Salve!… from the Youth Ministers of St. Raphael Parish! You may be wondering a bit about us. So here is the who, what, when, where, why and how of the St. Raphael Parish Youth Group… To borrow a cliché, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention!’ We as youth ministers are just ordinary parishioners, each at different stages in our lives, who have all been called, in our way, to fill a void we have seen growing in our communities. We have each watched and experienced the increased secularization of the world around us, and we have seen the impact that the incessant assaults on Catholicism have had on the young and vulnerable of our faith.
Make no mistake, our Youth need us, and they need each other.: The young and discerning of our community have reached a point in their lives when they are faced with an increasingly unpopular choice: the choice to follow Jesus and His teachings through membership in His Body, the Church or to embrace the materialistic and egocentric call of today’s society. Our young people, in their teen years, have often moved away from their tight-knit elementary communities, which have close ties to the church through sacramental preparation, and let’s face it, the sheer joy of childlike love of Jesus. Our teens are spread across both the public and Catholic systems and are separated from the church body in their daily school lives. Add to this the often strong condemnation of faith-based morality and the incessant bombardment of the teen mind by social media, and we have the perfect recipe for turning away from the faith. And so, here we are…
What do we propose to do: Each of us, when asked to reflect on our role and our goals for this group, has zeroed in on three key words: faith, fellowship and fun! Our goal is to provide the youth of the parish with an environment where they are surrounded by their like-minded, discerning peers, whom many may never have met in the world outside the church. The parish provides a SAFE place both as a building and as a faith community where our kids can ask questions, grow in their faith and express their love and need of God in their lives, WITHOUT apology! Getting to know one another and building relationships within this group as well as with Jesus while sharing a meal, participating in various fun activities or giving back to the community through organizing pilgrimages or caring for the body of the church will help to build our youth into strong, supported people of faith. Our goal is not just to support youth in their faith, nor is it just to show them the joy of a Christ centered community, it is to empower them to become the future leaders of the Church, protectors and promoters of the Faith and to become the face of the love of Christ in the world at large.
How do we make this happen: The answer to this is rather simple. We give these kids the means and the opportunity to become active members and leaders in the Church. The youth begin by proposing the recitation of the Rosary on each first Saturday of the month in honour of Our Lady. By praying the Rosary in the body of the Church, we have invited the entire faith community to come together to deepen their prayer life and their relationship with our Lord through His most blessed Mother, and in so doing, every member of the community may benefit from Her powerful intercession. After honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary before mass, what could be more natural than to end the mass with a special healing blessing for all our needs through the intercession of St. Joseph and his most faithful servant, St. Brother Andre? Next, our youth are given a magnificent opportunity to come closer to Christ through the celebration of the Holy Mass, not in isolation but as a community of the faithful.
Our young people have taken every conceivable responsibility associated with the mass- lectors, servers, ushers, cantors, etc., and they have shone in doing so. We can only hope that having set their feet on the path and shown them they are valued and have a place in the church, we have given their faith wings and the space to spread them and fly!
Where and when: What began with the recitation of the Holy Rosary at 4:30 on the first Saturday of each month in the body of the church evolved to include the Holy Mass at 5 pm and a healing blessing at 6 pm. By this time, why not make a night of it? So, we gather after mass for a meal and some much-needed chatter and then, of course, we get up and move as the Spirit guides us! Our activities are sometimes in the church but often extend to include other activities out in the community. We hope that you have been inspired to encourage a young person in your life to come and join us and that each of you reading this will keep our youth in your prayers as well as those of us who are doing our best to support them in their faith and on their journey to Heaven. Vivat Jesus!
Gabriella Starcevic
St.Raphael Parish, Burlington Ontario