December Greetings!

This year, our third-grade teacher, Jeniffer, wanted to involve the whole school in the Nativity.  She turned the social hall into the town of Bethlehem and each class took a part in the Gospel narrative.  As you can see the pre-school classes and the lower grades were angels and sheep.  The middle schoolers were the townspeople and their children.  The high schoolers were the major characters:  Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, shepherds, Kings, Herod, Caesar, etc.  Of course, we always have a baby in the parish to be Jesus!  It was a great success and families filled the hall to watch!

We have been using FORMED with our high school youth.  They particularly responded to the "What Am I Here?" segment.  We followed up with a PowerPoint Presentation on Choices and Commitments.  We also talked about their most important values that they carry through life.  

Here are the presentation and the values worksheet:
Choices and Commitments
What Are Your Values?

For keeping current on what is happening in our church today, I recommend subscribing to Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly (www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly).   The December 10th article is entitled, "How to engage children in the faith," by Sarah Dickerson.  She gives age-appropriate tips to help keep our children involved in everyday prayer life.