Youth Faith Formation

Please sign up your child for the school grade they are going into in the fall. Families sometimes miss a year of faith formation for many reasons, even before the pandemic.

Unlike many subjects in school, faith formation is not linear (moving from addition to calculus in math, for example). We find that children, youth, and teens have a more meaningful experience when they are with their age-level peers. However, the more consistent they are with faith formation, the better their experience will be.

If you have further specific questions, please contact us!

It has been the custom, but not a requirement, for someone to take the name of a saint, biblical figure, or other name associated with Christianity when they receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Frequently in the bible, when someone has a major conversion experience, their name is changed.

For an excellent explanation of this question, please visit Zenit news by clicking here.

Any of the Faith Formation Team would be happy to discuss your family’s individual situation and needs, because each person’s needs are unique.

Parents are always welcome to attend faith formation activities with their children, and they are uniquely able to best serve their special needs child. Most of our volunteers are not trained to work well with special needs children, unlike the adults your child works with in a school setting.

For some families, the gathering sessions may not be the best environment for their child. This is why we offer a variety of options. Some families have found home-based environments work better for their child.

The coronavirus pandemic challenged the publishers of religious education materials to innovate the resources available to us. The faith formation team, always looking to provide the best faith formation experiences possible, re-evaluated when we had been using in the past and has chosen materials that both suit our current needs and align with our vision of bringing children, teens, and families into deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.

The Faith Formation offering partially offsets the costs of administering our faith formation program.  The total cost per student is greater than what we charge – the remaining balance is paid for by the parishoners of St.Matthew the Evangelist parish.

The Church’s mission is to evangelize and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others, which includes our faith formation programs.  However, it would not be fair to expect the parishoner-in-pew to completely support faith formation, as participating families should also contribute to the faith formation of their children.

The fees we charge offset the costs of supplies (books, materials, technology), overhead (heat/lights), and especially salaries.

While most of the faith formation ministers (Catechists, Aides, Small Group Leaders, Hall Monitors and other helpers) are volunteers, they are supported, trained, and led by a dedicated team of paid staff.  Billerica has, for many years, been able to offer faith formation with a variety of part-time Faith Formation professionals.

Candidates for Confirmation and their families often ask about what clothing is appropriate for the ceremony.  It is suggested that you think of what you would wear for Easter Mass, than be one step more dressy. Hair should be prepared to keep the forehead open, as the Bishop will be making a cross with oil on the forehead. Please do not wear a hat, as even dress hats often get in the way. There should be no gum or food in the church.

Guys’ Details:

Suits are fine, sport jacket is good, neither is necessary.

Nice pants, can be khakis, but no jeans.

Collared shirt, better if it’s a dress shirt.

Ties are fine (with appropriate content).

Dress shoes – no sneakers.

Girls’ Details:

Comfortable dress shoes, but with no big heels, as they are too easy to trip on.

Skirts and dresses are fine, but not required, and please be mindful of modesty.

Conservative makeup.

Flowers are fine.

If you have further questions, please contact Tony.

“Rotating Helper” is a parent, guardian, or other adult family member who assists the religious education program on a rotating basis.

Beginning in 2020-2021, one adult from each family will be expected to assist with one program, either as a “Rotating Helper” (much like Pathfinders had helpers sign up in the 2019-2020 year) or as a committed volunteer (catechist/teacher, aide, hall monitor, etc), for those families with one or more children in Grades 1-8. This replaces the expectation that one adult attend regularly with a child in the younger grades. Rotating helpers, who assist once every two or three classes, may lead activity or service project stations, run ice-breaker games, assist with set up or clean up of class sessions, and other similar roles. Rotating helpers would participate at the same time as their child(ren). We envision that most rotating helpers would be assisting with a program their child is attending, but an adult is free to be a Rotating Helper in any session while their child is in attendance.

It is our hope that this Rotating Helper model will better engage the adults who are present and assisting in the religious education program.

We welcome your feedback as this model is tried during the 2020-2021 religious education year.

Normally, our registration deadline helps us plan adequately for materials and preparing everything for a smooth beginning of our programs.

In 2021, given that your registration does not specify your signing up for a specific day and time, we ask that you sign up by September 10 to start participating when we begin the various programs. The final registration deadline is in October.

Requests to register for the current school year after the final deadline will be handled on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact us!

Beginning in mid-August, we will e-mail you with verified program placements for your children.  Registrations received after August 1 will receive notification roughly two weeks after we receive the registration paperwork.

This delay between the spring and August allows the Faith Formation Team time to recruit and schedule volunteers.

Yes, St. Matthew the Evangelist faith formation offers a Home Study option. We believe that it is important to support parents to be the primary educators of their children in the way of the faith, in the manner they best see fit.

Beginning in the fall of 2021, all catechetical materials for grades 1-8 will be offered digitally – this is essentially an evolved version of the home study programs of the past, except now it is the only option, and it is the option for everyone.

However, it is not the only formation taking place.

For the community portion of formation, we recommend that families choose the “Family Small Group” option. This will be the most flexible for families who often choose home study desiring scheduling flexibility.

Our First Reconciliation and First Eucharist program, for children and their parents, is designed for those in Elementary School, Grades 2-4.

Adolescents (Grade 5 and older) who have not yet received their First Eucharist (Communion) or First Reconciliation (Penance/Confession) should contact Tony Carbrello, Director of Youth Faith Formation.  He, or a volunteer he entrusts, will work with each of these students individually, or sometimes in a small group, as circumstances allow.  We usually have a few students each year who prepare for and receive these sacraments.  At an initial meeting, we can discuss the process and timing of the reception of these sacraments.

No. Parishoners attending Catholic schools are already receiving faith formation during their regularly scheduled school day.

This may also apply to families who home school their children for all of school (not only faith formation) and who use their own materials for faith formation.

However, these children and teens do need to register for sacramental preparation, which are kept distinct from the catechetical portions of faith formation. This is because Catholic Schools (typically) do not offer sacramental preparation, since sacramental preparation and celebrations are intended to happen in parishes.

Younger children who need to prepare for Reconciliation and Eucharist should sign up through the registration process with the Family Small Group option, make a notation stating they attend Catholic school, and at the payment section choose “other” and not pay. There is no charge for sacramental preparation.

Teens who need to prepare for Confirmation should sign up through the registration process with the Teen Small Group option, make a notation stating they attend Catholic school, and at the payment section choose “other” and not pay. There is no charge for sacramental preparation.

Please contact us if you have further questions.

Sometimes. A lot of factors go into whether or not we are able to offer make-up materials.

Please contact us to discuss your situation specifically.

2021 July update – we are offering Seekers (Grade 1 & 2) and High School 1 – use this link to register.

In the past, we have offered Grade 1 make up summer sessions for those students entering grade 2 in the fall, in order to receive First Reconciliation and First Eucharist at approximately the same time as their same-age peers.

We have also occasionally offered high school opportunities in the summer.

Using the online resources we found beneficial in 2020-2021, we will continue to enroll families (or give you the needed information to do so yourself) into the appropriate curriculum materials with our publishers.

We would prefer – and think it more beneficial for you – to use the online resources, as your child will be able to track their progress and your family will have access to much more information.

Unfortunately, due to limited staff resources, we can no longer guarantee that paper materials given to us will be corrected and returned to you.

If you have a strong preference for using paper materials, please contact us to discuss your situation and arrange for materials to be given to you.

If you have a rising second grader who missed faith formation (Religious Education, CCD, etc.) in Grade 1, we strongly encourage that the child to participate in one year of faith formation in order for your child to be better prepared for receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist in the following year.  We ask that you sign up your second grader for the Seekers program, and postpone sacramental preparation until the second year of faith formation, when the student is in grade 3 at school.

Occasionally, some families have been allowed to make up Grade 1 at home, and/or during the summer – please contact the faith formation staff for more information, as these decisions are made based on a variety of circumstances.

Please contact the faith formation staff for more information.

We are trying to get away from “fees”, which you may pay for services offered or activities in which a child participates. Your family is making an offering, a contribution, to support the work of the church in sharing the faith. We have specifically removed any fees or additional costs associated with sacraments.

For the 2021-2022 year, the offering for faith formation (religious education, CCD) will be:

1 child = $150

2 children = $250

3 or more children = $300

If financial assistance is needed, please choose the payment option “other” and make a note in the box as available. Our Finance and Operations Manager Chris will be handling all the financial aid requests and payment plan arrangements.

We will be sharing materials from the Archdiocese to enable your family to pray together once per week – probably 15-20 minutes – then once a month we would ask that your family and 2-3 other families gather to pray together. These gatherings (the Family Small Group) with other families can be held at the group’s scheduled convenience and the group’s location of choice, including online. We will match each family small group (“village”) with a mentor-leader who will join you at the monthly gathering.

We are going to allow your family, the 2-3 other families in the small group, and the minister facilitating your small group to choose the day and time to meet, and it can vary from month to month! We know family schedules constantly change!

Our default with the Family Small Groups will be to match families with similar aged kids, but when we go to create the groups and send you a follow-up form in August or early September, you will have the opportunity to note families you would like to be matched with, and we plan to honor that. You can even put in the student notes as you register now your preferences for families / other children to match your family with.

“Classes”, which primarily focused on head knowledge, are being replaced by the online learning formats we started using in 2020.

The Come and See Gatherings will offer a variety of enrichment activities, such as bible stories, dramatizations, service projects, ice-breaker team building games, etc. We hope these to be similar to what the Pathfinders experience was in the fall of 2019.

We will expect one adult in each family to assist in a “rotating helper” capacity.

The “Come and See Gatherings” that we will start offering in the fall of 2021 will be offered periodically, with families signing up for one or more sessions per season. This sign up will happen online (through Sign Up Genius), allowing families to sign up for specific days and times per session, as well as facilitate any changes that need to be made because of the constant change to family schedules. You will not be expected to commit to a certain day and time for a season or entire year!

For example, we intend to offer four different sessions (unique gatherings) between September and Thanksgiving, and families will sign up for all four at once for the fall season. However, you may chose different days and times based on space availability. We intend to offer one session during Advent, and more in the winter and spring.

For each session (unique gathering) we offer, we are currently planning to offer them at these following times and locations:

Monday 4:00pm at the parish hall on the St. Theresa / Billerica center campus

Monday 6:00pm at the parish hall on the St. Theresa / Billerica center campus

Tuesday 4:00pm at the parish hall on the St. Theresa / Billerica center campus

Tuesday 6:00pm at the parish hall on the St. Theresa / Billerica center campus

Depending on how many families sign up for the “Come and See Gatherings”, we may need to offer additional days and times, which will be announced as needed.

Yes, though we thought that might be too much for most of our families in the 2021-2022 year.

All children and youth in school grades 1-8 are expected to participate in the online digital platforms for individual faith formation, and in addition to choose one of the two community formation options (Come and See Gatherings and Family Small Groups).

A family who wishes to try both should sign up for the Family Small Groups, then let us know in the school year that they would like to try the gatherings as well. This way, we can send you the appropriate Family Small Group surveys and get you started there first. Additionally, we want to make sure to have enough room for the families and children only participating in the Come and See Gatherings before we will the available spaces.

If you are participating in both, your feedback would be particularly welcomed.

You will be asked to complete a CORI form and present it with your photo identification. We will verify that the CORI has been completely filled out and will securely send them to the Archdiocese of Boston.

Starting in 2020, an individual may complete a CORI, submit it to a Notary for verification, and mail the completed CORI to the parish office. An individual using this option may still need to meet with a staff member prior to being admitted to serve in a ministry. Some find this option helpful if they are unable to get to the parish office during office hours.

Who needs to complete a CORI:

Everyone who serves in any capacity as a representative of St. Matthew the Evangelist parish, regardless of contact with minors (contact with minors also requires the Protecting God’s Children Virtus training). This includes:

Liturgical: Extraordinary Ministers of Communion, Lectors, Music Ministers, Hospitality, Mass Assistants, etc.

Faith Formation: all faith formation roles, including RCIA and faith formation programs and events

Pastoral Ministers: Homebound Ministers, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Missions (such as the soup kitchen), etc.

Leadership: clergy, staff, routine contractors, and volunteers; Parish Pastoral Council, Parish Finance Council, CAP Team (Child Abuse Prevention), etc.

The celebrations of First Eucharist will happen at the regularly scheduled Masses in the spring, usually starting after Easter, through sometime in late May or June. They will not happen in a separate ceremony.

Families will be able to choose their date and Mass time through the online sign up at some point in the winter.

Please contact the Coordinator of Children’s Ministries if you have further questions.