At St. James we follow a Family Formation model, where parents take on the role of being the first witnesses of our faith in their home and help their children know, love and serve God. In addition, parents themselves are encouraged to attend sessions for their own formation of our Catholic faith and fellowship with other Catholic parents.

Our role at St. James is to provide parents with tools they need to model the faith for their children and work on their Catechism (Gospel Weeklies) at home. It is also our responsibility to be sure that parents have an understanding of the importance of praying together as a family and regularly receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist together through opportunities that we provide for families to experience these.

To get started with family prayer, parents might want to consider downloading the Hallow app, a Catholic prayer app that is growing in popularity and offers a variety of prayer experiences for all ages. It also features well known actors and sports figures, making it more appealing to children and teens. The paid version of this app (approximately $60/year) is a very worthy investment... growing in our faith together as a family is a priceless treasure.

FORMED is an online platform that we use to help parishioners become informed about or reaquainted with our Catholic faith. It is also used as part of our First Communion and Confirmation formation for parents.


How to sign up for FORMED:

Click here to view instructions in English
Haga clic aquí para ver las instrucciones en español


First Communion Parents:

Watch "Forgiven" (Reconciliation) videos here - ENGLISH
Ver "Perdonado" (Reconciliación) videos aquí - ESPAñOL

Watch "Presence" (Eucharist) videos here - ENGLISH
Ver "Presencia" (Eucaristía) videos aquí - ESPAñOL


In place of 2-hour parent workshops, parents of First Communion students are required to view Sessions 1, 2 and 3 of both the Forgiven and Presence series' and submit reflection sheets for both. While parents may watch the videos online, we will discuss these videos in person at our Parent Gatherings in February and March.

Click the button below to access a printable copy of our reflection sheets for our March Parent Gathering, where we will discuss Presence: The Mystery of the Eucharist.

"Presence" Reflection Sheets

Click the button below to access a printable copy of our reflection sheets for February's Parent Gathering, where we will discuss Forgiven: The Transforming Power of Confession.

"Forgiven" Reflection Sheets

This novena is a powerful, 9-day collection of short prayers that can help parents in the most overwhelming of situations or in their normal everyday routines, to surrender all things to God and trust that He will provide all that we need.