From Michele Baetzold, Coordinator of Faith Formation

The Church has always recognized parents as the primary faith formers of their children. With this premise as a guide, we as a parish have historically aimed to offer support to parents in their role as “first and best” teachers. This support has taken the form of classroom, home-based, intergenerational, and family-based programming. Saint Noel Parish is pleased to be one of ten parishes invited by the Diocese of Cleveland’s Office of Catechetical Formation to participate in Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation Project, a Lilly Endowment grant-funded project designed and directed by the National Community of Catechetical Leaders. The project aims to explore how to strengthen faith transmission at home in the first two decades of life and create parish communities that intentionally accompany and support parents and the whole family. The goal of the project is to create new approaches that:

• Encourage parents/caregivers to grow in the Catholic faith as adults
• Equip parents/caregivers to build families that live Christian practices at home and in the world
• Engage parents/caregivers in learning how to become faith formers of their children and teens
• Involve the whole family in faith forming experiences and programs in the parish community
• Connect families with the other generations in the parish community through intergenerational faith forming experiences

We join NCCL in recognizing that parents/caregivers and the family are the most powerful influences for virtually every child and youth outcome—personal, academic, social, and spiritual-religious; and that parents are the most important influence on the social and religious lives of children, youth, and emerging adults. Given the central role of parents/caregivers and families in shaping the lives of children and youth, they need to be at the center of faith formation.

Our parish joins the Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation Project in being guided by a set of convictions about the importance of parents/caregivers and the family in faith formation:

• We believe the family is the first community and the most basic way in which God gathers us, forms us, and acts in the world.
• We believe parents are the most significant influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children and youth.
• We believe, as research studies have found, that the primary ways by which a religious identity becomes rooted in children’s lives are the day-to-day religious practices of the family and ways parents model their faith and share it.
• We believe the quality of parents’ relationships with their young people and the parenting style they practice make a significant difference in faith transmission.

Saint Noel Parish will work with NCCL to design and implement an intentional, continuous plan for forming the faith of families from birth to high school graduation in four life stages: young children, grade school children, young adolescents, and older adolescents—with age-appropriate faith forming programs, activities, and resources. A family plan is a holistic approach to forming faith in the first two decades of life by integrating several essential elements:

• Developing faith practices at home
• Worshipping God with the parish community at Sunday Mass
• Celebrating sacraments – Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation; and rituals and milestones at home and at church
• Celebrating church year seasons at home and at church
• Developing parenting practices and skills appropriate to each stage of life
• Developing the knowledge and skills for parenting for faith growth
• Participating as a family in family catechesis programming and parish gatherings

We whole-heartedly invite all St. Noel parents and caregivers of children who attend public, private, or Catholic schools, or who are not-ready-for-school-yet, as well as parish elders who may wish to support our families, to join with us on this three-year journey to enrich parish faith formation. Please use this link to let us know of your interest in this exciting endeavor and to be added to our contact list: https://stnoel.breezechms.com/form/ecc143.

Next weekend, a calendar, along with registration and payment information, will be available for those families with children from age 3 to grade 12 who wish to be part of Family Faith Formation this year. Save Wed., Sep. 18, 6-7:30pm, for our first family night!