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R E L I G I O U S E D U C A T I O N

NEWSLETTER

“In our class… our teacher talked about the Mass and Jesus…”

“I enjoy coming to my Sunday classes, we learned to pray for one another…”

Inside P A G E 1

FORMING FAITH F ILLED BELIEVERS: BEING LIKE JESUS NOT NOT A JEKYLL AND HYDE TENDENCIES

P A G E 3

A STORY OF LOVE AND SERVICE

P A G E 4

CLASS UPDATE: LEADING CHILDREN TO PREPARE FOR THE 1ST COMMUNION

P A G E 5

THE JOY OF TEACHING EVERY SUNDAY

P A G E 6

JOURNEYING WITH THE CONFIRMANDI

P A G E 7

POPE FRANCIS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY

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FAMILY RESOURCES

JANUARY 31, 2019 “It is Our Catholic Faith, Let Us Live It”S A I N T V I ATO R

Forming Faith Filled Believers: Being Like Jesus not a Jekyll and Hyde TendenciesH E C T O R O B R E G O N - L U N A , D I R E C T O R

“And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and

say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’" And he

said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” (Lc 4: 22-24)

We will read this reading on Sunday February 3, 2019. It precedes the passage that portrays the framework of Jesus’ ministry that was read last Sunday. Here we encounter a popular Jesus being challenged by his fellow villagers. How do you identify yourself with this passage?

Being a Jekyll and Hyde Tendencies

Our choices of life in one way or the other makes us somehow a public figure, so leading the Religious Education program and you being my audience makes me a public figure. But what does a public figure mean? It is commonly regarded as having a status, being a political or celebrity figure. Though this is not only contemporary, it seems that

the people that were whispering about Jesus had a similar mindset; no wonder they said: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph (the carpenter)?. For Jesus, his ministry was more than popularity. This was his mission, vocation, ministry, that had a deeper meaning, his integrity; basically his whole nature of being. There was only one Jesus, the one that the people, his family and friends knew, not a Jekyll and Hyde.

So, because of my role and the words I share with all of you, quite often I get asked this question: “You must have a happy and holy family? Do you have children? Aware of the social reality, I don’t blame them for thinking that way, because they might have encountered many Jekyll and Hyde tendencies along their way. Therefore it is hard to believe to what extent what we see and hear is true.

In situations like this the passage “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Lk 2:19) comes to mind. While my whole Person would like to answer those questions, there are times when it's healthier to channel the feeling and not feed into it. I am sure you might have felt in similar situations with your children. But one thing we must be sure of, to what we are committed, is doing good even when nobody is seeing us. Because it is about our integrity not about social status or popularity.

Therefore, everyday I pray that wherever you see me, you find me doing what you heard from me…

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C O L L E G EL O R E M I P S U M

S A I N T V I ATO R

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A Story of Love and ServiceMy call to ministry.

I was born in Guerrero, Mexico. But my parents migrated from Mexico in 1982, when I was 2 years old. I was raised in Texas and graduated from High School in 1998 and in he same year I moved to Chicago. It took me a few years to actually act on my calling. As long as I remember, I have always loved reading the Bible; the stories helped in many ways redirect my life and fellowship to Jesus.

My Mom started attending the Jehova’s Witnesses. I used to follow her and spend most of my childhood and early teens. I thought all churches were the same and when I turned 15 years of age, I questioned why we have so many religions. I asked God for guidance, and on one trip to Mexico, one of my uncles gave me a book called: La Iglesia Catolica y las Sectas, by Father Flaviano Amatulli. It changed my life forever.

I went to the local Catholic Church and took the RCIA program, where I learned my Christian Catholic faith. I found the Catholic Church to be the only religion that traces back to Jesus and his Apostles. I found the only Church that celebrates the Holy Mass, where the Body and Blood of Jesus is present in every Mass. The Catholic Church!

Since that realization I started to study closely our faith and became a certified Catechist in 2015. And last May of 2018, I graduated from The Lay Institute of Pastoral Leadership, a part of the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL. All the praise and glory goes to God for this beautiful calling.

M R . C A N D I D O C AT O R A L - R E Y E S , R C I C T E A C H E R

Class Update: Leading Children to Prepare for the Sacrament of First Communion.

First Communion Class

This month we talked about what it means to have a good relationship with someone and how to keep that relationship. I made the connection to also having a good relationship with God.  We talked about how to have and keep a deep and strong relationship with God. The imagery I used in class was using pieces of yarn, one end being

attached to us and the other end to God. I explained that each strand can represent a prayer, a kind word, respecting one another, going to mass, loving one another etc.  As we grow up we need to work on making those strands thicker and stronger so they become harder and harder to break.

What I truly want to get through is that children need to have that special relationship with God and to emphasize that it is going to take time and effort. While some strands may break and or fall off there is always room for a repair or to rebuild.   I want the relationship that they have now to develop and grow into a strong relationship where kids look to God for comfort and peace.

The bigger picture is we need to all work on our relationship with God young and old. Always work on making your relationship stronger as an individual and as a family. Make God a present topic in your home and in your life. Say a prayer with your child before a meal, before going to sleep or once you get up in the morning. Remember to thank God for all the great things we have and share the dreams of where we want to be.

Continue to develop those yarn strands and make God present in all that we do!

M I S S G L A D Y S M E L G O Z A , 1 S T C O M M U N I O N C L A S S

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“ I M A D E M Y C O N F I R M AT I O N TWO YEARS AGO, I T WAS AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE. I WAS

invited to join the Youth Ministry and thought that it was going to be something

boring. The first day we came, Hector told us that is was the Youth Mass and asked us to join the youth choir. Along with my friends we sat with them and pretended we were singing. I was touched by the way the youth leaders welcomed me. Afterwards I

decided to come for more meetings and this year I also volunteered to help with CCD. Being here has enable me to open and share my personal talents. I can go up and cantor now!” (Prea, Program Assistant)

It is a Joy to See all the Children Every Sunday, We Are Exited to Continue With Our Classes!

For the month of January, 2019, the class of 3rd, 4th,, and 5th grade students have studied Chapters 5 and 6 of their text books.

Chapter 5 focuses on Returning to God’s love through prayer and the sacraments. The class is confident in God’s Willingness to Forgive and Welcome repentant sinners back to His Friendship and Love. Chapter 6 teaches the class to Celebrate Penance and Reconciliation through prayer, meditation, reading, and listening to the Word of God, confession of sins, and acceptance of Penance for absolution from the priest.

The class continues to recite prayers each week in Religious Education class found on page 173 of their textbook, and with their families at home. The class is also learning, and studying the Ten Commandments found on page 167 of their text. The students are learning about the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. Elizabeth and John the Baptist.

In the month of February, this Religious Education class will learn more about the Life, Ministry, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. They will learn some hymns of strength and welcoming to the Church. The students will continue to prepare for their first Penance and Reconciliation scheduled for 3/30 and conclude with the pot luck celebration at the end of the Religious Education school year.

M S . B E T H F O R M I C A , R E C . C L A S S T E A C H E R

After coming back from our Christmas break, we started our New Year focusing in the person of Jesus. We learned that he was born in Bethlehem, but lived most of his life in the town of Nazareth. He lived there until the age of 30. He helped, loved and was obedient to his parents. And also obedient to God.

Using Our Catholic Heritage-Nivel 1, (bilingual edition), text book and the Holy Bible in class, we studied pages 18-25. These pages covered the following 3 topics: •The Baptism of Jesus (Luke 3:21-22) •The Beginning of his Ministry (Luke 4:14-21) •The Calling of his 12 Apostles (Luke 6:12-16)

My class learned that Jesus came down from Heaven and became a man to save us. It was God’s plan and Jesus fulfilled it. They also learned that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And that Jesus is always there to help us when we need him. And coming to Church every Sunday makes him happy.

The next two months we will learn about the Seven Sacraments, which helps us to become more like Jesus and and are necessary for our Salvation. I am very proud of my students since they have opened their heart to God’s word. Keep us in your prayers.

C A N D I D O C A N T O R A L J R – C AT E C H I S T

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My name is Alexis and I am one of the Confirmation teachers. These past few months with the Confirmandi have been wonderful. They learned about many things including the importance of the Bible, Jesus’ life and sacrifice, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the marks of the Church, just to name a few topics. We have done this through popcorn reading, making booklets, flashcards, taking notes and even a competitive bingo game!

These past few weeks we have been learning about the Sacraments with a focus on the three Sacraments of Initiation. An analogy I once heard from my own Confirmation teacher that I love to teach in class goes like this: Baptism is the invitation to the Catholic faith, Communion is the RSVP to the party of the Church and Confirmation is your acceptance into the Church and the attendance at the party you have been preparing for. We have also learned about the different parts of the Mass and what they can do to make each part of the Mass more meaningful to to our prayer. We talked about how communion is so much more than simply receiving the body and blood of Christ. When we take that body and blood we are saying yes to accepting Jesus’ mission, we are promising to live our lives like Jesus did. Communion is the food of our faith and it strengthens our bond to Jesus.

At the moment, we are preparing for a test on everything that has been covered. We have reviewed the material and students prepared for their test that took place on February 3rd.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to learn about the

sacraments as well as how to better serve within our Church community. I am excited to continue our journey together as we work to prepare for Confirmation.

M I S S A L E X I S M A R T I N E Z , C O N F I R M AT I O N T E A C H E R

During January the class preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation worked on the Beatitudes and focused on prayer.

Ask your child about the importance of behaving in a Christ-like manner: being poor in spirit, being mournful, being meek, hungering for righteousness, being kind and merciful, being clean of heart, being peacemakers, and fighting for our beliefs even when others don’t want to hear them.

The students also started working with a partner on creating a prayer service using one of the beatitudes as a theme. Ask them about the Truth and Life app that they added to their phones. With it they were able to find prayers and bible verses to use. They also came up with music to add as a meditation. I’m very proud of the work they’ve done!

After the prayer services are finished, students will study the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and try to come up with an action plan.

P l ease con tac t me i f you have any ques t ions . mrsparich@gmail.com

M S . M A R Y P A R I C H , C O N F I R M AT I O N T E A C H E R

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S A I N T V I ATO R

Report from the Confirmation Classes: Journeying with the Confirmandi

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Whether you are young or old, married or single, engaged, widowed, or divorced, may Pope Francis’ words strengthen you, refresh you, and illuminate the pages of your own life story. Here are some suggestions he offers to do just that. All words below are from the pope.

1. Say These Three Words.  In order to have a healthy family, three words need to be used. And I want to repeat these three words: please, thank you, sorry. Three essential words! We say please so as not to be forceful in family life: “May I please do this? Would you be happy if I did this?” We do this with a language that seeks agreement. We say thank you, thank you for love! Be honest with me, how many times do you say thank you to your wife, and you to your husband? How many days go by without uttering this word? And the last word: sorry. We all make mistakes, and on occasion someone gets offended in the marriage, in the family and harsh words are spoken. But please listen to my advice: don’t ever let the sun set without reconciling. Peace is made each day in the family.

2. Do the Little Things. It is true that there are so many difficulties in married life, so many, when there is insufficient work or money, when the children have problems . . . and many times the husband and wife become a little fractious and argue between themselves. . . . Yet we must not become saddened by this. Love is stronger than the moment when there is arguing, and therefore I always advise spouses: do not let a day when you have argued end without making peace. Always! And to make peace it isn’t necessary to call the United Nations to come to the house and make peace. A little gesture is sufficient, a caress, and then let it be!

3. Keep Dreaming! I am very fond of dreams in families. For nine months every mother and father dreams about their baby. Am I right? They dream about what kind of child he or she will be. . . . You can’t have a family without dreams. Once a family loses the ability to dream, children do not grow, love does not grow, life shrivels up and dies. So I ask you each evening, when you make your examination of conscience, to also ask yourselves this question: Today did I dream about my children’s future? Today did I dream about the love of my husband, my wife? Did I dream about my parents and grandparents who have gone before me? Dreaming is very important. Especially dreaming in families. Do not lose this ability to dream! How many difficulties in married life are resolved when we leave room for dreaming; when we stop for a moment to think of our spouse and dream about the goodness present in everything around us. So it is very important to reclaim love by what we do each day. Do not ever stop being newlyweds!

4. Make Time to Play. About trying to reconcile working hours with family time . . . [L]et me tell you one thing. . . . When a young mom or dad comes, I ask: “How many children do you have?” and they tell me. And I ask another question, always: “Tell me: do you play with your children?” Most of them answer: “What are you asking, Father?” “Yes, yes: do you play? Do you spend time with your children?” We are losing this capacity, this wisdom of playing with our children. The economic situation pushes us to this, to lose this. Please, spend time with our children!

5. Pray Together. It is in the family that we first learn how to pray. Don’t forget: the family that prays together stays together! This is important. There we come to know God, to grow into men and women of faith, and to see ourselves as members of God’s greater family—the Church. In the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to encounter others and share our lives with them. That is why it is

so important to pray as a family! So important! That is why families are so important in God’s plan for the Church!

6. Accept Your Imperfections. More than anywhere else, the family is where we daily experience our own limits and those of others, the problems great and small entailed in living peacefully with others. A perfect family does not exist. We should not be fearful of imperfections, weakness, or even conflict, but rather learn how to deal with them constructively. The family, where we keep loving one another despite our limits and sins, thus becomes a school of forgiveness. Forgiveness is itself a process of communication. When contrition is expressed and accepted, it becomes possible to restore and rebuild the communication which broke down. A child who has learned in the family to listen to others, to speak respectfully, and to express his or her view without negating that of others, will be a force for dialogue and reconciliation in society.

7. Be Patient. Are you married? Be a saint by loving and taking care of your husband or your wife, as Christ did for the Church. . . . Are you a parent or a grandparent? Be a saint by passionately teaching your children or grandchildren to know and to follow Jesus. It takes so much patience to do this: to be a good parent, a good grandfather, a good mother, a good grandmother; it takes so much patience and with this patience comes holiness: by exercising patience.

8. Look to Our Elders. Grandparents, who have received the blessing to see their children’s children (cf. Ps 128:6), are entrusted with a great responsibility: to transmit their life experience, their family history, the history of a community, of a people; to share wisdom with simplicity, and the faith itself—the most precious heritage! Happy is the family who has grandparents close by! A grandfather is a father twice over and a grandmother is a mother twice over.

9. Set an Example. The “Good News” of the family is a very important part of evangelization, which Christians can communicate to all, by the witness of their lives. Already they are doing so; this is evident in secularized societies. Truly Christian families are known by their fidelity, their patience, their openness to life, and their respect for the elderly . . . the secret to this is the presence of Jesus in the family. Let us therefore propose to all people, with respect and courage, the beauty of marriage and the family illuminated by the Gospel! And in order to do this let us approach with care and affection those families who are struggling, forced to leave their homeland, broken, homeless or unemployed, or suffering for any reason; let us approach married couples in crisis or separated. Let us be close to everyone through the proclamation of this Gospel of the family, the beauty of the family.

10. Light the Way. The future passes through the family. So protect your families! Protect your families! See in them your country’s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments. Families will always have their trials, but may you never add to them! Instead, be living examples of love, forgiveness and care. Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death. What a gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation! So rise with Jesus and Mary, and set out on the path the Lord traces for each of you.. Notice how

your body feels right now. Notice your thoughts and emotions.1

E X E R T E D F R O M F R A N C I S C A N M E D I A

Pope Francis On The Importance of Family

1. https://blog.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit/pope-francis-on-the-importance-of-family

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Resources for Family Spiritual Growth

https://blog.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit/pope-francis-on-the-importance-of-family

http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

http://bemydisciples.com

AS A FAMILYFAMILY CHAT Talk with your children about the message of Jesus and why it is Good News for everyone.

TOGETHER Find out what the Gospel reading for this Sunday will be. Read the Gospel together and discuss its message.

a. Start to live as disciples b. Share God’s word c. Establish a spiritual journey

WHAT’S NEXTFebruary 17th Third Parent Workshop Parish Hall @ 9:00 am In Spanish

February 20th (Wednesday) Third Parent Workshop Parish Hall @ 6:30 pm In English

LINKS