First Holy Communion preparation
The next First Holy Communion class will begin in September 2024. Enrollment is open from June 2024 to September 2024.
Children must be about 8 years old or older to enroll. Please contact the ESM Office (Secretary Brendaline Keafon) at alsda46@aol.com to receive a registration form. Please also submit your child's baptismal certificate. If your child needs to be baptized, please communicate this to the office, since separate arrangements will need to be made.
Confirmation classes at St. Bernard's
-- The current 2-year class is underway. The next class will be open for enrollment in the Fall of 2025. Interested parents are encouraged to contact the secretary's office.
The Confirmation program is a 2-year program. Candidates should ideally be at least 14 years of age to enroll.
Curriculum at St. Bernard's coveres topical modules:
- Bible Literacy Module: Teen T3 Bible Timeline series
- Faith & Science Module: helps show how faith & the natural sciences are not mutually exclusive.
- Philosophical/Theological Modules: builds foundations grouped around Six Great Ideas: Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Justice, Freedom, Equality. Draws on the writings of Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Vatican II and others to expose the candidates to the philosophical and theological framework of Catholic doctrine. Candidates will build a portfolio of reading material from Aristotle's Nicomachaen Ethics, Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theol. as well as magisterial documents such as Lumen gentium, Dei Verbum, Rerum novarum, etc.
- Prayer Module: introduces the students to the varied prayer traditions in the Church and seeks to build the student's own prayer life. In addition, retreats are organized whenever possible. Includes standard prayers, the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Stations of the Cross, litanies, novenas, Lectio Divina, Adoration, etc.
- Sacramental Theology Module: introduces the theology of the sacraments generally and specifically focusses on the Sacraments of Initiation
- If there is time: Church History Module
- Service opportunities encourage candidates to live their faith through charity.
Year 2 schedule (no new students may enroll):
