Building a Community of Faith for Families at Light of the World Parish
A father came to Light of the World Parish in Littleton, hoping to have his two young sons baptized. Though he was ready to begin the process, there was one issue: his closest family and friends weren’t eligible to serve as godparents to his children.
But the conversation didn’t end there.
“We invited them to join us at Mass and for breakfast on Sunday, where there are other families in the same stage of life,” said Bridget Rincon, the parish’s director of family ministry. “They began attending our family formation and sacrament preparation programming, then connected with others there. Soon, the gentleman had found a family he related to, who agreed to serve as godparents for his children.”
What started as an invitation to Mass flourished into a meaningful friendship — and it is exactly the kind of community that Rincon hopes the parish can continue to foster.
“These two families that met in a Sunday family formation program got to know each other, and now they're at a different level of support for one another,” Rincon said.
For Rincon, that kind of connection and community is the point. Through her work preparing couples and families for sacraments, she sees an opportunity to help families build relationships that extend well beyond a child’s Baptism.
Rather than seeing Baptism as the completion of a requirement, Rincon wants it to become the beginning of a family’s deeper connection to parish life.
“We will continue to engage families, not just after their child’s celebration, but follow up on their first anniversary, acknowledging their sacrament and offering prayers,” she explained.
When a new family comes to Light of the World seeking Baptism, Rincon begins by getting to know them, asking about their faith and prayer life and learning where they are on their journey. From there, she works to connect them with parishioners who can walk alongside them.
“Parents are responsible for teaching and transmitting the faith to their children,” she said. “But they need to know how to do that.”
That need is at the heart of the Family Faith Formation program at Light of the World, where families receive formation and have the opportunity to connect with others preparing for the same sacraments or in the same stage of life.
Adam and Erica Keyser experienced that connection and the program's impact firsthand, beginning their faith journey with the goal of helping their two young sons receive their sacraments. But they soon found that family formation not only helped deepen their sons’ faith but also enriched their own journeys.
“It started off as just checking the boxes — like, all right, this is the next thing we need to do,” Erica said. “But having other parents there and having our own separate dedicated time, really propelled us to the Catholic faith in a way that we wouldn’t have if we didn't have that class at all.”
For Adam, that experience came at a significant point in his own faith.
“I knew something was missing, and I wasn’t sure what it was for a long time,” he said, noting that having children changed the way he thought about his relationship with the Church.
“I didn’t want to just go through the motions,” he added. “I want to be the spiritual leader within my family.”
Both Adam and Erica agreed that Light of the World’s Family Faith Formation provided them a place to continue their faith journey alongside other families who were also growing and learning.
“It's for everyone,” they said. Erica added, “It's such an open atmosphere. … I have no problem [being vulnerable] or sharing my limitations of what I don't know within the small groups.”
On Sundays, families worship together, then share breakfast and build friendships while their children receive age-appropriate formation. Childcare helps parents with toddlers participate, while older children move into their own formation groups. Parents, meanwhile, receive formation of their own, equipping them to nurture the faith their children are receiving.
The program has also helped the Keysers make Mass a more consistent part of life.
“It's a connection point. It just morphed away from this requirement into a Sunday gathering that I get to do while my kids are growing so fast,” Erica shared. “It's a gathering that you want to go to.
“Family formation reignited the fire in me,” she continued. “And then my husband wanted to do this, and wanted to become Catholic. Where we are today is in large part because of the type of formation classes that we've been attending.”
The Keysers’ experience reflects what Rincon hopes can happen for other families: preparing for a sacrament while developing a community in a parish that can sustain them for years to come.
Participation in the program has increased from 10 families three years ago to 50 families today. The parish hopes that growth will mean more than simply larger numbers.
“If we’re not supporting families, we’re missing something,” Rincon said.
At Light of the World, celebrating a child’s Baptism and other sacraments has become an opportunity to connect families with parishioners who can encourage them, pray with them and become part of their support system.
Rincon sees that work as something that can extend across generations.
“What I’m seeing in this is a generational formation,” she said.
She believes the approach can help equip parents to pass the faith on to their children — and create a community in which families do not have to navigate that responsibility alone.
As Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his Letter to Families in 1994, “Christ entrusted man to the Church; he entrusted man to her as the 'way' of her mission and her ministry. Among these many paths, the family is the first and the most important.”
