General Websites for Religious Education

Religious Education Online
English website-Good resource pages

TopMarks
Religious Studies section of this website provides links to larger websites (such as the British Museum). You can search by age group.

Biblical Art
Huge resource for biblical paintings and biblical art in general.

The EIKON Image Database for Biblical Studies is a faculty-library initiative at Yale Divinity School that provides digital resources for teaching and research in the field of Biblical studies.

NTGateway is generally viewed as the New Testament website and has been recently updated. Good section on films that can be used in class.

The St John’s Bible is the modern day equivalent of the Book of Kells-lovely pictures!

The Brick Testament

The one with the lego men. Check for age appropriate content.

GodWeb

Links to bible maps which make for useful visual aids.

BibleMap
This site uses Google Maps in connection with the full text of the Bible to allow site visitors to make a customized map of every place name found in the Bible, both ancient and modern.

The Back Pew

Funny cartoons on various bible passages.

London Times Faith
The London Times website on various faith centered topics. Superb articles and lots of up to date information.

SearchGodsWord
Powerpoint slides (maps etc)

BibleDudes
Vernacular descriptions of terms associated with Biblical Studies. Good fun!

Busted Halo
Excellent online magazine. Worth a look if you’re stuck for ideas or for keeping up with current trends in religion and spirituality. Beware of the quiz (link at the bottom of the page)- you will get addicted.

World Prayers
A random prayer generator that is a lot more sophisticated than it sounds!

Daily prayers that you can download as MP3s. Very useful for playing via a laptop in the classroom.

ThinkingFaith
The online journal of British Jesuits.

The Way is an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality, published by the British Jesuits.

Silk
Website of links to resources.

The online Catechism from the Vatican website.

Christian youth website (VERY enthusiastic, possibly a little too much for cycnical teenagers) subsite is which focuses on social justice

Online, searchable text of the NRSV Bible. What did we do before cut and paste?!

Christian Books

My favourite website for buying "hard copy" resources. Though it is based in the US the shipping is quite reasonable and they offer good discounts on bulk buys.

Oprah
Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! The link to "breathing space" provides some beautiful photos which may aid reflection and the section on "Pay it forward" deals with helping others. The site regularly updates the programmes required to view the content so make sure you have the updated version.

Professional:

Website of the (Irish) National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

Ceist
Website of the trustee body for the voluntary secondary schools of the Daughters of Charity, the Presentation Sisters, the Sisters of the Christian Retreat, the Sisters of Mercy and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. The newsletter of this website is especially useful and well designed.

Resources for Catholic Schools in Northern Ireland.

The American Academy of Religion. The religion in schools link under "Public Affairs" is worth a look for a different perspective.

Access to information, advice and opinion on Catholic education and Catholic schools in Scotland. The links for articles under "Article Folders" provides some useful articles as well as links to papal statements on various issues pertinent to education.

Website run by the Catholic Relief Services. Lots of resources for prayer services. Excellent links page.

Franciscan run "link site" that is well updated. Usually follows the Liturgical Calendar.

Second Level Teaching Resources

Just a few of the websites I recommend through my work with Diocesan Post Primary Religious Education Advisers.

Some recommended Catholic Websites:

The largest Catholic blog website on the Internet and one of the easiest to use and to search. Search for articles from thousands of Catholic blogs, or browse the directory of Catholic blogs and RSS/Atom feeds. Hundreds of articles added daily to this website.

Tangle (Formally godtube.com) is a free video sharing website much like the infamous YouTube but which specialises in Christian-themed videos. The website has a huge selection of themes, from Christian music videos to fascinating insights on how the liturgy is celebrated in other countries and cultures. It also features a free weekly download.

Personalize your content, layout, and preferences with MyCatholic. Choose from daily Mass readings, reflections, news, links, tools and more.

Catholic news, inspirational stories, articles and links presented by topics.

CatholicContent offers free content to Catholic blogs and other (non-profit) Catholic websites. By simply adding a few lines to your HTML code, you can easily provide Mass readings, reflections, and more to your readers.

London-based daily Catholic news service.

For more than fifty years, CatholicTV has been providing programming for the Catholic community in Boston and beyond.

Online curriculum support for catechists with discussion group, Catholic links etc. Some content requires subscription.

Resources for parents who wish to educate their children (both home schooling and as a follow up to what their schools teach).

An excellent resource website including information on saints and Catholic news. This link is the prayer resource section on the website, including a good resource on the Stations of the Cross.

MyCatholicVoice is a beta site but contains lots of videos (many linked to YouTube) that may be used in a classroom setting. Information on prayer and youth groups is very good and there is a service where you can upload your own video masterpiece to share with other groups!

Australian website concerning Catholic resources. The pages under "Religion" are helpful as they provide comment and news on the different topics, e.g. Islam and Inter-faith dialogue

Catholic Resources
Does as it says on the tin!


I've checked all these websites just before I posted but due to the nature of the Internet I can't keep an eye on the site content all the time-let me know if any links are broken or out of date and remember to use common sense when using any site's content!

So what's the Blog about?

I write a regular column for the Intercom magazine (a pastoral and liturgical resource magazine published by Veritas Group, an agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Commission on Communications) where I review and recommend various websites that I think would be useful for anyone involved in parish work or for their own interest.

I generally stick to a theme, usually something that fits in with the time of year or a subject that might help in the preparation of a Liturgy, though I'm always welcome to suggestions and am eternally grateful for all the people who email me with recommendations for new and improved sites. My own background is in Scripture (I have a PhD in Theology from St. Patrick's College, Maynooth) so I am fully aware that there is a slight bias in some columns for all things biblical! I've also taught trainee primary school teachers in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and work with Diocesan Post Primary Advisers in promoting resources for the Internet in Religious Education.

This month's Website Review is on blogs and as I am recommending blogger.com as the best place to start your own blog, I thought I should finally take the plunge and begin my own! This blog will mainly consist of my Website Reviews from Intercom and other resources and links that I think you might find useful. Hopefully on a personal level it will give me a space to keep all my resources together in some kind of organised fashion and let the readers of Intercom give me some feedback!