PreK/K Sunday School is offered every other week, September–April. The program is for preschool age children. We use the Allelu! curriculum with lessons featuring activities, Bible stories, music, crafts, prayer, games and more. Children imagine, explore, create, and do, engaging all their senses as they gain the building blocks for a lifetime of Catholic Faith. Allelu! nurtures young children’s natural tendency to seek a relationship with God, reinforcing a strong sense of community and love.

Written by the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Christ Our Life curriculum we use for grades 1–8 provides the foundation of our faith formation program. Some special features of this series are: 

• Original spiral curriculum ensures consistent progress and development
  
• Faith content is developed throughout with Scripture integrated into each lesson
  
• Four pillars of the Church—Creed, Sacraments, Commandments, and Prayer—are integrated
  
• Abundant prayer opportunities invite personal and communal prayer
  
• Catholic Social Teaching connects with real-life faith
  
• Online resources available for catechists, parents, and children to suplament and reinforce the concepts taught in class
  

The primary theme of each grade is:

• 1st Grade: God is good - Salvation
  
• 2nd Grade: God Cares for Us - Eucharist and Reconciliation
  
• 3rd Grade: We Believe - The Catholic Faith
  
• 4th Grade: God Guides Us - The Ten Commandments/Beatitudes
  
• 5th Grade: We Worship - Liturgy and the Mass
  
• 6th Grade: God Calls a People - The Hebrew Scriptures
  
• 7th Grade: Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life - Jesus Christ
  
• 8th Grade: The Church Then and Now - The Holy Spirit/Church History
  

We invite you to see the many online resources offered by Christ Our Life at the Loyola Press website. 

For grades 9 and 10, we use the Catholic Faith Handbook, which was created in response to a call by youth and parents to have a resource that as a guide for young people to learn the Truth revealed by God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and passed down through the centuries through the Catholic Church. It is not a child’s book, and was created specifically for youth and young adults to provide honest, to-the-point answers about Catholic beliefs, art, culture, and history.  

Lesson Structure

Each lesson is split into four main parts:

1. Pray It! (Young people experience a form of prayer connected to the lesson.)
   
2. Study It! (Young people are introduced to an important Truth or teaching of the Catholic Faith.) 
   
3. Live It! (Youth learn how to put what they have learned into action.)
   
4. Closing Prayer (Young people prayerfully offer up what they have learned as a community.)
   

St. Raphael Semester Components for Grades 9/10

 9th Grade Semester 1

Creed: This semester focuses on what Catholics believe about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. It is based on the Apostle’s Creed.

9th Grade Semester 2

Sacraments and Prayer: This semester focuses on how Catholics worship God and encounter Jesus Christ through the Seven Sacraments of the Church. Students also learn different types of prayer, ways or praying, and what we pray for when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. 

10th Grade Semester 1

Christian Morality: This semester focuses on moral decision making, sin and conscience. The Ten Commandments are used as the basis for exploring and understanding specific moral issues and how we are called to respond.

10th Grade Semester 2

Theology of the Body: Theology of the Body is St. (Pope) John Paul II’s integrated vision of the human person – body, soul and spirit. We will answer questions about how God created us to love and be loved. 

Resources for Youth and Families

Catholic Faith Handbook (Used for all 4 semesters and taken back and forth to class and part of tuition fee.)

Catholic Youth Bible (provided by parish)

Christopher West Theology of the Body Series