RELIGIOUS FORMATION FOR CHILDREN
 Coordinator of Children's Formation  
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      Phone:  248-844-8662

GIFT  Review
We had an interesting, exciting, and rousing scavenger hunt to start off our GIFT sessions last week!  We looked at sacramentals and how those tangible things can help us in our faith life.  As humans, we often need reminders of various things; different folks may need different types of reminders, or even several reminders (if it’s me!).  Our grade school students reviewed sacramentals and did some crafting of their own sacramental to take home.  Adult breakouts ranged from praying Ron Rolheiser-style and using the internet and social media as modern day sacramental to avoiding superstition in this whole area.

A Few GIFT Reminders: 
Finding God Unit Quiz/Reviews
Unit 4 quizzes are due at the March GIFT session. Please download and print each child’s quiz from the parish website.
The Unit 3 Quiz/Review was due at the January GIFT sessions.  If you haven’t yet turned in your Unit 3 quiz/review, you may still do so until the end of February to be part of the grand prize drawing at the end of the year. 

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
It’s not too early to start thinking about VBS!  We like to decide on a great Catholic VBS program for this June.  If you are interested on being on the planning committee, please contact us ASAP.

We are looking at Group’s SKY (Catholic edition from OSV) where various SKY guys remind us that “Everything is possible with God,” and Liguori’s SONRISE with a national parks theme where all trails lead to Jesus; St. Mary’s Press takes us to Adventures on Promise Island versus getting on board the Vatican Express from Growing with Saints. You can check these out online; let us know what you think about these choices.

LENT
Wow! This week has Ash Wednesday right in the middle of it!  Check out some great websites for Lenten practices and devotions:  www.loyolapress.com for Stations of the Cross for kids as well as great Lenten retreats and reflections for adult; www,americancatholic.org for lots of Lenten information and audio retreats and much more.

Children’s Sacrament Preparation
Current news of our sacrament prep programs:

FIRST Reconciliation
Our children’s First Reconciliation celebration is this Sat., Feb. 25, at 10 AM.  The nicest thing about reconciliation is that it is a repeatable sacrament.  God is always ready to forgive us.  All we have to do is ask.

First Eucharist
Jesus Day is coming up in March.  Be sure to RSVP for your date/time.  The optional chalice activity at Jesus Day does require registration and payment to the Painted Pot by March 9. Don’t forget to continue preparing for First Communion!  Regular attendance at the weekend liturgy is the most important preparation for celebrating.

CONFIRMATION

Please work on service/participation hours. You are responsible for keeping track of what you do. We use the honor system and do not require outside documentation.

Second Year (8th Grade) Confirmation Prep
Retreat permission slips are due. Retreat options are Feb. 26 at St. Paul of the Cross in Detroit or March 18 at Subiaco in Oxford.

The last session for Vocations Video and Confirmed in the Spirit for our 2012 Confirmandi. will be Mon., Mar. 5, 7-9PM, or Sat., Mar. 10, 2:30-4:30PM in the east overflow. Students will be working on finishing up and reviewing the back of the book; be sure to bring both the Confirmed in the Spirit textbook and journal. The Vocations Video focus next month will be on vowed religious men..

NOTE: We do NOT allow cell-phones or other electronic devices to be used at all during these sessions. Our rule is that any such devices that are out will be confiscated until the end of that session. Thank you.