Blog

Minutes from Education Commission March 7, 2023 Meeting

Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Lake Ozark, MO

Attendees: Mel, Karri, Kelly, Linda A.

Parish Scholarship

Letters and checks sent out to the recipients.

Budget

Education Commission’s budget is not anticipated to change from last year, although this may change with a new DRE. 

Confirmation

From Karen: We have 36 candidates. It has taken a village to gather all information on the candidates and do all the tasks to prepare for Saturday. There will be a display in the fellowship hall for pictures with the Bishop and Father Penn – it will be left up for a short time. The 4th degree Knights from OLOL and St. Anthony will be a part of the mass, along with songs sung in both English and Spanish. We have readers and servers from both the traditional mass and our Hispanic mass.  Each candidate will receive a small gift bag of goodies and a certificate. Also, the students at OLOL will continue with class on Wednesdays until the end of April.  A mini retreat is planned for Mel and Karen’s students in April- date to be determined. We had 15 confirmation students and siblings attend the Trivia Night to serve as runners for the question and answer sheets, along with selling mulligans and 50/50 tickets. 

NCYC

Information has been publicized in bulletin and distributed to students. 1 adult and 1 child already signed up. 

Adult Faith Formation

• Grateful Living Study groups have started. There are 8 or 9 groups, plus a number of families and individuals doing the program separately.

• “Music of the Church” presentation by Steve to occur after Easter. The one hour session will include where we started musically with the Mass, the importance of Gregorian Chant, the church modes (predecessors of the major and minor scales), the discovery of what we use in Western Music today and how the evolution of chant expands the choral music in the church. 1 hour presentation. 

• Women’s Cursillo in Camdenton, March 16-19. OLOL has three attending. The men’s Cursillo had 11 attendees from around the diocese. The women’s retreat has a waiting list.

• Hearts A Fire upcoming study – Wisdom and Works of Mercy – coming this summer.

Family Life

• 1 Baptism this past weekend, 2 weddings this year (Freeman and Corwin). Karri will forward the details from a meeting for the Freeman wedding (to be held in October) to Mel.

Formed.org and Library

• Parishioners are continuing to discover and explore the library.

• Karri recommended the Commentary on the Chosen series on Formed.

Renewal Movement

• Jade Basi event on March 14: songs, reflections, stories, and questions. Steve will have a sign-up sheet to gather contact info for people interested in future events. Mel contributed funds from her budget to help with this. Steve is in need of people to help serve refreshments afterwards. Information posted in the bulletin. Question was raised about publicizing at nearby parishes. Mel and Karri will send out an email blast to Welcome group and the event will be mentioned at the Thursday breakfast.

OCIA and Catechesis

Many upcoming activities with the catechumens.

• First Scrutiny: March 9

• Presentation of the Creed: March 14, 1:30pm

• Second Scrutiny: March 23, 8:00 am

• Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer: March 27, 2:00pm

• Third Scrutiny: March 30, 8:00am

• Preparation Rites: Holy Saturday, 12 noon

Parish Council Report

Education commission’s concerns regarding PSR assistance and NCYC deadlines were presented to the Pastoral Council. Fr. Penn is working on the PSR/DRE situation. NCYC sign-ups are underway and deadlines will be met. Linda A. talked about the Southwest Deanery Pastoral Plan and how we are on track with the objectives. Confirmation, in particular, is a perfect example of collaboration between parishes and sharing of resources. 

“Celebrate Kids Day” collaborative event between PSR and Hispanic community is in the works for April 30. PSR classes are being extended by 1 week to allow for celebration of May Crowning on May 3 (Joan Wolf is coordinator).

Karri brought up the “Welcoming New Parishioners” topic that had been mentioned at the Council meeting. Three commissions share this responsibility: Worship handles initial intro with Ushers/Greeters interaction and Welcome baskets (in the past), meals used to be given out which could fall under Social Concerns, Education Commission handles the Welcome Weekends. Other ideas around social gatherings included:

• Donut Sundays: Each commission and some of the other ministries could rotate hosting.

• Saturday Social after Saturday Mass

• Return of the “Happy Hour”

• Parish Picnic

One area where we need to grow is involvement of men of the parish in faith formation activities: retreats, studies, etc.

Linda A. will take this back to Council meeting.

Next Meeting

May 4, 2023 at 5:30pm   Prayer Leader: Linda A.  Hospitality Provider: Mel