Parents don’t need more, they need meaningful
Family Faith Formation is St. Brendan the Navigator’s faith formation program for students in grades K-8 who do not currently attend St. Brendan school.
It is one program for the whole family to do together that gives intentionality, structure, and routine to the conversations about faith you already have at home, anchored by a monthly family session here at the parish.
Moving to our family-based processes for faith formation and sacrament preparation is based on the most current directives from the Church and the most up-to-date sociological research. As a teacher, we were always encouraged to use research-based methods for instruction, classroom management, assessment, community-building, etc. This is a mindset that you can also find in our Department of Ministry and Evangelization.
For us, this means that faith formation and sacrament preparation must support families in their journey of faith–fostering growth and maturity of faith through relationship instead of providing requirements to meet. Faith is not transactional, where we put in the money or registration form and thus the sacraments and spirituality are dispensed. Our method must instead be relational, where your family is accompanied by the community of the Church as you move forward in grace towards greater faith. This must include the staff and clergy. Our priority is to provide whatever you need as you share your faith with others.
At Saint Brendan, our goal is to encourage and support conversations in the home with parents about faith. These are the key movements–in the family’s context, and with parents. We are not offering just resources to support this, but a whole method for engaging in and raising conversations about faith in the home. We want to help you have meaningful conversations about faith with you and your children.
Schedule
Families attend an at-church family session once a month. During these, there is a session for parents and children in kindergarten through eighth grade. These are usually on the second Sunday and Monday of each month. The family sessions times are:
2nd Sundays from 9:45-11:15am for kindergarten – grade 5 families
2nd Sundays from 6:30-8:30pm for grades 6 through 8 families
2nd Mondays from 6:30-8pm for kindergarten – grade 8 families
Middle school students also attend two small group sessions each month. These are on the first and third Sunday or Monday each month.
Families will have some kind of at-home family meeting with a teaching and activity to complete once or twice each month. The at-church family session will help parents to understand how to conduct the family meeting and provide a time to support and follow up with others.
