Amy Cattapan Interviews Liguori’s Lisa Mladinich on How Heads Bowed Helps Catechists and Teachers

Writer, teacher, and host Amy Cattapan interviews Liguori author Lisa Mladinich about Heads Bowed: Prayers for Catholic School Days for BOOK.eD, a new series on Shalom World TV.

Heads Bowed offers nearly 300 original prayers for every day of the school year and beyond that will resonate with Catholic teachers, principals, DREs and catechists.

Mladinich, a catechetical trainer and classroom catechist for over ten years, explains that she wrote Heads Bowed to help teachers draw inspiration for their classes especially when they feel busy or stressed. 

“We all know that we’re multi-tasking and we’re stretched very thin. And we’re not always feeling inspired. So you have a resource where something is actually pegged to the week you’re in, or it’s open enough that you can open to any page and draw some inspiration, it makes things easier,” said Mladinich.

Liguori’s own Mary Wuertz von Holt, Director of Sales, Marketing, and Product Development, appeared on the show to share what makes Heads Bowed special. She explained Mladinich’s prayers draw from the deep-rooted, Catholic tradition of dedicating each day of the week and each month to a theme.

“Catechists tell us the book has not only helped them instill a prayer life in the children they’re teaching, but also that it’s helpful for the catechists because it helps them connect more deeply with their own prayer life,” said Wuertz von Holt.

According to Mladinich, teachers and catechists can draw inspiration from Heads Bowed for lessons from a book that is faithful to the Church. This helps teachers and catechists prepare for teaching children the lessons of the Church. Catechists and teachers can also adapt this book for their specific audiences, such as special needs children or English-language learners.

Mladinich discusses how she came to write Heads Bowed. Although she was hesitant at first, she consulted her husband, her best friend, her spiritual director, and God, and found she was called to write this book.

“I dearly love the traditional prayers of the Church, and I’ve seen far too many original prayers that I found to be lackluster or general ... They weren’t based in Scripture, solid revelation or dogma the way the best of our prayers are,” said Mladinich. 

“And as I started to pray about it, I realized that every one of these prayers ... could be a little catechetical lesson as well as a prayer.”

Lisa Mladinich writes for amazingcatechists.com and her blog, Water into Wine. She also hosts WOMAN: Strong Faith, True Beauty, a Shalom World TV series in which she shares stories of real, accomplished Catholic women. 

BOOK.eD is a new television series about inspiring Christian books hosted by Amy Cattapan on the Shalom World Network.

View Lisa Mladinich’s entire interview.