Since the pandemic in 2020, many churches, Catholic and Protestant, have suffered with the loss of active parishioners. In many Catholic churches throughout the country, but especially here in New England, the various faith formation classes for our young people have also continued to shrink. There is no magic program to get families back to church, but as Catholics, we do have something besides programs; we have the Holy Eucharist.

We have the opportunity to receive our Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament. Sadly, as we have been hearing these last few years and the reason why our bishops in the United States are leading a Eucharistic revival, many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence, and many Catholics also do not understand the purpose of Mass. When I look at the numbers in our program here at Our Lady of Hope, we are still falling short of the numbers we had before the pandemic. This is the case even in our two sacramental years, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. We are also struggling in getting a youth ministry group up and running.

I am implementing a couple of things, but again these things aren’t the solution but are a way for us to at least move forward. For example, I have started the Lifeteen/Edge program here. Lifeteen is a nationally recognized faith formation program where we teach our high school children about the importance of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is their belief that young people need to know Jesus as a person and to love Jesus as their God. Then, once they realize that Jesus is indeed a real person, then the content of our faith will make more of an impact on them. Edge is the same program but for middle school age children. The students get together (gather), the adult catechist will teach (proclaim), then the students will be put in small groups (break), then they get back together in the large group for a final prayer and dismissal (send). This fourfold format of, gather, proclaim, break and send follows the Mass where parishioners gather, hear the word proclaimed, listen to the word broke open by the priest or deacon (and also the breaking of their fast for receiving Communion) then are sent from Mass to being Jesus into the community.

Confirmation is a two year program with the emphasis on the sacrament itself during year II. The students are also expected to fulfill faith commitments (a term I prefer over service projects) which are the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Anyone can do acts of service, but as Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, the Sisters of Mercy must first pray before the Blessed Sacrament, for all works of mercy flow from and return to the Lord present in the Holy Eucharist. When we look at the faith commitments in this way, then, what we are saying is that the student will be putting in faith into action as he or she will be preparing for the Sacrament of action, being confirmed in their faith. This is also why what is most important for all of our students is not our faith formation classes per se, but the most important thing we can give our students is the love for the Holy Mass.

The Sunday obligation is of the utmost importance for everyone, let alone for our students and especially for our students preparing for the sacraments of Communion and Confirmation. Let us pray together as a community of faith of Our Lady of Hope and encourage anyone you know who has not been in church for a while, especially those with faith formation age kids, to return to our community for Mass and for growing in our faith.

God bless

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