Adult Faith Formation

Using a classroom model of Religious Education, or CCD, has been a practice of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States since the 1800’s.  Through numerous studies and in a number of Church documents written since 1971, we have come to an awareness of the deficiencies of using a school model for teaching the Faith. 

Our focus in faith formation using the school model has been children, yet our children primarily come to know God and develop a relationship with God through their parents.  How mom and dad pray, participate in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church and how they share with their children their own experiences of God are key elements of children growing in relationship with God.  Thus, it is essential for the Church to form children in faith by supporting parents in their own continued growth in relationship with God and in sharing our Faith with their children.  An intergenerational model of faith formation has demonstrated great potential in enabling people of all ages to continue the process of growing in relationship with God as expressed in our Scripture and Roman Catholic Tradition.

Generations of Faith is the program we are currently using for this new approach to lifelong faith formation.  It incorporates both an opportunity for children to learn our Faith with their peers and with their parents.  It also creates an environment for participants to learn inter-generationally, since, at times within the sessions, people of all ages participate together. The program consists of six sessions within a year covering a particular topic within the curriculum of Roman Catholicism.  In addition to these six sessions, households are given material for ongoing learning, reflection and prayer focusing on one aspect of who God is and who we are called to be as a people of God in order to make this Faith our own, so that we live our Faith.  The session is followed by a celebration of Eucharist on the weekend, which relates to the Faith topic focused on in the session. Faith – our relationship with God – becomes a part of us when we put our Faith into action, by living what we have come to believe. 

Without this ongoing learning, reflection, prayer and application, religion becomes just another subject to learn and forget.  We are called to learn our Faith so as to live it, rather than living as if knowing our Faith were enough.

ADULT BREAK-OUT GROUPS OFFERED ALL SEVEN TIMES EACH SESSION IS OFFERED!

An Extended Adult Break-out Session is offered during the Wednesday session of Generations of Faith.

Topic for our fourth series:

Responding in Faith

October’s Session of Generations of Faith will focus on “Our Need to Commune with God: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication”.  In November we will engage in “Catholic Prayers and Devotions”.  January’s topic will be “Praying with Scripture”.  When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus taught them to “Pray the Lord’s Prayer”.  We will unfold these words we say so often at our session in February.  During March, the Lenten season, we will focus on “Spiritual Reading and Praying with Our Saints”. Our final session of the series on prayer gives us an opportunity to re-connect with “Praying Always and All Ways”.