Our parish offers a flexible, family-centered model of faith formation, called Families of Faith. Familes of Faith replaces the traditional Sunday School program, empowering and equipping parents as the primary catechists of their own children. An emphasis is placed on disciplines for discipleship (e.g., daily prayer, weekly Mass, and monthly Confession) as a family.
This year, we will also be introducing a new curriculum: Grades 1 to 5 will be using the new Word of Life curriculum by Ignatius Press and The Augustine Institute, which is an integrated part of our FORMED digital library. Grades 6 to 8 will use Faith & Life by Ignatius Press until Word of Life is available for their grades.
At the request of many parents, students will now be in their classrooms on both the first and the second Sunday of each month.On the first Sunday of each month, parents gather in the gymnasium and students gather in their classrooms for Teaching Sunday, when we learn the key ideas that we'll be focusing on throughout the month.
This year, parents will be watching and discussing two excellent series on FORMED when we gather for Teaching Sunday on the first Sunday of each month:
Students will also be gathering in their classrooms on the second Sunday of each month this year. There will be no parent session on the second Sunday of each month.
The third Sunday of each month is Community Sunday, an opportunity for fellowship and faith. First, gather for coffee and donuts in St. Aloysius Church's hall. Then, participate in a variety of games and activities to review what has been learned during the month! Stay tuned to Flocknote emails and texts for details each month.
Our Family of Faith program is based on a simple truth - Parents impact the faith of their children more than anyone else. Our kids are deeply influenced by how the Catholic faith is practiced (or isn't practiced) at home and will tend to imitate the faith that they see (or don't see) in us. We recommend these five disciplines for discipleship for your family:
In the family, we learn closeness, care and respect for others. We break out of our fatal self-absorption and come to realize that we are living with and alongside others who are worthy of our concern, our kindness and our affection. There is no social bond without this primary, everyday, almost microscopic aspect of living side by side, crossing paths at different times of the day, being concerned about everything that affects us, helping one another with ordinary little things. Every day the family has to come up with new ways of appreciating and acknowledging its members ( Amoris Laetitia 276).