CF Department Updates and Registration Info

Dear St. Mary’s and St. Frances Cabrini Parishioners,
Throughout the Easter Season, the Church praises God for the grace that Christ won for us by his Resurrection! We receive this grace in the Church through the Sacraments, prayer, and our devotion, to take a few examples. It is incumbent upon us to engage a process of lifelong Catholic formation to learn how to better cooperate with this grace so that we will be faithful to God throughout our lives and bear fruit for the Kingdom. In a world that is indifferent, and sometimes even hostile, to Catholicism, only those who have cultivated a deep and authentic relationship with Christ through the Church will persevere in his grace and experience the abundance of life that Christ promises us (Cf. Jn 10:10).

In this letter, I am excited to share with you some developments in the formation opportunities that we offer at St. Frances Cabrini and St. Mary’s! To provide the best formation possible, we will begin sharing more resources by combining our formation programs.

Starting this summer, the Shared Director of Child and Family Catholic Formation, Julie Braun, will oversee formation sessions for grades K4 – 8 as well as First Communion preparation. (Please note that each parish will continue to have its own First Communion weekend in the spring.) The Shared Director of High School and Young Adult Catholic Formation will oversee the high school formation sessions, coordinate Confirmation preparation, and plan formation opportunities for young adults in the community.

The new formation program will prioritize Sunday Mass as an integral part of the program.
Grade k4-8
Over the course of the year, there will be 12 sessions for grades K4 – 8 that will take place at St. Frances Cabrini Parish on Sunday mornings. Sessions will begin at 9am and go through the 10:30am Mass, which concludes at 11:30am.
Grade 9-11
There will also be 12 sessions for grades 9 – 11 that will take place at St. Mary’s Parish on Sunday mornings. These sessions will begin with 9:30am Mass and go until 12noon.

Please note that formation sessions for grades K4 – 8 and grades 9 – 11 will rotate so that they will never be the same weekend.  With this change, we acknowledge that some families will be asked to attend Mass at a parish other than their home parish. But please note that this will only happen on 12 of the 56 yearly Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.

The new formation program will also consider the whole family by emphasizing formation for parents.   Formation sessions are only supplementary to formation that parents are offering at home. In order to better equip parents to teach the Catholic faith, we will invite parents to benefit from monthly parent sessions. These will be offered to parents at the same time as the classroom portion of the session.

As you know, we recently circulated a survey to parents who currently have (or will have) children in grades K4 – 11. A great majority of those who participated in the survey supported formation sessions on Sunday mornings as well as opportunities for parent formation.

To encourage all our parishioners to benefit from this new formation program, we will no longer be offering an at-home option.

In addition to Sunday formation sessions, we will continue to provide additional formational opportunities throughout the course of the year. To high schoolers, we will offer regular youth group get togethers, mission camps (both local and national), and Steubenville conferences. Middle schoolers will continue to be invited to “The Way” during the summer. Throughout the course of the year, we also will offer fun family formation nights, OCIA & OCIC (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults & Children), and small faith groups.

Changing any aspect of parish life is difficult. So I ask for your patience as we work to further our collaboration between St. Mary’s and St. Frances Cabrini Parishes.

In conclusion, I would invite us all to consider our call to holiness and how responding to this call requires a total transformation of our lives. A parish formation program plays the very modest role of helping us respond to this call. But a full response requires much more than only participating in a formation program.   It requires giving God permission to shape every dimension of our lives, just like Mary did when she said: “Let it be done to me according to your Word.” Following her example and helped by her prayers, may we all say “yes” to God each day on earth so that one day we will live with Him forever in heaven.

In Christ,

Father Strand

Follow the links below to find out more and to register!
*Please note that early-bird pricing is from now until July 1, 2025 and all registrations are due by August 1, 2025.

K4-8th Grade Program

9th and 10th Grade Program

Confirmation Prep

First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion Prep

Contact Julie Braun with questions at [email protected]