Hello from the Diocesan Office of Religious Education!
I was asked recently to tell you a little bit about myself.
What brought me to the Diocese of Baker, what my past
accomplishments have been, and what my long term goals are
for the youth and adults of the diocese.
Although I am not originally from Oregon, this is not my
first experience with the diocese. After several
encounters with parishioners from this diocese, their faith
inspired me greatly, leaving an indelible impression. Because of this experience, I was excited
when the job opening became available in early 2010.
I was also excited and honored to work with our former
Bishop Vasa and to be a part of the exceptional staff at
the Diocese of Baker.
Along with the education I received from obtaining two
Bachelor degrees from the University of Idaho and my
"in-progress" Master's in Theology from Franciscan
University of Steubenville, I bring with me some valuable
life and apostolic experiences from the past 10 years of my
life. I am grateful to God for giving me the
opportunity to live in different areas of the U.S. and
abroad in Europe, working in a variety of apostolates,
including Catholic education, campus ministry, and a year
of missionary work focused on igniting the faith of
Catholic youth. I look forward to my continued work
here in the Diocese of Baker, to be able to give my
services and talents to the Church, and to learn from each
of you who dedicate your own lives to the mission and
enrich it with your own unique talents and experiences.
As the Director of Religious Education, my goal is to work
with you to ensure a solid catechetical education for all
of our youth and adults. I invite creativity and
encourage new ideas in the implementation of our
educational programs; however, I also want to be sure that
all information given through our diocese is based solidly
on the teachings of our Holy Church. I want to assist
you in any way possible in your efforts to ignite the faith
of our youth, specifically focusing on any needs expressed
in the Catechetical Report. Lastly, each year I will
continue to organize a Catechist Retreat and a Ministry
Conference at our retreat
center in Powell Butte.
Thank you for your dedication in educating the children of
our diocese. You can count on my daily prayers.
May God continue to bless you and your
efforts!
POWELL
BUTTE RETREAT CENTER
March 3, 2012; 8:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Talks:
Food
and Strength for the Journey:
The Eucharist
- Fr. Robert Greiner
Road Map, Sign Posts and Directions:
Sacraments of Initiation- Bishop William Skylstad Embarking on the Journey:
"Go out into the World"
- Bishop William Skylstad
Don't Forget to Bring the:
Top 5 Necessary Items for the Catholic Journey
-
Jill Schwartz
Mass will be offered at 8:00 a.m. with Bishop
Skylstad presiding.
Retreat Cost:
$30 (Breakfast and Lunch included)
For more information
contact your RCIA director or Jill Schwartz at
the Diocese of Baker 541.388.4004
Jill@dioceseofbaker.org
Coming
in from out of town? If you would like to stay at
the Retreat Center,
contact Jill at the number above to make arrangements.
**Good Christian Movie Review:
Having a movie
night with the kids? Not sure what movies are
"decent"? Focus on the Family has created
a website that thoroughly reviews most released movies.
Not to mention, they also write reviews for video
games, music and TV shows from a Christian prospective.
Check it out at:
www.pluggedin.com
.
Another resource media reviews is the
Catholic News ServiceMedia Review Office
of the
USCCB
http://www.usccb.org/movies/
**Need
help answering your children's questions?
www.Catholic.com
is a website sponsored by Catholic Answers, one of the
nation's largest lay-run apostolates of Catholic
apologetics and evangelization. If you are
looking for a quick answer to a Catholic question,
www.catholic.comis a great source. If you have any other
resources you would like to share, please email them to
Jill Schwartz:
jill@dioceseofbaker.org
.
Want to learn
more about your faith?
Take classes
online!
Here are a few
options:
CatechismClass.com
sets out to provide religious education,
spiritual formation, and moral guidance of our Catholic Youth and Adults through classes on-line.
Not to mention, our own Bishop Vasa serves on the advisory board and has provided lectures for the
organization in the past.
CatechismClass.com: Now Offering
Bishop Vasa’s Talks on MP3 85%
of sales will be donated to the Diocese of Baker,
Oregon
State College, PA, May
27, 2011:
CatechismClass.com is pleased to announce that
effective immediately it will begin offering a series
of 16 talks given by His Excellency, Bishop Robert Vasa
on the theme of the Interior Life. This series of
talks was given when His Excellency was still the
Bishop of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon.
Bishop Robert Vasa
serves as the Episcopal Advisor to CatechismClass.com.
CatechismClass.com operates
with the singular goal of
being nothing short of the best online Catholic
catechesis program in the world.
The company provides
online, interactive catechetical lessons for parishes
and families. They offer acomprehensive K-8 program
as well as the only online high school program modeled
after the USCCB’s “Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum
Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials
for Young People of High School Age.” Additionally,
the site provides a well-received and thoroughly
developed program for use for Adult Catechesis, which
has been used around the country as part of RCIA
programs.
Now,
CatechismClass.com is expanding into audio lessons and
will start by offering Bishop Vasa’s series of 16 talks
on the Interior Life. Additionally, the company has
offered to donate 85% of all sales to the Diocese of
Baker, Oregon as a gift to the ministry of the Diocese.
The audio lessons
given by His Excellency will be offered in three ways
for purchasing. Firstly, his talks are available
individually. Secondly, the talks are available in
groups around each of his main topics, and finally,
they are available as one lump sum.
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