January 7, 2024: Good Samaritan - Parable - Greatest Commandment 

Welcome back to CCE! I hope your Christmas holiday and New Year celebrations were filled with love!

Our lesson today was about the Good Samaritan.

We learned how Jesus would teach his followers using stories that illustrate how to be a good and moral person. These stories are called parables.

The story of the Good Samaritan is a parable that teaches us how to put the

Greatest Commandment in action.

Check out the attached video and discuss this parable with your child. Explain how you feel. Use practical examples like helping the homeless, welcoming immigrants, and what it means to “love your neighbor”.

We have a lot of ground to cover over the next few weeks leading up to our First Communion on Sunday, May 5, 2024 11:00 mass. Please mark your calendars for our two upcoming retreats:

• Saturday, February 24, 2024 from 10am to 3pm
• Saturday, April 20, 2024 from 10am to 3pm

May God Bless & Keep You,

Ronnie Gabriel

(Zora and Jayla's mom)

Class Tag
 

January 7, 2024: Blessed Epiphany Feast Day
Today, Sunday, January 7, 2024, we revisited our discussion of the Catholic liturgical calendar, the significance of the color changes in church, and how the church uses these colors to communicate and mark time throughout the year:

• Green for Ordinary Times
• Purple for Advent and Lent
• Red for Holy Week, Pentecost, etc

The children noticed the church was still decorated in Red as this weekend is the end of the Christmas season. We conclude the special holiday with the celebration of the Feast of The Epiphany (put away our Christmas decorations ), and should return to Ordinary Times with the color green.

We discussed how the Three Wise Men traveled with gifts to honor and witness the manifestion of Jesus to the world.

This commemoration is typically referred to as Kings Day, so I made sure each child celebrated in style with KING CAKE!

Thank you to the mom's that are always ready to help in class each week, and thanks to each of you for your dedication in getting the children to class each week.

January 14, 2024: Cricket Christians
Good afternoon!

Today's class was filled with information. Your children learned about the word Gospel which means “The Good News”. We reviewed the differences between the Old & New Testaments, discussed how all Abrahamic religions are based on the first five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch.

We understand the Old Testament is filled with prophecy & pronouncements about the Savior and the New Testament confirms Jesus Christ as the Savior.

As promised we discussed John the Baptist (Jesus's cousin) who called on people to Repent (ask for forgiveness and turn away from sin), and how through the Sacrament of Baptism we are cleansed of our sin and welcome into the faith.

The children were excited to learn about John's mission to baptize the people in the River Jordan and preach about the coming of the Savior. We discussed John's wild-man lifestyle, how he lived in a cave, wore a camel skin coat, drank honey and ate locusts!

Some of our brave children took up the challenge of becoming “Cricket Christians” and tried the chocolate covered crickets and wild honey (see pictures below)

All of the children enjoyed gummy worms and finished the day with King Cake.

The children were very attentive and asked a lot of insightful questions. You really are raising the most amazing children!

May God Bless and Keep You,

Ronnie Gabriel

(Zora and Jayla's mom)

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January 21, 2024: Pre-Recorded
​​​​​​​Good Morning!

My mother-in-law is had open heart surgery this week, and we are traveling to Baton Rouge to see her. The surgery was a great success, she has a long way to full recovery, so we ask for your continued prayers.

If you are attending church on Sunday, January 21, 2024 a teacher is present in my absence. She will cover the general lesson for all CCE classes this week, but remember ours is a Sacrament class, and we have an additional layer we are required to cover.

I did not want to lose a week of instructions as we have so much to cover in a short amount of time. Attached to this message is a recorded YouTube lesson from me. It includes:

• Review of the Hail Mary
• Discussion of the word Liturgy
• Gospel Reading & Message
• Video Assignment

Please have your child watch the video and ensure a video or still images are uploaded illustrating your child doing “good works”.

Thank you for your understanding and continued efforts in supporting your child's faith education.

May God Bless and Keep You,

Ronnie Gabriel

(Zora & Jayla's mom)

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