If you were not with us last weekend and missed the presentation and announcement on our parish’s subscription to Formed please check further on in this bulletin for an explanation as to this initiative. Put simply, we are offering a comprehensive Catholic website free to all parishioners (indeed to anyone who even lives in our parish).
Please take the time to register and check it out. The possibilities here are endless. This is a significant step forward in the use of the internet for purposes of evangelization and catechesis. It is a great supplement to the work we already do and more work that we are planning on doing.
As we wind down the regular religious education program on Wednesday afternoons we also prepare for the Summer Academy and the Vacation Bible School. We are reminded that our faith formation – that of ourselves and our children, godchildren, and the other important people in our lives – is an on-going life process. We are doing our best as a parish to offer opportunities for faith formation at every level. We have the early childhood Liturgy of the Word at 9:30 and 11 each Sunday. We offer comprehensive faith formation through the school year and summer academy programs.
In our school the students take a religion class every day. We have a strong junior and senior youth group program. There are also ample opportunities for adults of all ages to continue in faith formation programs that meet their interests and needs. But we are always open to suggestions. In order to continue to develop programs and to keep our offerings current several other things are happening. Through the Faith in Our Future initiative in the Diocese of Trenton, we will be sharing some faith formation programs and activities with the other parishes in our cohort (St. Catharine, Holmdel; St. Gabriel, Marlboro; St. Mary, Colts Neck). All of this is still in the very early stages of conceptualization. Full implementation could be a year away. It all depends on what sort of programs we feel we can collaborate on with the most success.
As we have moved Mrs. Lori McCahill into marriage ministry, we need to fill the void in youth ministry. Lori has been our youth minister for the past eleven years and has done an excellent job in forming the youth of our parish. We as a parish community are deeply indebted to her for her work. Of course, she isn’t going anywhere. She will be teaching religion in the school and work with couples preparing for marriage. As we have eleven weddings on the books this year and planning some for next year, this is a more significant task than it would have been in the previous two or three years.
Our Director of Faith Formation, Mrs. Denise Contino, has taken on much more responsibility since I landed here two years ago. In order to allow her flexibility in her ministry and her schedule, we have decided to hire an Associate Director for Faith Formation who will assist Denise along the way, and at the same time coordinate youth and young adult ministry. We have advertised through Catholic media and have received many résumés. Denise is deep into the interviewing process and we expect to have a new person on board on July 1st . This will not only assist Denise in her work, but enable us to further expand our ministry offerings here.
Of course, we are always looking for volunteers – so if you feel the need, urge or prompting of the Holy Spirit – give us a call!