You don't have to be an expert, only have a love of passing your faith on to others. 

Thank you so much for your interest in becoming a Catechist or Core Team Member! 

What does it mean to become a Catechist/Core Team? It means you are choosing to walk with the students of our parish through the beautiful lessons of our Catholic Faith. Our goal is to form well catechized students from the elementary age all the way through middle school when they prepare for Confirmation. 

ELEMENTARY CATECHISTS:

Report to Maddie Torres maddie.torres@stmarknc.org

Our Elementary Classes (ECHO) meet:

• Sundays 9:30 - 10:45 (K-5th) (Kindergarten and Sacramental Pathways are only offered at this time)
• Mondays 4:30 - 5:45, and 6:15 - 7:30 (1st-5th)

We use Sophia Institute's Spirit of Truth curriculum for our First to Fifth Grade classes! It is an easy to follow guide to teach the faith to the kids! Each grade's book has a different theme! This year Maddie is providing extra activities and suggestions of activities for each grade's class sessions.

If you aren't comfortable being a LEAD Catechist, we need 2 adults in every room, so having an "assistant" is important as well!

1st and 2nd grade are required to receive First Holy Communion at the end of 2nd grade. If you decide to teach a 2nd grade class, there are more expectations in addition to teaching the 18 class sessions: 

• Attending the Reconciliation Workshop in the fall
• Attending Reconciliation in February 
• Attending the First Communion Retreats in the spring semester
• Attending First Communion Rehearsal the night before their sacrament in May
• Attending First Communion Mass, sitting with your class, at their Sacrament in May

There are a few other things throughout the year that will be communicated but we will need just a little bit more from those who sign up to teach 2nd grade! 

In addition to needing Classroom Catechists, the program will need a volunteer who can run the Faith Formation Sunday 9:30 session. This person would be the point person before the staff person. Maddie will be in charge of 2 programs (ECHO and Confirmation) that happen at the same time. So we might need a volunteer who can be an expert of our closet and what the classes might need. If you would be interested in this, please reach out to Maddie! 

MIDDLE SCHOOL EDGE CORE TEAM:

Reports to Olivia DiGiovanni olivia.digiovanni@stmarknc.org

EDGE is our middle school youth group, using Life Teen's Middle School program. 

EDGE Meets:

• Sundays 9:30 - 10:45
• Mondays 6:30 - 7:45

What does it mean to be a CORE member? 

Core members are different than catechists only because the nature of this role is more of small group leader, rather than classroom teacher. The structure of EDGE is typically as follows:

• Large group "gather" usually a game or activity 
• then a teaching to the large group called a Proclaim, usually given by the Middle school youth ministry coordinator, but can be given by anyone who feels called to it. 
• Then there will be small group time, or individual prayer time or reflection time. This is called the Break.
• After that there will be a Send, which just wraps up the session usually with a call to action of some sort. 

The goal of EDGE is to meet the middle school students of our parish where they are and bring Jesus to them wherever that may be. Working Jesus into their lives rather than creating a separate space for Jesus.

Signing up to be on the EDGE Core team means you will be active participants in the EDGE sessions as best you can; in the games or activities, giving talks (ONLY if you are comfortable), walking with the teens through their big questions at this pivotal time of life they are in! Just living your own Catholic life will trickle down into their hearts even when it doesn't seem like it!

CONFIRMATION CATECHIST CORE TEAM:

Reports to Maddie Torres maddie.torres@stmarknc.org

Confirmation happens in 8th grade after they are in 7th grade EDGE, or other year of formation. EDGE serves as a year of Youth Ministry hopefully opening the students' hearts to their Catholic Faith whereas Confirmation is more instructive in a Youth Ministry Style. We will be using Life Teen's PURPOSE program for Confirmation this year.

Confirmation meets:

• Sundays 9:30 - 10:45
• Mondays 6:30 - 7:45

What does it mean to be on the Confirmation Catechist Core team?

It means you are going to walk through the process of Confirmation with a small group of 8th graders (or older students) who are receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and are being fully received into the Catholic Church. Confirmation is not a graduation from faith formation, it is a beautiful beginning rather than an end.

Your role would be small group leader, but also a little bit "first defense" for lack of a better term as far as questions about our faith. That does NOT mean you have to know the answers, but just encouraging that it is ok to have questions and reassurance that we will get their questions answered. 

There are a few extra expectations for Confirmation Catechist Core Team members in addition to attending the 18 class sessions just because it is such an important year:

• Attending / assist facilitating Confirmation Retreat in January
• Attend Rehearsal for Confirmation the night before their Sacrament in May
• Attend / assist with the Sacrament Mass in May

It will be the first year Maddie is in charge of both Elementary and Confirmation, two programs that occur at the same time. SO she will need to rely on a few (or all) of her Confirmation Catechists and Elementary Catechists to support her in the facilitation of the programs. All that means for Confirmation is possibly helping getting the session started, whether it is a game or a video or something like that. Or possibly ending the session with prayer. It all depends, and Maddie will be a transparent and communicative as possible with her teams! 



If you are interested in serving our youth as a Catechist or Core Team member, please complete this form: