Marilyn Paradise - Director
Classes conclude Sunday, May 21st.
Special thank you to all Catechists, Confirmation Team, Liturgy of the Word Coordinators, volunteers and parents for sharing your faith and providing support to our program.
Catechists include: Scott Grantz, Connie Patti, Val Peppe, Rita Sheils, Miranda Signor.
Confirmation Leaders include: Steve Cardinal, Trish Davis, Mariann Fessenden, Elisa Van Amburgh, Father Bill Moorby and Marilyn Paradise.
Liturgy of the Lord Coordinators include: Pat Berry, Helen Pflueger and many helpers.
Congratulation to the following students receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation:
Joshua Cespedes
Sam Coleman
Max Fedrizzi
Jonathan Groth
Madeleine Hamel
Sydney Hasenjager
Louis Jones
Rachel Pflueger
Rachel Richardson
Jacob Schmitt
Emma Van Amburgh
Faith Formation classes will begin on Sunday, September 17 at St. Patrick’s, Moravia following the 8:30am Mass and at Our Lady of the Lake, King Ferry at 9:30am in the Parish House. Home schooled students are welcomed as well. Registration forms are available in the back of our churches. Please fill out the forms, include fees for textbooks and return them to the church office or place them in the collection basket.
We will celebrate Catechetical Sunday on September 17. During the Mass, Catechists will be commissioned for their ministry. It is an opportunity for all of us who serve at church, by virtue of Baptism, to reflect on sharing our faith and being a witness to the Gospel.
Confirmation classes will begin in September. We currently have three classes of Confirmands. There are first year students at St Patrick’s, Moravia and both first and second year students at Our Lady of the Lake, King Ferry. If you are interested in learning more about our Confirmation program, please contact me at the church office.
We also have students preparing for the Sacraments of First Penance and First Holy Communion for the Spring of 2018. If you are interested in having your child prepare for these Sacraments, please contact me at the church office. As we begin this new year of Faith Formation, I ask that you keep our Faith Formation program and our students in your prayers. Marilyn Paradise, Religious Ed Coordinator
Give The Gift of Warmth
Join our Faith Formation students help to warm our community by filling our “mitten tree” at church. New and gently used mittens, gloves, hats and scarves will help to keep our neighbor’s hands and heads warm this winter. Donations will be collected at each of our 4 churches through the end of January. Please leave your donations at the back of church labeled “Gift of Warmth”. Thank you for your support.
Hands of Christ: Hands of Christ is a program sponsored by the Diocese of Rochester to assist parishes in affirming their high school seniors who have been the “Hands of Christ” in their church, home, school and community. The criteria for this award is as follows:
Demonstrates a Christian attitude by word and example.
Has been actively involved in parish life as well as school and Community.
Has been a positive role model for peers, children & adults.
Is a practicing Roman Catholic in the Diocese of Rochester.
If you have a graduating senior in your church that you would like to nominate, please call the church office with their name by Sunday, January 31, 2016.
The Diocese of Rochester will be celebrating its 150th anniversary on March 3, 2018. Bishop Matano has declared that the Most Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be the heart and center of this Sesquicentennial Celebration.
In our Catholic faith, the Holy Eucharist is our greatest blessing from Jesus. This Sacrament is the “source and summit of Christian life.”( Lumen Gentium). Each of the other Sacraments are sacredly tied to the Eucharist. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1324). It raises the Eucharist above the Sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all Sacraments tend”. (CCC, no. 1374).
Pope Francis says “The Eucharist is Jesus Himself who gives Himself entirely to us. Nourishing ourselves of the Bread of Life means entering into harmony with the heart of Christ. It means entering into a dynamism of love and becoming people of peace, people of forgiveness, reconciliation, and solidarity. These were the very heart of Jesus’ ministry. (Angelus Message 2015).
Bishop Matano states “When we come to the celebration of Holy Mass with a true spirit of humility and gratitude, it essentially forms our attitude toward the sacramental nature of the Church. Realizing that in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes one with us. The Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist, belong to God who graciously invites us to participate in His life through these personal gatherings with Him. We must all work together to foster constantly and everywhere devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.”
Saint John Paul 11 says “never forget that Jesus in the tabernacle wants you at his side, so that he can fill your hearts with the experience of His friendship, which alone gives meaning and fulfillment in your lives.” ( Mane Nobiscum Domine,no. 30).
During this Year of the Eucharist, it is our hope that each of us will find a renewed sense of meaning in our spiritual journey through Jesus in the Eucharist. And that each Sunday as we attend Mass, that the word that we profess and the Body and Blood that we receive nourishes our lives with hope and strength. We are then called to share the nourishment in our homes, in our church and in our community, inviting others to the spiritual banquet in God’s sacred house.
Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. John 6:53.
God bless,
Marilyn Paradise, Religious Ed Coordinator
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