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Registration is Now Open!
Contact Marlee Kuhn if you have any questions: [email protected] 
Scroll down below for the St. John Paul II Pastorate's Plan & Vision for Faith Formation.
Read the Family of Faith Formation FAQs Here
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As a pastorate, and in union with our diocese, we are continuing to form missionary disciples who respond to “our baptismal call to witness the love, truth, beauty, and goodness of Jesus Christ to every person we meet.”
The goal set forth by our Bishop in “A Common Vision for Evangelization” is to “be holy and to talk about Jesus.” St. John Paul II Pastorate is determined, with your support and participation, to carry out this goal by offering you opportunities to grow in holiness and be equipped to talk about Jesus. These opportunities will be offered at all age levels to include every individual as well as the family unit.
Pope St. John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation entitled Catechesi Tradendae, wrote “Family catechesis... precedes, accompanies and enriches all other forms of catechesis. Thus there cannot be too great an effort on the part of Christian parents to prepare for this ministry of being their own children’s catechists and to carry it out with tireless zeal.”
Every member of our pastorate is invited to participate in “Family of Faith” nights. These will be offered one Sunday a month.
The vision for “A Family of Faith” is strong Catholic families in which children learn the joys of following Jesus Christ and the truths of their Faith through the witness of Christian life given by their parents.
Formation of our faith has always been primarily in the home. The Catholic Church identifies parents as the “First Teachers” in the Domestic Church of the family.
We want to extend this vision to include all couples and individuals of our pastorate community, no matter what age or stage of family life.
Components of the Family of Faith initiative:
1. Building Catholic Family Identity These nights are formatted for the whole family to gather together. We will have break out sessions for all age groups: adults, teens, and children.2. Flexibility Families, couples, and individuals gather for community and catechetical instruction once per month where we will equip you with the ability to teach concepts of our faith with your family whenever you are able to schedule it the rest of the month.3. Open and Inclusive This approach is open to all individuals, couples, and families at all stages of life. This allows everyone to grow in faith and be encouraged as an entire pastorate community.4. More Opportunities This format allows for complementary opportunities to be offered throughout the pastorate for each specific age group.
Including, but not limited to:a. Catechesis of the Good Shepherd will be offered for 3-5 year olds this year (with hopes to develop level 2 and 3 in the future for ages 6-12). CGS is an approach to the religious formation of children developed in Rome in 1954.
It is rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori. Children gather in an “atrium,” a room prepared for them, which contains simple yet beautiful materials that they work with to draw closer to Christ in prayer with guided instruction from a trained catechist. (Description from Diocesan Website)
b. Middle/High School | Youth Nights and retreats.
c. Sacramental Prep for all sacraments.
+ Family of Faith Nights (same as above) seek to unite all adults in fellowship and catechetical instruction through speakers and discussion based on essential themes of our faith. This year we will specifically be focusing on the moral life.+ Adult Discipleship Nights seek to offer an opportunity to establish all adults in the foundational and transformative skills of discipleship; providing knowledge and wisdom to grow individually and share the faith with others.+ Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA, previously named RCIA) is the formation process that offers initial and foundational catechetical instruction to adults seeking to become fully-initiated members of the Catholic Church. This is for all baptized and non-baptized individuals seeking to become Catholic. OCIA instruction will be offered Monday nights at St. Cecilia’s at 7:00 p.m.+ Reach More Mission Training seeks to equip adults, established in the faith, to go forth as Missionary Disciples to engage more intentionally in sharing Christ with every person they meet. This is most effectively achieved by establishing and facilitating small groups.
These small groups are born from authentic relationships of the individuals who complete the training. The more individuals who take the training, the more unique, inclusive and far reaching will our small groups be as they extend from the unique relationships of the individuals, including those who already attend our churches and those who may have yet to encounter Christ and His Church.
This apostolic mission depends on every one of us, and our individual “fiat,” our yes to spreading the Gospel.
We must invest ourselves in the formation of our souls and the souls of those entrusted to us so that we may not slumber but answer the call set before us with courage, knowledge, understanding, and unshakable faith.With this in mind, we set out as a pastorate to be formed for mission to share Jesus Christ competently and confidently with every person that we meet.
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Evangelization & Catechesis Team Announcement - Originally published in the Sunday, June 16, 2024 bulletin.
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