Mission

Our Faith Formation program strives to provide a community where families can experience God’s Word and Love so that faith becomes living, conscious and active in their daily lives. We believe that only a meaningful relationship with Christ can allow each child and family to thrive. It is proven that in order for children to accept and be nourished by the teachings of the Church, parents must be actively and directly involved in teaching and living the faith. At Holy Spirit we partner with the family, the “domestic church,” as the most important Christian influence. It is in the home that a child truly learns the faith and comes to know who God is. We support families with faith-filled and formed catechesis, not only for the children but for parents as well.

We recognize as children reach their middle school years they actively call everything into question and their faith, no matter how lovingly and strongly given to them before this, is often also questioned. What we see is in sixth grade they ask all "the big questions" the ones philosophers have wrestled with for ages. But we also see they are hungry for good answers, they still want to believe. Theirs are good questions with good answers.

At Holy Spirit we are committed to respecting our young minds and hearts and strive to show them the way to the good answers to their questions. This takes courage and strong formation on the part of both catechists and parents so as not to shy away from tough issues and to be able to confidently and actively inform teens that the Catholic faith is counter-cultural and better than the secular culture.

Finally, and most importantly, we recognize that formation in the faith is substantially different from learning a subject. Unlike knowledge which simply needs to be known and applied, the faith must be loved, believed and lived. Our hearts must be formed by our love for Christ and belief in the Gospel. Central to acquiring this kind of faith formation is the receipt of super natural graces available to us in the Sacraments, most especially, The Eucharist. For this reason our program has been structured around regular and frequent receipt of Holy Communion and Reconciliation.

Through the cooperative effort of parents, catechists, and students, our children will grow in their love for God and knowledge of their Catholic faith, develop their God-given gifts and talents, and live as contributing, respectable citizens through their commitment to service as Catholic Christians.