St. Mary Parish, Manchester at 210 West Main Street, Manchester, MI 48158 US - Religious Education at St. Mary's

Religious education at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, Manchester, is offered for parishioners of all ages!

Children from grades 1 through 8 have the opportunity to attend weekly catechism classes from September into May. Classes for grades 1-4 meet on Mondays at the parish center from 6-7:15 pm. Classes for grades 5-8 meet Tuesdays at the parish center from 6-7:30 pm. These classes are lovingly taught by excellent, faith-filled teachers, utilizing the best possible religious textbooks. Your children will surely be blessed!

Teens who have not yet been confirmed are encouraged to register for Confirmation Preparation classes. This wonderful sacrament will complete their initiation into the Holy Catholic Church. “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit!” And the classes will help teens to increase their understanding of the teachings of the Church, an especially important matter for them in the world today. Confirmation preparation classes begin in the fall and generally meet twice a month (with occasional exceptions due to holidays). Our teens need the grace of this Sacrament as they confront the many and complex challenges they will be encountering throughout high school, college, and into the adult world.

If you have any questions about the classes for children and teens, please contact Patrice Sommers at 428-9573.

Adults not yet Catholic who wish to enter into the closeness of a relationship with God through the Holy Catholic Church, are invited to attend weekly classes known as “RCIA” (which stands for the “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.”) This journey of Faith is deeply satisfying and will provide the candidate with the beginnings of a lifelong growing appreciation for the great, awesome gift Jesus gave us when He gave us the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. RCIA classes meet Tuesdays, beginning in the fall, in Fr. Fisher Hall (the church basement).

Finally, all faithful Catholics are encouraged to participate in adult religious education by deepening their knowledge of the Faith: through careful attention to the homilies at Mass, reading the excellent bulletin articles by Fr. Tim, entering into the grace of the many opportunities for prayer, devotion and sacraments, and studying the frequent pamphlets and flyers inserted into the bulletin to enhance our adult religious education.

Adult religious education also includes the occasional special classes for the parish, such as a “teaching Mass,” a tour of the church where we learned how the building itself reflects the teachings of the Church, special study series during Lent and during the month of November, etc.

Also essential to adult religious education and our knowledge of our Faith is the development of the sense of “community” in the parish. So all are encouraged to be part of that “community”: Come to monthly Coffee Hours, share in parish events like the Ice Cream Social, fund raising dinners, rosary-making workshops, parish men's service activities, the women’s group (Altar Society), and various parish projects.

As adult Catholics, we need both study to increase our knowledge of our Faith as well as actually living our Faith in the context of the parish--and we will learn by living! At St. Mary’s there are many “adult religious education” opportunities of both kinds. One need only take advantage of them!

 

ESSENTIAL REMINDERS FOR PARENTS
from Fr. Tim:

Parental witness
The parish religious education programs for children and teens can only supplement what parents should be teaching in the home. Parents are the main educators of their children in the ways of faith and morality. If a child is ever going to understand and embrace the Catholic faith, it must be lived and witnessed in the home. Parents are invited and strongly encouraged to become involved in the religious education programs of the parish. Parents should review lessons with their child at home as well as help them to learn the prayers and devotions that form a solid Catholic foundation. Without this parental involvement, children will not take this most important part of their life seriously, and it will be easily abandoned in their teen and adult years.

Sunday Mass
The main teacher in the ways of faith is the Sunday Mass. The Roman Catholic Church requires all of her members to attend holy Mass each and every Sunday. Roman Catholicism also teaches that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s life. Without the Eucharist in our lives we will spiritually starve and not be given the spiritual energy necessary to reach heaven. It is the parental obligation and duty to bring their children to holy Mass every Sunday. Parents must teach and model consistently good spiritual habits in order for their children to follow. If a parent decides that Sunday Mass is not important, this is what the child will learn. On the day that your child was baptized you made a solemn promise to God in the presence of the Church to raise your child in the Faith; your promise is a most serious one that must be maintained.

A new beginning
This year of religious education has many wonderful blessings in store for the children of our parish. May God bless our religious education coordinators, catechists, and most especially the children and teens who attend our programs that they will learn the faith more fully and draw closer to Jesus, Mary and the Church in this year to come.
—Fr. Tim

 

”Draw close to God so that He may draw close to you” (James 4:8).