Click for newsletter detailing prek-8th grade Religious Ed activities during the Fall, 2023.

This summer religious Ed has been working on in a snapshot Religious Ed calendar with September 13th start Come and See Calendar: https://stannaugusta.org/comeandsee Vacation Bible School including wrap up meeting Sunday 8-20-23 at 10am (https://stannaugusta.org/photoalbums/vbs-2023) Come and See simple suppers Sept 20-Nov 13 Catechist in-service August 24th 5:30pm with 8pm mass Confirmation 2023 & 2024 classes on-going and waiting for diocese to give 2023 Confirmation date Order of Christian Initiation Classes (OCIA) to start September 19th with 3 interested persons.

As we finished up religious education on May 3rd with May Crowning and May 7th with First Holy Communion, we're starting to look at next year for the parish Year of the Eucharist. VBS this year is June 26th-30th and is focused on the Eucharist. Adult Faith Formation will have a 7-week small group on the Eucharist by the Augustine Institute which is recommended by the Eucharistic Revival. Religious Ed will also have a couple of nights focused on Eucharist next year as that will be the general them of the year. The Eucharist is both "the source and summit of Christian life" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 11).

2022-2023 Saw a comeback to weekly religious ed classes on Wednesday nights.  We see about 50 students in the total religious ed program which includes prek-8th grade plus First Holy Communion and Confirmation students.  St Ann currently has 12 catechists which serve them. Here are the rest of the Religious Ed nights for the rest of the year: Night 22, March 22 March 29- no class- Spring Break Night 23, Apr 5th- Come and See Mass and Dinner.  Adults- Vocation panel disc.; kids-virtus  April 12th- no class- Easter Break Night 24, April 19 Night 25, April 26 Night 26, May 3rd- May Crowning- Class until 7pm, then May Crowning, final Wednesday night of religious education May 7th- 2pm, First Holy Communion

Religious Ed ended with Virtual Reality Tour of the Holy land, ice cream and plenty of running on the play ground! Thanks to all catechists, volunteers and staff for their service this year. Thanks to the students and their families. Especially thank you to Phyllis Kalkowski and Valarie Mancuso for their decades of service! Vacation Bible School with the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist was a success! With skits, prayer, work, Confession, snack and play all in the mix, it all turned out quite well. Thank you to all the sisters (Sister Josefa, Sister Mary Vianney & Sister Joseph Lucia), volunteers and staff for their service, especially the Flach family who helped set it all up!

Thanks to our Confirmation team, Ellen Nightingale, Brendan Barnes and Bobby Kinkela who helped chaperone and coordinate the Presence Lite retreat at St Marys on February 19th!  We lead over 120 youth through a retreat that included a rosary, Adoration, speaker talks, Exposition by Bishop Bradley and a live praise band.  Thanks to the Confirmandi for coming out and spreading time with the Lord. (CLICK FOR PICTURES)

Father Dave celebrated First Reconciliation during February!  We had 10 children make their First Reconciliation!  Thanks to the catechists and parents for working through the steps to the Confession and the all important examination of conscience.  Afterwords, they were given gifts including metals which Father Dave was able to bless. (CLICK FOR PICTURES)

Religious Ed and Adult Ed was kicked off on September 1st with our Come and See program.  Father Tom spoke to adults about keeping our families in the church- his talk can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/StAnnChurch Catechists were met with children to cover lessons in the Good Shepherd Atrium, and also in our Prayer and Scripture classes.  Our monthly September parent guide is on the mass and 7 sorrows  https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources).   For those who missed it- you can see the St Ann RE parent intro 2021 video by Bobby which talks about a free online program available through Francisican University of Steubenville : https://bit.ly/3BdROCf

Prayer Hike through the sanctuary Using the July guide on the catechism (bit.ly/3kd6EUi or https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources), we prayed through the 4 parts of catechism.  We got to the lake pretty easy, but after we reflected on life in Christ and climbed a hill, the path was full of obstacles and we got turned around a bit!  Luckily Biak (like a good catechist:) was there to forge ahead and showed a path back for the rest of us to understand and follow.  Good conversation and laughs were had along the way.  Our hike was 1.03 miles long.  The land is open for those parishioners who want to explore

As we enter the summer months, we encourage to teach the faith by visits to shrine and good works for praise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The attached calendar has a few local shrine destinations to check out at as suggestions this year.   On Wednesday June 2nd, we began our work with a reflection On the Life of St Francis by St. Bonaventure.  How St Francis preached to the birds and cared for the birds as we care for our eachother, our parish and our parish grounds.  It was nice night of work and talking to one another.  Thanks for all those who attended on June 2nd, and thanks to those who have adopted gardens.   The June 2 page guide is available at https://bit.ly/3ciYncO or https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thanks to those who attended virtually and in person! Bobby gave a short prayer and then Biak began on the topic of creation and Angels. He used the catechism with paragraph numbers and the works of St Augustine to talk about the spirits that God created as part of the invisible world and how some of them were messengers- angels. The playback starts about 6:00 and is available here: https://youtu.be/EBY6da9NDsY?t=364 or https://www.youtube.com/stannchurch The May guide is available at https://bit.ly/3ukOoKO

Thanks to those who attended virtually and in person! Fr. Tom spoke lesson about Sanctification and transformation. We also talked about the liturgical seasons of Easter and Divine Mercy, and the difference of Sanctification and Salvation. Overall, we focused on the goodness of God, for while we need to talk about sin, their is so much greater that is in store for the life God calls us to live. The playback starts about 7:00 and is available here: https://youtu.be/Z01nZ6QLLug?t=415 (click title above) or https://www.youtube.com/stannchurch The April guide is available at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thanks to those who attended virtually and in person! Fr. Tom had mass then he sat on the steps and gave a lesson about the art in the St Ann sanctuary as well as pointing out each of the 7 Sacraments in the Church. We also had a Virtus Touching Safety lesson about boundaries. The playback is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAHWrXLy6-0 (click title above). The guide is available at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thanks to those who attended virtually and in person! We were able to lead an in person and virtual religious ed. Fr. Tom McNally led a discussion about learning different kinds of prayer, fasting from many types of things, and almsgiving as a consistent way of life taught by Jesus. The playback is available here: https://bit.ly/2MS9eAH (click title above). The February guide is available at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thanks to those who attended the zoom! We had a nice conversation getting into marriage and the Trinity. Father even talked about a child as being one of the best symbols of the Trinity. We ended with a start of the prayer of the Novena. The playback is available here: http://bit.ly/2JWZkN0 The January guide is available at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thanks to those who joined us for religious education on Zoom in December! We started with some Advent songs and videos to remind us of the joyful waiting of this season (O Come O Come Emmanuel by the Piano Guys is excellent!) The catechists presented the covenants throughout history and leading up to the Incarnation of Our Lord. We then had a breakout discussion about our own family Advent and Christmas traditions. You can view the session here: https://bit.ly/StAnnWFC120220

We had a nice warm religious education outside with a fire provided by those trained at the Sherman Lake YMCA! Fr. Tom McNally joined us to speak to families about All Saints and the Last Things of purgatory, hell and heaven, as well as the general and particular judgement.

We gathered to talk about the universal church and also talk about the rosary during this month of the rosary. Catechists got the children to make chalk drawings of the mysteries of the rosary outside our parish. We also talked about online supplements for religious education, such as the interactive My Catholic Faith Delivered. More information about online religious education supplements at https://stannaugusta.org/youth-faith-formation Now is the time to register for 2020-2021 religious education. If you’d like to register your children for My Catholic Faith Delivered online religious education to supplement whole family catechesis; register under “2020 registration”: https://stannaugusta.org/youth-faith-formation For those who want the digital Guide is available online at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources

Thank you for those who joined us for Whole Family Catechesis IN PERSON on the topic of the liturgy! Father James led the evening with a talk focused on the basics of teaching our faith and praying for all the families in our parish and their catechists in this role. We gathered in the back area of the church with sound and bagged dinner. Guide is available online at https://stannaugusta.org/family-resources