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Welcome, Families!

Welcome, Families!

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As you plan for the upcoming year, you may be asking: How do we get families more involved in our faith formation programs? How do we engage the families who are already attending? Serving the needs of families is a constant goal of parishes and the Church worldwide. Many parishes have great programs and communication plans to reach their families, including regular email newsletters, dynamic websites, active social media accounts. Pflaum provides you with additional online tools to support parents in their efforts to educate their children and to share the faith. As you plan for 2018–19, review the many ways you can welcome the families in your program and encourage new families to join.

Student lessons Each week, in every level of the Weeklies, the editors include a common prayer, question, and activity that encourages families to discuss the Sunday Gospel message. In Seeds, Promise, and Goods News, invite families to look for the Family Corner/Rincón de la Familia box. In Venture and Visions, these activities are included in the With My Family and Friends feature. Point out these activities, and invite your families to pray these short weekly prayers together as part of a morning send-off, meal blessing, or end-of-day ritual.

The Gospel at Home This weekly online feature provides an overview of the Sunday readings and answers the question, “What did you learn in class today?” Each week, The Gospel at Home provides a synopsis of each level of the Pflaum Gospel Weeklies, as well as a family prayer based on the Sunday Gospel theme. The Gospel at Home is available to view or download and print in both Spanish and English.

Family catechesis Gospel For All Ages—Family Catechesis is a free program available to Pflaum parishes. Each year, GFAA offers a plan for four seasonal gatherings—usually a fall welcome back, Advent, Lent, and a summer send-off. And each week, GFAA provides a rough script for a weekly gathering based on that Sunday’s readings. Similar to the Gospel Weeklies, it includes opening and closing prayers, suggested music, and a Gospel reflection. Invite your families to join their children for opening prayer before they are dismissed to their classes and then to return for a concluding prayer to close their session.

Pacing Plans Part of welcoming families to your program is to meet them where they are right now. Many busy families want home study, flexible meeting times to gather with other families, or multi-age programming. The Pflaum Gospel Weeklies provides pacing plans for nearly every family situation, including Family Catechesis and military families.

 

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Our Editors


David Dziena
Publisher

David Dziena is the Publisher of Pflaum Publishing Group. He has also served as Executive Editor and […]

Joan McKamey
Project Editor

Joan McKamey, project editor, joined the Gospel Weeklies editorial team in September 2016. […]

Erika De Urquidi
Bilingual Editor

Erika De Urquidi, bilingual editor, joined Bayard, Inc. in July 2018. During her 15 years as a professional translator […]