Dear Parishioner,

Each morning when I wake up, I open my eyes and reach for my glasses even before stepping off the bed.  If your vision is anywhere as bad as mine, I’m sure you can relate!  So for the times when I have “temporarily” misplaced my spectacles, I know many of you can understand the panic of losing something that serves such an important purpose in life.  When I do lose them, everything else stops until I find them because they are valuable to me, not because of the cost but because they are necessary to my life.  Then there are the things that I misplace that I can live without and so I pray a short prayer to St. Anthony to help me find it, forget about it, and go about my business with the hope that eventually it will
show up.

Sometimes, it seems we “lose” God.  We forget that we are valuable to Him.  What happens to us if we forget our value to God and what happens when we forget that all people are precious to God?  From the teachings of Jesus, we know that we are all valuable to God.  We do get lost at times, like the sheep in today’s Gospel, but God will never “lose” us or forget about us because he always knows where we are always.  We must always keep Him close to us, ask his forgiveness, and thank Him each day.  With all the many junk e-mails we receive, once in awhile you come across one that makes a poignant mark and this one seems fitting for today and everyday……

Happy moments, praise God….Difficult moments, seek God….Quiet moments, worship God…. Painful moments, trust God….Every moment, thank God…

Karen Greco

Director of Religious Education

The OLC Religious Education program offers two options during the course of the year.  Children entering grades one through eight may participate in either the three-week summer program (excludes grade 2) which typically begins the Monday after the last day of public school or the fall/winter session which runs from mid-September through the end of March.

Each program contains the basic studies of Catholicism, such as the Commandments, prayers, the Liturgical year, and the Sacraments, and also extends to the meaning of leading a Christian life as a follower of Christ.  To be a Christian is to share the life of Jesus and through the Ten Commandments (the gifts of guidance), we focus on stewardship with the classroom. 

Through our Religious Education Outreach, we focus on many collections of food, clothing, or school supplies for example, to help those in need.  As part of our stewardship way of life, and in the course of these efforts, we will instill in our children that we are all responsible for the well being of each other.

Through the many teachings of Jesus and working as a Christian community, we will continue to teach our children to seek the values practiced by Christ. 

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace; whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)