In our ministry, are we relying on our own competencies or do we rely on the signs and wonders of God? When is the last time you were awed by what God was doing with the teens at your parish?

I know that in reality the words aren’t changing, it’s me that is changing and with each new read I discover a whole new way of looking at them. As Catholics we hear the entire Bible proclaimed at Sunday Mass every 3 years. If you attend daily Mass you hear the entire Bible proclaimed every 2 years. Strange how many times reflecting on the same passages we just read, that the meaning at times is often new or different.

If we allow ourselves to continually strive to go deeper into our faith, how can we not be changed? How can we not find new meaning in the words that have changed Theologians, Scripture Scholars, countless numbers of Saints and sinners like us who have turned to the Word of God for direction and nourishment?

If you work with young people, make sure that you introduce them to Scripture. Lectio Divina, Bible Studies, Lectionary based groups and talks that most of the time allow Scripture to be proclaimed openly as you help young people understand the love that God has for them. After all, what is the greatest love story ever written?

The Bible – nothing has or will ever top it!

You see their nimble thumbs blaze across miniature keyboards with the ferocity of a jungle cat. The light in their eyes is a mere reflection of the illuminated screen before them. They have no time for face-to-face conversations — not when there are virtual conversations offered through an unlimited text-message plan.

I give you the modern teenager.

So, just how do you break through the technological barriers of this tech-savvy teen subculture? What role (if any) does sacred Scripture play in the life of Catholic adolescents? Do modern teens actually want to pick up a Bible and read or have conversations with mouths and not thumbs?

Many adults today tell me that the “average teenager” couldn’t care less about the Bible. Extensive firsthand experience, however, demands that I humbly reply, “LOL” (“laugh out loud” in text-happy vernacular). I led my first teen Bible study almost 20 years ago and, while teen culture has dramatically changed, their desires have not. Teens want truth, and the Catholic Church has it.

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1.) Your Time -
Teens live in a world where there are many people who don’t spend time with them. When they show up for Mass, Life Nights, Bible Studies, XLT or retreats they are counting on your time and frankly that you are going to be there. This is usually not a problem for paid youth leaders as it is your role to be there. However, it is especially true for Core members to spend time with teens and to be there for them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that it is alright to not show up – teens are counting on you showing up. It matters to them!

2.) A Communal Connection -
Teens are counting on you making the connection between their lives and the Catholic faith. To break open the ways Christ is relevant for a teen today. Teens count on youth leaders to help them discover how living a life for Christ matters now and why it is important for them to be a part of a vibrant parish community. The best way to do this is to show radical hospitality, introducing them to everyone including your family, sharing with them how Christ is impacting your life and helping them to discover how God is currently present and moving in their life.

3.) Radical Hope and Encouragement –
We proclaim a compassionate and loving God. Teens need to see that you believe that. Teens are counting on you to accept them where they are and to love them enough to not let them not stay there. Teens need you to tell them that you are not perfect and God continues to form you and change you. Teens are counting on you giving them hope that they can change and that change can be good!

4.) You Counting on God –
Teens show up seeking Christ, how tragic if all they find is you! Teens are expecting you to be counting more on God than on your own talents and ideas. Teens need to see how you trust in God and His plan. They need to see you counting on His Grace. This is why Life Teen focuses so much on the Sacraments in youth ministry. You can minister to the shell of a teen all day long with little transformation. If you lead teens to the Sacraments, you are allowing Christ to reach the souls of the teens. Teens are counting on you making ministry at your parish about Christ, His Sacraments and being transformed by challenging teens to grow in their relationship with Christ and our Blessed Mother.

5.) You Striving for Holiness –
Teens aren’t counting on you to be perfect – just real. What they are counting on is your continual striving for Holiness in your life. If you are not being filled each day with the Love of God through prayer, Sacraments and Holy Scripture, there is a danger that you could remain involved in ministry for wrong reasons like needing affirmation from young people or making ministry more about looking successful to peers than making a real difference in the lives of teens and their families. Let teens see that you are not perfect, just striving each day to grow in your holiness. Teens are counting on you to be an authentic person striving to live as a true disciple lives. (This includes for those of you who are married or dating to be a holy example of marriage, family or courtship)

What do you think? What are teens counting on from you at your parish?

Do you consider yourself a bringer? If not, do you desire the Holy Spirit to inspire you to become one?

In the Catholic youth ministry world, there’s often a big difference between the bringers and everyone else. The bringers carry somebody or something. They seek or form community and make things happen. It’s not unusual to go to the smallest parish and find someone serving teens there who isn’t small at all. Sometimes, this is an unpaid servant, someone that’s inherited or acquired their mission out of necessity. There is amazing ministry happening there. Anyway, you can’t just say you’re a bringer and be one. It takes a lot of prayer and surrender to be a real bringer!

Bringers are servants who are actively praying and looking for new ministry ideas, actively seeking out more teens and volunteers, actively engaging young people and adults–and are not simply accepting what’s seen as a given and drag along with things because “that is the way we have always done youth ministry.” Bringers are often youth leaders that make the effort to pray about what God is asking, take on new challenges and work on coming to grips with things they are being asked to do for God. They seek out new teens and new opportunities and delight in the uneasiness that comes from being challenged to grow in holiness (and challenging others to do the same).

Pope Benedict XVI is definitely a bringer!

The history of the Catholic Church is filled with bringers. Mary the mother of God is often referred to as a bringer, St. Luke and St. Lucy’s names mean “bringer of light” and many of the saints set quite an example of what it means to be a bringer. Many priests I know are also bringers. Of course, the ultimate bringer is Jesus Christ! So Jesus death was the bringer to the nought of Death; for through Him life is made to reign, and through Him Death is abolished, to whom it is said:— O Death, where is your victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55

So how do you become a bringer? It starts with a choice, the decision to be aware and engaged, to pray about what God is asking you to do. Once you know what God is asking – do that, nothing more, nothing less and nothing else!

The number of bringers is growing. Young adults are choosing to jump off the corporate band wagon and serve the Church. At Life Teen our camp summer staffs and missionary programs are expanding as more and more young people decide to be bringers. A big part of this is a function of our ability to pray more, frequent the Sacraments, simplify and avoid working 14 hours a day in a ministry solely wrapped in “doing” rather than “being”, but part of the growth is the ease with which young people are seeing it as possible through a missionary heart to find and connect with other bringers.

One of the new challenges of our Church may be to form mission bases that engage and coordinate bringers. These communities are not separate but connected to and serving parishes, wherever there is a need for Evangelization. After all, true communion especially in Eucharist centered communities have been the places that radical servants and missionary disciples have always come from.

Once you identify this as your mission, to be a bringer, you save a lot of time and fear in your ministry. If the people around you choose not be bringers, I don’t know what you can do to change their minds. After all being a bringer is something that only the Holy Spirit can inspire. On the flip side, the rhythm of prayer and engagement bringers are living is going to grow in momentum over time, it is contagious, and you have all the tools crucial to be part of it-to be a bringer at the beginning of the new bringer movement.

It’s your choice – Do you consider yourself a bringer and if not do you desire the Holy Spirit to inspire you to become one?

• Crucifixes
• Holy Water, Oils and Incense
• Miraculous Medals
• Saint and Mary Statues
• Rosaries
• Candles
• Holy Cards
• Catholic Scapulars
• Saints Relics
• Catholic T-Shirts

Let’s face it – teens like stuff! Teens lives are filled with “Stuff” – but is it the best stuff or stuff that merely clutters an already busy life? Teens want the fullness of our faith and one of the treasures the Catholic faith offers are rich traditions and symbols. Make sure that you fill your youth rooms and retreat centers with Catholic items. Items like Crucifixes, rosaries, prayer cards and Saint Medals all reinforce the faith for young people. If you can, try to incorporate giving teens religious items when you can. It’s graduation and Confirmation time for many of us so here are some keys to gifts that can transform!

Here are 3 keys to introducing teens to Catholic stuff:

1. Don’t Just Hand It to Them and Expect It To Mean Something

   I once met Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She handed me 231 Miraculous Medals. Afterward she went on to tell me that Pope John Paul II had just blessed them for her. I immediately decided to hand them out to teens who I felt needed them. I have handed all the medals out to teens over my years in ministry. One thing I did was to tell each teen about how I got the medals and what significance they have. I also waited to give one to a teen until I felt like they were in a spot where it would make a difference. For example if they had lost a sibling or parent, had a particularly bad day, had just received an honor at school or was struggling in their faith and needed the encouragement the medal could give. Before you give teens Catholic items make sure you tell them why you are giving it to them and what they are supposed to do with it.

2. Let Prayer Lead the Way!

   If you are giving a teen a rosary, pray the rosary with them and then give the rosary to them. I guarantee it will mean more and will have impact for the teen to have prayed on that rosary with you. If it’s a Bible you are giving to the teen, include a short note with 10 of your favorite scriptures to pray written on it for them to find. It immediately will peek their interest and also get them reading the Bible right away! When gifts are associated with prayer, it has the power to kick start a teens devotional prayer life.

3. Don’t Be Cheap!

   By all means there are Catholic items that are out of our budget. What I try to do is to pick the best quality, either in material, feel or look that I can. The item needs to say to young people that we take our faith seriously. It needs to “ooze” holiness when looked at or held. If it looks like something that is a spoof religious item or falls apart right away, it can actually have the result of lessening our message. I once carried a 2 foot tall stunning Crucifix back from Krakow, Poland that I bought for one of our benefactors at the Shrine of Divine Mercy. It is a beautiful Crucifix and I wanted to make sure it was of quality. By the way, the conversations about the Crucifix on planes and trains coming home were amazing. Make sure the Catholic stuff you give is memorable and unique if you want it to have an impact.

So what is the Catholic “stuff” you are showing and giving to teens these days?

Take a minute to stop and think about one teen who needs more faith and can have their day made by a gift of something Holy and Catholic. As St. Thomas More said “It can only be disgraceful for some Christians to snore while other Christians are in peril.”

It reminds us all of the importance of not dumbing down the faith for teens. They want our faith in it’s fullness with all the smells and bells that our faith offers. If we indeed expect teens to go deeper, to read scripture, to discern a vocation, to pray more, to sacrifice, to serve selflessly and to become radical disciples for Christ – They will!

Questions? Are you challenging the teens at your parish? Do you expect a lot from the teens and families that you serve? (Of course it will be hard to expect more from others if we are not expecting more from ourselves)

I recently told a priest that this had been an amazing Lent with much growth for me and I was ready for it to be over. He looked at me and said,  “don’t fast forward through this last week and especially Good Friday, we all need to remember the sacrifice.” He is right. So I am ready for God to rock this last week of Lent. Here are 4 things you can do this week to make sure that you “Crush It” all Holy Week long!

1.) Keep it Real…Very Real!

The best way to keep it real is to do an examination of conscience. If you have unconfessed sin, make sure you head to confession this week.

“Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will give you with the utmost humility and simplicity. For God, Who has an infinite love for obedience, frequently renders profitable the counsels we take from others, but especially from those who are the guides of our souls.” – St. Francis de Sales

2.) Embrace Detachment!

We are supposed to be in the world, but we are not of this world. Make sure to focus on Christ this week. Shut off the TV, Computer, cell phone, shopping spree or whatever is keeping you more attached to this world than to Heaven. Especially on Good Friday, try to make it a day detached from even your school or work by taking time off and entering into Good Friday fully at least for a part of the day!

“Give me ten truly detached men. and I will convert the world with them.” – St. Philip Neri

3.) Show Up for Life!

My wife’s cousin once told her that he shows up for life. He attends weddings, funerals, baptisms, birthday parties of close friends and business associates. Those are the things he says mean the most to people and have the biggest impact. To show up for life the last week of lent and for it to have an impact on you – head to daily Mass early in the week! Later in the week attend the events of the Easter Triduum. It consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. This includes the Great Easter Vigil, the high point of the Triduum. The word Triduum comes from the Latin word meaning “three days.” It begins the evening of Maundy Thursday and ends at Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. Thus the Triduum consists of three full days which begin and end in the evening. The Triduum celebrates the heart of our faith, salvation, and redemption: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“If it is “daily bread,” why do you take it once a year? . . . Take daily what is to profit you daily. Live in such a way that you may deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive it daily, does not deserve to receive it once a year.”
- St. Ambrose of Milan

4.) Dive Deep Into the Paschal Mystery!

Pray, fast and contemplate what it is that Christ is asking you to die to in order to rise with Him. Is it a hurt you have carried for years, a failed relationship or some area where you are continually prideful? Whatever it is lay it at the foot of the Cross this week. Let go of what you need to let go of and dive deep into the mystery of dying to self and rising with Christ! Focus on the amazing Cross! Read the account in Holy Scripture of the Passion of Christ! Breathe it in and reflect on it until it becomes new again in your heart.

“The passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also an ocean of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this ocean. Dive into its depths. No matter how deep you go, you will never reach the bottom.” – St. Paul of the Cross

It is my prayer that you have an amazing Holy week, one free of fast forwarding or falling into the trap of believing that God has already done all He wants to do with you this Lent. May we all go “Crush It” this week!

The middle school youth will learn about how the Bible was written and our approach when reading Scripture. The youth will also explore how the Bible can be read in different ways: literal, allegorical, moral and anagogical.

Edge Night at a Glance

This session tells the story of how the writers of Sacred Scripture were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write an account of how God was working. Through that same Spirit, we are called to read the Scriptures and apply them to our lives. However, since the Bible was written so long ago, we must be mindful to read the Scriptures from the perspective of the time they were written (the literal sense), while being aware of the deeper meanings: how it points to or foreshadows Christ (allegorical), how it calls us to live our lives as Christians (moral sense) and what it reveals about the eternal (anagogical sense).

The Gather activity is designed to help the youth understand that the Bible contains various types of writing: historical, poetic, prophetic, etc., and how this adds to the beauty and magnificence of the Bible. With their small groups, the youth will read a story from the Bible. Many of them may simply remember that the story exists, but not very much detail. By using the various senses of reading Scripture, the youth will come to a deeper understanding of the story of Salvation History.

The middle school youth will understand that we can know God because He has revealed Himself to us. God’s revelation was fully given in Jesus and passed on to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

Edge Night at a Glance

This night will help to set up the semester on Scripture. The youth will see that God desires for us to know Him and His infinite and unconditional love for us. The goal is to help the middle school youth become familiar and comfortable with Scripture.

This session will help introduce the middle school youth to the concept of Revelation. Creation reveals that there is a Creator, but creation alone does not fully reveal to us who God is. We come to know God in three ways: Tradition, Scripture and most fully in the Incarnation. Tradition is the faith passed on to us from those who first believed. The Scriptures are the written transmission and revelation of God’s plan of salvation. The final and complete revelation of God came through the Incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ.