Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of April 17, 2009!
Congratulations to Rita Cortez!

Rita Cortez will receive a copy of A Place for All: Ministry for Youth with Special Needs, a $24.95 value.

Every community has a growing population of young people with neurological differences. Too often, youth with conditions such as autism, Tourette's syndrome, and bipolar disorder find themselves left out of parish religious education and youth ministry programs.

In the pages of this book you will find information about many of the neurological differences that affect young people, tips for educating the entire community about these differences, advice on how to reach out to youth with special needs, practical steps to modify your facilities to meet the needs of youth with neurological differences, and training tools for empowering volunteers to work with special needs youth

A Place for All opens a window into the challenging lives of children with neurological differences, the difficulties faced by the adults who work with them, and the shift in philosophy and methodology required for religious education professionals and volunteers to be able honestly to say, "There is a place for all in our community!"

Look Inside: You can view an online sampler of the A Place for All on the SMP Web catalog. Search for "Place for All," or use this link to go to the product description, http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=2305.

A Place for All: Ministry for Youth with Special Needs,
by John E. Barone and The Monarch School,
ISBN 978-0-88489-972-3, paper, 132 pages, $24.95,
http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=2305

Meet the Author: John E. Barone
by Brian Singer-Towns

John, could you briefly describe The Monarch Learning Center?
The Monarch School is dedicated to providing an innovative, therapeutic education for children with neurological differences, such as autism, ADHD, and Tourette's Syndrome. Since there are more youth out there with these differences than we can serve directly, we established The Monarch Learning Center to provide training, workshops, and consultations for teachers, parents, and others who work with these young people. We want to share what we've learned with the larger community. Currently, I'm enjoying teaching classroom management skills to Catholic school teachers in our Archdiocese in a series entitled "Becoming a Better Teacher."

Why do you feel called to minister with youth with special needs?
Because they are competent and have a contribution to make, and we at Monarch feel called to support them as they do that. We also want to help other teachers, parents, and ministers understand these kids better, so that they can be a welcome and integral part of the community. Most people want to welcome youth with special needs, but don't really know how. And so these kids often get left out or rejected. That's why we wrote A Place for All: Ministry for Youth with Special Needs, a compilation of some of the easier to implement strategies used at The Monarch School on a daily basis. The book is a good starting point for those in the Church who want to welcome all youth into their worship, religious education programs, and youth ministry.

What one word of advice do you have for people in helping distractible and impulsive youth learn?
My advice is to recognize that young people want to do well and be successful in whatever setting they find themselves, whether it be school, church, sports teams, or other groups. When kids are having problems, look for the developmental or environmental reason behind the behavior, instead of interpreting it to be willful. When you encounter youth who behave in impulsive ways or who often get off track, take care not to respond with judgment and punishment, but instead with care and curiosity: "I wonder how I can help them to be more successful." Jesus said, "Let the children come." There was no qualifier that excluded those with neurological differences who behave differently. If there is any place where all should be welcome, it is the Church.

Saint Mary's Press at NCCL

Saint Mary's Press will be attending the 2009 National Conference for Catechetical Leaders from April 27-30 in in Dearborn, MI. For more information or to register for this conference, go to http://www.nccl.org.

Media Mindfulness: Educating Teens About Faith and Media authors Gretchen Hailer, RSHM and Rose Pacatte, FSP will be presenting at a pre-conference workshop.

Customer Training Director Dennis Kurtz and Sales Consultant Cris Fakler invite you to stop by to see the newest releases and take advantage of our show specials, including
* Saint Mary's Press® College Study Bible for $26 (save $6.95!)
* The Catholic Youth Bible® for $20 (save $4.95!)
* Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics for $16 (save $3.95!)
* Free shipping on orders shipping within the continental U.S.

These specials are available only at NCCL 2009, on paperback editions.

May Crowning
By Roxane Kadrlik Chlachula

The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. May Crowning ceremonies have been traditional in the United States as well as in several other countries and usually take place in early May. Children process into church singing Marian hymns and carrying flowers to adorn a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One of the girls (often the youngest) carries a garland of flowers or a golden crown to place on the head of the statue. Crowning the statue is symbolic of our respect for the Blessed Virgin Mary and is a way to honor her role in salvation history.

The Holy See declared 1987 the Marian Year, and USCCB issued a ritual for honoring images of Mary, Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It describes the honor of crowning as follows:

The queen symbol was attributed to Mary because she was a perfect follower of Christ, who is the absolute "crown" of creation. She is the Mother of the Son of God, who is the messianic King. Mary is the Mother of Christ, the Word Incarnate. . . . Elizabeth greeted the Blessed Virgin, pregnant with Jesus, as "the mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:41-43). Mary is the perfect follower of Christ. The maid of Nazareth consented to God's plan; she journeyed on the pilgrimage of faith; she listened to God's Word and kept it in her heart; she remained steadfastly in close union with her Son, all the way to the foot of the Cross; she persevered in prayer with the Church. Thus, in an eminent way she won the "crown of righteousness" (II Tim 4:8), the "crown of life" (Jas 1:12; Rev 2:10), the "crown of glory" (I Pet 5:4) that is promised to those who follow Christ." Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, USCCB publications, 1987.

May we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary during the month of May and continue to honor her throughout the year.