The Good Shepherd and the Child

“Well done, my good and faithful servant.”  Matthew 25:21   Rebekah joins us on the podcast to give us a glimpse at who Sofia Cavalletti was.  She shares stories about Sofia and what she remembered about her time living and learning from Sofia in Italy for two years.   Rebekah is a catechist and formation leader in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd having completed her training in 1981 in Rome w...

“Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” -Psalm 111:2   “…the attitude and posture needed by the adult in our work should rather be one of humble observer.  In the child, there exists a hidden, but profoundly religious nature, which the child desires to live out.  For a child to reveal this true nature the adult needs to be prepared for the task of helping this revela...

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” Matthew 25:35   Kathleen Tong joins us on the podcast today to tell us about how she has been using the method of The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in her work in Prison Ministry and the response she has wi...

“For you are a people holy to the Lord, your God; the Lord, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own.” Deuteronomy 7:6 “For the Bible I had a master-teacher, Eugenio Zolli, from whom I learned directly and who opened to me a new way of reading the Bible. …With Zolli, the Bible began to open totally new horizons for me. I came to discov...

“All are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” – 1 Corinthians 3:23   Today we are continuing a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that correspond with different chapters in this book to aid your own personal study or a book study with some friends or catec...

“On the subject of divine things, he who believes he has already found does not find what he is looking for, and has searched in vain.” – St Leo the Great Today we are continuing a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that correspond with different chapters in this book t...

“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does wonderful deeds.  Blessed be his glorious name forever; may he fill all the earth with his glory.  Amen and amen.”  Psalm 73:18-19 NAB   Today we are continuing a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that corresp...

“By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you set a stronghold firm against your foes.” – Psalm 8:2   Today we are continuing a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that correspond with different chapters in this book to aid your own personal study or a book study with s...

“By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you set a stronghold firm against your foes.” – Psalm 8:2   Today we are continuing a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that correspond with different chapters in this book to aid your own personal study or a book study with s...

“You prepare a table before me.” -Psalm 23:5   Today we will start a series of episodes covering different chapters from The Religious Potential of the Child.  We have a new page on the website where you can find the podcast episodes that correspond with different chapters in this book to aid your own personal study or a book study with some friends or catechists! We hope you will make this your s...

“This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed for many.” Mark 14:24   Marty joins us on the podcast again today to dive into Chapter 3 of Ways to Nurture the Relationship with God as a way for us to enter the Paschal Mystery during Holy Week and the Easter season.  We explore the connections between the Passover Meal, Last Supper, the Paschal Mystery, and the Eucharist.   Marty O’Bryan bega...

"I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land." Ezekiel 36:24   Betty Hissong has been a Montessori teacher, having started the second Montessori school in the United States in the mid-1960s, a Montessori teacher-trainer, a Good Shepherd catechist, and a formation leader for more than 40 years. She is in Cleveland, Ohio. Now, at almost 95...

“O Lord, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! I will sing of your majesty above the heavens with the mouths of babes and infants. – Psalm 8:2-3a   “If we let ourselves become involved in the Word of God with children, we, too, can discover some fundamental values of the religious life.” – Sofia Cavalletti (Journals, Winter 1985)   “We do not lose childhood as that which recede...

“God is love.”  1 John 4:8   Claudia Margarita Schmitt joins us on the podcast today to discuss the depth of the Examination of Conscience. She speaks about how moral formation should be a response to the child’s already established relationship with God.  A foundation rooted in them knowing how loved they are by God and their response to that love.    Claudia Margarita Schmitt lived in many diffe...

“I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.  I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” John 15:15 NAB   Tina Lillig has been described as a visionary religious educator, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother.  She was instrumental both in bringing the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd to her community in Oak Pa...

Montessori Series “Wrap-Up” with Claire Paglia   “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17   “Freedom is understood, in a very elementary fashion, as the immediate release from oppressive bonds; as a cessation of corrections and of submission to authority.  This conception is plainly negative, that is to say, it means only the eliminati...

“So that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:21   Today we are continuing our season 2 journey of exploring all things Montessori as a way to understand the underpinnings and influence Maria Montessori’s discoveries of the child had on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by diving into her p...

“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”  Ephesians 2:10   Today we are continuing our season 2 journey of exploring all things Montessori as a way to understand the underpinnings and influence Maria Montessori’s discoveries of the child had on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by diving into her philoso...

“Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw his star and have come to do him homage.” Matthew 2:2   Ann Garrido joins us on the podcast again today to discuss the deeper meanings that can be found in the Infancy Narratives that help us answer the question “Who are you Jesus?”   Ann Garrido is associate professor of homiletics at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO and founding direct...

“I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know.” Psalm 139:14   Today we are continuing our season 2 journey of exploring all things Montessori  as a way to understand the underpinnings and influence Maria Montessori’s discoveries of the child had on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by diving into her philosophy of Practical Life.   Sherry Mock joi...

“Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.” -Psalm 147:7   “Prayer is first of all, listening to God. It is the particular key which opens up the mystery of God’s relationship with God’s creature; it is a key which belongs to God but which God gives to all God’s creatures regardless of denomination, class, or race; it is a key which is indeed, all people pray in differ...

“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1   Today we are continuing our season 2 journey of exploring all things Montessori  as a way to understand the underpinnings and influence Maria Montessori’s discoveries of the child had on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by diving into her philosophy of Sensitive Periods.   Celine Mitc...

“He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 18:4   Today we are continuing our season 2 journey of exploring all things Montessori by diving into her philosophy on the four planes of development.  What are they? Why are they important for us to understand as we work w...

"Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."  Matthew 18:5   Welcome back friends to the GS and the child podcast!  We are excited to begin season 2 with a series on all things Montessori! To start this season off we are going to explore the history of Maria Montessori and her work!  A good episode to go back to is Episode 28 on Montessori’s Epiphany with Sherry Mock.  But today we ar...

Season 2, with new episodes of the podcast, will begin in October of 2021. Freedom and Discipline with Claire Paglia originally aired on February 3, 2021   “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17   Freedom and Discipline are two words usually used as opposites and yet they are at the heart of the Montessori method and our work in Ca...