bible Stories [retold]” and favorite prayers.

Mrs. Mladinich hopes that catechists who stop by for a visit will take a few moments to share from the treasure-houses of their own personal experiences in teaching the Faith, and by sharing, strengthen the whole Church!

Contact:

Lisa Mladinich, Founder AmazingCatechists.com

lisamladinich@optonline.net
 
Click here to see who is writing for Amazing Catechists.com

Happy 97th anniversary Our Sunday Visitor

In an age when Catholic institutions fail to live up to their calling to be salt and light to the world, Notre Dame, we are talking about YOU!
It's inspiring to read the history of Our Sunday Visitor, founded 97 years ago by Father Noll to combat anti-Catholicism. OSV has taken the Catholic side of the debate since, including the divisive issue of Humanae Vitae, and the subsequent decline of catechesis.
"On July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical forbidding artificial contraception. Overnight, birth control became the hottest issue of debate among Catholics. Our Sunday Visitor supported the Pope's decision; columnists asked why dissenting theologians should still be teaching at Catholic universities and seminaries.
(We're still asking that question)
The late 1960s witnessed the low-point for the Church in the United States: priests and sisters by the thousands left their ministry; the number of converts plummeted; vocations began to decline at an alarming rate; disagreement was widespread over whether priests and Religious should be involved in politics. Catechetical materials seemed to abandon much of the traditional faith, a development Our Sunday Visitor decried openly in print."
Long may OSV print the truth of Christ!

My column on Amazing Catechists to offer resources for catechists

I am a columnist on a new website called Amazing Cathechists which is a free resource for all you out there you teach CCD or RCIA classes or homeschool your children in the faith. It's so new, that a few parts are still under construction, but pay us a visit and meet some talented catechists who offer their insights on a wide variety of topics.New columns will be added monthly, and we hope to offer a wealth of free resources for you to use with your students.There is no greater joy than passing on the faith, and I am priveleged to be a part of this exciting apostolate. Lisa Mlandinich, whose story, "Acting Up" is featured in this month's "Faith and Family"magazine is the webmistress and originator of Amazing Catechists. Her puppet scripts can be found at Catholic Puppet Show Ministry at Catholic Mom.com

A Quiet Catholic: I Was Robbed

A Quiet Catholic: I Was Robbed

Pat Buchanan's take on Summorum Pontificum

"And there are other reasons Benedict XVI acted.
The introduction of the new Mass has been attended by a raft of liturgical innovations by freelancing priests that are transparently heretical. And the years since Vatican II and the introduction of the new Mass have been marked by a crisis of faith in Europe and the United States.
Churches have closed. Faithful have fallen away, or converted to other faiths. Congregations have dwindled. Convents have emptied out. Vocations are a fraction of what they once were. Belief in the truths of Catholicism is not what it was in the years before Vatican II – the halcyon days of the great pope and future Saint. Pius XII.
One cannot know the effect of Pope Benedict’s decision. But the ferocity with which it was fought suggests some bishops are aware of the power of the old Latin Mass and the appeal of its mystery and solemnity to the young.
Pope Benedict, raised Catholic in Nazi Germany, once a reformer, but shaken by the events of 1968 and the social, cultural and moral revolution that followed, seems to have concluded that the Catholic Church’s apertura a sinistra, its opening to the left, has run its course theologically, liturgically and morally, and failed. Restored tradition can do no harm and may offer hope for the revival of a faith that is in its deepest crisis since the Reformation."
Pat Buchanan's blog
As usual, Pat puts history into perspective for us, and helps us to see the earthshaking significance of the return of the Latin Mass. I have some friends who insist that the upheaval of the 60's was due to the overstepping of the intentions of Vatican II, especially the 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater' step of effectively abolishing the Latin Mass. Time will tell, how true is their belief in "lex orendi, lex credendi" (the law of prayer is the law of belief). Will the return of Tradition restore what the Church has lost since it's heyday in the early sixties? As someone born during Vatican II, whose earliest vague memories are of a mystical, holy Mass, which awed one into silence, of frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, where you dared not enter the church without some kind of head covering, who remembers the scent of incense and wax candles, and the beauty of traditional churches, I pray that I live to see a revival of faith. For the sake of my three daughters. I pray that they don't have to sit through a Mass wondering if the changes the celebrant made (omitting a reading, the creed, changing the wording of the Eucharistic Prayer) rendered the Mass invalid. I pray that every Church is physically beautiful again, that the music is ancient and prayerful, and that the congregation learns to pray thanksgiving after Mass, instead of discussing soccer games. I pray for full churches, for a return to belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and an understanding of the Mass as the unbloody recreation of Calvary, as a sacrifice, not a picnic. That the vocations surge to traditional orders continues, and that there are once again Catholic schools who don't stray from Church teaching. That Catholic Universities delve into the mysteries of our Faith to explain, rather than to destroy them. That the Catholic Church once again becomes the new Jerusalem it is prophesied to be in Revelation, a light to the nations, and reflects the glory of the Lord.

Here's some good news bout Catholic education

I couldn't sleep at 4 AM for some reason, so I turned on EWTN to see if there was a show I should see. So many of their great shows which I miss in my busy life, are on in the wee hours. EWTN Live had my favorite websurfer priests, Fr. John Trigilio and Fr. Robert Levis of the perpetually interesting question and answer show, "Web of Faith", discussing Fr. John's new book, Catholicism Answer Book, with Fr. Mitch Pacwa. They were amazed that a secular publisher actually approached him to write a book on the Catholic faith. Fr. John has written the enormously popular Catholicism for Dummies, which is now being translated into six languages.

It shows that there is a growing hunger, especially among younger Catholics for the doctrine they missed in CCD. I call us 1970's CCD graduates the lost generation, and I'm afraid the CCD system is still not producing Catholics who know their faith. Thankfully, there is now a wealth of good Catholic sources to learn the faith, and I list many of them in the sidebar.

This was mentioned, along with the topic of renewal of Catholic education. Fr Levis said that if we all became good Catholics, the problem would be solved overnight, and encouraged us to question the orthodoxy of so-called Catholic colleges, by asking the local bishop if the theology professors have received the mandatum as requested in Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

Fr. Mitch mentioned he new John Paul the Great University (see the new blog Fides and Film by a professor there)opening north of San Diego, as well as Sierra Madre Catholic school where he said that the schoolchildren stayed behind after Mass to give silent thanksgiving to God, and recite the St. Michael prayer. He said he had never seen such devotion even in the 50s! Good things are happening in Catholic education today!

Fr. Levis said that "the contribution of homeschooling is wonderful, it is filling up the seminaries". God bless you, Fr. Levis, for recognizing what we mothers think is done in secret, for the good of our children.