Family Faith Formation – Page 3 – St. John – St. Paul Catholic Collaborative

Family Faith Formation This Sunday, October 19: Grades 3-5 Loaves & Fishes

The Liturgical Year 10:15-11:00am in Powers Hall following the 9:00am Family Mass at St. John

PLEASE NOTE: All sessions are Family Sessions (children and parent/s together.) Children may not be “dropped off” without a parent or guardian.

After participating in the Sunday 9am Family Mass, parents and children gather together for an opening prayer and a “Focus on Faith” reflection given by Fr. Jim about “The Liturgical Year.” After the reflection, the pastoral staff guides parents in small group discussions and reviews the at-home material for the coming month, while the Children’s Faith Formation team guides the children in a related activity. The session ends with all gathered together for a closing prayer…

October 5: Mustard Seeds Launch Our Renewed Family Faith Formation Program!

We launched our new “Family Faith Formation” program with great joy last Sunday with a Family Session for our youngest children and families – our “Mustard Seeds” in Grades K-2.

Kelly Meraw, Director of Pastoral Care and Liturgy, opened the packed session by welcoming everyone and explaining a little bit about what Family Faith Formation is and why parishes around the Archdiocese and across the country are moving to this model.

She emphasized that Family Faith Formation is not about expecting parents to be “CCD teachers” at home – it’s a way to shift faith formation to be more conversational, to be something that is baked-in to everyday life. Fr. Jim then offered a “Focus on Faith” reflection on this month’s theme of “The Liturgical Year,” explaining the different seasons in the Church year…

Family Faith Formation Launches this Sunday, October 5 with Grades K-2 Mustard Seeds!

Family Faith Formation empowers, supports, and equips parents to impart the faith to their children. Our program for children in Grades K-7 and their families is organized in three grade-level cohorts, and each cohort meets six times over the year (October through April) for 45 minutes. All cohorts focus on the same theme each month, which creates a cohesive structure that supports families with children in multiple grades. Our theme for October is The Liturgical Calendar, and our sessions will be led by Fr. Jim.

The schedule for October is below – our theme for the month is The Liturgical Calendar, and our sessions will be led by Fr. Jim.

Grades K-2 Mustard Seeds: Sunday, October 5 at St. John
10:15-11:00am in Powers Hall..

Our New Children’s Faith Formation Programs Launch in October!

We are so excited to launch our renewed Children’s Faith Formation program in just a few weeks!

As we explained over the summer, we are renewing Children’s Faith Formation in our Collaborative by replacing our programming (previously known as “Religious Education”) with two new and innovative programs – a Family Faith Formation program for younger children and their families (Kindergarten – Grade 7) and a Small-Group Confirmation Preparation program for older students (Grade 8 and above.)

Please visit our Children’s Faith Formation page for more information about the programs, including a full calendar and a comprehensive FAQ with answers to questions about registration, logistics, sacrament preparation, and more!

Our Children’s Choir is Back – and Different!

We are so excited to be starting up the Children’s Choir this Sunday, September 14, at the 9am Family Mass at St. Paul.

As parents, grandparents, godparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings are the most impactful teachers of faith that our children have, we want our choristers to be able to sit with their families during the Mass – to ask questions, learn responses, watch how you make the sign of the cross, and build lasting memories as a family that worships together.

Our goal this year is to focus on learning a few songs really well that the choir will sing alone, rather than trying to learn every bit of the Mass music…

Renewing Children’s Faith Formation – An Important Message from Fr. Jim

The Archdiocese of Boston is calling on parishes to embrace a new vision of children’s faith formation – one that supports parents in their role as the first teachers of the faith, facilitates lifelong faith formation for all generations, and encourages missionary discipleship in addition to catechesis by engaging the talents of the whole parish community.

In response to this call, our Pastoral team, in partnership with our Children’s Faith Formation and Youth Ministry teams, has been working to develop a unified approach to faith formation that builds bridges between these unique programs, invigorates our Collaborative liturgical life, and renews the engagement of our young children, teens, and families in the life of the parish, especially Sunday Mass.

It is with great joy that we share with you our plans for renewing Children’s Faith Formation (previously known as “Religious Education”) in our Collaborative by launching two exciting new programs this fall…