August 18, 2024

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last week at St. Bridget’s, over 60 kids from all four of our parishes attended the annual Vacation Bible School. Most of them came last Sunday to lead the 9:00 am Mass at St. Bridget’s with songs they learned at VBS. They were wonderful and as always, adorable. Teaching our children the word of God is one of our top priorities as a Catholic Community. This faith formation is an essential part of our children’s education and is not something we do just in the summer. As we draw near to the “Back to School” season, it’s time to address the year-round faith formation of all our children whichever school they attend.

One example of this is the “Children’s Church” program which has been a huge success at St. Bridget’s in recent years. Children present ages 4-8 are dismissed at the beginning of Mass to go celebrate their own liturgy of the Word and then rejoin their families later for the liturgy of the Eucharist The kids and their parents love this program, which also goes by the name of “Children’s Liturgy of the Word.” CLOW has been offered at Assumption, OLL and St. Catherines with varying levels of success. I’d like to ask that all of our parishes plan to offer this important program when our kids return to school this fall.

This kind of planning and implementation requires dedicated staff leadership and coordination, which presently we do not have in most of our family parishes. This weekend I am happy to announce the appointment of Debra Willcoxon Ricard who will serve as the Director of Pastoral Ministries for our NE Catholic Community. Debra has served in recent years at St. Luke Parish in Shoreline. Her ministry among us will include the recruitment, training, and supervision of the volunteers we will need to create dynamic and enjoyable faith formation programs for our beloved children. These programs also provide opportunities for community service for our middle and high school students.

Please join me in welcoming Debra to our family of parishes! Stay tuned for more information about how you can contribute to helping our children become faithful and generous disciples of Christ!

Fr. William Heric, Pastor

Holy Mary Mother of God…pray for us!
St. Bridget of Kildare…pray for us!
St. Catherine of Siena…pray for us!
Live Jesus in our hearts…forever!