REGISTRATION FOR KIDSRELIG 2013-2014

KidsRelig Bus Info & Registration 2013-2014

Click here>>>Bus Info & Registration Form

KidsRelig Calendar 2013-2014

Click here>>>Calendar

KidsRelig Registration 2013-2014

Today, September 13, we are at 85%.  Please keep it coming.  Take 5 minutes today and register. Really need you to register by September 17th.  That's next Tuesday.

PLEASE REGISTER NOW!  Go to the Religious Education Page of the Parish Website (click here).  Read our welcoming letter and use the two important links at the top of the page:

• 2013-2014     Registration Form
• 2013-2014   Fees & Payment Options Page with credit card payment program. 

For newcomers, it’s quick and easy.  For veterans, it’s as easy as ever.

(Bus registration will come later, once we see how many have registered for KidsRelig.)

KidsRelig First-Timers

REGISTER & GET CONNECTED

Are you new to the parish or is your #1 going into First Grade?  It is so important that you register as soon as possible.  Registration gets you into our email address book, which is the lifeline of communication for KidsRelig.  You won’t know what’s happening unless you are connected online.



CONFIRMATION:  KidsRelig is for grades 1 through 8 and is separate from the Confirmation Program, which has its own registration process.  Confirmation Information and Registration is online at https://sjsmrcc.com/Confirmation.html .

Love,

Deacon Charlie

PALM SUNDAY

GODSPELL

We all had snacks together.  Then, as we walked to the “movie theater,” we passed the Stations of the Cross hanging on the classroom wall. In the theater before the movie began, we asked the kids to watch and listen for the Stations as they appeared in Godspell, whose dialogue is taken entirely from St. Matthew’s Gospel.  (We only watched the end of the movie, which depicts the Passion and Resurrection stories.)

 

Watch and listen for the monstrous powers of darkness lining up against Jesus!

Watch and listen to Jesus gathering his friends close to him in their confusion over his struggle with darkness!

Watch and listen to Jesus as he “triumphantly” marches through the city just before his suffering and death!

Watch and listen to Jesus as he sits down for Passover with his friends and washes them clean!

Watch and listen to Jesus as he breaks bread into his body and shares wine into his blood!

Watch and listen as Judas runs out on Jesus and betrays him!

Watch and listen to Jesus as he prays to his Father for strength and begs his friends to stay awake and remain loyal!

Watch and listen as the police are led to Jesus by his betrayer and arrest him at the sign of a kiss!

Watch and listen as Jesus is hanged, made to suffer and to die!

Watch and listen as the powers of darkness are fooled into thinking they had killed God!

And watch and listen as Jesus, the God who lives forever, rises in all who believe in Him--

DAY BY DAY!!!

 

Watch and listen as the story is retold by a Clown among clowns.  To remind us, in the words of St. Paul, that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”  (1Cor.1:25)

 

They keep trying to put a Clown on the cross, because “[t]he message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (St. Paul, 1Cor.1:18).

 

Love, Deacon Charlie

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Our Second Graders celebrated First Penance this week.

Before we did anything, we came into church, sat on the floor, looked up and saw the Act of Contrition displayed in big, bold letters on the front of the altar.  The kids were asked whether any of them had a friend, and, thankfully, they all did. 

“Ever do anything wrong to your friend?”

“Yep.”

“Did you have to say sorry?”

“Yep.”

“Tough?”

“Yep.”

“Tough as it was, did it fix things?”

“Yep.”

“Still friends and were you all happy about that?”

“Yep.”

Then, we looked back up to the altar and saw that in the very first words of our big, bold Act of Contrition was the word “sorry.”  And we discovered that confession (Penance) is nothing more than God giving us a chance to practice saying “sorry” while God listens in and says, “Perfect; now keep practicing.”

The woman caught in adultery, the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus—the cast of today’s gospel.  And the scene?  Jesus doodles while he waits for somebody to say “sorry.”  But everybody seems to be out of practice. 

God knows our imperfections and doesn’t need us to tell any secrets, and surely doesn’t need us to repair any divine, hurt feelings.  “Sorry” is not about God; it’s about us.  It’s about us not faking it by playing the perfect to others’ imperfections and securing the secrecy of our own sinfulness. 

“Sorry”—we gotta practice!

 

First Communion News

Mass Assignments for our First Communion on May 11, 2013:

9:30 AM: Thursday (Roaring Brook) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Aurora/Ms. Metcalf’s Wednesday (Grafflin ) 2^nd Grade

11:30 AM:  Tuesday (Westorchard) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Galvin’s Wednesday (Grafflin) 2^nd Grade.

 

Love, Deacon Charlie

 

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

The Prodigal Son

Two boys, two stories, the same page—New York Times, March 5, 2013.  Amar (6 years old) lay dead in the roadway at 117^th Street and 1^st Avenue in East Harlem.  On his way to school, the little boy had been struck by a tractor-trailer, whose driver sat so high up in the cab that he couldn’t even see the boy and didn’t know he had hit him.  Khalil (17 years old) was at the County Center last Sunday when “in one motion pushed up the desperation heave” that would beat the buzzer and secure the win for New Rochelle over its basketball rival Mt. Vernon in the Section 1 Class AA final.  A reserve player, and an injured one at that, Khalil nearly missed the playoff game with a bum ankle.

Two boys and the accidental happenings that led to a tragic loss and a moment’s victory.  Just not fair!

Today’s gospel story of the Prodigal Son—two boys, two stories, the same page—St. Luke’s Gospel.  And the accidental happenings of their lives led to a moment’s victory and a tragic loss.  Just not fair!

But the father’s love is not measured by its fairness; it’s measured by its generosity, which knows no measure. 

To demand fairness may make us fair, but to embrace generosity will make us generous.  And although love is never unfair, it is always generous.

 

First Penance—This Week!

First Penance for our 2^nd Graders will take place during their regular KidsRelig sessions on Tuesday (3/12), Wednesday (3/13) and Thursday (3/14). 

 

First Communion News

Mass Assignments for our First Communion on May 11, 2013:

 

9:30 AM: Thursday (Roaring Brook) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Aurora/Ms. Metcalf’s Wednesday (Grafflin ) 2^nd Grade

11:30 AM:  Tuesday (Westorchard) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Galvin’s Wednesday (Grafflin) 2^nd Grade.

Love, Deacon Charlie

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

“Cut it down,” said the owner of the fig tree, frustrated by its failure to bear fruit.

‘Sir,” answered the gardener, “leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”

In today’s gospel, the tree wasn’t broken, just wounded.  And the gardener just needed a chance to work his miracle.

I asked the Elementaries about Dolphin Tale, last week’s movie.  I was amazed how they repeated every detail of the tail’s tale—from the woundedness of Winter, the dolphin, and everyone around him to the commitment of each not to allow the other to live broken. Together they worked miracles.

Last weekend at SJM went like this:  a room full of little moviegoers, pillows and sleeping-bags on the floor, pizza and plenty of parent helping-hands, goodbyes and thank yous; a sixth-grade Mass, powerful readers, happy greeters, amazing ushers, gifted gift-bearers, generous sweets, plenty of parent helping-hands, goodbyes and thank yous.  Together we worked miracles.

First Penance

First Penance for our 2^nd Graders will take place during their regular KidsRelig sessions on Tuesday (3/12), Wednesday (3/13) and Thursday (3/14).  An email was delivered to your inboxes this past week explaining the sacrament and the way we celebrate it.

First Communion News

Mass Assignments for our First Communion on May 11, 2013:

9:30 AM: Thursday (Roaring Brook) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Aurora/Ms. Metcalf’s Wednesday (Grafflin ) 2^nd Grade

11:30 AM:  Tuesday (Westorchard) 2^nd Grades + Ms. Galvin’s Wednesday (Grafflin) 2^nd Grade.

CALENDAR REMINDER

No KidsRelig this Wednesday, 3/6.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

The Transfiguration

Jesus climbs to the mountaintop for one reason—to pray.  And out of his prayer, all kinds of things begin to happen.  First, Jesus himself is changed in appearance.  He looks like he is in all his glory.  Next, two old friends of his Father stop by to visit—Moses, the savior of his people, and Elijah, the first and greatest prophet, who spent a lifetime speaking truth to power and paid for it.  The three start talking about what Jesus is in for in Jerusalem—the ultimate in truth telling and the ultimate in saving people, but not without a struggle.

I forgot to mention that Jesus had taken with him to the mountaintop three of his followers, Peter, John and James.  Not surprising that I forgot to mention them, because when they got to the top, they fell fast asleep and slept through all the big doings.  When they finally woke up, they woke up stupid.  Luke, the gospel writer, tells us that their spokesperson, Peter, had no idea what he was talking about when he opened his mouth at the sight of what was happening.  And when all three came down the mountain, they clammed up.  And we can almost hear Luke saying, Thank God, because they wouldn’t know what they were talking about.  And that’s even after they had heard the voice of God introducing them to his Son and telling them to listen to him. 

For all its detail, there seems to be one important fact missing from the gospel story.  Although everything seems to happen because Jesus is praying, Luke never tells us what Jesus says in his prayer.  Maybe for good reason, because if I were to guess what Jesus said while praying, I would guess nothing.  Jesus just listened.

The listener—that’s who Jesus is.  Like Moses, he saves his people because he listens to them and hears their suffering.  Like Elijah, he listens through all the noise to hear the voice of truth.  And like the Son he is, he listens to the Father’s word and obeys.  In fact, Jesus listens with such passion that he becomes the people he saves; he becomes the truth he speaks, and he becomes the Word of God.

All this listening took sacrifice, but the same listening would bring glory—the glory of resurrection to eternal life.  Because what better definition of eternal life than listening to God forever!

No wonder, then, that the voice of God commands all of us to listen to his Chosen Son—to be like Him who came to be like us and listen with a passion that through every sacrifice we might come to the glory of eternal life.  And listen to God forever!

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

MOVIE & PIZZA NIGHT AT SJM

GRADES 1 – 4

FRIDAY

FEBRUARY 22ND

6 – 8:30 PM

PARISH CENTER

Washed ashore with an injured tail, a dolphin, named Winter, meets a boy, named Taylor, with an injured spirit.  There begins the tale of healing and redemption in the feature film (100 minutes) Dolphin Tale.

Sounds like a religious reel!  And it is to the extent that laughs and tears, lots of fun and a true story are religious.

Common-Sense Media calls Dolphin Tale, “Sweet, inspiring for kids and tweens,” and rates it age-appropriate for ages 7 and up.  I have watched the movie several times and understand that its PG rating is due to a brief dialogue (20 seconds) between Taylor and his friend Hazel about Taylor’s dad abandoning the family.  There are also some quick scenes that include war veterans and a little girl with prosthetics.  These are sensitively done, showing the challenge and dignity of disability.

Of course, the most trusted review in my book comes from grandson Hudson (age 6), “Pop, Dolphin Tale is the best; your kids will love it.”

Kids:  bring something soft for sitting—blanket, sleeping bag, pillow, bean bag.

Parents:  really need your help.

1.       You gotta RSVP to kidsrelig@optimum.net if your kid(s) are coming.  I gotta know how much pizza to order.

2.      I need some parent volunteers if Movie Night is going to be a happy happening.  When you RSVP about your kid coming, tell me if you can help.

Love,

Deacon Charlie