Welcome to the February notes for Catechetical Leaders! This month's meeting began by celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life. Our prayer service honored all those in the Eastern Region who have answered the call to Consecrated life. I hope you take the time to watch the opening and closing prayer videos in the links found below in this months blog posting. The first video gathers us into prayer using a commitment song and includes images of consecrated life as well as discipleship. I then included the prayer |
prayer partner to that person. If you were unable to come to the meeting, please choose a name from the video presentation and pray for that person (s) and drop them a note card if possible. We have extra cards at the office if you would like to get one.
So without further ado, let's get to the meeting notes:
Call to Prayer: Song of Commitment
- Song Sheet - Wake the World with Dawning Joy (theme song)
- Time Line - Consecrated Life through the Ages
- Consecrated Life - USCCB
Upcoming CL meetings - pdf file
Upcoming Courses
- "The Word: Foundation of Catechesis" (Level I) at St. Paul's Rome, beginning March 4th.
- "Discipleship: Living the Faith" (Level I) at St. Peter's Rome, beginning April 8th.
- "Falling in love with mother Earth: A Moral Imperative for the 21st Century" with Fr. Frederick Daley (Level I - Morality or Social Justice) March 24th (6:30pm) at Mt. Carmel.
- "When Kids Can't come to class" (Level II In-house Webinar, methodology) with Dee Hall. February 11 (3-4pm
- "Google & Gather" Three part series to explore the social components of Google Plus. Each session is independent of each other. Choose one or all three! Feb 26, Mar 12, & March 26 (Level II - methodology, technology)
More Notes
- NCCl Buffalo is just a few months away. Hotels are booking quickly. If you are planning on going to this conference (which moves to different cities in the U.S. each year, this year will be close to us) you need to register for the conference and book your hotel. All Catechetical Leaders are eligible for the Heritage Scholarship money which is $500. All scholarship forms and pastor recommendations must be submitted to the Office of Faith Formation no later than April 1st. Scholarship Application
- Reminder - Circles of Care lessons for students in the parish program should be scheduled and recorded. Forms are to be submitted by May 15th. Parish Tally Sheet
- Dave Barosci was our sponsoring publisher for this meeting. Along with all the wonderful treats he provided for us, he shared several new items. You can check out some of the new items here. Pflaum has acquired RTJ (Religion Teachers' Journal) which is no longer published. Pflaum provides subscriptions to "Catechist" magazine and "Today's Catholic Teacher". Dave also shared that besides our diocesan grants, there are also many other grants which can be found in the Grant Book at your local library, such as from the St. Vincent dePaul Society, Daughters of Charity. There are many grants out there!
- Did you know there is another saint in the making from the Eastern Region? Blessed Mary Theresa Tallon, born in Waterville, NY, is one miracle away from being canonized as a saint.Information
- Fr. Mark Kaminski was our special guest as we welcomed him as the new Eastern Region - Eastern side Vicar. His message to catechetical leaders is that he hope to be a support. He will share with the Office of Faith Formation feedback from pastors so that we, as an office, can help pastors with their program needs and concerns. He also hopes that we can foster an environment of collaboration so work is not duplicated, but shared. Fr. Mark is also the Director for Continuing Education for Priest.
- It is official...the Good N.E.W.S. event will be in each region next year. We are in the beginning stages of planning. I want workshop input from YOU! I hope that this day is everything you want it to be, so let's work to plan it and really promote it! I have to work with the O.F.F. staff as we plan various dates in each of the regions for the workshop days. So, here is a link to Google Doc which everyone has access to (even if you don't have google). Share ANY ideas, speakers, time frames, what would you like it to look like. I will send a few reminders out this month to encourage you to share your ideas. This is a collaborative effort! Your ideas matter. You are part of the committee by default. GOOD N.E.W.S Shared document Comment with each other to start discussions. We will use this at the next meeting.
- Another idea that was brought up to use at the next meeting was to begin formulating what type of regional events could be put on the calendar for youth of various ages. Here is a Regional Catechetical Youth Events Shared. Please share your ideas, speakers, musician groups etc. Begin discussing using comments or added notes within the document.