|
Ignite Middle School & Ablaze High School Ministry Updates
Please visit the Ignite or Ablaze web pages for updated information on monthly projects. Middle and high school students are asked to complete one family project from the month's web page OR one project that is appropriate for their age. Attendance Requirement. No more than four online/Zoom classes may be missed. Advance notice does not mean an absence is "excused". There will not be make-up classes. Contact Livia Telles-Rodriguez, our Coordinator of Youth Ministry, for more information (livia.telles-rodriguez@stcatherine-austin.org).
0 Comments
Confirmation Class Change in Start Date
This year, the Confirmation Class will begin in October. The most up-to-date calendar is on our website. Attendance Requirement. There are two required online/Zoom meetings a month for the Confirmation Class. Most students in our program participate in elite-level sports, dance, music and other extra-curricular activities as well as take advanced coursework. The Confirmation Class will be held from October - March. Two missed online/Zoom classes are allowed. There will not be make-up classes. Contact Livia Telles-Rodriguez, our Coordinator of Youth Ministry, for more information (livia.telles-rodriguez@stcatherine-austin.org).  Formed St. Catherine's has purchased subscriptions to Formed for all participants in our Faith Formation program. Please login and download the app to access some of this month's Family Project options as well as many other great resources! Make sure to type "Austin" after you enter "St. Catherine of Siena". Otherwise, we won't show up. What do we turn in? (In list form!)
Grades 1 - 6 (Including First Communion) Complete and turn in monthly homework in the workbook. This is the Chapter Review at the end of each chapter. Complete and turn in two Family Projects from the monthly web page. Grades 7 - 12 (Not Including Confirmation) Complete and turn in monthly homework. For grades 7, 8th PC I & II and 9th Grade PC II, these are the handouts that go with the Catholic Connections book. For grade 9 PC I - Grade 12 PC II, these are the questions from the YouCat Study Guide. Attend both online/Zoom classes. Complete and turn in one Family Project. (This is a change from earlier information that said two (2).) A project either has to be appropriate for the student's age OR a Family Project. For example, if there are two children in the family, at least one Family Project must be appropriate for a middle or high school student--not a project for an elementary school student. Confirmation Class The Confirmation Class has it's own requirements. Please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for documents. Frequently Asked Questions this Year
1. Are we having in-person or Zoom classes? At this time, we are not offering in-person classes at all. There are Zoom classes for youth in grades 7 - 12 only. Please contact Livia Telles-Rodriguez (livia.telles-rodriguez@stcatherine-austin.org) for information regarding those classes. 2. How do we get our workbooks and other materials? Workbooks and materials for children will be picked up at the parish. Please click here for the Sign-Up Genius to select a day and time. 3. We're used to weekly classes. How does this year work? For families who participated in the weekly R.E. classes, this might be a little more confusing than for those who participated in our monthly program. In our monthly programs, families come together, and we begin with a whole-family activity. Then, after about half an hour, children and youth go off to their age-level classes, and the parents have an adult class. For the weeks between the monthly gatherings, kids and parents work on the workbook chapters together since they weren’t being taught them weekly during class. Those pages were turned in at the next monthly gathering. That’s how we planned this year’s program except without gathering in person. So, the Family Projects (2 for grades 1 - 6 kids/parents; 1 for grades 7 - 12) are in place of our whole-family activity at the beginning. The monthly homework is something that is turned in, ideally, at the end-of-the-month using our drop box this year. So, on the calendar you’ll see something about “Due by the end of October.” That’s the end-of-the-chapter Review, worksheets or questions, and the projects. If you don’t get them turned in exactly by the end of the month, that’s okay. We just want them within about a month or two of the month they’re due. All homework and projects for the fall semester must be turned in by the end of December. 4. What do we turn in? Click here for an easy list of what to turn in. If you still have questions, please reach out to one of us! (See email addresses at the bottom of this Newsletter.) 5. When do we turn in all the homework? Please do your best to turn in the homework at the end of each month. If it's a week or two late, that's okay. Please DO NOT wait until the end of the semester or year to turn in a stack of homework. All first semester homework MUST be turned in by the end of December. 6. Do we have to pay for a FORMED account or app? No. The parish paid for all Faith Formation participants. Make sure you add "Austin" when you type in "St. Catherine of Siena" because it won't come up on its own. That should get you in. Do you have any other questions that should be included in our FAQs for this year? Email them to Marti Salas (marti.salas@stcatherine-austin.org).  If this is your student's second year, keep your book from last year! Pre-Confirmation II follows on Pre-Confirmation I.
Attendance Requirement. In order for a Pre-Confirmation I or II class to count as one full year prior to the Confirmation Class, students must complete 80% of the class. For the 2020 - 21 faith formation year, that will include completion of homework, family projects and attendance at online/Zoom classes. No more than four online/Zoom classes may be missed. There will not be make-up classes. Contact Livia Telles-Rodriguez, our Coordinator of Youth Ministry, for more information (livia.telles-rodriguez@stcatherine-austin.org).  This year, the Confirmation Class will begin in October. The most up-to-date calendar is on our website.
Attendance Requirement. There are two required online/Zoom meetings a month for the Confirmation Class. Most students in our program participate in elite-level sports, dance, music and other extra-curricular activities as well as take advanced coursework. The Confirmation Class will be held from October - March. Two missed online/Zoom classes are allowed. There will not be make-up classes. Contact Livia Telles-Rodriguez, our Coordinator of Youth Ministry, for more information (livia.telles-rodriguez@stcatherine-austin.org).  Children in the First Communion Class (grades 1 - 5) will receive a blue backpack for the Go, Seek, Find program by St. Mary's Press instead of a Be My Disciples workbook. Students in grades six and up will receive more age-appropriate materials to prepare for these sacraments. Visit our website for more information.
Contact Marti Salas for more information (marti.salas@stcatherine-austin.org). Flourish is an online access site for the Be My Disciples workbooks. Each month, optional activities will be available on the Flourish website for children in grades 1 - 6 (not including children who are using the blue First Communion backpacks). Links have been emailed to all families who registered for grades 1 - 6. Please contact Sarah Pedrozo (sarah.pedrozo@stcatherine-austin.org) with questions or for more information.
St. Catherine's has purchased subscriptions to Formed for all participants in our Faith Formation program. Please login and download the app to access some of this month's Family Project options as well as many other great resources!  Grades 1 - 6 (Including First Communion)
Complete and turn in monthly homework in the workbook. Complete and turn in two Family Projects from the monthly web page. Grades 7 - 12 (Not Including Confirmation) Complete and turn in monthly homework. Attend both online/Zoom classes. Complete and turn in two Family Projects. At least one has to be appropriate for the student's age. For example, if there are two children in the family, at least one Family Project must be appropriate for a middle or high school student--not a project for an elementary school student.  Holy Leisure: The Key to a Good Life
By now you are aware that our theme for this year is "Living Leisurely through the Liturgical Year" which we have adapted from Benedictine Spirituality. In her book Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Benedictine sister Sr. Joan Chittister shares her reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict. "Leisure, in other words, is an essential part of Benedictine spirituality. It is not laziness and it is not selfishness. It has something to do with the depth and breadth, length and quality of life. In an American culture...leisure may also be one of the most difficult spiritual elements to achieve. We are trained to be doers and makers, not dreamers and seers. Benedictine spirituality, on the other hand, sets out to develop people who reflection what they are doing, people for whom the gospel is the filter through which they see their world. Work, it is clear from the Rule of Benedict, must not exist in a vacuum. Monastics do not exist to work. Work is to be integrated into monastic life without doing violence to either. In the Benedictine vision of live, no one dimension of life is to be exclusive. Prayer, community, and personal development are all as essential to the good life as work. And that takes a sense of holy leisure." Over the next days and weeks, as we parents struggle to balance our work lives with our children's school lives, let us aspire to do so in away that does not "do violence to either." Let us also be mindful, that our children and youth continue to look to us for guidance, inspiration and the attitude to have toward the difficulties to come. If we place the blame and responsibility for our time management, our prayer and reflection, our work-life balance on the world, the school, someone else, we will not be able to show them how to depend upon God. This Labor Day weekend, let us make sure to take time to plan out the coming week in such a way it gives each of us quiet time for reflection each day in order to allow God space to work in our very, very busy lives. Ignite Middle School |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
February 2021
Categories |
RSS Feed
