• Online Faith Formation Registration

• Faith Formation Policy
  • La Política de Formación de Fe 

• Faith Formation Payment

Faith Formation 2021-2022

• Faith Formation Calendar
  • El Calendario de Formación de Fe 

Each grade has their own catechists and classroom where they work through a curriculum appropriate to their grade level. Each student is supplied a workbook.

High School
Registration for high school youth ministry can be found here.
To learn more about our high school program, click here.

Confirmation
To be eligible for our youth confirmation program, a candidate must be currently enrolled and participating in high school youth ministry or a homeschool faith formation curriculum. Registration for high school youth ministry can be found here.
To learn more about our Confirmation program, click here.

Students will be given their workbooks the first day of class and will store them in their classroom.

Grade 1
Book- Spirit of Truth: God is Love
Children begin to develop an awareness of God as our Father in Heaven, the creator of Heaven and earth, who is all good, who created them in his image and likeness, and who loves then unconditionally. Basic parts of the Mass are introduced. The reality of sin is further explored in connection with the Sacrament of Confession. Continuing to learn from the lives of saints, they also explore the basics of prayer as conversation with God.

Grade 2
Books- New Catholic Picture Bible: Popular Stories from the Old and New Testaments
St. Joseph First Communion Catechism (No. 0): Prepared from the Official Revised Edition of the Baltimore Catechism
Picture Book of the Saints (Lawrence G. Lovasik)
Children will learn and memorize the basics of the faith to prepare for the sacraments of First Communion and Confession. They will learn about God's nature, sin, Jesus, and the sacraments. They will also be introduced to key persons in salvation history such as Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses.

Grade 3
Book- Spirit of Truth: The Kingdom of God and the Church
Children learn what the Catholic Church is, who the Holy Spirit is and how he guides the Church, and what it means that Jesus continues his mission through the life of the Church. Along with the basics of the Trinity and all seven sacraments, they build on what they have learned about prayer, and explore what it means to live as children of God. This year also focuses on Jesus's parables of the kingdom, and Mary as the Mother of the Church.

Grade 4
Book- Spirit of Truth: Jesus Teaches Us How to Live
Most of this year focuses on the moral life, with children exploring more deeply what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, and how they should respond to God's grace in order to spend eternity with him in heaven. Explored are conscience formation, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, and Jesus's Great Commandment to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The reality of sin and the necessity of virtue are emphasized.

Grade 5
Book- Spirit of Truth: The Sacraments
This year provides an in-depth exploration of God's grace in the Sacraments, with a focus on what a Sacrament is and why Jesus instituted them, along with the form, matter, history, celebration, and effects of each Sacrament. Children explore what it means that God is the source of all life, learn more about the Holy Mass and Holy Days of Obligation, and read and discuss longer biographies of the saints, especially young saints.

Grade 6
Book- Spirit of Truth: Sacred Scripture
Children spend this year immersed in God's Word in the Sacred Scriptures, and explore how the Bible, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, records God's plan of salvation. Includes basics on how to use the Bible, Magisterial authority, how and why we should pray with Scripture, how the Bible is different from other books, and the four senses of Scripture before beginning a comprehensive exploration of the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Grade 7
Book- Spirit of Truth: Living as a Disciple of Christ
This year includes four units in which middle school students explore in depth the topics of: Jesus and the Gospel message, with an emphasis on unifying themes in Scripture and an in-depth examination of the four Gospels: personal growth, with an emphasis on the origin, dignity and destiny of the human person; the seven sacraments, with an exploration of each sacrament; and prayer, with an emphasis on its elements, qualities, and challenges, ways of praying, and Mary and the saints as models of prayer.

Grade 8
Book- Spirit of Truth: The Communion of the Faithful
This year includes five units for middle school students to build on their understanding of: Personal growth, with an emphasis on our vocation to love and our responsibilities to God and each other; Morality, with an emphasis on conscience formation through God's gift of an objective moral standard and prayer; Church History, with an emphasis on what we can learn from history about our identity as Catholics, and how the saints have shaped the liturgy, hierarchy, and the doctrine of the Church; the Citizen and Government, including the natural rights of all persons and the purpose of government, and God's Plan for Marriage and the Family, with an emphasis on our identity as male and female and all that encompasses, purposes and abuses of sexuality, and resisting temptation to avoid sin and grow in virtue.

St. Martin de Porres can verify your home-based program if you desire to do year-round home school faith formation with your child(ren) as opposed to the program above.

For the list of approved texts for catechetical instruction for the Diocese please click here.
For the Diocese of Austin Policy on Home Schooling please click here.

Here are the requirements for homeschooling of the sacramental classes. For homeschooling of other grades, only step 1 is necessary.

1) Still register for Faith Formation and click homeschool/Catholic school under "class". You will not have to pay or fill out the policy form.

2) Attend sacramental parents meeting at the beginning of classes.  Please see the Faith Formation Calendar for this date and other important dates.

3) Give your student the corresponding Sacrament Assessment. 

The Sacrament Assessment is a series of questions and answers for your student to learn in order to receive the sacrament. The assessment will be administered sometime in February or March.  If the students fail the test, they will have the opportunity to retake it again until they pass before the date they receive the Sacrament.