A Family-Based Religious Education Model
St. Mary’s now offers a Family Based model for Religious Education. Once a month, from October to May, on a Sunday morning from 11:00pm to 1:00pm, parents and children gather together for 2 hours over bagels, juice boxes, coffee & tea to learn together about our Catholic Faith.
The first and last 30 minutes are intergenerational and the middle 60 minutes are spent in break out groups with Catechists teaching an age-appropriate lesson on the monthly topic. Watch this video to better understand the benefits of Family Based Religious Education.
4 Advantages of a Family-Based Model
1
Parents are not picking up children whose response to “what did you learn today,” is “nothing.” Parents will be learning with them.
2
Families can incorporate foundations of Catholicism (kindness, love, forgiveness, sacrifice, non-judgement, etc.) into the family system to bring a greater sense of joy to the home.
3
Parents with multiple children are not dropping their children off once a week on different days to learn in a classroom and tax the busy schedules already in existence for today’s family.
4
When you live in NJ, who doesn’t like bagels?
Receiving Sacraments
Another advantage of a family-based model is that sacraments don’t have to be celebrated with a grade or class so no one feels they “missed” a Sacrament.
Sacraments are always about what God is doing in our lives so we should be open to “God’s time.”
Preparation for First Reconciliation (Confession), First Eucharist (Communion) and Confirmation are done within the household family and the parish family – in community. There is extra time that needs to be given in the immediate year of celebration, but that schedule is developed in synergy with the child’s parents not as a rigid hoop to be jumped through.
Especially now, post-pandemic, children might be ready for sacraments but be older than the norm. Immaculate Conception is not a one-size-fits-all community. We are small and very open to the Holy Spirt working in your family and will do our best to stay out of the way of the Holy Spirit and instead work with that Spirit.