Our Parish School of Religion (PSR) program has always had faith in the family as our focus. Our mission statement of many years reads:

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ‘Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children (2225).’ It is the mission and purpose of the PSR program to serve the parishioners of St. Luke by assisting and empowering parents in carrying out this awesome responsibility.”

The current pandemic has enabled us to take the next step toward assisting and empowering the parents (and families) of St. Luke’s. This year’s PSR program will be centered on family catechesis – learning and living the faith with, in, & through the family God has given each one of us.

Our school year will be set up in 2 week blocks (beginning Sept. 20th) with 1 topic for every 2 weeks. These blocks will be set up in this way:

• · Week #1: We will introduce our topic through a brief, pre-recorded video from Fr. Matt, and each family will be given a discussion guide to go along with our online family catechism. (If you don’t know how to access this, DON’T WORRY! We’ll show you .) This session should be made to fit the style that works best for your family. You can gather and go through the discussion guide on one day of the week or spread it out over several days depending on your schedule. This will be your “Family Catechesis Time”.
• Week #2: This session will consist of a live Zoom phone call during our normal PSR time (Sunday mornings from 9:15 – 10:30 am). At this time all families will gather together with Fr. Matt for a time to go deeper on the topic, ask questions that may have come up during your family time, or share some insights.

This model will be repeated throughout the 1st quarter of the school year and will be revisited before November 8th to see what our current situation is regarding in-person meetings. At that point, we will decide if things should continue as-is or if these Zoom weeks can be converted to in-person sessions. We will continue discerning this, quarter by quarter.

If you have a child that should be receiving a sacrament this year (First Penance / First Communion in 2nd grade or Confirmation in 10th grade), those sessions will also be virtual, and we will give you more info as to how this will look after we gather the registrations.

This challenging time can become a most blessed and holy of times if we grasp it with both hands and ask Our Lord to make it something beautiful. “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28.