Catholicism 101—Summer Session:  The Gospel of St. Mark

Catholicism 101 is an adult faith formation series Intended for anyone interested in learning more about the Catholic faith.

Instructor:  Mr. Joseph Nuzzi, Pastoral Associate, Church of St. Francis of Assisi

Schedule:

Wednesdays, July 10 – August 14, 2024
12:30 – 1:30 PM in the Clare Room or
6:30 – 7:30 PM in the Clare Room and on Zoom

In this 6-week course, we will be studying in depth the Gospel of Mark.

Themes we will study will include:

• For whom was the Gospel of Mark written?
• What issues may Mark’s church have been facing when this gospel was written?
• What is Mark’s theology of who Jesus is? (Christology)
• What does it mean to follow Jesus in Mark’s gospel?  (Discipleship)
• What is the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in Mark’s gospel?

This course is offered for both new students as well as people already accustomed to studying the bible.  Inquirers and neophytes from the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults are encouraged to attend.  It will also be an excellent course for catechists, lectors, deacons and priests who want a refresher course as we journey through Cycle B this year, and anyone interested in learning more about the Christian faith.

Please register below.  Scholarships are available for anyone with economic hardship.  To inquire please email:  jnuzzi@stfrancisnyc.org 

Fee: This Adult Education Summer course is offered free of charge.
A free will offering is requested. (Normal course fee is approx. $10 per week of the class, or $60)

Visions and Revisions: A Poetry Workshop 

This class will include strategies for writing and revising poetry. The first part of each meeting will consider tools of poetry and types of poetry which will include some set forms like the sonnet, particularly the terza rima sonnet, the cinquain, particularly the American cinquain, and the ghazal. as well as ekphrastic poetry and the monologue poem.  Each class will include some time for writing and sharing poems.

Instructor: Sr. Fran McManus

Mondays July 8 – August 5
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
on Zoom.

Fee $60.00

Limited to 15 students

Soul-Searching: A Novel Approach

Who are we and what do we value?  How are we shaped by family, faith, cultural traditions, history and current events?  These are among the questions characters grapple with in our three novels. Our first meeting will include an introduction to our authors and the texts and a discussion of two short stories which are available online. Our first novel will let us follow Philippa Talbot into a cloistered Benedictine convent at a time when religious life is beginning to change because of Vatican II; we will next join Father Declan in Ireland where he struggles with his conscience after a parishioner reveals a long-held secret; finally, we will visit a Minneapolis bookstore where Tookie is haunted by the ghost of a recently deceased customer as well as the history of our country’s indigenous people the experience of COVID and the murder of George Floyd. Fittingly, the novel begins on All Souls Day in 2019 and ends on All Souls Day, 2020.

Course texts, in order of reading, include: short stories “Desired Things” by Alice McDermott and “The Empty Family” by Colm Toibin; In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden, The All of It by Jeanette Haien and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.

Instructor: Sr. Fran McManus

Thursdays, June 27 – August 8 (No Class July 4)
12:30 – 1:30 PM
on Zoom.

Fee $60.00