July Faith Formation Update

Hello Families,                                                

Praised be Jesus Christ!

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying these early days of summer vacation!   

In my June letter I suggested some ideas on how the family can use summer to grow in relationship with each other as well as grow in faith. As Christians our whole identity is founded on relationship. Why? Because God, a Trinity, is relationship, and God has desired to be in relationship with us. God’s desire for us is the basis of scripture, the writings of our saints, and the liturgical/sacramental life of our faith.

Every time we go to mass and receive our Lord in the Holy Sacrament of the altar we receive him body, blood, soul, and divinity. We touch heaven in communion! How awesome is that?! What makes that moment of communion even more intense is that as we touch heaven we are in communion with all those who have gone before us, the Communion of Saints!

We all know someone who has passed from this life into eternal life. When I receive communion or adore our Lord in Eucharistic Adoration I feel that much closer to my loved ones who have gone before me. Our relationship has not ended, it has just changed. We should not only pray for our deceased love ones but ask them to pray for us just as we ask our recognized Saints to pray for us.

One such saint is Saint Maria Goretti, whose picture is above. She is a patron saint of youth, young women, purity, and victims of rape. Her feast day is July 6. At the end of the month we celebrate the feast day of Saints Joachim and Ann on July 26. They are the parents of Mary and are role models for parents. July is a great month to discover the role of saints in our Catholic faith.

Catholic.org is a helpful website to learn about saints. They have a listing of saints by day and month. Spend some time as a family and discover the saints celebrated on each family member’s birthday.

I’m praying that you and your family have a safe, and holy summer

In the peace of Christ,

Carlo Stebbings

Director of Faith Formation

 

Faith Formation News for July

Registration for 2018-2019

Please try to get registration forms back to the Faith Formation office by the end of the month. We need to plan accordingly for the upcoming year, and we need everyone to do their part to make that happen.  

Deadline for regular registration is Wednesday August 15. After August 15th there will be a $5 late fee added to the registration fee.

Next year is going to be EPIC!

EMMAUS High School Youth Group

            Sundays from 6:00pm-7:30pm in Youth Room in St. Joseph School unless otherwise noted.

July

1- The Joys of Ice Cream! Ice Cream Sundae Contest

8- Game Night! Bring your favorite board game or card game

15- Feast of St. Bonaventure: Turn boredom into meaningful moments

22- No meeting

29- Feast of St. Martha- Service opportunity

Summer Sessions 2018

July 9-20 and August 6-17

The summer sessions for 2018 are only open to those who were part of the 2017 summer sessions as this summer completes last summer.

Service Opportunity!

The St. Alphonsus Parish Life Team is looking for volunteers to help with donation drop offs and set up for our annual Garage Sale. 

The last drop off is the 30th of June. Set up for the sale is on July 12th and 13th, with the sale being on the 14th.

Help needed most especially on July 12th when we move all the sale items from the storage container into the gym. Saturday June 30 from 9-11:30 to sort and move items into the container. July 12 & 13 setting up from 8am until 5pm. 

Contact Jeanette Richardson at [email protected] of the Faith Formation office if you would like to help! 

 

Technology and Faith

OFFICIAL APP OF MASSTIMES.ORG!

The purpose of the Mass Times ministry is to help Catholics get to Mass by helping them find churches and worship times worldwide. We do this by hosting and sharing the most comprehensive database of Catholic churches and worship times in existence. Dioceses, parishes, and many volunteers help us keep the database current. We also host the masstimes.org website that our visitors use to search for Mass times.