Welcome to a most amazing place!
Available Programs
We offer creative faith formation for those desiring to learn to pass on their Catholic faith more effectively, especially in family and missionary settings.
All our programs are faith-based, and can be adapted for any age, including groups of adults or groups of children, or any combination of ages.
We welcome you to reach out to us to seek best practices in family faith formation, creative application of history and the natural world to learning to pass on the faith, and skills in one-to-one discipleship.
Living Faith
in History
Programs
The Last Days
of
Blades
Dates: Thursdays from
September 10 - December 10, 2026
3:30 - 5:00pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
Hold swords that defended freedom, and some that served enslavers. Find out how a good edged weapon is forged. Discover a unique walk into salvation history as told through Scripture’s blades. Touch sharpness from 5,000 years ago, and blades forged right here in local steel. In America, the sun set on edged weapons in combat in the continent's largest clash of arms – the Civil War. Swords and such have since become more about ceremony than survival. Yet back in the days when your life might swing on the strength of your steel, sword design was a vital craft. That practicality came in a myriad of forms – whether your role was on horses, behind cannon, on fields, on ships, or even musical – the blades fit the battle zone! This semester-length course is a hands-on approach to learning history, hagiography, and the heating and honing of metal, creating a highly engaging, unforgettable experience! Come and discover!
Living Faith
in Vocation
Programs
Educating in Christ:
Forming for Yearning, Not Just Learning
Dates: Wednesdays from September 30 - December 9, 2026
7:00 - 8:20pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
Have you ever wondered how to best support your children on their journey of life and faith, especially in these immensely challenging times? How can we help our young ones not only to learn about God's truth in their heads, but also come to hunger for Him in their hearts? Discover an approach to how faith can be effectively passed on to children according to their developmental stages — in a home setting. This Educating in Christ (EIC) approach is a unique adaptation of the work of Dr. Maria Montessori, Dr. Sofia Cavalletti, and Gianna Gobbi, master teachers and master catechists. Designed by an educational expert, Dr. Gerard O'Shea, in collaboration with a team of catechetical experts assembled by Franciscan University’s Catechetical Institute, the EIC approach offers the unparalleled value of Montessori’s understanding of the child. The EIC goal is to enable mothers and fathers to understand how to foster each child's capacity for God at every stage — from infancy to the end of the teenage years. This approach will help you to lead your children in the great adventure of falling in love with God. Come and discover!
Living Faith
in Creation
Programs
Invasive,
Endangered,
& Dangerous
Dates: Thursdays from
September 10 - December 10, 2026
1:00 - 3:00pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
Invasive to what? Endangered how? Dangerous to who? Great questions with surprising and fascinating answers! Our human impact can flummox, fix, or fight the living things in our environment. What'll it be and what new things can you see that inspire you to love better, live better, or just live and let live better. Or maybe flee faster! This course includes multiple live animals, and will cover a myriad of topics in the natural world, aiming to not only grow knowledge of specific creatures, but also the methods of zoological science and an ethic of responsible care for creation from a faithful Catholic perspective. We look forward to giving you a fun and enriching time! Come and discover!
The Mystery of
History's Golden
Thread
Dates: Thursdays from
January 21 - May 6, 2027
3:30 - 5:00pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
You are invited to a journey unlike any other - an odyssey spanning centuries, continents, and the chronicle of Christ's outstretched arms, embracing all souls and all history. The method of formation in this semester-length course is uniquely physical - touching deep places in time, holding objects that bear witness to breathtaking sanctity, bravery in sorrows, and boldness in spreading the world's Greatest Story. See in a new way the family you entered by Baptism, a golden thread of communion that "will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will all the just from the time of Adam, from Abel the just one, to the last of the elect, be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." (CCC 769) Come and discover!
The Father's Work: Learning the Craft of Adult Catechesis
Dates: Thursdays from
October 29, 2026 - October 28, 2027
7:00 - 9:00pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
Come join a unique year-long course for missionaries, to help you give the faith to others! Since the time of the apostles, people have shared their faith in Jesus Christ person to person, generation to generation, in an unbroken chain. In every generation the Lord calls his people to pass on what they themselves have received: "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you" (1 Cor 11:23). If at any point in history just one or two generations had neglected this Christian calling, millions of people today would not know Jesus and his message of salvation. We might be among them. As catechists for adults, we are part of this generation's link in that unbroken chain of faith. Handing on the faith is a deeply personal endeavor. Those we invite into the Church will one day invite others. Generations yet unborn may one day trace their spiritual lineage to our - your - efforts. This year-long course will be most helpful if you are currently involved in adult formation in some way, for observing and doing are the best ways to learn. If that is not possible, the exercises throughout the course provide an accommodation to this. Come and discover!
The Zoology
in
Biology
Dates: Thursdays from
January 21 - May 6, 2027
1:00 - 3:00pm
See our flyer here for more details about cost, class size limit, and how to register.
An immersive zoology course for 5th-9th graders! Semester-length, hands-on approach to learning zoological science, creating a well-rounded, highly engaging, unforgettable experience! This biology course will cover a myriad of topics in the natural world, using a huge assortment of concrete materials and live animals, aiming to not only grow knowledge of specific creatures, but also the methods of zoological science and an ethic of responsible care for creation from a faithful Catholic perspective. We look forward to giving you a fun and enriching time! Come and discover!
Future programs...
Maidens of Unlikely Might
Strength. What does that look like? Brutish, boorish? What can love, and gentleness, and trust, and humility - and a sense of human dignity - combine to do what other forms of strength cannot? Come meet a first grader with cancer, an 11-year-old who forgave her killer, a disabled teenager abandoned by her parents, and a trio of 18-year-olds - one condemned by a king; one fighting for a wanna-be king, and one married to a king and caring for thousands of plague victims. Come and discover!
Animals with Superpowers
In the movies, people and creatures can do some dazzling things. But reality is more amazing than what the movies come up with! Don't believe that? Ever imagine that you'd admire a lowly rat, or find that a bird can imitate a bat, or that you can? This program includes 5-8 live animals. Come and discover!
Many Coins Ago
The days of coins and cash seem to be waning. But what about when shiny metal bits meant more? Of course coins were for buying your bread and such, but they were also about expressing sorrows and successes, about what was memorable and what was beautiful. And oh what secrets some of these little circles can reveal! Hold something truly rare. Come and discover!
Hunting at the Extreme
Not many animals out there die in their beds. Not many grow old. Not many walk around at leisure. But it's not all about violence and battle. The wild thing at full pitch is also thrillingly beautiful and vibrantly alive. Their stories of skill and striving are inspiring, and a great gift to see a creature at its best! This program includes 5-8 live animals. Come and discover!
In Between the Battleships
A day of infamy, a burning and dying battleship entombing an entire crew. A day of triumph, a burnished and youthful battleship hosting the end of a great war. Two US Navy battleships forming the bookends of the world's most brutal and far-flung conflict - the Pacific maelstrom of WWII. Come and touch this history, including artifacts from a member of the final crew of the storied USS Missouri, the world's most famous and last active battleship.
Amazing Adaptations
There's a worldwide arms race far older and more advanced than human militaries have come up with. And some of the greatest dramas unfold in your backyard, your nearest pond, and in the wide blue sky right above your head. There's no restraint, no diplomacy, but lots of allies and covert information sharing. This program includes 5-8 live animals. Come and discover!
Bullets & Bravery
Old ways of fighting, from an age when bullets could only be poorly aimed. New weapons in the fight, capable of stunning accuracy and reach. In the middle are men, striving in a new war to free or to enslave, to hold together or to break apart. See some of those war-changing weapons up close, meet one of those men up close. A good man in a terrible time, rising up to set a pattern for a new kind of American. Come and discover!
Secrets & Surprises Around
So many people get bored with their ways and days, their entertainments, their jobs, their next minutes and hours, even with the people around them. To be "all in" with life - engaged, alert, and expectant - seems distant, fleeting, unobtainable. Is this all there is? Come hook your caboose to something better. Let the world given to you awaken you! This program includes 5-8 live animals. Come and discover!