Adult Faith Offerings 2020-2022

Because of the covid-19 social distancing, much of the adult faith offerings are posted here. I encourage you to read, ponder and discuss the material with your friends and family.  I am available for help or feedback and can be contacted via a call to the Parish Center or by email at slfernandez@stmichaelscranford.org.

Also consider the material available here on our website in the Adult Faith Resources "Finding God" option on this website's main menu.  Your life is meant to be a deeply moving journey in which you explore the wonders of God’s creation, all the while searching for and finding God, who is closer to you than you are to yourself, and kinder and more merciful than anyone you have ever known.

Sister Loretta
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BIBLE STUDY  -  We completed the 24-Lesson Yale Online Course on The Hebrew Bible in January.
Yale Online Course RLST 145: Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible)
Introduction to the Old Testament
All the materials: video and audio versions of the lectures, along with their transcripts and handouts, are available on this Yale University website.

CHURCH HISTORY  -  In January of 2021 we began a series in Church History:  Christian Origins 101:  How the First Christians Lived, Believed and Shaped History.

EXPLORATIONS IN FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY  -  Our 2020 - 2021 focus is on Becoming Missionary Disciples.  See the material in this website's We Learn Menu.  In 2021 - 2022 we explored the Word on Fire Interview of Bishop Robert Barron and Jessica Hooten Wilson on the works of Catholic authors from Dostoevsky ot Walker Percy.

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Introduction

I sense that many, perhaps most of our parishioners have an erroneous idea of the Catholic Church and, not facing that misconception head on, could make for a somewhat mundane, unjoyful everyday life.  God never intended that, but that is where, it seems to me, many of us are.  Why?  Well, after much thought about this, I suspect that the source of the problem, among other things, is that when the field of psychology started to grow and companies who wanted us humans to think that we couldn’t live without their products  (Like Coke – the Real Thing), the Catholic Church, whose “product” IS the Real Thing, did next to nothing to contest or counter the captivating and, in a way, trapping influence of mass marketing.

So this and the next few sessions are one attempt to set the record straight and to give you a chance to look at the Church and your place in it as something that may be totally different from the way you have thought it to be up until now.  What we are about to explore is not anything new, but I suspect that, if you really listen, this will be new to you.  And most of this material is based upon writings from Scripture, Catholic tradition and the writings of popes like John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis and on recent writings and videos of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This is the kind of material that I and my Explorations in Faith and Spirituality attendees have been discussing since 2006.  Because of COVID-19 and social distancing, I am putting the content here so that people who cannot attend the sessions can think about it and form their own study groups. Share this page with your friends and see if they would like to do the suggested discussions with you.

And please share your insights an suggestions with me.  I am doing this to help you.  Your feedback will influence my additions and changes to the material presented.  Send Emails to me at slfernandez@stmichaelscranford.org

Sister Loretta Fernandez RSM