About
The concept for a Catholic Enrichment Week (CEW) was developed in 2018 in a Roman Catholic parish for the sole purpose of presenting Catholic topics to youth aged 7-18. The CEW was intended to be more intensely Catholic and in-depth than its more commonly known Vacation Bible School (VBS) counterpart.
The CEW day begins with Mass, Adoration, Confession, followed by a lecture each day on the week’s topic, hymns and crafts to enhance the topic, lunch, outdoor games and/or Catholic movies depending upon the weather. Catholic Enrichment Week is offered twice yearly: summer for 5 days and winter for 3 days. All youth are together for the lecture and hymns with crafts and games arranged by age.
The materials gathered in this website are the Power Point presentations, and if available, the lecture notes that accompany the Power Points. Photos of some of the crafts that have been done are at the end of the lecture materials. We hope that you will find this webpage beneficial.
Catholic Enrichment Week Presentations – General Information
Summer 2018 was the first time Catholic Enrichment Week (CEW) was held. The presentations were split up by age group with several teen girls presenting information to the youngest attendees on a rotating basis over a five day period. Each of the teen girls presented information about two Lesser Known Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and then the attendees worked on a craft to honor Blessed Mother. The older attendees were presented with a PowerPoint with all of the information about the apparition on the slides each day. Then the older teens broke into a “craft session” making rosaries for themselves and one for the missions.
During the winter 2018-2019 the CEW topic was Saints Who Held Baby Jesus. Again a Power Point presentation was made but attendees of all ages listened to the same presentation. The younger attendees did daily crafts and the older attendees made a leather pouch for their rosaries.
In summer 2019 the CEW topic was Child Saints. This time the Power Point slides had less information and the presenter read further detail as a lecture. Attendees of all ages were present for the presentation prior to breaking out for crafts and hymns. The younger attendees did a new craft each day and the older attendees did pyrography creating an image of their chosen Child Saint.
For winter 2019-2020, the topic was Testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Earthly Presence. All ages attended the Power Point lecture then broke for crafts appropriate for their age group before hymns, lunch and games. The older attendees made a metal retablo doing metal punching and pasting a picture of Blessed Mother in the center of the embellished metal form.
The summer 2020 CEW topic was Eucharistic Miracles. Again all age levels sat for the Power Point presentation and lecture then broke into age levels for crafts. The older teens wrote an icon.
During the winter 2020-2021 the topic was Founders of Religious Orders. All ages attended the Power Point presentation and lecture and again the younger attendees broke into groups doing daily crafts and the older attendees did pyrography.
The Twelve Apostles was the topic for summer 2021. The youngest attendees, aged 5 -7, met in a classroom and had stories about the Apostles read to them, then they did crafts. Ages 8-18 attended the Power Point lecture about the Apostles. The younger attendees broke into two age brackets with the middle school attendees making rosaries for themselves and one for the missions. The older attendees did pyrography again of one of the Apostles and attached their work to a metal bookend.