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To Parents and Those of Us Who Love Your Children – Catholic Herald

Three important items for you this fine Monday:

1. Session A Confirmation Retreat is approaching (10/29—10/31)! Please see Page 3 of the updated Confirmation Calendar from www.hffdl.org/hs for the most current logistic details.

2. I am now collecting Letters of Encouragement for Session A Retreat. Every candidate needs at least one letter (see instructions below)! You can drop these off or mail them to the Holy Family Office:

Holy Family Parish Office

Attn. Andrew Skiff

271 Fourth Street Way

Fond du Lac, WI 54937

Note: Letter of Encouragement for [Candidate Name]

3. Thank you for two successful candidate/sponsor meetings last week. If you or your candidate & their sponsor were not able to attend, or if you would like to reference the content we covered that day, I have posted the handout to the webpage.

I know that not everyone is attending the Session A retreat, but I wanted to notify all parents of these updates to the calendar, which I mentioned I would work on at our parent meetings earlier this year. Thanks for your time, and I hope you have a terrific week. May God bless you in all things; thank you for all you have done and continue to do to bring up your children in the faith!

9/28/21 Regarding SMSA Prom: I have been in communication with SMSA’s dean of students, and we have realized that the SMSA prom and the 1st Confirmation Liturgy are both on April 23rd. Thankfully, Confirmation will be finished that day by 1pm, so there is not an explicit time conflict with evening prom activities. A reminder to all candidates that you can switch your liturgy date anytime before March 1st by emailing the coordinator. (andrews@hffdl.org)

9/28/21 First 9th & 10th Grade Class: Hi There! I hope you’re well! I am looking forward to having your child at our first faith formation class of the year for 9th and 10th grade. Here are the relevant details:

Location: Sacred Heart School

Date: Sunday, 10/3

Time:

-Class: 4-5:30pm

-Community Time (optional): 5:30-6pm

What To Bring:

-Returning Students: bring your Decision Point Workbook & your Bible from last year. This applies to 10th graders who were in our 9th grade program last year.

-New Students: you will be given a Workbook & a Bible when you arrive. This applies to all 9th graders & any 10th graders new to our program.

Other Notes:

-Students will get their classroom assignments upon check-in, which will happen when they enter the Main (East) Doors of the School.

-10th Graders are in Classrooms 1, 2, and 3, and 9th Graders are in Classrooms 10, 12, and the Basement.

To notify me of an absence, please fill out the form on our HS webpage www.hffdl.org/hs

Thank you for all you do to bring up your children in the faith; I look forward to the year ahead.

9/23/21 Sign-Up for Text Reminders: If you would like to receive text reminders about Among Us Youth Group or our High School Holy Hour, follow these instructions:

Text @amongusy to 81010 for Among Us Youth Group Reminders

Text @hsformat to 81010 for Holy Hour Reminders

9/23/21 High School Holy Hour: We now have a Holy Hour for High School students & parents!

7-8pm at Sacred Heart Church in the Adoration Chapel.

Hope to see many of you there!

9/21/21 Select a Confirmation Sponsor: Thanks to everyone who has already sent me sponsor names, either via the online form or email. At this point, the easiest way for me to collect sponsor names is via the form on our HS Webpage (www.hffdl.org/hs). Scroll down till you see “Confirmation To-Dos: Select a Confirmation Sponsor”.

If you have already sent me your child’s sponsor name, there is no need to fill it out again! Please check out the bottom of the HS webpage, where (as promised at the parent meetings) you will now see spaces to record Saint Name in November & fill out the Confirmation Questionnaire in February.

 I hope that you and your child are doing well, and that school is off to a good start. Thank you for bringing your children up in the faith, and in a particular way for helping them truly ‘claim it’ for themselves this year. I appreciate all that you do!

9/15/21 Welcome to General Formation:

Thank you for signing up your son or daughter for our high school formation program! While our first class date isn’t until October 3rd, I wanted to reach out directly and welcome you to our program this year.

Announcements

1. Welcome Mass: We will have a special Mass this coming Sunday (9/19) at 9am at Sacred Heart to honor our catechists, those who will be teaching your children this year. If you have looked over the calendar and have questions regarding any of it, you can check-in with me after that Mass, or respond to this email. There will not be a parent meeting after the Mass, but I will bring printed copies of our calendar for the year if you would like a paper copy.

2. Calendar: Here is the online version of our calendar for your reference. I hope to upload a new version shortly that includes our attendance policy.

3. Attendance Policy: Candidates are allowed three absences without penalty. Please notify the coordinator of an absence in advance by filling out the Absence Form on the HS Formation Webpage. Any additional absences should be made up; candidates can make these up by attending Cor Jesu or Youth Group on Thursday nights. Each upcoming make-up is posted at the top of the HS Webpage.

4. HS Webpage: Calendars, program announcements, and information about Holy Family Youth Group can be found on our new high school page: www.hffdl.org/hs. I try to keep it pretty up-to-date; feel free to check there before emailing me, as it may have the answer to some of your questions!

5. Chaplain: Father Edward Sanchez is serving as our high school chaplain this year. If you see him at Mass, be sure to say hi and introduce yourselves! He is looking forward to guiding you and your children in the faith this year.

Again, welcome to the year in formation! I look forward to working with you this year as you strive to bring up your children in the faith. They learn more from YOU than they ever will from me or the priests, so thank you for modeling holiness for them and making your faith and theirs a priority.

9/9/21 Session A, Sunday Meeting 1:

I look forward to seeing candidates and parents in Session A for Mass this coming Sunday from 10-11am at Holy Family Church for Session A, Sunday Meeting 1! We have a great day planned for the kids, which will conclude around 2pm.

There will be a sign-in table when you enter the big wooden doors before Mass. Please check-in there before you head into the Church.

Reminder: Parents just attend Mass, while candidates stay afterward from 11am-2pm. If you have further questions please consult the calendar from www.hffdl.org/hs, but at this point after our parent meetings and the registration process, I am hopeful that everything is clear!

There are a lot of logistics I am juggling with all of this, especially for this first Sunday Meeting, so thank you for your patience.

8/23/21 Parent Meeting Holy Family Confirmation: I hope you’re well. Thanks for signing up your child for Holy Family’s Confirmation program. As you may have seen from our calendar, there are two parent meeting options coming up, one on 8/29 from 10-11:30am at Holy Family Church (Mass included), and one on 9/2 from 8-9:30pm at Saint Mary’s Church. Please plan to attend one of these so that I can go over the year’s information with you. One or both parents are warmly invited! If you cannot make it to either, let me know and we can work something out. Thanks very much, and I hope you have a great day & week.

8/9/21 COVID-19 & Delta Variant: We are moving ahead with in-person programming in which mask-wearing is invited but not required. I will post updates on this front to this webpage.

7/22/21 Youth Group Movie Night: Youth group will meet Thursday (7/22) at 7pm at Holy Family Church to watch Joseph, King of Dreams (Dreamworks, 2000). Any youth 6-12th grade are invited to come!

7/7/21 Registration Opens: REGISTRATION OPENS for the 2021-22 academic year on 7/7 at 7:30am on this webpage (see below).

IMPORTANT FOR CONFIRMATION REGISTRATIONS (11th & 12th grade only):

Before you begin registering for confirmation, please note that you will need the following in order to complete this registration:

• Knowledge of the information on the candidate’s baptism certificate.

• The candidate’s preferences for Session (A, B, or C) and their preferred date for Confirmation Liturgy. See “2021-22 Confirmation Calendar” to view these dates.