REGISISTRATION INFORMATION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH MINISTRY FAITH FORMATION / RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAMS

FAITH FORMATION MISSION STATEMENT

We are committed to promoting the mission of Christ at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish through education and faith formation.

The essential tasks are:

Word – “Promoting knowledge of the faith”

Worship – “ Liturgical Education”

Service – “ Moral Formation”

Community – “ Initiation and Education in community life and mission.

ENROLLMENT IN THE PARISH

Each family must be enrolled as a member of the parish to participate in Faith Formation (Religious Education) Programs.

REGISTRATION AND TUITION

•All children attending Our Lady of Perpetual Help Faith Formation Programs must register prior to the beginning of the sessions. The registration for Faith Formation is separate from enrollment as a member of the parish. A registration fee of $35.00 each child with a cap of $70.00 pre family is asked before programs begin in late September. Late fee may apply after that time. Registration fee defray costs of some of the materials purchased for the program, however, no child will be turned away for inability to pay. See the Parish Catechetical Leader for more information. Registration Fee is wavered if Parent is a Catechist in the Faith Formation Program. Registration form must be filled out with pertinent information including any health problems or concerns. If your child has any heath problems, they need to be posted on the Faith Formation Registration form. Faith Formation Registration forms are available in the narthex or the parish office.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PROGRAM

Parents are the primary educators of their children for both temporal and spiritual knowledge. Children experience God through their care-givers who model for them the goodness and love of a Creator who became one of us; died for our sins and showed us the Way to the Kingdom: which is both here and yet to come.

Therefore, parents need to take an active role in handing on the Traditions of our Faith to their children. Through worshipping with a Faith Community (Sunday Mass), instruction and being a living example by putting faith into action

everyday, children form a initiate relationship with Christ and Christianity becomes a way of life.

As the bishop of our diocese has recently written, “the emphasis on adult faith formation, sometimes called adult religious education, or lifelong catechesis, are probably obvious. First Catholic adults will experience their faith in richer, deeper, more satisfying ways if they are continually leaning more about it. Second, if Catholic adults are going to engage seriously in their duty to apply the faith to the challenges of life in the world, they must understand that faith in and adult way. Third, because the quality of faith formation offered to children and youth depends so heavily on the mature faith of adults—parents, parish catechists, Catholic school teachers and youth ministers—it is critically important that adults b adequately prepared to share their faith with the young.” (Bishop Richard Malone, Letter to Parish Catechetical Leaders, September 20, 2004)

Also for younger members of our parish!

Children’s Liturgy of the Word is part of the 8:00am & 10:30am Sunday Mass. Each Sunday, starting the first Sunday in October, Father Carpentier will invite children in grades K – 2 along with Ministers of the Word to go to the chapel area (in back of the care room) to hear and experience the Gospel proclaimed for their age level. There is no registration for Children’s Liturgy of the Word r e