Sacramental Prep Retreat Day at St. Augustine - BIG SUCCESS

The Sacramental Preparation Team at St. Augustine parish planned a wonderful Retreat Day on Saturday, December 2nd for our 1st Holy Eucharist and Confirmation families preparing for their children’s sacraments in the spring of 2018. What a glorious way to mark the beginning of Advent.

The day started off with our Confirmation families arriving at 9:00 am. Parents were treated to the first two videos of Alpha - “What is Life All About” and “Who is Jesus” up in the sanctuary and the grade 6 children preparing for Confirmation watched a few videos from Dynamic Catholic. In-between videos the children passionately participated in some fun discussions about their faith including if they’d ever seen anyone walk on water. It was highly engaging and there was lots of laughter as well as some very intuitive reflections shared about the importance of coming to mass regularly and building community with each other.

In the afternoon our 1st Holy Eucharist families arrived for their retreat which had a similar format to the morning. The younger children watched some episodes by Mathew Kelly’s Blessed program, a highly creative animated series helping explain the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist. The families then built an Advent Wreath together in the Parish hall before coming up the Sanctuary for the 4:30 pm mass followed by a potluck supper in the parish hall.

Father Scott asked the parents to start bringing their children to church each Sunday especially while they are preparing for the Sacraments. By regular attendance at mass the whole family will be well prepared for the celebrations of these important Sacraments in the Catholic faith. He stressed the importance of the children and the parents hearing and understanding the Gospel each week.

Thanks to all the volunteers at who helped make this Retreat so special.