This past Wednesday evening, I was privileged to celebrate our kick-off Mass for faith formation. Over the summer, we welcomed Dave Rinaldi to our faith formation team who will direct evangelization at our parish, and work in conjunction with Kyle Finken who heads up faith formation. In addition, Lisetta Coppa continues to work in youth ministry, and with Maria Medina and Kathy Neary who work in faith formation as well, we’re very excited about what is coming up. Over the summer, there were youth events, a Vacation Bible School, and later this year we have events planned for men and women, youth and the entire parish. I am so thankful for our team for all of their hard work, and to the army of volunteers working with them.

Of course, Faith Formation is vital for us all – both to keep being formed, and to form one another, especially within the family.

The problem is we live in a very secular world, and practically speaking we are also very busy, sometimes faith formation can be put on the back burner to school, sports, household busyness, etc. And let’s face it, both as an adult and child, if we’ve been at school or work all day, been busy after we get off, it can sometimes be hard to have energy going still at 6 or 7 p.m. at night. So how do we fan the flames of the Holy Spirit?

It starts at home. It’s important to remember the Church is there to help and assist parents, but faith formation is the primary role of parents. Try to develop a habit of prayer with the family, even if it’s just a few minutes at the end of the day. Make Mass a priority in your week. (Soon I hope to add a weekday evening Mass to allow more people to go.) Talk about what happens at Mass with kids and why we go there. Consider books on the faith for children. Use the faith to explain to kids why we do some things and do not do others. Go to confession every so often as a family. And of course, remember how we live our lives does so much to teach others from the words we use to how we treat one another in the family to the things we look at online or on TV, to the hard work we do to support a family, children especially are formed by what happens in the home. As the saying goes, sometimes we are the only Bible people read, and especially for kids in the house, they learn so much when they see parents loving one another, making sacrifices for the family, saying both “I love you” and “I’m sorry” if they make a mistake and working hard. When we combine these things, it helps children to see faith not just for Sunday morning or Wednesday evening at religious education class, but as a way of life.

We can also form ourselves with great websites such as the bishops’ website, which has daily readings, reflections and documents at usccb.org; Bishop Robert Barron’s “Word on Fire” ministry at wordonfire.org; the Eternal Word Television Network site, ewtn.com, which also has numerous apologetic articles; then there is the Vatican’s website too, vatican.va, where you’ll find the catechism, apostolic letters, info on saints, and all sorts of good stuff. There are also some great phone apps as well such as “Hallow.” You can also check out “formed.org” for some great videos and apologetics too for both adults and children.

Again, I think with respect to the faith it goes back to something I’ve heard Bishop Robert Barron speak of numerous times, namely the faith is not just one thing among many, but the center of our lives. God is like the north star around which all the others rotate. So many things fill our lives, but just as I share with the kids at the start of a school year the objective isn’t to be the best video game player but to learn about the world, our faith, and to discover our vocations, the same is true for all of us – at the end of the day we don’t want to say to God we learned how to be a great golfer, a great busybody, or make a lot of money. A good job, financial security, hobbies we enjoy, these things matter. But nothing matters more than getting to heaven. Jesus has shown us the way there, may we use the virtue of faith given to us on our baptism and grow in it every day of our lives.

Have a blessed week,

Fr. Paul

 

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September 13, 2026