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St. Emily and St. Thomas Becket Parishes
April 28, 2020
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Dear Families,
We are done with 'regular' classes for Religious Education for this school year. Some students might have benchmarks to meet - learning prayers, Beatitudes, etc. If your child still needs to meet one of these, we can handle it in any of the following ways:
- Recite the prayers to you at home and you report success back to me and the catechist;
- I would be glad to Facetime any student. Just let me know and we can arrange the call;
- I got a few videos of students emailed to me, which I thought was a great idea. If that works for you, just copy me and the catechist.
I'll issue the certificate right away.
As you might know, it is a requirement of the United States Catholic Bishops that students receive training each year in the signs of grooming behaviors that can lead to sexual abuse.
I will send you the grade specific materials, so look for those emails and download the materials. These are talks that you have already with your child, I am sure. It never hurts to reinforce the message.
About this time of year, the catechists begin preparing progress reports, but our routine got disrupted, to say the least. We are not going to send home second semester reports this year, as you have a better idea than usual about what your children have been doing in Religious Education.
 Next week would have been our annual May Crowning and Rosary. Instead, we are encouraging you to crown an image of Mary in your own home. All the information can be found here, including suggestions for images to download if you need one. We are also encouraging families to pray the Rosary together at 7:00 on Wednesday, May 6, so that we can be 'together' even while we're separate.
There are a few more resources that might be useful to you. Pope Francis issued a prayer book to be used during the pandemic. It includes the lovely Litany of Supplication that has been written.
There is a book which helps to explain coronavirus and Covid-19 to young children. It is available for free online. The link is here.
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Registration for our Religious Education Program
Register now for 2020-2021
We are proud of the quality programs we offer to the families of St. Emily and St. Thomas Becket parishes. We hope you join us for the coming school year.
It is essential for a child's strong development in the faith that he or she be enrolled in each year of grade school.
Enroll now for 2020-2021 - and make sure you get the Early Bird rate. After June 1, families pay an additional $25.
Preschool and Kindergarten children are welcome to enroll in the St. Emily Sunday School which takes place during the 9:30 AM mass.
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McLoraine Scholarships
Help St. Emily Students Attend Catholic High School
St. Emily is fortunate to have an endowment fund, the McLoraine Trust, which provides scholarship funds for St. Emily parishioners attending Catholic high schools. If you have an eighth grader, it is worth checking it out.
Information is here.
Application form is here.
The deadline is May 1!
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Catholic Charities needs food donations
Help stock the pantry in Des Plaines
What we heard from Catholic Charities:
Catholic Charities food pantries are seeing record demand due to the impact of the COVID-19. At the same time, we are finding it harder to get common food items, from our main source, the Greater Chicago Food Depository-which is equally taxed.
This is happening at the same time our client visits, in our Des Plaines pantry, have tripled. On Tuesday, our first pantry day of the week, we processed 50 clients in our first hour. In response, we've had to limit the amount of food we are distributing, which is far less than we would like to give, or what is needed.
If you can help, that would be wonderful. Here are some options:
- Donations can be delivered to our office at 1717 Rand Road, in Des Plaines on Friday between 8:30 am and 2:00 pm. If you call ahead at (847) 376-2100 we can instruct you on how to drop off a donation without face-to-face contact.
- Order items from a delivery service such as Instacart and have them delivered directly to our Des Plaines Pantry.
- Make a monetary donation that we can use to purchase food. You can donate online at www.catholiccharities.net If you donate online, you can designate your donation specifically for the Des Plaines food pantry.
- Mail a check payable to Catholic Charities to 1717 Rand Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Put it to the attention of the Pantry.
Here are the items we need the most:
- Canned meats and fish - tuna, salmon, chicken, pork
- Oatmeal, rice, canned and dried beans, pasta, dry cereal
- Macaroni & cheese, peanut butter, nuts
- Canned soup, vegetables, fruit, pasta sauce
- Jelly, fruit juice
- Quarts of milk, eggs
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Digital Access to our Texts
Due to the generosity of the publishers, digital access has been granted during this time of emergency. The catechist might direct you to the text, which you can access as follows:
We Believe series (grades one to six)
- Username: SadlierStudent
- Password: ReadyToLearn!
We use the We Believe Catholic Identity School edition. Scroll down to find it.
Third graders use the Catholic Children's Bible and middle schoolers use the Catholic Connections Handbook.
Use the following codes:
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St. Emily Parish
Catherine Crino, DRE
847-299-5865
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St. Thomas Becket Parish
Renata Sosin, CRE
847-296-9051
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