Spiritual Life
Spiritual Life at Blessed Trinity
"A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints." - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Stewardship
The Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us the meaning of discipleship and stewardship in their most profound sense by her own life witness. All of Stewardship’s essential attributes can be found in her life: she was called and gifted by God; she responded generously, creatively, and prudently; and she understood her divinely assigned role as handmaid in terms of service and fidelity.
The core of our Catholic identity at Blessed Trinity Church and School is Stewardship. As a stewardship community, we show our faith, love and appreciation for God, and the many blessings he has bestowed upon us, by giving back to others. We give to God not only our treasure, but our time and talent as well. By living a stewardship way of life, we are each examples of the presence of God in our daily lives.
Stewardship has been a way of life in our parish for 25 years. Students at Blessed Trinity School, as well as members of the Church, are encouraged to put God first in their lives by sharing their time, talent, and treasure to serve God on a daily basis. All members of the parish community are encouraged to give of their time to God through many means. Our students use their time and talent by getting involved in the Mass through becoming altar servers, sacristans, readers, choir members, ushers and cantors.
We recognize our talents as gifts from God and actively look for ways to use them to serve God. Students have many opportunities to display their talents and put them to good use for the community. During Grandparent’s Day, art shows, music classes, our newly formed band, and the yearly school play, students use their talents to entertain and enliven the community. Our students also demonstrate their athletic skills, dedication, diligence, teamwork, and good sportsmanship through extra-curricular activities such as volleyball, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, and flag football.
Through Peacemaking Peers, a group that promotes conflict resolution and peaceful relationships in our school, students can further demonstrate their talents, while student leaders in our school are active in Student Council and the National Junior Honor Society.
Lastly, students, staff, and members of the parish are brought together as a community when we share our treasure with those in need. Our fundraisers include school dances, collections in the classroom, candy grams, the fall carnival, and the walk-a-thon. In recent years, monies raised through these means have benefited the homeless and impoverished, victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis, and mission parish in Uganda. Students are also asked to make an offering during weekly school Masses. Student weekly envelope offerings include prayers, money or simply a pledge to be more helpful around the house. Through all of these methods and many more, students come to see that stewardship is more than just a donation on Sunday, it is a way of life.
As pilgrim stewards, we are asked to live in a way that is different than the mainstream. We make an impact by our example. We are not called to make a difference at once. We are called to change the world one kind act, one bold challenge, one prayer, one heart, one mind, and one soul at a time.
Looking forward, we all share the same mission of bearing witness to the love of Jesus Christ with our time, talent, and treasure. It is our goal that you will find ministries at Blessed Trinity Church to inspire you along your personal stewardship journey.
STEWARDSHIP EDUCATION
The religion curriculum is supplemented with the series, Planting the Seeds of Stewardship. The stewardship lessons are taught during November with the final project being the commitment brochures, to be turned in at the Student Stewardship Mass. Listed within this brochure are ways that students can commit to using their time, talent and treasure for their home, school and community. This occurs on the Friday before Commitment Sunday for the parish.
Religious Education Program
CATECHIST CERTIFIED INSTRUCTION
A distinctive quality of Blessed Trinity School is its commitment to the building of a faith community. The faculty and staff understand they have been called to the ministry of Catholic education. This means they do not only teach academia, but also strive to provide an atmosphere that freely shares faith in Jesus Christ, prayer and service to others. Blessed Trinity staff members also participate in the Diocesan Catechist Certification Program.
WEDNESDAY SCHOOL MASS
Faculty, staff, students and parents attend Wednesday Mass at 8:15 a.m. Students in grades K – 8 prepare and participate in this weekly Liturgy and other special occasions. Students serve as ushers, lectors, and alter servers and often lead the student congregation in a song or perform a small skit to reinforce the Readings and Gospel. Older students are paired with younger children as Prayer Partners. This relationship provides the older partner a chance to model Christ like behavior during church and help the younger child understand the parts of the mass. The four-year-olds from Angels-in-Arms accompany our 4th grade students to mass as Prayer Partners as well.
PRAYER
Prayer is an integral part of school life at Blessed Trinity School. The morning announcements include information about saints, feast days and special observances, a reading from the Gospels, and two school-wide prayers, usually the Our Father and a Blessing for Birthdays. Students pray before classes and before lunch. At the end of the day the principal leads the students in prayer, a scripture reading, a reflective piece, or a thought for the day. Students also make regular visits with their peers and classes to the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel on campus.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
Religious instruction focuses on God’s love for us, loving and serving as Jesus did, living as Christians, and what it means to be faithful stewards. Special emphasis is placed on living as Catholic Christians as well as understanding and preparing for the sacraments.
The religion program follows the Religion Curriculum and Standards of the Diocese of Orlando. We use the Faith and Life textbook series by Ignatius Press, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and many other Catholic curriculum resources. Classes plan and conduct weekly school liturgies, weekly prayer services in the classrooms, daily lessons on virtues and character development, regular school-wide penance services, and special seasonal programs for Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Stations of the Cross during Lent, and a Holy Thursday service.
SACRAMENT PREPARATION
Preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist occur in 2nd grade. Confirmation preparation occurs in the 8th grade. Parents are involved in their child’s faith formation and preparation for Sacraments by attending Fr. Pat’s parent meetings and working collaboratively with our teachers and the church’s Director of Religious Education.
Outreach
Our faith and stewardship calls us to help others in need. We recognize that God has given us our gifts, talents, time, and resources and we are called to share these gifts with others. Special collections for food, clothing, toys and other necessary household items are collected throughout the year. Thanks to the generosity of our students and their families, those in need are taken care of through the ministry of Brother’s Keeper.
National Junior Honor Society
The NJHS collects canned food for the poor in September and leads other service projects such as collecting money for Brother’s Keeper to buy Thanksgiving dinner for those in need.
Student Council
Our student council is busy all year organizing fun ways to raise money for our school in Uganda. Their efforts include school dances, Spirit Week, collecting Toys for Tots, and hosting monthly dress-out to benefit charitable organizations.
All Classes
Each classroom adopts a student from our sister school, Blessed Trinity, Nalweyo, Uganda. Classes attempt to raise $185 each, which pays the cost of a year’s education for their adopted student. They do this through participation in Spirit Week, book sales, snack sales, and slightly-used treasure sales.
EDGE: Youth Ministry
EDGE is Blessed Trinity’s middle school youth group. This group gathers twice a month to form and grow our 6-8th grade Christian community. They touch on topics relevant to this age group in the world today and enjoy a mixture of socializing, games, topic discussion and spiritual development to help build a strong foundation in the middle school years, when peer pressure and temptation sometimes make the right choice the hard choice. EDGE is open to any 6-8th grade student, regardless of which school, church (if any) the child attends. EDGE is not a replacement for religious education, but a tool to help build upon the values taught in church and to help develop the skills needed to identify the ways to use those values in real world situations.
For more information or registration, please email OcalaEdge@gmail.com.
Family Life Series
All schools in the Diocese of Orlando are implementing RCL Benziger’s Family Life series as a supplement to their religion curriculum. This K-8 curriculum provides students with wholesome formation in Catholic moral virtues.
At every grade level, Family Life implements child safety education, promotes virtuous living, and enriches the family’s sense of Catholic identity. Each unit in your student’s book starts with a two-page insert labeled Family Time which enables the family and the class to focus on the same themes during the lessons for that unit.
Visit rclbfamilylife.com for more information about this series.
Click on the links below for articles from the Family Life series.