You may think of Catholic education as just attending a Catholic school, but there are multiple ways to provide children with a Catholic education. You can participate in your parish's religious education program, teach the faith at home, or enroll in a Catholic school. None of these options are better than the others, they all provide wonderful and unique blessings in the formation of young Catholics. Let's look at three amazing aspects of each form of education. Religious Education
Catholic School
No matter what avenue of education you have had, or you choose to provide for your children, know that they are all good. They all provide children with the knowledge, community, and relationship with God they need to live as members of the Body of Christ. When thinking about Faith Formation, remember that it starts at the home. What parents do to pass on their faith has the biggest impact on that child's future. So before you start stressing about what school to attend, start talking about faith in your family. That is where real Faith Formation begins.
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Everyone who is baptized is a part of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is made up of sinners. It is filled with people trying to be the best that they can be to become who they were made to be. But like all the amazing Saints who have gone before, we start as sinners and hopefully one day can become Saints. To be a Saint is to be a holy person. How do you live a holy life? That is simple. We must try. It is in striving to become holy that we do become holy. By reading the Bible or the lives of the saints we learn about how others lived. By praying, we make time for God in our lives and once we let God in, He changes our life for the good. As we journey towards holiness all those around us also become holy. It is the beauty of life. Just by being who we are, we share a message with others. Each one of us is regularly evangelizing others whether we know it or not. “Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words,” St. Francis’ word still rain true today. This is what our community has been doing. We are living our life and inspiring others along the way. This is why each year we welcome more and more Catholics into our community whether they are infants or adults. Each one of you on your journey towards holiness has grabbed someone else’s attention and you invite them to journey with you. You may not have said any words but simply how you live and who you live for speaks so loudly that others wanted to follow you. You lead others to Christ. With that in mind, I am so glad to share about the changes to the RCIA process. RCIA or Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults is the process of people joining the Catholic Church as adults. At some point it was decided to go with a one size fits all program. If someone was baptized in another Christian faith they would take the exact same journey as someone who has never been baptized. It might not seem like that big of a deal but the difference is God’s grace. When a person is baptized into the Christian faith, they receive God’s grace in their lives. For those who are unbaptized, they do not yet have those graces. We have finally recognized that one size fits all does not work. We need to meet people where they are and journey with them from there. At this time each individual who has been inspired to finally join the Catholic Church or complete their Sacraments of Initiation has been meeting one on one with me. In those meetings we discuss where they came from, where they are right now and where they hope to be. After this we offer different options of growing spirituality. There is a Monday mornings group who is meeting together and diving deeper into the Mass. On Thursday nights, we gather to break open the scriptures and find what it all means and how it relates to our lives. As we go forward, it is my hope to have more regularly meeting small faith sharing groups throughout the year for individuals to join so that they can grow closer to our Lord and also closer to the members of our amazing parish community. The other big change you will soon notice is that all those who are already baptized Christian will be joining the Catholic Church throughout the year during our Sunday Liturgies. Marv and Kim Lewis, a father and daughter just joined the Church on Sunday October 18,2015 at 8am Mass. There is no way to put a time line on the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore the only people who will be required to join the Church at the Easter Vigil will be those who have never been baptized. If someone who is already baptized wants to join at the Easter Vigil they are invited to take part in the beautiful experience of that celebration. It’s important to remember that holiness doesn’t happen in a few months. It takes a lifetime and takes a whole community. Thank you for being a witness of Christ’s love here on earth. Thank you for sharing yourself with our parish so that we might inspire others to journey with us each day towards the holiness we are all called to experience. -Kate Tyler, Pastoral Associate
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