Teens – and adults – are being swallowed up and spit out by a secular humanist, morally relativist culture. People have forgotten a fundamental truth about sin: namely, that God did not give Adam and Eve the right to decide what was good and evil (subjective); in His mercy, He gave them the right to choose between good and evil (objective).
I look to all the saints as examples of holiness, but it’s the ones who were married that bring a special curiousness to my heart. We are in need of being inspired to live out our vocations, whatever they may be. I think many of our generation look at marriage and think, “wait, what . . . holy?”
Enthusiasm is fruit of an encounter with Christ.
It does not need to be encouraged because it develops naturally from the invitation that Christ gives all of us. As youth leaders, the challenge is to look past the emotion and help the teenager make firmly rooted decisions to follow Christ and articulate prayer to Him. We must teach them to respond to His invitation. As youth ministers, it is our job to help a teen navigate the emotions to find their individual decision to follow Christ.
Getting teens to events and in the doors of our parish is effective pre-evangelization and evangelization. However, that is often where youth ministries stop. If we were successfully converting, catechizing and purifying the lives of our young people, we’d see a lot more fruit from the thousands of American teens and millions of international teens that attend our big Catholic events. To develop saints, we have to dive deeper and do more than get them in the door.
The next three blogs that I will write, focus on developing saints and diving deeper. I will evaluate how we measure conversion, how we bring teens through conversion and finally, I will discuss the discipleship model that Christ gave us for developing the last steps of the evangelization process.
You and I most likely will never have a feast day in the Liturgical Calendar of the Church. Thousands of years from now, people may not carry around our prayer card in their Bible, and we may never be declared a patron of anything. But we have everything we need to get to Heaven. Every day, when we wake up, we can renew our answer to Jesus when He asks “come follow me.” And it is in our response to that question, in ordinary ways, that you and I can become Saints – with a little “s.”
Goal The goal of this Life Night is to break open the life of St. Patrick and help the teens better understand their journey to sainthood specifically through the need for a prayer life and trust in god’s will. About this Night We have so many examples and witnesses of faith. The Communion of Saints is made up of men and woman who have endured both trial and joy. One of those saints is St. Patrick. St. Patrick’s witness of faith challenges us to strengthen our prayer life and surrender to god’s
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The purpose of the Edge Night is to use the lives of the saints to inspire the youth while also giving them a chance to respond to the universal call to holiness.
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. Anyway, you can’t just say you’re an bringer and be one. It takes a lot of prayer and surrender to be a real bringer!
What’s your status? For a generation of teens that are more connected to the world and to each other than ever before, everything hinges on knowing and being known. Through Facebook pages, smart phones, Wikipedia, blogs and YouTube videos, the world is at their fingertips. How do we make prayer, Mary and the Saints accessible to teens who value immediate feedback and instant communication?