Elementary Faith Formation
CONTACTS:  
Preparation Information and to Schedule: Faith Formation Office at 482-1219

At St. Mary Magdalen, we believe that faith formation is a lifelong process and that parents are the primary spiritual and moral educators of their children. 

Our responsibility as a parish church is to support parents in their role as the primary teachers and evangelists of their families. Through our full range of Faith Formation programs, we seek to give the children in our care the knowledge, experience, and skills necessary to become faithful and fruitful disciples of Jesus.

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Easy things you can do to help your children increase in faith and knowledge of our beautiful Catholic faith tradition.

The most important gift parents can give their children is a strong foundation in our Catholic faith.

The easiest way to do this is to provide a good example and be a role model of a faith filled Catholic. We know that children learn their most lasting lessons best by observing what the adults around them do and following their example.

Very young children will learn to pray easily if their parents pray with them when putting them to bed at night.  First prayers can be as simple as "God bless Mommy and Daddy (and Grandma or Brother, etc).  By listening to you and repeating the basic prayers of our church -- The Lord's Prayer, Glory Be, Now I lay Me Down to Sleep, Hail Mary -- children will simply and easily grow up knowing how to pray these prayers.

Another very beautiful and simple faith practice you can begin to do very early in your child's life is to bless them just before you leave the house or last thing you do before they fall asleep.  Simply make the sign of the cross on their foreheads with your thumb and say "God Bless You".  You can do this with blessed Holy Water if you keep some in a bottle or a small font in your home.

Children will learn the great scripture stories of our faith tradition if some of the stories you read to them at story time or bedtime are from a Children's Bible Story Book.  As they begin to learn to read, you can have them read the stories back to you.  Later, your entire family can adopt the practice of reading scripture together after supper one or two nights a week.  Let all the children who are able to read take turns reading, with the adults taking their turn as well.

Children will learn the beauty and meaning of our rich liturgical tradition by coming to church with you every weekend.  When they are small, they will like sitting in the front of the church where they can see as well!  As they grow, you can answer their questions a bit at a time and share your love for our Mass with them.  Once again, your example of attentive listening and full participation in the prayers and music will show them what they need to do to join in the celebration