Salesian Sisters Kick Off Families in Christ Season With Lesson on God’s Love
With over 300 people in attendance, the kickoff for Families in Christ took place on Wednesday, September 25. We made a few key changes to the program over the summer to ensure an even better program this year. For example, we moved Families in Christ to Wednesday evenings to coincide with our Faith Formation program; we have shortened the sessions to one hour in length; we’re offering a free family dinner (pizza, salad, pasta, etc.); and best of all — the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco are organizing and hosting each session: Sr. Patricia Roche, Sr. Rosemary Cordes, Sr. Jennifer Kane, and Sr. Brittany Harrison.
The Sisters, whose order was founded by St. John Bosco, have been administering St. John Neumann High School for the last four years. The charism of their religious order is to love, work with, and educate the young. They follow St. John Bosco’s “preventative system”: a system of working with youth that emphasizes preventing bad behavior, instead of punishing it — founded on the principles of Reason, Religion, and Loving Kindness.
While they possess a diverse richness of talents (speaking,music, multi-media, creativity), perhaps what sets these Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco apart is their authentic love for young people, their genuine sense of Christian joy, and an abiding and contagious peace. Our first Families in Christ hosted by the Sisters was dynamic, interactive and captured the attention and imagination of the children and their parents. The theme was the dignity of the human person. And, the Sisters were able to present this topic in a way that all the children both understood and took to heart.
Through creative activities, movie clips and music, the Sisters taught everyone present that God loves us not because of anything we have (or don’t have), not because of what we can do (or not do), not because of our status (or lack of status), but rather because He made us and continues to hold us in existence moment by moment out of his prodigal love for us. Secure in this unshakeable foundation for our true sense of dignity and worth, nothing the world can say or do can ultimately bring us down. God’s love for us — especially Jesus’ passion — is the greatest proof for the dignity of the human person and is the rock upon which we can build our lives! All else is sand.