Faith Formation
Family Faith Formation Calendar
What is Faith Formation?
Becoming Catholic is one of the life’s most profound and joyous experiences.
Some are blessed enough to receive this great gift while they are infants, and, over time, they recognize the enormous grace that has been bestowed on them. Others enter the Catholic fold when they are older children or adults.
We believe that growth in faith is a lifelong journey, undertaken in a community and guided by the Spirit. Most of us use words like Religious Education, CCD or Catechism classes to describe Faith Formation and often only think of Faith Formation in terms of children’s religious education and sacramental preparation.
However, our Catholic Faith Formation is more than children’s religious education. And it is more than just the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Holy Communion, and Confirmation). It includes all aspects of our growth in faith, from parent baptismal preparation through adult education and Scripture Study.
We also believe that the family is the primary community in which faith is shared and nurtured. Thus the entire Church community, beginning at the parish level, puts itself at the service of the family to help form Catholics.
Our growth in faith is not exclusively about gaining knowledge about our doctrine and faith traditions; it is also about our being formed in Christ. Therefore, we continue to focus on “total parish catechesis” (faith formation), which is intended to support the family and this parish community
The Duties of Parents
"Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human society. Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith ...with the life of the Church. Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God.
The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents."
from The Duties of Parents CCC 2221-2227