October 13-20 Update: Weekly Activity, Trinity, Coat Drive

Greetings everyone,

It was great gathering with you all in class this past Tuesday.  Thanks for your patience as we work with the technology to facilitate class.

To recap, at the beginning of class, we heard from Paul's fellow World Youth Day pilgrim Paige, who is serving as a FOCUS missionary at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO.  She shared about why faith is important in her life, and how she got involved with FOCUS, and what she has been doing in the first couple of months as a FOCUS missionary.

If you're interested in knowing more about the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, FOCUS, here is their website.

We then did a recap of the Creed from our in-person gathering on October 6.

One question from October 6 was why it took so long for the Roman Empire to legalize Christianity. The Roman religion was so well-established in their society, so that even the emperor was considered divine, a son of god.  Christians were tolerated at first, but then circumstances were more problematic for them when they professed belief in the authority of God and His Son, instead of acknowledging the Roman emperor's authority.

To reinforce some of the principles addressed in the Creed, we did hand motions to act out the story of God's work of salvation throughout history.  Here is a video that shows Paul acting them out.

The Creed addresses the Three Persons of the Trinity, Who form One God.  The Trinity is a great mystery of our faith, and can be hard to understand, but we recognize how the Trinity is real in how God reveals Himself around us.

The activity for this week is an opportunity to see how God is present all around us.

Here is the link with the instructions and the form for submitting your activity for the week.

It should probably only take about 5-10 minutes to complete.  It is due class time on October 20.

There isn't a grade given for these activities, but we will keep track of which ones you complete and don't complete.  Thanks to those of you who have submitted your reflection for this activity already.

There is a great service opportunity this coming weekend and the following weekend, to help out with the coat drive, and we can see use plenty of more people.  

Here is the link to sign up to help.

Thanks to those of you who have already signed up to help.  There's a good chance you will see Paul at Church at some point when you come to help.

As usual, please feel free to contact us with questions, etc.

We look forward to seeing you at our next class on October 20.  We have another guest speaker lined up, so you'll want to be there at 7 PM.

The log-in information for class will remain the same each week, and it was sent to all the parents.

Today, as I, Paul, mark the 15th Anniversary of my Confirmation at Ascension, on Saturday, October 15, 2005, I am grateful to God for the ways the Holy Spirit has worked in my life before that day and since, even giving me the opportunity to be your co-catechist/teacher for this class.

Thank you all, and thanks be to God.

We pray your week is blessed.

Remember, just as our God is Three Persons Who are One, so are we all connected:

Mita Kuye Oyasin--All my relations,

Debbie Lopez and Paul Rubio

P.S. Here's the video we watched at the beginning of class as a prayer, the song written for WYD 1993 in Denver, CO:

The closing prayer is the 2nd reading for this weekend's liturgy, from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5.

Recently, Paul passed through Trinidad, CO, on the Amtrak train.  Trinidad is Spanish for Trinity.  You can see a sign for the city on the height above the city.  Perhaps it could be said there are three sides to that height, just like a triangle has three sides, and so is a fitting symbol for the Trinity.