Preparing Children 7 – 18 yrs old
In the Chisholm Region, we are lucky enough to be able to offer children and teenagers an opportunity to prepare for their Sacraments during school terms. The young person undergoes a preparation process where most of the work is done with the parents at home, and they are initiated into our youth community through compulsory attendance at one of our youth groups for the entirety of the preparation process.
In our program, we focus on introducing the children to our youth communities present at the different parishes in our Region. We do this by insisting it is part of the program for the children to commit to attending an appropriate youth group on a weeknight for the duration of the process. We currently have Youth Groups running at Maitland on a Monday at 5.30pm, East Maitland on a Tuesday at 5:00pm and Largs on Wednesday at 5.30pm.
Each youth group begins with a time of eating food and general socializing with the other youth group participants. Following this, a time of input is allocated to a leader of the Youth Group to teach on an aspect of the Catholic faith. The youth group is also filled with lots of games which encourages community building and helps to maintain a fun atmosphere. After this, each youth group has a liturgy which follows. Each participant in the RCIC Program needs to attend the liturgy or Mass which follows the youth group every week. They also need to be attending a Sunday mass every week.
In addition to this, each participant receives a Booklet Pack at the beginning of the process. This pack includes the booklets that need to be completed by the children at home with the assistance of either parents or sponsors. This pack also includes a sheet that the priests will sign off on after a Sunday Mass. This Booklet Pack involves a $40 fee, per pack, which covers the costs of the resources and the certificates the children receive at the end of the process. If the children are being baptised, there is an additional $75 stole fee.
When the children are reaching the end of their preparation for the sacraments, parents will be contacted to organise which weekend Mass or weeknight youth Mass they would like to have the children celebrate their sacraments.
