Contact : Fr Lucas Laroche (Interim Director) or Neeni Francis, Assistant to the Director of Religious Education
508-603-1430
All Registration Forms for 2023-2024 calendar year will be emailed out within the next couple of weeks. We ask that you please send form back as soon as recieve it with registration Fee to the office at 151 Mendon Street, Upton , MA 01568. If did not receive an email contact the office so we may update your email and provide you a registration form!!!
****Extra forms are available in the Narthex or in the office .
Download the st gabriel registration form***
For your convenience we have 4 ways to help you pay your Rel. Ed. registration fee’s easier:
- Go online- stgabrielma.org and on FUND scroll to Rel. Ed Registration, follow prompts
- Go to our App and click on Donate and on FUND scroll to Rel. Ed Registration
- Go to our “Text Giving Program” – Text 508-905-8889- tap on link when it pops up and it will bring you to the contribution Page. Scroll down to the Religious Education Registration column and follow the prompts
- Mail a check in to the office at 151 Mendon street, Upton, MA 01568. If by check, please make payable to: St. Gabriel Parish- $135.00 per child/$300 for three or more children. *** On your mailed in registration please indicate the way you have paid if not by check.
- Teachers who volunteer to teach here at St. Gabriel’s may waive the fee. ****This does not apply to home classes.
- Please contact us if the registration fee is a financial problem
After downloading and filling in the form, please bring the completed form to the Church Office or you can mail it to the attention of the Religious Education. The church address is 151 Mendon St. Upton, MA 01568.
PHILOSOPHY
Our parish program of Religious Education sees as the primary duty the task and privilege of teaching a basic Christian context for encounter with God. Primary in this is the place of prayer. Ideally, children are first taught to pray by their parents. Prayer is then reinforced by teachers, and deepened through experience in the greatest form of prayer… community worship at Mass.
In addition, the Religious Education Program, as it reaches out to share the Good News with our young people, will be striving to provide a curriculum of study aimed at producing a real spiritual growth in the life of our youth.
We ask all parents of those attending our program to:
1. Be faithful to Sunday worship. This privilege of Sunday worship is the fundamental sign of our Catholic identity.
2. Be living examples of faith to inspire their children by faithful and consistent participation in the sacraments of the Church displaying their values in word and deed to their children.
3. Take an active role in the teaching of their children in the following ways:
a. Encourage and support each child to be faithful in attendance to the sessions.
b. Take an interest in what is being taught in the classroom.
c. Contact director, teachers, or priests when the need arises or questions arise…
good communication is essential to Christian community.
d. Make family prayer a regular activity.
POLICIES
Attendance – If any program of religious education hopes to give a course of study that is on-going and developmental, the attendance of students at each grade level must then be seen as an absolute necessity. Parents are asked to call the office if their child cannot attend a class session. Parents will then be responsible for lessons missed in class.
Inclement Weather – When school is canceled, all classes are canceled. Otherwise, all cancellations are announced over news channel WCVB (Channel 5).
Sacramental Catechisms – We have non-graded Sacramental Preparation Programs for Confirmation and First Eucharist. The programs are separate from the academic religious education program. Two factors to be considered when planning to receive a sacrament are readiness and shared responsibility. Readiness should be based on a student’s understanding of God, as well as understanding the importance of a loving relationship with Jesus and with one another. Readiness is also based on a child’s desire to receive a particular sacrament. Shared responsibility means parents, priests, and catechists all share important roles and are actively involved in the preparation programs. Mass attendance on a regular basis should be in place before presenting a child for any sacrament program.
Students who present themselves for the Confirmation Program must realize that the sacrament preparation program exists “apart” from St. Gabriel’s academic program. Tenth Graders who participate in the Confirmation Program must agree to complete the eleven-year academic program.
******PLEASE NOTE: CONFIRMATION IS NOT A GRADUATION FROM RELIGIOUS EDUCATION!!!!!!!!2023-2024