Update+
Volume 3, Number 12 March 11, 2022
- Covid and masks in Religious Education
- Echoes Emmaus Catechist Training -- MPH
- Employment Opportunities
- Bishop Barron's Catholicism Series
- First Week of Lent -- EAM
- Keys to Reaching Inactive Catholics (Free Zoom Workshop)
- Prayer for Peace by Pope Francis
DO THEY STILL WEAR MASKS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION?
Some are calling with this question. Our policy continues to be: “If they must wear masks at school, then they must wear masks at religious education.” Certainly anyone – student or catechist – MAY wear a mask even once the local schools have dropped the requirement. This individual choice may even help us teach our young people to respect the individual choices others make!
Basic Catechist Training
Spring 2022
Encourage catechists to welcome Spring by learning something new through our online Basic Catechist Certification Courses, offered through the Office of Religious Ed.
St. Peter Parish, Northbridge is seeking a part-time Religious Education Coordinator to direct the program for children/youth in Grade 1 through high school. The program currently serves 28 families with approximately 50 youngsters. Interested applicants should possess a bachelor’s degree and some experience in parish religious education. If interested, please call the parish at 508-234-2156 or email to parishoffice@stpeterrockdale.org.
There are also 2 other parishes looking to hire a certified DRE. Please contact Liz for more information: emarcil@worcesterdiocese.org or 508-929-4306
Catholicism
10th Anniversary
Free Online Screening Event
Journey with Bishop Robert Barron to more than 50 locations throughout 16 countries. Be illuminated by the spiritual and artistic treasures of this global culture that claims more than one billion of the earth's people, and discover the full meaning of the faith.
FIRST WEEK OF LENT
Thank you to all who have been working with catechumens and candidates this year. 28 parishes and 2 colleges presented 70 catechumens and 58 candidates.
Let us support these elect and candidates with prayer, fasting and almsgiving as they journey to Easter and we prepare to renew our own Baptismal promises.
Overcoming Obstacles to Reaching Inactive Catholics:
Keys to Reaching Inactive Catholics
Get concrete help with the six common stumbling blocks that keep us from approaching and engaging inactive Catholics. Instructors: John and Therese Boucher. Time/Date: 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM, Saturday, March 26, 2022. Workshop on Zoom.com. NO COST registration—spaces limited. Send name, email, & phone to: boucherjohn@hotmail.com by Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
A PRAYER FOR PEACE BY POPE FRANCIS
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years
to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms.
How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced?
how much blood has been shed?
how many lives have been shattered?
how many hopes have been buried?
But our efforts have been in vain.
Now, Lord, come to our aid!
Grant us peace, teach us peace;
guide our steps in the way of peace.
Open our eyes and our hearts,
and give us the courage to say: "Never again war!"; "With war everything is lost".
Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.
Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love,
you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters.
Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace;
enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister.
Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens
who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace,
our trepidation into confident trust,
and our quarreling into forgiveness.
Keep alive within us the flame of hope,
so that with patience and perseverance
we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation.
In this way may peace triumph at last,
and may the words "division," "hatred," and "war"
be banished from the heart of every man and woman.
Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands.
Renew our hearts and minds,
so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother,"
and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!
Amen.