Calling in to the parish Youth Group this evening, find that they had two activities on offer after prayers: make-up for the girls and bicycle maintenance for the boys. Run by an enthusiastic group of parents, this group has made a great start and I hope that they will be able to join in some of the various activities that can link them with other young Catholics.
Then over to St Mary's Chislehurst where I catch the Friday Benediction after Mass. There is something very pleasant for a parish priest about being able to kneel down in the Church while another priest gets on with giving Benediction and then venerating the image of St John Fisher in the beautiful stained-glass window that they have in the South Wall of the nave. Fr Charles, the parish priest of St Mary's and a fellow alumnus of the English College, Rome, is the Diocesan Archvist and usually visits Archbishop's House on a Thursday. It is good to keep in touch with topics of conversation in the Diocese.
2 comments:
Fr Tim, I'd like some advice regarding youth groups.
I've started volunteering at the newly started youth movement at my home parish in Hillingdon. I went along to their third meeting and they have one left before schools break up for the summer (they are not running it during the summer - a mistake in my view.)
Considering it is still in the early stages they are only running it as a social club really with table tennis and some crafts. I was pleased to see that last Tuesday evening included Rosary manufacture. I encouraged them to petition Parish Priest Fr Jimmy Garvey to lead the Rosary for the young people (12 - 16 years). I think that they thought the kids would be uninterested, but I said there isn't a better way of learning the Rosary. Even a 10 minute talk would suffice.
I was pleased to see that they handed out leaflets about how to pray the Rosary.
What medium would you suggest for youth groups in order to introduce greater participation in devotions and understanding of the faith?
Many thanks from a young fogey out of touch "wid' da yoof".
Liam - I would suggest encouraging the young people to participate in good events where there is good content and where plenty of other young people are present who are enthusiastic about their faith.
You need to be a little discerning. Sometimes, "official" youth events can have activities that are all about emotion and pop psychology. But things like Youth 2000 and Faith offer good events.
Another good way to get through to young people is the use of good films with some discussion before or after.
Again, young people respond well to history in the form of story-telling (they are fed up with "skills" and "perspectives") and factual information about the teaching of the Church. One way of doing it is to have a question box: "any question you like about the faith but no swear words and no nasty comments about other people". This is a good opportunity to give answers that are clear and spiritually enriching.
Post a Comment