Jesus Loves the Little Children

We are blessed with the return of our “Class Sponsored Masses” occasionally at St. Martha’s 10 am Mass and St. Mary’s 9:30 am Mass! Having these young children from our Faith Formation classes serve as Greeters, Readers, Gift Bearers, and general active participants in the Liturgy is a joy to watch! More importantly, it gives them, other children, and all of us, a good example of what “full, conscious, and active” participation can do for our experience of the Mass! The more engaged we are mentally, physically, and spiritually, the more we “get out of” our worship experience and give praise to God, the source of all of our blessings. Thank you to Maggie Hoagland our Director of Faith Formation, all the grade five students who are participating right now, their Catechists who prepared and guided them, and especially the parents and grandparents who brought them and celebrated with them!

We are also actively recruiting children and teens (grades 4 and up) to become Altar Servers in the parish where they usually worship. Training and support will be provided by priests, deacons, and older servers - both in formal lessons and ongoing as they start to serve. Afternoon lessons will be Thursdays at St. Martha (starting Nov. 15, 4 -5pm) and Mondays at St. Mary (starting Nov. 19, 3:45-4:45). If there are conflicts with Faith Formation classes, they can be excused for server training; if other conflicts, they can attend the same lessons at the other church. Parents should contact the Parish Office to sign up.

Of course, Jesus loves the older children as well! Confirmation retreats and service opportunities, regular meetings of our Catholics in Action Youth Group, and plans for an offsite Youth Retreat are all well underway! Thanks to Bob Collins (Director of Faith Formation for Youth), Diana Zeller (Faith Formation Coordinator), and Trish Moore (H.S. Youth Ministry Coordinator), our teens and volunteer Youth Ministers, and everyone who makes these faith experiences possible! Likewise we continue our ongoing efforts and vigilance in keeping safe environments for all of our children and youth. New volunteers and staff all go through Virtus training to help recognize warning signs of abuse, children participate in age-appropriate safety lessons, and each year we submit hundreds and hundreds of Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) checks so the problems of past decades will not be repeated.

Working together - with Jesus and with each other - we can continue to share Jesus’ spiritual love for our children and youth, who need to know what a precious gift they are to their families, their faith-family, and the world!