In the fall of 2008 we will be re-establishing a grade school religious education program here in St. Robert Parish. We will be using the "Call To Faith" program published by Harcourt Publishers which is the companion to the program being taught at St. Robert School. Our goal in offering this program is to offer our children a basic formation in the Catholic faith in a way that compliments the monthly InLight Program. This program kicks off on Sunday, September 28, at 9:30 am. All classes will be held at our traditional time for religious education, between the two Sunday morning masses. This program does not include preparation for the sacraments of First Reconciliation and the First Eucharist. They will be run as separate programs, however, students who do not attend a Catholic school will need to be part of the religious education program as part of their sacramental preparation.
In order to implement this program, we will need the support and efforts of every family involved. Beyond those who have volunteered to serve as teachers and catechists, we will need people to volunteer in the areas of office support, safety and security, and classroom aides, to name a few. We will be asking every parent to be present in their child's classroom at least once throughout the school year.
The Religious Education Program cannot stand alone. It is part of an overall process of faith formation which involves weekly attendance at mass, participation in the InLight sessions and other church events, as well as regular home prayer and faith building experiences. The text books in the “Call to Faith” program each contain 21 regular lessons and eight special seasonal lessons. On our current schedule we have approximately 13 Sunday morning religious education classes, which means, the majority of the lessons in the book will not be covered on Sunday mornings. This is not an oversight. Our main goal is to support parents in their responsibility as the "first and best teachers of faith” and to help parents in their efforts to build up families of faith. We will be providing every parent with a home study guide for the lessons not covered on Sunday morning. Parents are encouraged to develop the habit of doing these lessons at home with their children.
We are trying our best to keep faith formation affordable for everyone. The registration fee formula for this year is very simple: $40 for one child and $75 for families with two or more children in the program. We believe that the monthly InLight gathering is an important aspect to our parish’s faith formation efforts. In order to encourage greater participation at these events we have dropped the registration fee. InLight will be free to all participants.
For more information, please contact Dan Hull at the Lifelong faith Formation Office at 332-1164, ext 3012.
