The Religious Education programming and Sacramental preparation programs (including the RCIA/C) are intended to help us to learn and understand our faith and to know, love and serve God by knowing, loving and serving one another. Throughout our lifetimes God calls us to a closer relationship with Him and His creation. No matter your age, consider taking advantage of all of the opportunities for learning more about our rich faith.
Religious Education for Families
The home is the “domestic church.” Children learn from their parents (and siblings) what is important. If God is placed first, then family members will experience love and how to seek forgiveness for transgressions. Parents who show their children how to pray and pray with them, count one’s blessings, work together for the common good, and to seek forgiveness are sharing characteristics of Christ. The religious education parents received as children may not equip them enough to share the great story of God’s love, Salvation History. It may not equip them to convey the teachings of our faith. That is why Religious Education is offered not just for children, but for the whole family.
Because of the need to be careful during the pandemic, this parish has selected the Student and Family home study program of Alive In Christ by Our Sunday Visitor. Families need to complete this registration form to enroll. Patty, the Religious Education Coordinator, will follow-up with each family to assist with the 30 week program for grades K-8. Any program will only be as successful as the attention parents pay to their role in guiding their children through it. The Scope & Sequence chart enables parents to see see what prior knowledge students at each grade level should have in order to benefit most from their current grade’s material.
The beauty of choosing Alive in Christ is that there are components for families with very young children, adolescents and adults. Please contact Patty with your questions.
Additional opportunities to grow in faith exist in joining book/Bible studies, the work of the many committees of the parish, the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, the Knights of Columbus, OLOL’s Men’s group and through diocesan sponsored events.
Sacramental Preparation
Baptism — Please contact Fr. Leo.
Reconciliation and Eucharist — The age of reason (when a child knows right from wrong) is about at age 7. For that reason, children are accepted in these preparation programs at that age (or older), but must have completed 1 full year of Religious Education and must also be enrolled in the current year of religious ed. Please click on the appropriate link for the form.
Confirmation — Available to students who are in 8th grade or higher. In this parish it is done as a summer intensive with monthly meets/assignments totaling a minimum of 30 contact hours over the 2 year preparation period. Each year includes a 5 hour retreat (required). Contact Patty with questions.
Matrimony — Please contact Fr. Leo.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) — Contact Frs. Leo or George, or Patty.
Has life, or the life of another Catholic caused you to want to know more about our Catholic faith? Maybe you left the faith, or never completed your Sacraments of Initiation. The RCIA is for you.
The Catechism states the following about believing and faith, “Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to “yield by faith the full submission of… intellect and will to God who reveals,” and to share in an interior communion with him.” (CCC 154)
RCIC: If you are a parent feeling called to make a deeper commitment with a child who did not prepare for the sacraments at the usual ages, then this program is for you and your child.
Our Catholic Christianity is based on Scripture and Tradition. It is so rich, it can seem complicated.
