Faith Enrichment – Alpha Program

Teaching the faith in today’s world is always an ongoing process that demands both creativity and determination.  As ministers of the Word we need to remember to use language people can understand and relate to in order to develop a faith that is rooted in the Gospel.  As a community of believers the Indigenous Parish of St. Kateri in Winnipeg decided to offer the Alpha Program to enrich the faith life of the community.  This program helped us to explore the message of the Gospel as it pertains to daily life.

The Alpha process was first developed with adults in mind taking into account how adults learn while interacting with one another.  With this in mind we spread our Alpha sessions over six week period which began before Advent and ended just before Christmas.  The remaining sessions are to be offered at a later date. Each session began with a traditional meal of bannock and soup and a few other goodies which was appreciated by all.

All of our sessions began with prayer.  This was done not just at the opening of each gathering but was brought forward at various liturgies during the week. During this process the participants were lead to reflect and discover new ways of entering into a relationship with Jesus.  Just the fact that people were coming together to pray, listen and share their faith journey with follow parishioners became a source of healing for some.

We were very fortunate to have a variety of participates at our gather which included not only elders but the youth as well.  This allowed the participants not only to explore their faith but come to understand the needs of the different generations in their journey of faith.

We were able to provide the Alpha Program in part with the sponsorship of MAMI and its many supporters and benefactors to which we are very grateful.

By Robert Laroche, OMI