Kids/Families

“Being co-creators with God is the crowning gift of marriage.”

So says Peg Hensler, diocesan associate director of Marriage Ministry and NFP, reflecting on this year’s Natural Planning Awareness Week, July 21-27.

“NFP enables couples to live a moral life,” Hensler said. “It gives couples every opportunity to make the right choice and live by Church teaching.”

“An Army of Moms.”

Those are the words three women of Pennington’s St. James Parish use to affectionately describe the Moms of Teens Ministry in the Catholic Community of Hopewell Valley. After all, it takes a village to raise a family – a faith-based village.

St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square, is putting marriage front and center with its “Happily Married Flash Mob” promoted on the parish’s website and social media.

An activity begun by the newly formed marriage ministry in St. Gregory the Great, “Marriage Matters,” the YouTube video features a running series of couples holding a “Happily Married For [blank] Years” sign, with the number of years filled in by each couple.

The statistics are staggering: Roughly one-third of young Catholics in the United States leave the Church before their 18th birthday.

Understandably, those who work with them are very concerned by the numbers and are engaged in conversations about what can be done to stem the tide of those departing, and to bring back those who have left. These two books are a welcome contribution to that conversation.

“But what about Peter?” my son DeForeest asked as we returned from Easter Vigil Mass many years ago.

I’d started telling him about Jesus from the time he began to talk. By the age of three, he was familiar with the Gospel and showed interest in its supporting cast. I sometimes aided his imagination with occasional vocal characterizations for the various apostles, Pharisees, centurions and townsfolk who wander in and out of Scripture.

Talking and laughing, faithful of all ages flocked together March 23 for a family night and lock-in retreat geared toward forming stronger bonds in faith and friendship.

“I hope the teens walk out with what our Ignite Youth Group is all about: fun, faith and fellowship. Our theme is to be ignited with the Holy Spirit in our daily lives,” Joan Kret, youth ministry coordinator in St. Leo the Great Parish, Lincroft, said of the night.

What started as a simple idea grew to a larger donation effort by two brothers in St. Paul School.

Santino Travia, a fourth-grader in the Burlington school, thought it would be good to add new books to the school library.