THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Two commandments, says Jesus, and you can’t have one without the other because both have to go together--love God and love your neighbor

KidsRelig took a trip this week down the Via Pastrina to our own little bakery shop. There were all the ingredients for baking a cake, some dry and some liquid. Each was good stuff, but we discovered that if we decided to bake one first and then the other, all we would get is something like sawdust and curdled milk. We couldn’t have one without the other because both have to go together. And so we put it all together, and out popped a cake. It seems that’s just the way it is; good things have to go together.

I told the kids that our cake wasn’t big enough for everybody. So, in each session, we put the teachers’ names in a hat and drew out the class that won the cake. But before we did, I asked who wanted the cake. Everyone! Why? Because it tastes good. How do you know? We’ve had it before. And when was that first taste of cake? When we were given a piece by our moms or dads.

Love God and love your neighbor—good things that have to go together. And although called commands, they are really an attitude of gratitude. We all loved our KidsRelig cake because someone had first made a gift of cake to us and we learned to appreciate the taste.

We are all gifted with love. If we live in an attitude of gratitude, then we get a taste for love, and what we have received becomes what we give. And that’s a command performance.

BUS BEHAVIOR

Please talk to your kids about bus behavior and the demands of safety. Noise and pushing and shoving put everyone in jeopardy.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

TWENTY NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Stump the chumps!

That’s the game we played to get started this week. A few trick questions like,

“How many apples does it take to fill an empty box?”

“One, because once you put one apple in the box it’s not empty anymore.”

More than once, the trick was discovered and this trickster was foiled. And that’s exactly what happens in this week’s gospel. The tricksters fail to trick Jesus with their trick question. Because they do not love him, they try to get him to give the answer they want, which they know will get Jesus in trouble. But Jesus gives his own answer, foils the tricksters’ plot and saves himself from trouble—at least for now.

The kids heard that the story of the gospel is not so much about the trick, as it is about the tricksters. They did not love Jesus.. And that’s where the trickery begins. They ask, not looking for Jesus’ answer, but for their own—to end their trickery by making an end of Jesus.

And the lesson for the kids? We must begin by loving Jesus. And if we really love him, then whenever we ask Jesus a question, it won’t be to get the answer we want, but the answer Jesus gives. And that’s how we can all save ourselves from trouble.

KidsRelig Calendar

It’s on the webpage at www.sjsmrcc.com. Click on the Religious Education tab at the left of the homepage. On the Religious Education page, click on the Calendar link on the right. Scroll through the months of our entire year. It’s all there, including that First Communion date of May 12.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

FIRST DAYS OF KIDSRELIG

First Days! The sign above the church doors read:

“I have called you by name. I love you, and you are mine.”

Words spoken by God through the prophet Isaiah and put to music in the hymn You Are Mine, which we sang together once we got into church.

I told the kids that their names had very much been on my mind. As I stood there with a borrowed fedora hat on my head, I told them how I had read their names putting away last year’s books and file folders and archiving last year’s digital files. How their names popped up on my computer screen all summer as registration came streaming in. How their names became like little puzzle pieces as I assigned them to classes and put together that big puzzle, called KidsRelig.

Names on my mind! And to prove it, I pulled off that fedora hat and out came tumbling hundreds of pieces of paper with the kids’ names on them.

“Until now,” I asked, “did you know I had all your names on my mind?”

“Not really,” they answered.

“So what difference does it make if you didn’t know I was thinking about you, worrying about you, wondering about you?”

What difference does it make? That’s this year’s question in KidsRelig. God has called each of us by name—thinking about us, worrying about us, wondering about us. And yet, most of the time, we hardly know it. So, what difference does it make?

The question will be asked in each grade:

• 1st—meeting God and learning to pray
• 2nd—preparing for 1^st Penance & Communion
• 3^rd—learning about our call to faith
• 4^th—studying the Commandments & Beatitudes
• 5^th—learning about the Sacraments
• 6^th—The Old Testament
• 7^th—The New Testament
• 8^th—The Church & Church History

Love,

Deacon Charlie

TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

KidsRelig--God's Construction Site

If you build it, they will come.  But the lesson of today’s gospel parable is:  Not really!!!  A tough lesson for God.  So tough, that he refused to learn it.  He refused to be thrown off the construction site and just kept on building—bigger and better.  Flesh and Blood is the cornerstone of his building and of every stone laid upon it.

KidsRelig is a lot of things—a school of religious education, a good place to hang out at the end of the regular school day, Catholic fun and games, a parish program supported by many parents and made possible by dedicated volunteers.  But most of all, it’s God’s construction site.  And this week, we’re putting our hard hats on, because we’re shovel-ready! 

Opening Days for KidsRelig

Tuesday, October 4:          Bell                      2:45

                                            Westorchard       3:45

Wednesday, Octorber 5:   Grafflin                3:45

Thursday, October 6:        Seven Bridges    2:45

                                            Roaring Brook    3:45

OPEN HOUSE FOR FIRST GRADERS

We would like to welcome in a special way all of the First Graders who will be joining us at KidsRelig.  So please come this Sunday to an Open House just for you (and your parents):

Sunday

October 2^nd

After the 10:30 Mass

Community Room A&B

      Love,

Deacon Charlie

TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Flip-flop—the ultimate sin in our current political climate.  And yet, for Jesus, no sin at all.  In fact, it’s just what he’s looking for in today’s gospel—a change of mind. 

As we prepare for the opening days of KidsRelig and I read through all the kids’ names over and over again, I think of the challenge of changing minds.  And I don’t just mean confronting the competing interests in the broader culture and convincing the kids that there are real choices to be made that may put them at odds with the crowd.  Sure, that’s our job, and a tough one at that.  But it’s more.  It’s creating a mindfulness in our kids that their minds are neither the only minds nor the only minds that count.  It’s the  mindfulness of God that never leaves us alone and always makes us pay attention.  Now, there’s a change of mind!

Opening Days for KidsRelig

Tuesday, October 4:          Bell                      2:45

                                            Westorchard       3:45

Wednesday, Octorber 5:   Grafflin                3:45

Thursday, October 6:        Seven Bridges    2:45

                                            Roaring Brook    3:45

OPEN HOUSE FOR FIRST GRADERS

We would like to welcome in a special way all of the First Graders who will be joining us at KidsRelig.  So please come next Sunday to an Open House just for you (and your parents):

Sunday

October 2^nd

After the 10:30 Mass

Community Room A&B

                                               
The KidsRelig Litany

·   Register for KidsRelig . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   Register for the KidsRelig Bus . . . online at the Parish Web(www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   Pay by credit card . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   KidsRelig Calendar . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage ; Calendar Link on right of Religious Education Page

·      KidsRelig Blog . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage; Blog Link on right of Religious Education Page

Love,

Deacon Charlie

TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

And they said to Jesus, “No one has hired us,” He answered, “You too go into my vineyard.”  Couldn’t have ordered a better gospel for this Sunday!!!

KidsRelig is hiring.  Our most pressing need is for 3 classroom teachers:

• 3^rd Grade Tuesday at 3:45
• 3^rd Grade Wednesday at 3:45
• 4^th Grade Thursday at 3:45

I can’t stress enough that this is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we are going to keep our class sizes appropriately small.  So, please contact me as soon as possible if you can go into the “vineyard.”  And trust me; we’ll hire you.

More on the subject of hiring, but moving from need to luxury.  Ours would be a happier, deeper, richer and more efficient program if we had the following:

• A list of substitute teachers
• A list of teacher helpers for elementaries
• Bulletin Board Decorators

All of these are part-time positions, i.e., as needed.  It is so important, however, to know that there is a deep bench we can go to.  By “teacher helpers,” I mean someone who could just be around during the 3 elementary sessions to take little ones to the bathroom or help with band aids or sit with a tummy ache until mom or dad comes to pick up early. 

Please consider our need for teachers and those part-time luxury items and contact me as soon as you can at:

kidsrlig@optimum.net

or

(914)238-3260

And thanks!

  

The KidsRelig Litany

·   Register for KidsRelig . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   Register for the KidsRelig Bus . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   Pay by credit card . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage

·   KidsRelig Calendar . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage ; Calendar Link on right of Religious Education Page

·   KidsRelig Opening Days . . . on the calendar:  October 4, 5, 6

·   KidsRelig Blog . . . online at the Parish Web (www.sjsmrcc.com) and click on the Religious Education tab on left of homepage; Blog Link on right of Religious Education Page

Love,

Deacon Charlie

TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Lead with your heart.  That’s how Jesus sums up his policy on the debt crisis in today’s gospel.  Sounds like fuzzy thinking and bad economics.  Or is it simply basic, Catholic social teaching—a preference for the poor?  Nothing fuzzy; nothing bad.  And certainly not easy, because leading with the heart demands sacrifice—self-sacrifice.

THE BUS TO KIDSRELIG

Emails have gone out from the Parent Committee and from us at KidsRelig.  Information about Bus Registration and the Registration Form are available on the Parish Website:

• You can click >>>HERE and go directly to the Bus Information and Registration Form
• Or go to the Parish website at www.sjsmrcc.com and click on the Religious Education tab on the left 
• On the Religious Education Page, click on the link with the Yellow School Bus for Bus Information and Registration Form

KidsRelig On-line Registration Reaches

75%

Please, please, please . . . register now and use the new credit card payment option.

*Go to Parish Website (www.sjsmrcc.com)

*Click Religious Education--CCD tab on left

*Read letter on Religious Education Page

*Go to top of page and find  two links to:

1.  On-line Registration Form
2. Fees & Payment Options Page

It’s quick; it’s easy, and it’s critically important to us in forming classes, getting teachers in the classrooms, planning the year and setting up our classrooms. 

Love,

Deacon Charlie