Catechist Formation Day - 3/18/23

Talk #1
I’ll Have the Body of Christ. Ah, Excellent Choice!
At restaurants, wait staff often respond to our food selection by saying, “Excellent choice!” When it comes to our spiritual nourishment, there is no more excellent choice than the Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. True spiritual nourishment and fulfillment comes from no other source than the Living Bread come down from heaven. In this presentation, Joe Paprocki, DMin, will help us to explore what it means to be a Eucharistic People and how we, during this Eucharistic Revival, can help others to see the Eucharist as the ”gift of finest wheat” that alone satisfies hungry hearts.
(drawing from Preparing Hearts and Minds, Living the Mass, and Living the Sacraments)

Talk #2
Making Faith Formation More “Eucharistic”
Our celebration of the Eucharist is an encounter with the Paschal Mystery of Christ. As such, it relies on a “language of mystery” – sign, symbol, ritual, gesture, movement, music and singing, silence, storytelling, etc. Unfortunately, when it comes to our faith formation, we tend to set aside this language of mystery in favor of an “academic” language and approach that fails to transform hearts. In this session Joe Paprocki, DMin, will explore the “language of mystery” that we rely on in the celebration of the Eucharist and demonstrate how this language can and must be integrated into our faith formation experiences.
(drawing from Preparing Hearts and Minds, Living the Mass, Living the Sacraments, and Beyond the Catechist’s Toolbox)