RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWSLETTER
August 2016
I know – I can’t believe the summer is almost over either! This was a really busy summer here at the parish, because not only did we have to prepare our lesson calendars, find and train catechists, and do all the things we usually do, we also moved our main office! While we’ll still have an office in the school, it is now a room off the hallway between the old school wing and the wing with the gym in it (the “new” wing to those of us who were here when it was still a parking lot!) Our main office, where we’ll be most of the week, is in the rectory. So if you want to see us before school begins, come to the parish office and they can guide you to our new room! It involved clearing out a lot of materials – we were in that room since the late 60’s – so you would think I lost weight from working in the heat this summer but sadly no!
I am so excited about our new program! I think it going to be so much more fun, and give you all some more flexibility about being here every weekend. Classes will begin as usual, but we can start a little later (the family days give us an extra hour!) so we don’t have to begin until after Labor Day for the first time in about 6 years! We will begin on September 11th, and I’ll hold an information meeting for parents on September 18th (location TBA.) Confirmation classes will begin on September 25th. I still need aides for a few classes – 4th and Confirmation particularly – so if anyone is interested let me know so we can begin the background clearance process! We’ll have a regular class on October 2nd, and we’ll be off October 9th for Columbus Day weekend. The full calendar is already online, and the one for K-* can be found at http://www.smmchurch.org/classroom-grades-k-8.
The following weekend – October 16th – will be our first family day. We ask that first grade attend this one because it will be their big intro to Mary as the Mother of Jesus, and they’ll get to make rosaries to use during the year. October is the month devoted to the rosary, so we wanted to make it special! Jeanne Kaye, one of our parishioners and head of our Sodality (a group of women devoted to the Blessed Mother) will bring her statue of Fatima and talk about Mary’s appearances in the world. Since this is the 100th anniversary of her appearance at Fatima, it’s a big year! We’ll also have a short breakout into 3 groups to discuss the rosary and some of the Marian feasts. In about mid-September we’ll be putting a sign-up genius out for you so that we can be sure to have enough rosary-making materials on hand! Remember that out of the 7 family days (running 10AM – noon or a little earlier) you need to attend 4, and certain grade levels are asked to attend some of them (for example, the 7th grade will be putting on their “Parade of Saints as part of the Saints Family Day in November, so they’ll need to attend that particular one.) It’s going to be a really fun year!
If you haven’t registered yet for this year, remember you can find the forms online at http://www.smmchurch.org/religious-ed - many of you registered early, which really helps us with our planning! So that you know, the parish office will be closed the week of August 8th, so you can put it in the mail that week but we won’t be here in the office. Enjoy what’s left of your summer and I will see you in September!
September – October Calendar
Teachers – you have an opening meeting on August 20th from 10AM-1PM!
Confirmation teachers – we’ll give you your materials for the new program at our meeting August 27th at 10AM!
September 4 – Mother Teresa is canonized a saint today! Learn more about
that process at our FAMILY SAINTS CATECHESIS in NOVEMBER!
September 11 – classes begin K-8
September 14 – Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 18 – preschool begins; new parent meeting
September 25 – Confirmation classes begin
October 2nd – classes all grades – Jewish feast of Rosh Hashanah begins
October 9 – NO CLASSES
October 16 – FAMILY CATECHESIS DAY MARY
October 17 – Jewish feast of Sukkoth (Harvest/Tabernacles) begins at
sundown.
We may be trading dates on one of the spring family catechesis programs, I will keep you posted – it looks like Sojourner’s cannot take us in January so we may have a prayer program there and do the food outreach in March on the 12th !