OCIA FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS

Christian Initiation for Children and Teens

The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA, program offers children, teens and adults the opportunity to become fully initiated to our Catholic Church through four stages:

  • Pre-catechumenate
  • Catechumenate
  • Election
  • Final Initiation


Children who are not baptized (age 7 and up) will participate in our OCIA program for children which is held typically on Tuesdays evenings from 7pm-8:15pm. This weekly parent/child class provides age appropriate understanding of our Catholic Faith for our students, specifically nurturing the child’s relationship with Christ. It is through this weekly class, students will be prepared to enter the Church through the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation.


Children who are baptized (3 to 8th grade) but who have not received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and/or Eucharist will begin a two-year program concluding in receiving All Sacraments of Initiation


High School students who are entering the Catholic Church or wish to receive sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, or Confirmation should contact Paul Laskowski at paul.laskowski@stmarknc.org.

Step 1: Attention Parents:   Before you register you must login into our new database system called Ministry Platform.   Once logged in you will have access to view and edit your family information, add pictures, and in the future, view your financial giving. We appreciate your patience as we improve the process to make things as easy as we can for our families. Thank you!!

 

*Only one email may be used per adult.

*The system will not recognize you if the email is associated with more than one person, such as a family email.

*If you do not see the information you expect please continue creating the account and we can merge the records with what is in the system.

*Once logged in review your information and correct if necessary.


 Please click the button below to login to Ministry Platform, then return to the this page to register.


Step 2:  After Setting up your Ministry Platform Account and reviewing the information, please click below to register your child for OCIA for Children

OCIA

OCIA is the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. We call our program OCIA for Children or Teens, or sometimes OCIC.

  • OCIC
  • This program is for Children over 7, 5th grade or below, who are not baptized.
  • They will receive Baptism, First Holy Communion And Confirmation.
  • This program is also for 6-12th graders missing any Sacraments.

Those in this program will come into The Church at either the Easter Vigil OR at Pentecost.

  • Easter Vigil
  • The night before Easter Sunday
  • Those who need to be baptized will enter The Church at this Mass.
  • Pentecost
  • The Seventh Sunday of Easter
  • Those who only need First Communion and/or Confirmation will receive those Sacraments on this Sunday.

Baptism

  • If your child is NOT baptized, and UNDER 7 years old, please contact Emily Bixler to schedule them to be baptized ASAP.
  • If your child is NOT baptized and OVER 7 years old, but not older than 5th grade, they will need to enroll in our OCIA for Children class on Tuesday Evenings. 
  • If your child is NOT baptized and OLDER than 5th Grade, they will need to enroll in our OCIC class on Tuesday Evenings. 

Special Cases

If your child is missing a Sacrament and is not the typical age for that Sacrament, please reach out to us to make sure they get

placed in the correct class.

Here are some examples:

  • My child is in 1st grade, 6 years old and not baptized.
  • Get them baptized before they turn 7!
  • My child is in 5th grade, 10 years old, and not baptized.
  • They will need to be enrolled in OCIA for children.
  • My child is in 4th grade, 9 years old, baptized but hasn't received First Holy Communion
  • If they did not attend Faith Formation in 3rd grade, they will enter 4th grade, like normal, but then in 5th grade they will complete extra Sacramental prep to receive First Holy Communion at the end of that year.
  • If they did attend 3rd grade Faith Formation, they will enter 4th grade and complete extra Sacramental prep to receive First Holy Communion at the end of 4th grade.
  • My child is in 10th grade, 16 years old, hasn't received Confirmation because we just moved here from a parish where they received at the end of 10th grade.
  • Your child will join the OCIC class and receive Confirmation at Pentecost.
  • My child is in 9th grade, and just needs Confirmation
  • If they attended a year of Faith Formation in 8th grade they can join our Confirmation class
  • If they did not attend a year of Faith Formation in 8th grade, they will need to complete a year of Life Teen in 9th grade, and will enter our High School Confirmation class via OCIA for teens in 10th grade.

There could be so many special cases for needing Sacraments, please reach out and we will definitely help you find the right place for your child!

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