Sts. Mary & St Anthony Parishes @Rocky Boy Reservation
Faith formation continues at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. Students from Rocky Boy continued to meet for classes virtually. We use Microsoft Teams for Rocky Boy students. Virtual meetings were held Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Monday and Tuesday are reserved for Box Elder Box Elder was able to resume in person instruction.
Teaching the students during a pandemic continues to be a challenge. The other obstacle we have is at St Mary’s we still do not have a church. Just a reminder out Church building burnt down December 2019. We continue to plan for a rebuild, with a groundbreaking to take Father’s Day June 20,2021.
Students are attending school in a hybrid schedule at Rocky Boy schools. Due to the hybrid schedule, students are not always home to get on their devices to attend class. Flexibility was needed while students adjusted to getting back to in person school instruction. Box Elder student were able to return to in person instruction 4 days per week. As people were able to get vaccinated restrictions eased up. After school activities at both schools resumed. Students would often choose afterschool activities over religious education. I would then try to get students to be online for virtual classes after they would return home. This helped keep some continuity with the students. I would be available for virtual meetings Mondays thru Thursdays. Tuesdays we had in person instruction at St Anthony’s for those students who would come. Again at Box Elder, once in person instruction resumed and after school activities is became a challenge to keep students.
We continued to use the Pflaum Gospel Weeklies. We use the Good News with the younger children k-3rd graders. We use the Venture with the 4th-6th graders. This spring we continued to concentrate also in the meanings of the prayers. We concentrated on the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. To finish out the school session we pained rocks for the in person class at St Anthony’s. The rock symbolized the stone to the entrance of the Tomb. Students enjoyed paining the rocks. They will keep one rock for their prayer space. A cloth was given to them to put their prayer rock on and encouraged them to pray and pray often. Other rocks they painted are to be hidden where others may find them and share in the Good News. Flash cards were printed of the Lords Prayer to help them learn the prayer Jesus taught us. A part of the Our Father and the Hail Mary were written on copy paper and students decorated the page. This was done as a family activity.
Students are encouraged to take a picture with Mary and/or Joseph if they travel this summer and attend Mass in a Church other than their own.
We continue to live stream Sunday Mass and encourage students and their families to attend in person or virtually. I promote the Formed program that Father Tran has provided a subscription to for additional family materials.
Thank you for your gift to assist in building and continuing a Faith Formation Program at both St Anthony’s and St Mary’s Parish Communities.
