First Holy Communion preparation - classes have started for the 2025/2026 academic year!
Confirmation classes at St. Bernard's
-- The current 2-year class is underway and is full! The next class will be open for enrollment in the Summer/ Fall of 2027, with classes beginning in September 2027. Registration runs through the ESM Office (alsda46@aol.com).
The Confirmation program is a 2-year program. Classes usually take place Saturday afternoons (1-2 classes per month). Candidates should ideally be at least 14 years of age to enroll. It is expected that the students are able to read and speak English at an 8th grade mother-tongue level.
Curriculum at St. Bernard's coveres topical modules:
- Bible Literacy Module: Teen T3 Bible Timeline series
- Faith & Science Module: helps show how faith & the natural sciences are not mutually exclusive.
- Philosophical/Theological Modules: builds foundations grouped around Six Great Ideas: Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Justice, Freedom, Equality. Draws on the writings of Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Vatican II and others to expose the candidates to the philosophical and theological framework of Catholic doctrine. Candidates will build a portfolio of reading material from Aristotle's Nicomachaen Ethics, Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theol. as well as magisterial documents such as Lumen gentium, Dei Verbum, Rerum novarum, etc.
- Prayer Module: introduces the students to the varied prayer traditions in the Church and seeks to build the student's own prayer life. In addition, retreats are organized whenever possible. Includes standard prayers, the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Stations of the Cross, litanies, novenas, Lectio Divina, Adoration, etc.
- Sacramental Theology Module: introduces the theology of the sacraments generally and specifically focusses on the Sacraments of Initiation
- Service opportunities encourage candidates to live their faith through charity.