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For Immediate Release Contact: Ron Smith 408-286-8505

NEW RESOURCE INVITES CATECHISTS TO CONNECT THEIR STORIES TO JESUS' STORY.

Discovering the Joy of Teaching: Seven Formation Sessions for Catechists and Teachers is an easy-to-use formational tool that builds catechists' enthusiasm progressively. Seven 90-minute sessions help motivate catechists. “This guidebook comprises seven sessions helping us connect our story to the story of God — Jesus Christ — making the very difficult journey from the eye, to the heart, to the mind, to the will, to life in its personal and communal aspects,” says Dominic F. Ashkar, PhD, in the introduction to the book.

Each session includes worksheets and each worksheet contains a gospel passage. Remarks and helpful guiding questions are provided for the DRE to use with the participants in small groups to move more deeply into the session theme.

The guidebook uses Transfiguration Catechesis: A New Vision Based on the Liturgy and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Resource Publications, Inc., 1995) as a textbook for the sessions.

Dominic F. Ashkar, PhD, attributes his view of liturgy and catechesis as a seamless garment to his upbringing in the Maronite Cathonic Church. Now as a priest and chor bishop in this tradition, he is able to preside at both Roman and Maronite liturgies. Currently, he is pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Washington, DC and director of religious education for his diocese. He has done advanced graduate work in religious studies and catechetics at the Institute Catholique in Paris and Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. His previous works include: Road to Emmaus: A New Model of Catechesis and Transfiguration Catechesis: A New Vision Based on the Liturgy and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

DISCOVERING THE JOY OF TEACHING
Seven Formation Sessions for Catechists and Teachers
Dominic F. Ashkar, PhD
Perfectbound, 96 pages, 8.5" x 11"
ISBN: 0-89390-453-8, $29.95
April 1999