Religious Education « Saint Matthew the Apostle Parish

Religious Education

Jesus & Children The Religious Education Ministry provides religious faith formation for our children in grades PreK-11. We also offer Children’s Liturgy of the Word on Sundays at 10 AM mass for children in grades K-3. We recognize the parents are the first teachers of the faith. It is our desire to assist parents in bringing up their children in the Catholic faith. Structured classes are held on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30 AM and 6:30 PM or on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. These classes are taught by volunteers who give so freely of their time and talent. We have over 150 people currently serving in the Religious Education Ministry.
We also offer enrichment programs during Advent and Lent. These programs enable the families to come together to pray, participate in some hands-on activities and to grow deeper in their faith. We prepare the children to receive their sacraments by providing instruction and retreat days.

Service Projects
In conjunction with the Samaritan Ministry, we encourage our students to participate in a multitude of service projects. Some projects are deeply involved while others are as simple as bringing in canned food. For our youth, grades 10-12, the Hope Builders travel to Kentucky to help repair homes for the working poor. This yearly trip has transformed lives, not just of the people we help but of the youth who provide the help.

Contact Us
The Religious Education office is open Monday-Thursday 9-3 and Fridays 9-1, during the school year. Our summer hours are Monday-Thursday, 9-1, closed on Friday. We have a full-time Director of Religious Education/Youth Minister, Mary Ramsden, a part-time Pastoral Associate of Sacraments and Retreats, Deacon Jim Hackett, and two part-time administrative assistants; Mary Maximos, grades PreK-5 and Karen Loveys, grades 6-12 who serve our parish’s needs. We have an open-door policy. Please stop by anytime if you have a question, comments, suggestions or concern. Feel free to email Mary at mary.ramsden @ stmatthewsrandolp.org .

Our Goal
It is our goal to serve God and the people of St. Matthew’s
to the best of our ability by using our God-given gifts and talents,
so that we may show the love of Jesus to all that we meet and
bring our children and their families closer to the Lord.

Pasta Dinner for Hopebuilders

Having trouble deciding what to make for dinner on another Friday in Lent?? Please join us for a meatless pasta dinner on Friday, March 23rd from 5:30 – 7:00pm in Heritage Hall. The torch has been passed from our (recently confirmed!) high schoolers to our current 7E middle schoolers! They will be in charge of selling tickets, setting/cleaning up and serving you a delicious meal which will include pasta, salad, dessert and drink – all as a service to our St. Matthew’s community. Any monies made from the evening will be donated to St. Matthew’s Hope Builders and our teens that travel to Kentucky where they help complete home repairs for local residents. Additional information including ticket price and ticket sales dates will appear in future bulletins. Any questions, please contact 7D religious education teacher Terri La Penna at terlap4@verizon.net. Thank you for your support!!

Upcoming Hope Builder Events

Hope Builders, in conjunction with Good Neighbors, a grassroots 501c3 charity that provides home and automobile repair exclusively for employed American families, helps to build and repair homes for the working poor in Appalachia. Last year’s trip cost a little over $28,000 for 51 Hope Builders to participate. This year our expenses will be more as we hope to bring along 20 more participants, so we can affect the lives of 3 more families, totaling 10 families we hope to help.

Upcoming Events – Thank you for your continued Support
January 21 & 22 Bake and Panera Bread Sale (after all masses)
February 9 &16 ZUMBA® Classes 7 PM Heritage Hall – $10/class
February 11 & 12 Chocolate Bar Sale & Panera Bread Sale (after masses)
February 24 Lenten Soup Dinner 5:30-7:30 with Crown of Thorns craft
February 25 & 26 Easter Plant Sale (after masses)
February 28 1^st installment payment due $150

Cookbook Fundraiser for Hope Builders – Calling all Cooks!

St. Matthew’s is preparing a taste-tempting custom cookbook featuring favorite recipes from our parish and friends. These cookbooks will be professionally published and contain special pages of interest including helpful cooking hints, dedications, special reference, children’s favorite craft recipes, and much more. This cookbook is sure to be treasured for years to come.

As a primary fundraiser for our Hope Builders, we would love for our cookbook to be a huge success; your recipes can help make that happen! If you have a favorite recipe that you would like to share with the world, please submit it! In fact, please submit as many as you’d like; there is no limit to the number of entries. Just a word of caution, however; a recipe can only be published once (variations are ok), so to ensure you’ll be published, it’s better to submit one-of-a-kind, passed down from generation-to-generation recipes than to submit everyone’s all-time favorite “public” recipe! This cookbook will not only be a wonderful collection of favorite recipes, but also a memorable keepsake of those people who have enriched your life. And who wouldn’t be proud to see their name, or their child’s name, in print! These cookbooks definitely become a cherished keepsake and make great gifts to give.

Because the publisher requires a specific format for our recipes, attached is the recipe template which must be used when submitting your recipe. (NOTE: If you are going to type the recipe yourself, or (crisply) photocopy a hand-written recipe, please make sure that all the required elements are outlined on your recipe, i.e., clearly indicate the category, title, etc.) Before submitting your recipes for inclusion in our cookbook, please make sure it is clearly explained because what you send in is what will be typed (barring any changes in standardization, abbreviation, grammatical or spelling errors).

So let’s get cooking! By January 25, 2012, please electronically submit your recipes to Maryann Hoolahan @ hoolahan5nj@yahoo.com. If you prefer, you may also drop off your recipe in the “RECIPE DROP BOX” located in the gathering space. Feel free to contact Maryann with any questions you may have. Bon Appétit!

Classes begin…

Classes begin on Sunday, Oct. 16th. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so immediately and include a $25 last fee for each child you will be registering.

Classes begin…

Classes begin on Sunday, Sept. 25 for Sunday classes and Sept. 28 for Wedesday classes. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so immediately and include a $25 last fee for each child you will be registering.

Classes begin …

Kindergarten Starts Oct. 16th

We will be offering one Kindergarten class this year on Sunday monrings at 8:45-9:45 AM. Please go to the calendar tab to get the entire year’s worth of dates.

There are 5 spots left so register quickly before the class is closed.

Make Up Work for Absent Students

Mass Journal

Religious Ed News August 2011

St. Mathew’s is pleased to announce the following changes in its Religious Education Department:

Mary Ramsden, D.R.E. will continue on as the Youth Minister and will expand her role as Director of Religious Education. Her responsibilities now include: Grades K-12, all aspects of the children’s faith formation, from Religious Education (COP/CCD) to sacraments, retreats and all things in between. She is responsible for attaining and training our catechists and supporting volunteers, choosing and implementing the curriculum, scheduling of classes, overseeing retreats for all grade levels, supervising the sacramental prep and sacramental celebrations for the appropriate grade levels.

Deacon Jim Hackett will serve as the Pastoral Associate for Religious Education and is responsible for coordinating the preparation, sacramental achievement (First Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation) and retreat experiences of our students. Deacon Jim will also be responsible for conducting parent, sponsor, catechist and volunteer meetings throughout the year. He will also assist Mary in working to achieve faith-filled experiences and education for those whom they are responsible.

If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to contact Mary at mary.ramsden@ stmatthewsrandolph.org or Deacon Jim at deacon.jim@ stmatthewsrandolph.org. Both Mary and Jim are eagerly looking forward to another exciting and fruitful year with our students, catechists and volunteers.

Parents Page Coming Soon!

We can’t wait! Stay tuned for the new Parents Page on the St. Matthew’s Parish website.