The
Wednesday Word in Brief
In the formative stage of a Christian life
there are three supports:
The Family
The School
The Church
In the present context of
Catholic family life in our country, one of these three supports
is often missing, namely the Church. There are many reasons
for the lack of contact between the growing child and the
Church community, but it is a sad fact of life.
This means that the
three-legged stool on which Catholic formation has traditionally
rested is now down to a two-legged stool and has become a
real balancing act. So what is necessary to regain this proper
support of the growing Catholic life to restore, in some form,
the living contact between the family and the local Church
community? Clearly one intermediary could be the School.
Statistics tell us that
approx. 80% of our school families do not regularly come to
church. The primary school version of The Wednesday Word
spreads the Gospel to school parents and families. This resource
seeks to encourage a weekly Family Time custom which
supports the Catholic Church. This new Family Time
is under the patronage of St Joseph, Patron Saint of families
and protector of the Church.
The Wednesday Word
is an attempt to bridge the gap between the family and the
local Church Community via the School. Each week the Sunday
Gospel is sent out into thousands of school family homes.
For school parents the arrival
of The Wednesday Word into the family home seeks
to act as a weekly reminder of the love that our Lord has
for them and also of the responsibility that many accepted
at Baptism, to bring their children to the knowledge and practice
of the Good News that we have received in Jesus.
Moreover, where adults are
evangelised and their faith in God nurtured, and where Catholic/Christian
family spirituality is embraced by families, we find a powerful
antidote to family relationship breakdown.
The weekly distribution
of the primary school version of The Wednesday Word
ensures an unbroken invitation to the Eucharist throughout
school life and is a further way for our Church to demonstrate
our care and concern for our school families.
PLEASE
SEE PRIMARY SCHOOL 'KEYPOINTS' AFTER THESE 3 EXAMPLES
>>
Please click here
for examples of the primary school Wednesday Word
>>
Please click here
for family feedback
>>
Please click here
to go to the Headteachers and Governors pages to discover
more about the mission
PRIMARY
SCHOOL VERSION 'KEYPOINTS' FOR PARISH PRIESTS
The primary school
version of The Wednesday Word is unique. It:
- aims to contribute
to drawing families more closely into the life of the
Church through creating a new form of relationship between
the Church and Catholic school parents who do not currently
appear to be practising or enquiring about the Catholic
faith
- acts as a regular reminder to all
parents and carers about their responsibilities to support
the school’s ethos
- assists churchgoing
school families to prepare for the proclamation of the
Gospel at Sunday Mass through praying and discussing the
Gospel together. This new weekly prayer custom in the
home is also an effective way to help parents transmit
the faith to their children
- regularly spreads the Gospel to school
parents, regardless of any professed faith or lack of
it
- is an effective
starting point that helps avoid awkwardness in the many
families where the tradition of coming together in prayer
and reflection appears to have lapsed. The Wednesday
Word aims to help all school families to develop
Christ-centred relationships in the home - a proven way
of reducing family breakdown
- assists Christian unity in the homes
of mixed denomination families by encouraging and enabling
them to pray together
- is based on
the parable of the Sower and the Seed. The Seed is the
Word. Sometimes the Word will be rejected or ignored.
But sometimes the Word will “bring in a spiritual
harvest of thirty, and sixty, and a hundredfold”
- is a missionary initiative for our
time which aims to serve the Church and bring Glory to
God, but needs your support. Will you help to spread The
Wednesday Word?
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