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October 15 2020 Update
Please see specifics on how our program will run through January 2021.On-Site ClassesDue to the unique nature of our parish facilities and the difficulty involved in adequately meeting the Diocese of Pittsburgh covid guidelines along with the desire of more than half our students for remote education, we have decided to not meet in person through January 2021. Our first three in person classes: October 18, November 15, and December 20 will not meet in person. We will re-evaluate after the New Year with the hope of meeting in person on January 17 2021.LessonsPaper lessons per family will be left at the Parish House across from St. Augustine's Church by the close of business, Friday 10/16. They can be picked up during regular office hours 9-5, M-F, Monday evenings from 7-8 PM, by appointment, or by letting me know what weekend Mass you'll be attending and I will make sure the celebrant has it for you to pick up.I will email out links to digital copies of the lessons to those families who requested them by the close of business 10/16.Weekly WorkAs in previous years, you will work through the weekly lessons with your children. We will ask you to complete and turn in the Pflaum lessons assessments at the end of each lesson.Your child(ren's) catechist (teacher) will also post supplemental activities on the Catechist page of our parish website: https://olasmg.org/catechists Please check this page to make sure your child sees and completes the assignments.These assignments can be:1) from the FORMED website2) from the Catholic Brain website3) from the weekly Pflaum lesson4) another activitySo for every week you will be responsible for:1) completing the weekly Pflaum lesson with your child(ren)2) completing and turning in the lesson assessment3) checking the Catechist page of our parish website4) completing and turning in the assignment(s) posted on this page* directions on how to turn in this work (scanned and emailed, dropped off) will be posted along with the lessonYour child's catechist will review all assignments and communicate regarding your child's progress.Program WebsitesYou will need to create an account on FORMED and Catholic Brain to access the videos, worksheets, etc. Sign-up information for FORMED can be found here: https://olasmg.org/formed Sign-up information for Catholic Brain can be found here:1. Go to this link at CatholicBrain.com https://services.catholicbrain.com/ login;jsessionid= AFAC391ACC7C634B23CA3B8EC57439 9A 2. Click “Start a 30 day free trial” (This will be your way in. The Diocese of Pittsburgh will have free use for one year.)3. Be sure to use Pittsburgh as your Diocese when signing up so your account will be at no cost to you.4. School Code:OUR96357Sacraments. 2020-21 Registration Information can be found here.The Diocese has not made any decisions regarding how Confirmation will be celebrated in 2021. It is yet to be decided if Bishops Zubik and Walterscheid will resume confirming candidates or if pastors will have their faculties to confirm extended beyond February of 2021.We are tentatively planning on holding First Reconciliation and First Communion in April/May.We will be holding Parent Sacramental Meetings prior to the New Year to outline preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Communion, and Confirmation.Additional ActivitiesAs was mentioned during the Parent Meeting, we'll look to schedule midweek tours of our three churches during the months we are not meeting. We'll look to tour St. Augustine's sometime during Nov. 2-13 and then St. Joseph's Dec. 7-18. During our St. Joseph's visit, we'll make Christmas Cards for our parish shut-ins.We'll look to visit Immaculate Conception after the New Year.We'll also look to involve our students in maybe making name tags for our parish Giving Trees once we have more specific information.
In the past, the religious education of youngsters was called “Sunday School,” or “Catechism Class,” or “CCD.” However, in the Catholic Community serving Bloomfield, Garfield and Lawrenceville, we have initiated an innovative approach to religious education. The Family Centered Religious Education Program (FCREP) is a unique way of providing religious education to students. This program promotes the belief that parents are the first and best teachers of their children. This program is also a way to accommodate the busy schedules that families have to manage in today’s hectic world. We are hopeful and confident that this different delivery method will benefit students and their immediate and extended families and help to nurture the domestic Church.
The family is the “domestic Church,” that is, in every Christian family the different aspects and functions of the life of the entire Church may be reflected: mission, catechesis, witness, prayer, etc. Indeed, in the same way as the Church, the family is a place in which the Gospel is transmitted and from which it extends.
Parents are the primary educators of their children in the faith. Together with them, all members of the family play an active part in the education of the younger members.
The family as a locus of catechesis has a unique privilege: to transmit the Gospel by rooting it in the context of profound human values. Rooted in the family experience, the child’s Christian initiation consists in:- the awakening of the sense of God;
- the first steps in prayer;
- education of the moral conscience;
- formation in the Christian sense of human love, understood as a reflection of the love of God the Father, the Creator.
It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods. In this family catechesis, the role of grandparents is of growing importance. Their wisdom and sense of the religious is often decisive in creating a true Christian climate. (General Directory for Catechesis 255)
What this change means is that parents and in some cases grandparents will become a more integral part of the faith formation of their children and grandchildren. So, instead of the typical weekly class where students meet the catechists every Sunday, students will attend a formal class with their catechist only on the second Sunday each month for a total of ten onsite meetings, held September through May, (subject to change for the 2020-21 academic year) and will be taught one lesson of four required lessons. During the next three weeks of the month, for about thirty minutes of instruction per week, it will be the parents’ or grandparents’ responsibility to teach their children or grandchildren the remaining three lessons. We provide all user-friendly materials and resources in both paper copies and online so that instruction is practical and doable.
Classes meet after Holy Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of the Angels Parish, St. Augustine Church, for ninety minutes. While the students are in their formal class with their catechists, parents attend a concurrent class with the Director of Faith Formation. During that time, parents learn to use the Pflaum Publishing Company liturgy-based instructional materials that include: Catechism Handbook, Teaching Guide and Gospel Weeklies. Parents also have the opportunity to ask questions and to discuss teaching strategies and ideas for home instruction.
Parents engage in conversation about the ideas and topics that are important at each of the grade levels. The Gospel Weeklies program also offers online supplementary support and assistance for the parents and their children available on the Pflaum Publishing Company website: http://www.pflaumweeklies.com/
The Church has always taught that parents are the primary educators of their children and this is made explicit in the Rite of Baptism and the Baptismal promises. Consequently, parents who have children are in Grades Pre-K through 8 who are not enrolled in a Catholic school, must “accept the responsibility of training their children in the practice of the faith.” The Family Centered Religious Education Program is a practical way to fulfill this obligation.