| |
|
| CONFIRMATION |
|
|
|
Confirmation Preparation at St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish
Welcome!
The staff and people of St. Catherine Parish warmly welcome you as you prepare for your or your child’s Confirmation.
The Sacrament of Confirmation impresses a character and by it the baptized,
continuing on the path of Christian initiation, are enriched by the gift of the Holy Spirit and bound more perfectly to the church; it strengthen them and obliges them more firmly to be witnesses to Christ by word and deed and to spread and defend the faith. Canon 879. Please note that a person must be a confirmed, (fully initiated) practicing Catholic in order to be a Godparent, lector, Eucharistic Minister or catechist.
If your child was baptized as an infant or as a youngster under the age of reason (approx. 6 years of age), he/she most likely was given instruction (catechized) to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time (1st Communion). It is then normative in St. Catherine’s Parish to continue formation classes in either the Catholic school or the Catechetical Ministry of the parish until the completion of the eighth grade.
Your teenager is then eligible for the two-year High School Confirmation program. The program is modeled on the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) where catechesis is centered on the liturgical life of the parish community – Sunday Mass. The program has several stages:
Evangelization - The students come to Evangelization sessions from 3:30 – 5:15 p.m. on alternating Sundays from September to November. They will attend the Youth Oriented Mass at 5:30 p.m. which is followed by Life Nights until 8:30 p.m. on the other alternate Sundays, from September through November. (Life Teen is the basic Youth Ministry community for this parish.) The candidates will then choose their sponsors and attend a Morning of Recollection with them to begin the season of Advent. They will celebrate the Ritual of Welcoming with their sponsors at the 5:30 p.m. Youth Oriented Mass followed by a potluck with their sponsors and families in the Parish Center.
Catechesis – Once a month formation sessions on Sundays from 3:30 – 5:15 p.m., with their sponsors, followed by attendance at the 5:30 p.m. Youth Oriented Mass from January to May of the first year and from September to the start of Lent the second year. Two required weekend retreats are scheduled during the Catechesis period: The Friendship Retreat which ends the first year in May and the Road to Emmaus Retreat which takes place in January, usually on the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
Immediate Preparation – Liturgical Scripture study in small faith groups during the Sundays of Lent from 3:30 to 5:15 p.m. with their sponsors until the Rite of Confirmation, followed by the 5:30 p.m. Youth Oriented Mass with their sponsors. They and their sponsors will celebrate a ritual during the Lenten season which is called the Presentation of the Creed, which is passing on the Traditions of the Church. An afternoon of Prayer is held for the candidates and their sponsors in order to reflect on the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit. They will make a Novena to the Holy Spirit before the Confirmation date.
Discipleship – Those confirmed are encouraged to carry on their growth in spiritual development by participating in retreats, continuing in the Life Teen program, performing meaningful Christian service and serving in the ministries of the parish.
Please contact the Youth/Adult Formation office to register or for more information at 779-0542.
Students who did NOT continue
Those teens that did not continue classes after 1st Communion and have a gap of several years in religious instruction will need to be examined to determine if they have sufficient basic religious formation (catechesis) to qualify them to enter the program. The ACRE Exam, Level 2 (Assessment of Catholic Religious Education) a national, standardized program will be administered. Those who are found lacking will need to be placed in a year’s Basic Doctrine course in order to hopefully, “catch up” before beginning the two-year Confirmation program.
Students who have not been baptized or have not been prepared for first Communion
Teens that have not been baptized or catechized will enter the R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) process of the parish. They will participate in Evangelization and Catechesis with the other teens, but will require additional liturgical formation with their sponsors and families on a weekly basis (Sunday Dismissals), including the summer months for those two years.
Adult Confirmation
A fourteen week course (the six weeks of Lent and eight weeks of Easter) is offered each year for adult, practicing Catholics of the parish who for various reasons were not prepared for Confirmation as teenagers. Those candidates are accompanied by their sponsors, families and catechists to St. Joseph’s Cathedral to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with the diocesan bishop on Pentecost Sunday afternoon. Please be |
|
|
|
| Jeanne Gaffney |
| jeanne@stca.org |
| (408) 779-0542 |
|
|
|
Files to download
Confirmation Year One
Confirmation Year Two
|