The Homebound Friend Program at St. Christopher School provides an outreach connection between our students and St. Christopher homebound parishioners or Nursing Home residents. The children in each homeroom reach out to their homebound friend with cards and letters, gifts of art projects or homemade seasonal decorations, and, most importantly, daily prayers. The homebound friends and the students rarely get to meet each other in person but they hold each other in their hearts forever.
Students in Kindergarten through 8th grade attend Mass weekly when school is in session. Pre-K students join us beginning in January. The school community has the wonderful opportunity to experience Adoration every Tuesday after Mass. Annually in October, coinciding with the Feast of the Rosary, our whole school goes to church and prays for peace in our homes, community, and our world.
During both Advent and Lent, our students from 3rd through 8th grade attend a penance service and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. Every homeroom also visits the Blessed Sacrament during Adoration. Further, Advent is a time when, as a school community, we prepare ourselves, with special programs, for the birth of Jesus on Christmas.
Lent is celebrated with a school wide incentive to aid a needy cause through community service opportunities. The 8th graders lead a school prayer service reenacting the Last Supper, and the 5th grade leads us in the Stations of the Cross, presenting a tableau of each station. Traditional prayer services close the season leading us to Easter.
The long standing Catholic tradition of crowning the Blessed Mother in May is celebrated at a Marian mass including the new First Communicants, with one of our 8th graders selected to crown the Blessed Mother. Our 8th graders also participate in two retreats during the year, and graduation is celebrated after a mass said for the good of the graduates.
Advent & Lent: Students from 3rd through 8th grade attend a Penance service and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. Every homeroom visits the blessed sacrament at adoration during these holy seasons.
In conjunction with our Religious Education department, the sacramental program for First Reconciliation is taught in 2nd grade, with the students receiving the sacrament in the Spring. Our 3rd graders make their first Holy Communion in May after completing a year long program. Both programs are presented to the students during their daily Religion classes, along with a retreat attended during the course of the school year.
