This past weekend we initiated our Annual Catechetical Sunday in concert with all Catholic parishes across the country. The "Ministry of Handing On the Gift of Our Catholic Faith in Jesus Christ and His Mission to the World Through the Community of the Church (God's People)" is a responsibility that belongs to all of us. Of course, the family of each child has a unique and primary role in doing so because each family is a "domestic church" where faith in Jesus and in the community of the Church is first nurtured and fostered.

The "domestic churches" collectively form the "parochial church" or parish church where the families gather together each Sunday to form the wider Church in support of one another and where they listen to the Word of God
and celebrate the Sacrament of the Breaking of the Bread. Fortified by the Word and the Bread of Life, they return on mission to bring to their families and their neighbors the presence and Good News of Jesus Christ. In our Catholic world the parents, grandparents, godparents and siblings of each child have a very special and formative role to play within each of our "domestic or home churches."

The "parochial or parish church" is geared to assist the parents in the religious education of their children. We at St. Ignatius are greatly blessed to have a full-time director of religious education in the person of Duarte Aguiar and in a team of eight full-time volunteer catechist teachers who provide each Sunday the religious instruction about the Bible, the sacraments, the moral standards, the teachings, the saints and the traditions of our Catholic Faith. All of this instruction deepens our commitment to and love for Jesus Christ as lived out in the Community and Mission of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Barron comments on Effective Evangelization -click on video to view-