Program Resources
Showing all 30 results
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Meeting Jesus At The Table
$17.00Add to cartThe Gospels are full of stories of Jesus sharing meals with disciples, friends, even tax collectors and Pharisees. Whether multiplying bread to feed a whole crowd, relaxing with his inner circle, or telling curious elites stories about even greater banquets, Jesus imparts wisdom as he shares the wine and grants forgiveness as he distributes the fish. This eight-chapter resource provides biblical insights along with thought-provoking queries regarding our own time, such as whom should we invite to Sunday dinner and who is left out and left behind in our culture today.
Illustrations by artist Kevin Burns complement each chapter and invite further meditation on the Gospel story and its meaning for our lives.
Each chapter includes questions for small group discussion or personal reflection. A guide for church leaders offers suggestions for preaching this book as a sermon series and incorporating food-related outreach and hospitality efforts.
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Finding Jesus In The Psalms Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartA meaningful encounter with Jesus and the Psalms through the season of Lent with Barb Roose.
In this six-session study, Bible study author Barb Roose guides the reader through a meaningful encounter with the Psalms through the season of Lent. Combining an interpretation of the psalms with prayerful engagement, the study moves through the familiar words of Psalm 23 toward the painful cries of Psalm 22 uttered by Jesus on the cross. The study includes invitations to pray the Psalms and develop new prayer practices in the context of Lent. Additional components for this six-week study include a book and DVD/Video Sessions featuring Barb Roose.
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What We Believe
$15.95Add to cartDiscover the Amazing Riches of the Catholic Faith
What is the Catholic Church all about? What does it mean to be Catholic? What do Catholics actually believe? The Catholic Church is extraordinary. Founded by Christ himself, the Catholic Church is where we encounter God in his Word, his sacraments, and his saints. The Church faithfully proclaims the fullness of faith, leaving no truth out. It proclaims the fullness of life, leaving no person out. It calls all to repent and to believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the source of all life and salvation.
Maybe you’ve been Catholic your entire life. Maybe you’re just beginning to explore the Catholic Faith. Wherever you are in your journey, you will be profoundly moved by the beauty and the richness of the Catholic Church.
Written by Marcellino D’Ambrosio and Andrew Swafford, What We Believe presents and explains the essential teachings of the Catholic Faith in a readable, approachable way. In it you will discover:
*What Catholics truly believe*Who Catholics are and how we are called to live
*The blessings of Creation, redemption, and newness of life in the Holy Spirit
*The profound gift of the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith
*How to imitate Christ through prayer, through personal conversion, and through love for others.
*And more!
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Witness At The Cross
$17.99Add to cartExperience Holy Friday from the perspective of those who watched Jesus die: Mary his mother; the Beloved Disciple from the Gospel of John; Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee; the two men, usually identified as thieves, crucified with Jesus; the centurion and the soldiers; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Jews and Romans, friends and strangers, the powerful and the powerless, the hopeful and the despairing.
In Witness at the Cross, Amy-Jill Levine shows how the people at the cross each have distinct roles to play in the Gospels. For each, Jesus has a particular meaning and message, and from each, we learn how those meanings and messages cross the centuries to any who would come to the cross today.
Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.
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Worship At Home Lent 2021
$9.99Add to cartWorship at Home: Lent 2021 is packed with weekly worship services you can do on your own or with others and includes services for each week in Lent, including Ash Wednesday and services for Holy Week. This book is for congregations and individuals who want to stay spiritually connected and growing, even when they’re not worshiping together in the same space. It provides everything you need to conduct meaningful, spiritually fulfilling, traditionally rooted worship services at home or in other intimate environments.
Each service includes essential worship elements, from gathering to benediction, with words and actions you can say and do yourself, links for online musical selections plus traditional hymn suggestions from a variety of hymnals.
Here’s how individuals and families can use Worship at Home:
– Individuals can use the resource for personal devotion and worship at any time, wherever they like. Use the entire service, or simply choose whatever portions are helpful.– Families can use Worship at Home in the same ways, any time and any place.
– Suggestions are included for creating worship spaces at home, and for involving children in the services.
Here’s how congregations or groups can use Worship at Home:
– Pastors or group leaders can use this resource as complete worship plans for weekly church services. The pastor might prepare a sermon or homily, but everything else is ready to go.– People can use the resource for worship in any space-at a senior care center, in a park, on the lawn, at the church, and so forth. No bulletins or hymnals are needed.
– People gathered to worship via Zoom, FaceTime, Instagram Live, or livestream will all be reading aloud the same prayers from these books, singing the same songs or singing along with a video.
This provides real participation and a sense of community, even when people are worshiping remotely.
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Journey Of Faith For Adults Catechumenate
$6.99Add to cartJourney of Faith for Adults welcomes adults of all ages and backgrounds to the Catholic faith and meets them where they are in their own faith journey, using an engaging pastoral style. Based on the ever-popular and long-running Christian initiation program from Liguori Publications, Journey of Faith and Jornada de Fe (previously, Camino de Fe) addresses relevant life issues, faith topics, and questions in a catechetical approach to RCIA.
Now with a new, more modern design, Journey of Faith combines discussion questions, private journaling, and other activities to appeal to a variety of learners and offer a program that’s flexible enough for you to modify to your particular needs. For parishes that enjoy Liguori’s Catholic Update newsletter, lesson-by-lesson references allow you to easily supplement any topics with timely and enlightening articles.
The lessons in Catechumenate guide participants toward full conversion by discussing core concepts of Catholic belief and practice in straightforward language using real-life examples. Complex and sensitive issues are addressed from a contemporary perspective with authority and understanding. The topics in Catechumenate include the RCIA process and rites, salvation history, each of the sacraments, Church history, dignity of life, social justice, and moral living.
The comprehensive Leader Guide gives you everything you need to walk into your RCIA sessions and start leading-whether you’re a veteran catechist or a first-time volunteer. Additional discussion points prepare you for their responses and keep the conversation going. The contemporary wraparound design enables you to see what your participants see so you can spend more time sharing and growing in faith alongside your group.
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Totally Catholic : A Catechism For Kids And Their Parents And Teachers
$19.99Add to cartAre you looking for a way to accessibly communicate the faith to your kids, but are at a loss for words? Is your older child preparing for receiving the sacraments, but needs to catch-up on their religious education? Do you want to brush up on your knowledge and grow in your faith, especially in celebration of the Year of Faith?
In this comprehensive resource for faith formation, children ages 9-12 and the grown-ups in their lives are provided with child-appropriate, helpful, and theologically-correct language to explain the faith…from A to Z! Whether you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, or catechist, this guidebook of all things totally Catholic offers you an exciting way to share and pass on the faith!
Drawing from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and using ‘hip’ terminology and acronyms such as “BTW” and “VIP,” content is presented in a way that reaches out to young people-and even to adults looking for an accessible window into the faith. Analogies illuminate difficult concepts, bolded key terms are defined, and a pronunciation aid accompanies more advanced language. Clip art style illustrations and call-out boxes present the faith in a fun way.
From Bible stories, to the sacraments, to Church hierarchy, to the fruits of the Holy Spirit, this resource covers all bases. It also responds to contemporary societal issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality, along with issues that kids might directly deal with in their day-to-day lives such as cheating, plagiarism, and gossip.
Containing extensive information on what Catholics believe and how they live as members within the community of believers, this manual not only equips you with knowledge of the faith, but also encourages you to engage in it. Each chapter is framed in the form of a question and contains the following sections:
*Brainstorm: prompts to connect the faith to everyday life
*Scripture Link: a story from Scripture that reinforces the faith
*BTW: supplemental tidbits of information
*Did You Know?: interesting, quick facts
*A Catholic VIP: portraits of saints or blesseds containing brief biographies and feast days
*From My Heart: an assortment of prayers
*Now Act!: ideas for how to live the faith
*Recap: a summary of important points to remember -
Bread For The Journey
$9.95Add to cartWorship involves the senses. The light filtering in from the stained-glass windows, the colors of the vestments, and even the words we read in our Bibles and prayer books fascinate us visually in worship. The sounds of musical instruments and voices raised in song grip us audibly. The feel of the wood on the pews and the altar or the leather on our Bibles can engage our sense of touch. All of these sensations come together to form our worship experience.
In Bread for the Journey, Rolf Svanoe has sought to attract our other senses, enhancing our encounter with God. This Lenten worship series offers sermons for Ash Wednesday, each week in Lent, and services for Holy Week and Easter. This book also includes recipes for breads that can be baked and distributed during the services, each scent and taste offering an additional insight into the Lenten worship experience. Whether it is the sweetness of Welcome Bread or the bitterness of Betrayer’s Bread, each bread takes us on a journey through the season of Lent, culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Pastors and other ministers will be able to use this resource to draw their congregations into a deeper and more fulfilling Lenten worship. Bread for the Journey is a resource that will feed a congregation, both spiritually and physically.
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Word Into Life Year A (Revised)
$13.99Add to cartJourney of Faith: The Word into Life contains exercises to assist Christian initiation groups of all ages “break open” the Word of God in the Sunday Scriptures. Includes cross-referencing to help you use Journey of Faith catechetical handouts in a lectionary-based approach to Christian initiation.
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Holy Moses
$12.95Add to cartIn Holy Moses, Arley Fadness takes the reader on a trip with Moses and the Hebrew people. This collection of six family-oriented Lenten services creates excitement and anticipation in children and adults alike as they retell and relive the greatest salvation event in the Old Testament. The Exodus experience is relived and remembered while being applied to the lives of modern Christians.
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Word Into Life Year C (Revised)
$13.99Add to cartJourney of Faith: The Word into Life contains exercises to assist Christian initiation groups of all ages “break open” the Word of God in the Sunday Scriptures. Includes cross-referencing to help you use Journey of Faith catechetical handouts in a lectionary-based approach to Christian initiation.
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Word Into Life Year B (Revised)
$13.99Add to cartThe Word into Life is a valuable tool that will help leaders of Christian initiation groups “break open” the word of God proclaimed in the Sunday liturgy. Whether group participants are adults, adolescents, or children, The Word into Life offers commentary and questions for discussion to bring the Sunday Scriptures alive
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Hey Joseph
$12.95Add to cartCreate stimulating, family-oriented Lenten worship that captivates the imagination with this engaging “dramily” series. Six humorous sketches, interwoven with brief homilies highlighting key points, update the familiar Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers for contemporary audiences ? providing an instructive and entertaining resource for midweek programs. Additional messages and dramas for Holy Week and Easter Sunday shift the focus to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.
By touching on such universal experiences as family squabbles, sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, jealousy, hatred, false accusations, reconciliation, trust, and healing, Hey Joseph! is certain to resonate with the people in the pews. It offers pastors, worship leaders, and drama groups a thematically unified total package that’s flexible and easy to adapt for any size church. A complete list of simple props is included, along with helpful illustrations for constructing “Joseph’s Granary,” which may be stocked with food donations for local pantries. -
Worship Aids Series 1 Year 1
$18.95Add to cartPreparing to lead a congregation in worship Sunday after Sunday is a formidable and pressure-filled responsibility. That’s why busy worship planners will love this handy, easy-to-use resource with several prayers and a worship theme for every Sunday throughout the year. Each week’s material includes three scripture texts, with a call to worship, an invocation/collect, a prayer of confession, and suggested hymns relating to each passage. This complete collection offers a wide selection of practical aids for creating sincerely reverent, meaningful worship.
“The creative task of a worship leader requires useful resources, both practical and spiritual, for use in public worship as well as personal devotions. This volume provides a source for meditation, prayer, and fellowship with God and the people of God. The genius of the book is couched in the connection Kirkland makes between his own spirituality, the poetry of the biblical texts, and the spiritual quest of the worshiper and the worship leader.”
Ernest S. Lyght
United Methodist Bishop
New York, New York
“Every busy pastor appreciates well-organized and theologically sound help when planning worship each week. Kirkland’s vast pastoral experience and deep spiritual commitment can greatly enhance worship in our congregations. Worship Aids will prove to be a very useful tool in every pastor’s study.”
F. Herbert Skeete
United Methodist Bishop Emeritus
Riverdale, New York -
Lighting The Flame
$12.95Add to cartLet’s face it! Writing lively, relevant liturgy every week is a tough task…. Too many people think liturgy is deadly. But it need not be.
This is an inspiring and diverse collection of general, special occasion and seasonal liturgies. Its thought-provoking style will touch worshipers’ hearts, sparking in them the fire to praise the Most High as they never have before. This collection will be embraced by liturgists, aspiring liturgical writers, and worshipers.
This book of worship resources, written in contemporary language, brings a spirit of joy and enthusiasm to the worship liturgy.
Included are:
* Calls to Worship: Awesome God; Passages: In Need …
* Prayers of Confession: Abundant Life; Busyness; Lost; Unbelief …
* Prayers of Confession With Assurance of Pardon: Blindness; Doubts; Fears; Spiritual Battle
* Prayers for Illumination: Breath of Life; Ears to Hear; Speak Your Word -
Wheres Noah
$19.95Add to cartWhere’s Noah? features the classic biblical story of Noah, the flood, and God’s salvation in a worship format that engages all generations. This resource features monologues, brief pithy sermons, the exchange of animal tokens, crossword puzzles, an Easter Sunrise play, and other creative worship/learning experiences.
Worship leaders, clergy, and drama players will find this a refreshing series for congregational unity and growth.
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Lenten Worship For Young Adults
$12.95Add to cartEach of these six worship services includes a meditation of about fifteen minutes, as well as prayers, suggested hymns and responsive readings.
A service based on the Seven Last Words
A call to service
An evening service for Lent
A service based on theological ideas
A service based on Baptism
A service based on Holy Communion
No formal rehearsal is required and each service involves between four and seven participants. -
Lenten Resources For Worship Leaders
$12.95Add to cartThese field-tested materials represent the creative effort of many denominations. Each includes ideas for preparation, items needed, suggestions for use, number of parts, and the time for best use.
This complete Lenten volume for busy ministers includes:
Shadows Around The Cross: A Tenebrae
A Good Friday Vigil
The Service Of Diminishing Lights — for Sundays in Lent
Justified By Greed: Monologue Of A Pharisee — for Lent
The Passover Haggadah: A Traditional Seder Service
Litany For Forgiveness
Litany For Palm Sunday
Litany For Easter
Meditation: Forgiveness Is Peace
Meditation: You Make The Difference
Litany Of Confession
Litany For Peace -
Scripture Out Loud
$14.95Add to cartTry this collection of twelve dramatic readings of Revised Common Lectionary texts that fall between Ash Wednesday and Pentecost and are included in all three lectionary cycles or easily adapted for use in any cycle. Each reading is arranged for use with a minimum of props or costuming. Great for Bible study and youth programs, too. Photo-reproducible.
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Worshiping Well : A Mass Guide For Planners And Participants
$14.95Add to cartThe current Order of Mass has been used for over twenty-five years, yet the challenge of implementing it fully and celebrating it well continues. Much of what has been done, and much of what still needs to be done in many places, is simply the careful and thoughtful implementation of the official rites as they have been set forth in the Sacramentary, the Lectionary, and in other liturgical books and documents. Worshiping Well provides a solid foundation for liturgy planners and offers helpful insights for anyone who wishes to deepen their understanding of this central worship experience of the Catholic Church and improve that experience in their parish community.
In Worshiping Well, Father Mick stresses the importance of reviewing the different parts of the celebration and the various options in the rite. He looks at the Order of the Mass in detail-including the forthcoming changes in the revised Sacramentary-for those seeking a deeper understanding of this worship experience and suggests ways to improve the experience in parish communities. Questions for reflection and discussion conclude each chapter.
Worshiping Well offers readers an opportunity to review their own parish’s worship step by step. It answers such frequently asked questions as
*How well have we understood the changes we experienced?
*How well have we implemented those changes?
*What mistakes have we made in using the new ritual order?
*What is the history and background of each part of the Mass?
*Have we made full use of the options allowed in the current liturgical books?
*Should we have other options?
*Do we need a whole new Order of the Mass?
*How could we improve the experience of Sunday worship for the majority of parishioners?
*What steps might a parish take to begin a revival of liturgical renewal on the local level?Good pastoral liturgy must flow from solid liturgical principles, based on an understanding of the purpose of each ritual element of the liturgy and the theological issues involved. Worshiping Well provides a solid foundation for liturgy planners, guiding them in their efforts to prepare good liturgy. Priests, musicians, and parish liturgy planners, as well as special ministers-lectors, communion ministers, and ushers-will discover helpful insights into their ministries, along with concrete practical suggestions for carrying them out well.
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Visions Of Lent Year 3
$12.95Add to cartA new and unusual service for Lent…!
At the beginning of Lent each family in the congregation is invited to lend a plant from home (silk or live), following a Jewish Shavuot custom. The following Sundays in Lent build on this focal point as an object is added each week. Two readers participate in a dialogue explaining the symbol for that day. A child brings the symbol forward and holds it during the dialogue. In this way several families are able to participate.
Visions of Lent Year 3 also includes:
* Sample bulletin insert prior to Lent
* Example of plant reminder that can be used in bulletin
* Sample Torah for bulletin inserts
* A suggested worship service for Palm/Passion Sunday -
Visions Of Lent Year 2
$7.95Add to cartVisions of Lent Year 2 — Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) offers congregations a weekly presentation to be included in the regular Lenten worship service. This follow-up to Volume 1 (which concentrated on the Feast of Passover) focuses on the Palm Sunday story and six elements within that story that were significant parts of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. The festival is rooted in Leviticus 23:33f, where God commanded Moses to declare the festival to the people of Israel as a reminder of the temporary shelters they lived in when He delivered them out of Egypt.
Preparation for this worship series is very simple. Lent I begins with a plain, “symbolic” booth which is placed somewhere within the sanctuary. For the next five weeks objects are gradually added inside the booth.
Objects include:
Lent 2 — citron (or other citrus fruit) in an attractive yet simple container
Lent 3 — musical instruments (flute, cymbal, lyre, harps, trumpets, etc.)
Lent 4 — donkey figure or picture
Lent 5 — a large crown
Lent 6 (Palm Sunday) — palm branchesEach presentation involves four participants including: minister, a youth and two other readers. Parts are brief and need not be memorized.
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Restore Me
$12.95Add to cartRestore Me includes a large collection of Lent and Easter season worship resources created to draw congregations into closer relationship with God.
Specific chapters for both Lent and Easter include:
Calls to worship
Common prayers
Prayers of dedication
Benedictions
Prayers of confession and pardon
Gospel dialogues“These resources grew out of my continued interest in the whole use of scripture in weekly worship,” Craig M. Sweet writes. “The dialogue use of scripture adds an extra dimension to the ‘dramaturgical’ experience of worship.”
In the gospel dialogue section are scripture readings based upon various lectionary texts. Dialogues are offered for Ash Wednesday, the Sundays of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.
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Visions Of Lent Year 1
$7.95Add to cart“Worship in Lent provides an opportunity for a congregation to reflect significantly on our faith. Unlike Advent and Christmas, Lent is free from the excitement busyness and commercialism that distract us as worshipers. We need to hear Gods voice afresh. The Passover tradition is a wonderful vehicle for that kind of listening,” writes Betty Lynn Schwab.
Visions Of Lent, Year 1 (three-book series) is a resource for congregational worship on each of the six Sundays in Lent. Special to Year 1 is a Maundy Thursday communion service.
The series provides congregations with a weekly presentation, which may be placed in the worship service. Each presentation offers a symbol. Symbols for Year 1 are Passover-related.
Symbols are:
The bitter herbs
The scorched shank bone
The green herbs
The fruits and nuts
The unleavened bread
The roasted egg -
Symbols Of Sacrifice Year 3
$7.95Add to cartThe sacrificial life of Christ is a major focus of Lent. Symbols Of Sacrifice provides the congregations with opportunities to create visual worship aids representing Christ’s life during worship.
Each weekly presentation builds a growing reminder of Christ’s sacrifice for the congregation.
This series offers a list of symbols and explanation of the symbols. These are provided for the Sundays of Lent and Easter Sunday.
Symbols are:
Sandals
A globe of the world
Money
A lantern
A grain of wheat
A cloak
A white robeThis is one book in a three-part series of Symbols Of Sacrifices. Other books in this series are Year 1 and Year 2.
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Alive For Everymore
$7.95Add to cartAlive For Evermore is a collection of seven worship services compiled by CSS. It recognizes the need of pastors to have in one volume, orders of service for important celebrations of the church during Lent and Easter.
You will find in this compact volume complete services for:
Ash Wednesday
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday (two services)
Easter Sunrise
Easter MorningEach suggested service includes an order of worship, liturgy, scripture, and hymn possibilities. Copy privileges are available with each service. The seven services include congregation involvement in various forms. The Sunday sunrise service invites participation from a family in the congregation.
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Parents Of The Passion
$12.95Add to cartWe have heard from the disciples of our Lord. Each has told us his story time and time again. But what of those who knew Our Lord and his disciples because they had given them their life and nurtured them in Godly homes?
William Grimbol takes us into the homes of seven families in Palestine. With an eye to stressing values of a godly home and upbringing, the author helps us to imagine how the parents of Thomas, Simon the Zealot, Nathanael, Peter, Judas, James the Less, and Jesus must have felt, seeing their adult children give themselves to a cause which they did not understand — nor, in some cases, appreciate.
These seven monologs are appropriate for use at Sunday or mid-week worship during the season of Lent. Each is matched with an accompanying order of worship, which the purchaser of this publication may duplicate in quantity for use in the local congregation.
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At Noon On Friday
$8.95Add to cartAt Noon On Friday is a volume of reflections on the seven last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross. In his usual masterly fashion, Dr. Richard C. Hoefler holds up before his listeners the cross of Christ and calls for a devotional response not merely an intellectual one. The goal of these sermons is to prompt something important, different and decisive to happen to both speaker and listener. They were written in such a way as to create an experience of participating in the three hours our Lord suffered. In the author’s words: “The seven words of Christ are like seven panels of one single stained glass window, reflecting forth the light of the total act of our Lord’s crucifixion.”