Parish Religious Education Program (PREP)
The Office of Catechesis serves children in grades 1-8 who attend the public school system and who have been baptized. The primary responsibility for the religious education of children in the Catholic Faith rests with the parents, while the Church’s role is to assist them. Parents have a moral obligation to attend Sunday mass with their children as well as assure that they are enrolled in the catechetical program every year. In addition, it is very important that parents model a life of Christian holiness for their children so that what is learned in the classroom is also lived in the home and together we make the journey to our eternal destiny of heaven.
2024-2025 Religious Education School Year Information
Classes begin on:
Wednesday, October 2 4:15pm for grades 1-6
Wednesday, October 2 6:15pm for grades 7 & 8
Sunday, October 6 10:15am for grades 1-6
All children are to be brought into the gym (auditorium) by a parent/guardian and picked up in the same location after they have been signed out. No child will be permitted to leave on its own.
Please review the Parent Handbook at the link to your right, especially with regard to the Dress Code, Cell Phone Policy and food and drink in the classroom.
The calendar for the year will be emailed to all parents in September as well as uploaded to this page once it is finalized. Class dates, vacation dates, parent meetings and other important dates will be listed on it.
We need your help!
NEEDED: The Office of Religious Education is looking for people who would like to volunteer as catechists, classroom aids, special needs catechists/aids, hall monitors and security. In addition, anyone who is a nurse or has First Aid certification would be greatly welcomed.
People with artistic skills who would like to volunteer to create props for our various presentations during our catechetical year are also needed. Anyone with experience directing mini plays, such as the Nativity, the Stations of the Cross and Our Lady of Fatima’s apparitions is particularly needed.
Please contact Jodie in the Religious Education Office at 732-968-5555 ext 105 or jdangiolillo@olfparish.org for more information.
Sent out on Mission for the Life of the World!
From June 2023-June 2024 a National Eucharistic Revival took place on the parish level. The intention of the Bishops’ Conference was to bring about a deeper love for Jesus, Our Eucharistic Lord, through an intensified period of renewal, both in terms of our understanding of Jesus’ Real Presence in the consecrated host, along with experiencing a more intimate encounter with Him during the reception of Holy Communion and times of Eucharistic Adoration. In the Religious Education Program here at OLF, the children had numerous opportunities to enter the renewal firsthand. Below are a few of these.
1. A special “passport” was created for them with a list of 9 chapels, shrines, churches and processions in the surrounding area that offer Eucharistic adoration. All the children were invited to go on pilgrimage during the year and spend at least 15 minutes in prayer before the Lord at each site and then get their passport stamped upon completion. Prizes were given out to those who visited at least 8 sites. Hopefully, the realization that Jesus is truly present in so many different locations waiting for us to visit Him, will remain in their hearts and continue to draw them to His loving embrace.
2. Twice a year the children receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation during their class time. This year they were able to experience Eucharistic Adoration during their time of preparation for the Sacrament and were able to come before His Presence afterwards to pray their penance.
3. Jesus said we were to let the children come to Him. Convinced that nobody enters His Presence and leaves without being affected, all catechists were encouraged to make visits with their classes to the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the Parish Center during the school year. Five minutes of silence and reverence have a way of disposing souls to the Divine well beyond a mere lesson on the subject!
The next and permanent phase of the Eucharistic Revival is to “take it to the streets”. We are sent out on a mission to the world! Having been renewed in Christ’s Presence this past year we are now called to fully enter (or to re-enter) Jesus’ mission by going forth into the world with the unfathomable Truth of His outrageous love for each and every one of us! This is our Baptismal vocation, and we know that even the youngest can engage in it as is clear from the lives of the 3 shepherd children of Fatima. When the Religious Education Year launches this October, our focus will be on the call to be genuine missionaries of The Eucharistic Lord, The Life of the World. Won’t you join us?