Faith Formation

Brothers and Sisters in Christ –

I have some very exciting news to share about our faith formation program!

The Church teaches us that parents are the primary educators and first witnesses of the

faith to their children. Most faith formation happens at home as a family lives the faith

together primarily through weekly attendance at Sunday Mass and Holy Days of

Obligation, daily prayer, and opportunities for service. The parish, a community of

Catholics in a geographical area, seeks to assist families in the formation and education

of their children as much as possible. This is done in two forms: formal education in a

Catholic school, and faith formation. An important note, when the faith is not being

lived at home, it is incredibly difficult to pass it on. And yet we continue to do our best!

Faith formation is a very important ministry for children who attend Catholic or public

school. For children who attend public school, it may be the only formal education in the

faith that they receive. We have so many dedicated staff and catechists who work very

hard to do what they can to assist in passing on the faith to these children. However, one

thing that has become apparent over the years is that twice a month is not effective in

achieving this goal, nor is purely formal classroom instruction. The infrequency of

meetings unfortunately prevents the essential content of the faith from taking root. I

often struggle with the reality that so many of the children in our faith formation

program still struggle to articulate basic truths of the faith even in their late high school

years. Furthermore, focusing only on formal classroom instruction with videos can lose

sight of the joy that comes through an encounter with Christ! Continuing with this

model would be a disservice.

Here is the exciting part! To provide a more robust faith formation program that

achieves its goal of assisting parents in the formation and education of their children,

and to greater highlight the primacy of Sunday, faith formation will now be offered every

week on Sunday at each parish. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have

understood the importance of weekly formation for many decades. Unfortunately, the

idolization of sports in the lives of our children has led us to forget this importance. We

are often trying to schedule things in the “left-over” time when sports and other

extracurriculars are not typically scheduled. This confuses priorities. Faith formation is

the most important education a child receives, and Sunday is the most important day of

the week in which the Lord directs us to provide it. Each family will now be able to

attend Mass each week together and receive formation for both the children and the

adults.

I want to thank Fr. Tuttle, Thaddeus Loduha, and Rob Aldridge for their incredibly hard

work and creativity in crafting a very robust faith formation program that includes a

schedule for weekly formation and other events oriented around the liturgical calendar

for the year. Faith formation will occur before Sunday Mass at St. James the Less and St.

Peter, and after Sunday Mass at St. Theresa. Each day will include a time for class and a

time for fellowship and fun for children and adults. Since we now have three priests,

each priest will be actively involved in this weekly formation as well.

We are incredibly excited for this renewed commitment and vision for faith formation!

If you are willing to be a catechist, which may be easier now since it corresponds with

Sunday Mass, please reach out to one of us via email.

God bless you all!

Fr. Jordan

Fr. Jordan Berghouse

Pastor

Southern Moraine Catholic Parishes

St. James the Less | St. Peter the Apostle | St. Theresa of Avila

Email: frjordan@stjmuk.org Phone: 262-363-7615 x101

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