A Christ-Centered Community
St. Susanna Parish School provides a Catholic education where Christ is at the center and at the heart of our school. Students learn in an environment inspired and driven by the Gospel and supported by a faith-filled community that was instituted to form the whole child: mind, body and spirit. As part of our accreditation process in 2020-2021, St. Susanna Parish School established the following Catholic Identity goal:
St. Susanna Parish School students will demonstrate their understanding of Catholic Social Teachings through active participation in service learning and ministry.
The goal is for children to develop a lived Catholic faith and sense of service to others by developing a sense of solidarity and community as the Body of Christ, empathy as the cornerstone of a lived morality and interest and experience in serving others by using their unique gifts.
Our culture is one where community in Christ is experienced. Students are reminded that they are important members of our school and Church family. Each day, our students will benefit from immersion in authentic Catholic Tradition and cultural identity, faith and conscience formation as a continuous encounter with Jesus, daily opportunities for prayer, reflection, discernment and service and an invitation to missionary discipleship to form future saints.
Religion Curriculum
Our religion curriculum, Finding God by Loyola Press, covers the full and authentic teachings of the Catholic Church and rooted in Scripture, Church Tradition, and Ignatian spirituality, Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts™ starts children out on a life of intentional discipleship. This faith formation program for grades K-8 helps foster a lived relationship with God through Jesus.
Embracing the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Finding God provides all the tools to engage the whole child—mind, heart, and soul—uniquely guiding children to engage with Scripture, practice prayer and reflection and to find God in all things.
Finding God, Our Response to God’s Gifts, is based on a spiral curriculum that integrates the fundamental themes of the Catechism of the Catholic Church with Scripture and Catholic social teachings. As children are introduced to and revisit concepts and vocabulary from one year to the next, their knowledge and experience both broaden and deepen as they grow in faith as committed disciples of Jesus.
We invite students, teachers, catechists and parents to fully recognize the presence of God through the use of multimedia. Finding God incorporates multimodal learning and utilizes multimedia to reinforce faith concepts, connect students with content, and enhance the learning process.
In addition to Finding God, we also teach both the Theology of the Body and Virtue=Strength curriculum for all grades.
Theology of the Body
This is St. John Paul II’s teaching on the meaning and purpose of human nature. He explores how our God-given masculine and feminine nature complement each other and help answer two fundamental questions: “Who am I?” and “How am I to live?” In exploring his teachings on the great themes of love, gender, gift, vocation, creation, redemption, purity, and covenant, those being catechized will come to understand the dignity of each human person and the proper relationship with God and others.
Virtue=Strength
This is a Catholic program that compliments our religious education program and strengthens students in the practice of virtue while also captivating them with the beauty of the Catholic Faith. This curriculum is filled with prayers, examples from everyday life, as well as the lives of the saints, and practical challenges for teaching students virtue and reinforcing the teaching through prayer and action.
Living Our Faith
Our students attend weekly school Mass. This serves as a powerful faith experience for students, faculty, parents and parishioners to join together as the Body of Christ to celebrate God’s unending love. Nourished in the Eucharist, we give thanks to God for all He has done for us and renewed, we go out after Mass to live what we believe.
Students can participate in the Liturgy through a variety of experiences:
- Lectors (K-8)
- Altar Servers (4-8)
- Offertory (K-2)
- School Choir (5-8)
- Traveling Crucifex (K-8)
*Each Mass is led by a different grade level each week.
*At Mass, students sit with their Prayer Buddy. This is a wonderful way for our younger students to learn from their buddies about the different parts of Mass, responses and gestures.
Prayer is an essential element of the religious education of children. Through prayer, children are able to express and deepen their relationship with God. A very important goal is to help students develop a deeper prayer life. The day begins and ends with prayer as a school community.
Each classroom has a prayer space that enables students to connect with their Catholic identity. Gathered together, each class begins with prayer.
Each grade level participates in prayer services throughout the year. The prayer services are aligned to the Liturgical calendar and often focus on the Saints. Each grade level is represented by the following Patron Saints:
- Kindergarten: Mary Mother of God
- First Grade: St. Francis of Assisi
- Second Grade: St. Therese of Lisieux
- Third Grade: St. Teresa of Calcutta
- Fourth Grade: St. Teresa of Avila
- Fifth Grade: St. Ignatius of Loyola
- Sixth Grade: St. Dominic
- Seventh Grade: Padre Pio
- Eighth Grade: St. John Paul II
During these Prayer Services, students have the opportunity to participate as lectors.
Several faith opportunities are offered to students through the school year:
- Confession is offered to students in grades 3-8 during the school day, two times per year.
- Students have the opportunity to experience the Presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament through Eucharistic Adoration on the first Friday of the month. This time is a special way for students to grow in their relationship with Jesus and help to grow in holiness.
- Students participate in monthly faith ceremonies based on the Virtue of the Month. These ceremonies help our school community have an intentional experience of our Faith and to strengthen our Catholic Identity. These school-wide ceremonies include:
- August: Blessing of our classrooms with holy water
- September: Eucharistic Procession
- October: Marian Consecration
- November: All Saints
- December: Advent prayer service
- January: Epiphany classroom blessings
- February: Catholic Schools Week/Family service project
- March: Holy half hour Eucharistic Adoration
- April: Stations of the Cross
- May: May Crowning
- Family Faith Nights are school wide events designed to nurture and strengthen faith within the family.
- Friday Faith on Fire is a weekly newsletter published by our DRE that helps families connect to their faith and strengthen their Catholic identity in the home.
Our students understand that Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Service projects provide students with the opportunity to both learn and live out their faith. Service helps our students to see what it looks like to live a life of faith.
A sample of service projects are:
- Box of Joy
- Hearts for the Hungry
- Turkey Meal Ministry
- Twinning Ministry (support for Uganda)
Student Council representatives in grades 6-8 have opportunities to serve as leaders for these service projects.
In addition to the above, many grade levels also choose to complete a service project on their own.
You Are a Titan, You Are a Treasure, You are a gift! This is a recognition program for students who are demonstrating positive virtue strengths and are positive role models for peers. This program was developed to recognize students who are using their gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit to serve others in response to the Theology of the Body teachings of St. John Paul II.
Each Wednesday, students who received a Titan Treasure will be asked to stand at Mass in recognition. The Titan Treasure Slips from the previous week will be presented as an offering of thanks to God for the special gifts they have been given to share His love with others. At the last Mass of the month, our Titans of the Month, as nominated by their teachers, will be recognized and receive a certificate for their “gift of self.” These grade level recipients are honored as they have exemplified the virtue of the month.
Prayer for Families
Loving God,
You are the giver of all we possess,
The source of all our blessings.
We thank and praise you.
Thank you for the gift of our children.
May they come to know you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
May their ears hear your voice.
May their eyes see your presence in all things.
May their lips proclaim your Word.
May their hearts be your dwelling place.
May their hands do works of charity.
May their feet walk in the way of the Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord.
Amen.