Childcare during Evening Family Faith Formation
Thanks to the gracious help from one of our newly-Confirmed Seniors, we will have childcare available during most Evening Family Faith Formation sessions this year! Families need to sign up for childcare below. Childcare is NOT available on the nights when we have Family Offsite Service events, since parents/guardians must be on the premises when their child(ren) are in Childcare.
Childcare will be available
Childcare will be available
- November 6
- November 20
- December 18
- January 8
- February 5
- February 19
- March 18
- April 1
- April 15
- May 6
2019-2020 Faith Formation Calendar
7_2019-2020_faith_formation_calendar_final.pdf | |
File Size: | 479 kb |
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Fall Festival Basket Raffle Themes by Grade
fall_festival_baskets_2019.pdf | |
File Size: | 329 kb |
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Domestic Church Toolkit
How do you create a Domestic Church in a Secular Culture?
Practical Parent Toolkit in the Creation of a Domestic Church
(printable list in the file below)
practical_parent_toolkit_for_the_creation_of_the_domestic_church.pdf | |
File Size: | 177 kb |
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- Make the Sign of the Cross when you pass a Catholic Church-Jesus is present in the tabernacle of every Catholic Church
- Say a Hail Mary when you hear an ambulance siren-your prayer is being offered for the individual(s) needing help and those who are helping them
- When passing a cemetery say a prayer for the souls who are buried there and all the souls of the faithfully departed
- Attend Mass every Sunday – this is essential to your holiness, sanctity, and salvation
- Pray before every meal. You can have a consistent family prayer or have a different child lead it.
- Pray the family rosary together
- Display a picture of the Holy Father, the Pope, in your house
- Encourage your children to “play Mass” like they would play house
- Place statues of saints around your house
- Listen to beautiful music throughout your home that glorifies God
- Paint quotes from saints or the Holy Scriptures on your walls
- Eat more meals together. It’s amazing when you force people to sit together without the TV what you can learn about your children and them about you!
- Hang a crucifix over each bed in your house and in each room of your house
- Place a medal in your car for safe driving and encourage each person to wear a saint medal corresponding to their name.
- Hang a calendar on the wall containing Catholic artwork that is visible to all family members. One can keep track of the saints the church celebrates throughout the year
- Bless the steering wheel of your car with holy water when you leave somewhere
- Place holy cards or saint quotes in the lunch bags of your children/teens
- Write a small note to your child/teen and place it in their lunchbox expressing a positive thought, word of encouragement, or a reminder of the saint of the day and the importance of asking for his/her intercession
- PRAY ALWAYS – in the car on the way to school, before a sporting event, when the house seems to be a chaotic mess, with two children who are at each other’s throats, when someone needs a band aid, during household chore transitions, while in the shower, etc. You can pray many different ways – pray a decade of the Rosary in the car every time you drive---it will become normal to your kids. Pray the Act of Contrition before going to bed at night. Allow your children to play upbeat praise and worship music while they are in the shower. Together, say a prayer to St. Joseph of Cupertino (patron saint of exams) the morning of your child’s big test.
- Introduce yourselves and your family to Gregorian Chant
- Enthrone your family to the Sacred Heart – call a priest and he can bless your house and your familyJ
- Subscribe to Catholic magazines(Catholic Digest), newspapers (National Catholic Register), Magnificat , and encourage family members to read
- Place Catholic magazines, newspapers, newsletters, books, pamphlets, etc in your bathroom. Much catechesis can occur during one’s time in the restroom
- Place a saint quote on your mirror for your children to look at when they get ready in the morning
- Have your child pick out a holy water font to hang on their wall in his/her room. Place a holy water font by your doors, fill it with holy water and bless yourselves and your children so each time you leave, you can be reminded of your baptism!
- Do not allow impure (dirty), vulgar, or questionable music to be played – even if discovered in your teenager’s car You have all the right to destroy that CD or check music on their iPod.
- Limit video games and instead stock up on card games, board games, and Catholic/Christian games and puzzles, etc.
- Limit TV in general. If you don’t allow it, they won’t ask for it.
- Always end the day in prayer at night
- Eradicate all bad language – even that which is not necessarily crude, but is not holy or uplifting (shut-up, sucks-this word is very, very common among teens and adults in our culture etc.)
- Have each child give three blessings from their day before going to bed
- Take the family to Saturday confession followed by ice cream!
- Give each child household chores. Specifically lay it out so the expectations are clear. Each child feels invested in the family because they have contributed to its functioning!
- Wear a brown scapular, miraculous medal, or religious jewelry
- Monitor your child’s clothing – would Jesus or the Blessed Mother approve? Especially watch for immodesty or provocative clothing especially during the junior high/ high school years or days to the beach. Our body speaks a language---what language are you as a parent and your son/daughter sending by what is worn?
- Pray a Sunday Rosary together…better yet, pray the rosary daily
- Place an advent wreath in your home and learn about the Jesse Tree (teaches about salvation history) during the liturgical season of Advent
- Place a crèche/Nativity scene in your home during Christmas
- Have a book of saints and each day, read about the saint of the day or allow a child to pick a different saint to read to the other children at the breakfast table
- Ask good questions – How are the relationships with your friends going? Have you been to see Jesus lately in the Church? What has been the most challenging thing for you this week? In which person did you see Jesus in this week? How do you see God working in your daily life; in school, in sports, extracurricular events, family life, employment?
- When one “put down” is given, make the child say three nice things about the other person
- Read the Sunday Gospel with your family before Mass or earlier in the week
- At the breakfast table after Mass on Sunday, have each child tell one thing that stuck out to them at Mass or something they learned
- Pray for our Bishop, priests, seminarians, religious sisters, and all in consecrated life before and/or after each meal
- Place a Last Supper picture by your kitchen table
- Place a prayer basket on your kitchen table and add daily/weekly intentions of those who need prayers (sick, suffering, those having surgery, those who have lost a loved one, the deceased, seminarians for diocese, Pope and all Church leaders, etc.)
- Read the Holy Bible daily; Read how Jesus lived so you can live the same way
- Every time you hear the name of Jesus, bow your head out of respect for the holy name of Jesus (do this in church, in public, while listening to radio, etc.
- When someone takes the name of God in vain or you hear someone use God’s name irreverently, pray “Blessed be God. Blessed be HIS HOLY NAME” This way, you are praying in reparation for the sin of taking God’s name in vain.
- Go visit our Lord in Eucharistic Adoration; take your children…
- Mark your calendars to do holy things with your family just like you mark your calendars for sports, doctor visits, music events, etc. This may include a weekly visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament-Eucharistic Adoration, visit to a shrine, performing spiritual and corporal works of mercy (i.e. feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, instructing the ignorant, etc.), reading the Bible for 5-10 minutes every day, attending mass more than once a week…how about two times? Do this all year, including the summer
- Place beautiful religious artwork throughout your home
- Place religious statues outside in your yard
- Create a “Mary Garden- Rosary Garden” in your yard
- Place stations of the Cross throughout your yard and families can pray these all year, especially on Fridays and during the holy liturgical season of Lent
- Place a religious night light in your child’s bedroom
- Place your child’s pillow in a pillowcase that displays Catholic artwork
- Fill your home with books and reading materials that teach the faith, teach virtues, and inspire your child to grow in holiness
- Parents, be the witness to the faith your children and teens need you to be. Draw your sons and daughters to Christ and His Blessed Mother… “Wouldn’t it be a shame if others came seeking Christ, and only found you?” It is not enough to admire Christ, one must BE like Christ
- Attend parish events that allow your family to build relationships and help to confirm you and your children in the Catholic faith
- Celebrate feast days in the Church with special meals, baked goods, decorations that pertain to the feast day, etc. (i.e. Nativity of the Blessed Mother, Sept. 8…make a birthday cake or cupcakes for Blessed Mother Mary)
- Have your children place +JMJ+ on top of their worksheets/workbook pages asking Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to help them in their work and giving glory to them through their work
- Learn the prayer, the Angelus, and pray this three times a day…at 6am, noon, and 6pm
- Learn the Divine Mercy Chaplet and pray this daily at the three o’clock hour, the hour Christ died
- Listen to Catholic Radio (Relevant Radio 1050AM) and/or view Catholic television programming (EWTN - Eternal Word Television Network-wholesome Catholic adult, young adult, teen, and children’s programming)
- Work and pray to build a Culture of Life within your family. Be open to life yourselves and be pro-active in prayer and action
- Practice fasting (from food, television, bad language, computer time, making rash judgments against others, etc.) – Fasting with prayer is a powerful way to eradicate sin and to help one grow in holiness
- Invoke the intercession of the saints for different needs your family members may have (i.e. sporting events-Saint Sebastian; music events-Saint Cecilia; family life-Saint Joseph; mothers-Saint Gerard, Saint Anne; children-Saint Nicholas, etc.)
- Build small prayer corners in rooms in your home, especially in bedrooms (This may include a statue of the Holy Family or Blessed Virgin Mary, a Bible, rosary, prayer books, holy water, candle etc.)
- When you pass a Catholic Church, pray to the saint that the Church is named for (i.e. Saint Francis Xavier…pray for us! Saint Agnes…pray for us!
- Make a conscious effort to teach virtues; practice a virtue of the week or month
- Study the Catechism of the Catholic Church and get to know the Catholic Faith
- What does God and His Holy Church ask that you do for the children…Read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church(CCC), The Domestic Church (1655-1658)
- Make everything you do a “Project of Love for the Lord”
- Be faithful in all things and leave the success to God