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Category Archives: Pastoral Care

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Bridging the Gap between Cultures in Your Parish

By | November 2, 2011

I believe it will be the young people who, in the end, will break down the cultural divide and bring our fractured parish families into one communion that both respects the different cultures while acknowledging our universal catholicity. As Youth Ministers, we need to take strides toward promoting a deep respect and concern for our brothers and sisters among us who may seem quite different, but, in truth, are so very much the same.

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Promoting Vocations in Your Parish

By | October 25, 2011

From an early age, people would often ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” In 1st grade I wanted to be a princess … in 6th grade I wanted to be a lawyer … in 11th grade I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Then, it dawned on me, the problem with asking the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” is that it leaves Jesus out. We should be asking “What does Jesus want for me?” or “What life will bring Jesus the greatest glory?” Then we ultimately can say, “I want what Jesus wants.”

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Teaching Teens About Desolation and Consolation

By | October 3, 2011

Desolation, in all its forms, and the whole concept of spiritual warfare is something that we cannot overlook or forget as youth ministers. We must remember, as the Church does almost nightly in the Liturgy of the Hours, that our “opponent the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We must be “sober and vigilant” against these attacks by the Evil One in our own spiritual lives and the in the spiritual lives of our teens.

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Why Food and Ministry is Life-Giving

By | September 29, 2011

The word supper often evokes images of Jesus breaking bread with the Apostles (especially when you put the word “last” in front of it), but today I’d like to reframe “supper” in a new context.

A few days ago the mother of a teen at my parish invited me to have dinner with their family. Being a single young man from a big family, I miss shared mealtime, so I accepted. When Wednesday evening came, I was exhausted from a long workday, but I went anyway.

It was wonderful.

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Ministering in the Midst of Terror: A Youth Minister’s Reflection on 9/11

By | September 10, 2011

I need to make a disclaimer, if only to bring myself peace. I was probably less involved in the events of 9/11 than most anyone in the area. I had just moved to Long Island 18 months before. I didn’t know a lot of people. There is nothing that I did that was “heroic” or [...]

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Evangelization and Catechesis: Two Sides of the Same Coin

By | July 13, 2011

Last week I heard someone talk about the difference between evangelizing and catechizing. He suggested that too often we rush to catechesis before someone has been evangelized—or has experienced the “Gospel kerygma.” Blessed John Paul II describes this as “The initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith.” (Catechesis in Our Time)

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Ministry To Families in Need

By | July 5, 2011

With our role comes the joy of sharing in family moments such as awards, honors and graduation. But just as we get to share in the “high points” of family life, we also share in some of the most difficult moments. Whether it is divorce or death or illness, we need to understand our role as support to the whole family, not just the teens.

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Responding to the Death of a Teen

By | May 31, 2011

I minister in a town of about 50,000 drawing on 3 different high schools. In the last 18 months, 8 high school teenagers have died unexpectedly from car accidents, illness, and suicide. In the midst of all of this tragedy, I have learned 4 important lessons about how we should respond to teen death within our communities.

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The Young Church Needs More SIN… (so to speak)

By | April 4, 2011

Their shoulders slump from fatigue. Their eyes are bloodshot. Their stoles are a beautiful, albeit disgusting, blend of countless young souls’ tears and snot. It’s a not-too-uncommon sight in youth ministry, actually: priests sitting in persona Christi capitas, offering mercy and absolution to an endless line of adolescent sinners ardently desiring sainthood. The scene repeats [...]

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By | November 15, 2010

After a recent Life Night, a Core Member and I were talking about the lack of respect that a particular teen had for the speaker that evening. That general lack of respect seems an overarching theme of our youth today. I commented to him that we have to earn their respect; there is none given [...]