My dear friends,

It is that time of year to register our parish children in our Religious Education program. Last year, our catechists were heroic as they taught their classes completely virtual the entire school year. I also commend our families and students who were so patient and helped achieve this seemingly impossible feat.

This year Religious Education will be given to our children in person! Our catechists are so excited to welcome the children back into the classroom for faith formation in September. This is the most effective way of helping you, our parents, to transmit the beauty of our faith to our little ones. Our catechists are so creative in the different ways they teach. So many times on a Wednesday afternoon, I would walk over to the church before Mass and see one of the catechists giving a tour of the church to our students and explaining the stained-glass windows and helping the children learn the terminology of everything around them from the tabernacle to the ambry to the baptistry. Seeing the children’s eyes filled with wonder for our faith was something that we all missed last year.

Enrollment for the 2021-2022 Religious Education school year is currently open. You can register by going to www.COTLFReligousEd.org or be calling 305-446-9950 for more information. This is also a good time to remind our parents that Religious Education isn’t only for years when our children are preparing to receive First Communion or Confirmation. There is so much of our faith to pass on, and those years between Communion and Confirmation are so critical in the faith development of children. Every child in our parish of school age that is not in a Catholic school should be receiving religious instruction. I still remember many years ago the saintly bishop Agustín Román, of happy memory, imploring parishioners: “all our children should be in catechism.”

If your children are no longer babies and are in need of baptism, call our Religious Education office. If your children have passed First Communion age and have not made their First Communion, call our Religious Education office. If you have a teenager who is about to graduate high school and they have not received Confirmation, call our Religious Education office. We want all our parish children to be caught up with their sacraments and help you, our parents, form them to be true disciples of our Lord.

The same goes for adults. If you or someone you know does not have the sacrament of baptism or First Communion or Confirmation, or if you were baptized in another denomination and want to convert to Catholicism, our classes for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) begins next month. Deacon Robert Fleitas and his wife Nancy do a remarkable job in preparing adult members of our parish to receive these sacraments. To register for the program, please visit our Parish Website at www.cotlf.org/RCIA or contact Deacon Roberto Fleitas at RFleitas@cotlf.org.

This would be a good time to mention that if you are currently married civilly but have not received the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony or need help with an annulment to be sacramentally married, we can help you with that too. Call our Marriage Coordinator, Juan del Sol at 305-446-9950.

It’s time to make all things new! It’s time for young and old to register for our Faith Formation classes!