Led by Parents - Shared as Family - Experienced at Home
Mend is a first Reconciliation family experience designed to equip parents to teach, share faith, and pray with their children as they lead 7 family meetings in their home through a variety of hands-on and innovative activities.
Families will encounter Jesus and experience the beauty of Reconciliation as it connects to daily life by forming clay, making field goals, reading Scripture, engaging in meaningful conversation, and much more.
Watch families dive deeper into the incredible gift God gives us - Reconciliation.
benefits
-Hands-on, experiential, and engages the entire family
-Empowers and equips parents to teach,
share faith, and lead prayer
-Brings faith formation home
-Everything is conveniently included in the box
-Restores trust in a forgiving God in Reconciliation
-Pairs well with other curricula
-Doubles as parent faith formation
-Accessible to families at different places in their faith journeys
scope and sequence
Each family meeting includes: a gathering ritual, family check-in question, hands-on activity, concise teaching, and a closing prayer.
The experiences cover the origin of sin and God's plan of reconciliation.
Meeting | Title | Theme | Activity | Values Taught |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Parent Meeting | Welcome Home | For the parent(s) only.
Take a moment before beginning this process with your family to reflect on your own experience of confession. | Watch a powerful video about the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Learn about how to lead a family meeting. | Healing, Mercy, Importance of Family Bonding |
Family Meeting 1 | Handmade | Learn that we are all created in love for love by God, each handmade and unique. | Mold the Creation Dough, or clay, into your own shape. | Creation, Dignity of the Person |
Family Meeting 2 | The Fruit | Learn about how God created human beings with free will, or the ability to make decisions for themselves. | Color the paper apples and use them to talk about free will, and the hope of Jesus and the cross. | Original Sin, Making Good Choices |
Family Meeting 3 | Lost and Found | Learn about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He will always seek each one of us. | Play a game of hide-and-go-seek with the wood sheep. | God's Loving Pursuit of Us |
Family Meeting 4 | Washed Clean | Learn about the cross, the pouring out of grace, and the sacrament of Baptism. | Have each family member write their name on the wood cross.
Renew your Baptismal promises as a family. | Grace, Baptism, New Life |
Family Meeting 5 | The Goal | Learn how sin is “missing the mark” and the guidelines God gave us in the 10 Commandments and Beatitudes. | Play a field goal game with a mini football.
Engage the 10 Commandments and Beatitudes. | Sin, The Consequence of Choices, Laws of Goodness |
Family Meeting 6 | Hearts and Stones | Learn about conscience and choices and how to evaluate your day. Participate in an examination of conscience and pray the Act of Contrition. | Partake in the Examen prayer by using your Examen bag filled with hearts and stones.
Examination of Conscience. | Conscience, Examen Tool |
Family Meeting 7 | Healed | Learn how our decisions affect others. Learn what penance is and the outline of how to make a good confession. Celebrate God’s desire to "find" us. | Make a string web together as a family. | Penance, Forgiveness, Healing |
Available as a bi-lingual resource. English and Spanish
ecclesiastical approval
Nihil Obstat:
Rev. William Brewer Goldin, S.T.D.
Censor Librorum
August 12, 2020
Imprimatur:
Most Rev. Kevin William Vann, J.C.D., D.D.
Bishop of Orange in California
August 15, 2020
physical
The Mend Box includes everything needed for parents to lead 7 family meetings in their home. Just open the box to find beautifully printed meeting guides and quality supplies to experience a variety of hands-on and innovative activities.
digital
Mend Digital includes all of the same great content and activities from the box just delivered in a different form. Martha, our Formation Management System, makes accessing the content and tracking the progress of your families a breeze. Includes built in Family Follow Throughs and all of the small prints from the box and more as pdfs for families to print at home.
free trial
Sign-up for a free trial of Mend Digital. Also see how Martha can help with the busy work so you can focus on what technology cannot, relationships. The intuitive interface includes all of the contents of Mend delivered in an easy step by step process.
