Monday Message, May 22, 2023

KNOW

Save the date – September 16, 2023 – 9 am – Meeting with Bishop Caggiano and all faith formation leaders. More dates for next year coming soon.

If you have not yet had the conversation at your parish about this form and discussed when you will have your make up meeting for those who did not make one of the nine meetings with the bishop, please encourage your team to have that conversation soon.

Need help with LEAD? Join Carmela every Wednesday at 2 pm. Also, please check your parish team and get those spots filled this week if you can.

The latest issue of Bishop Caggiano’s newsletter on The One goes out this morning. You can see it here.

PRAY

For the response of the soul of John P. Campbell, former director of youth ministry in the Diocese of Bridgeport. John left many friends behind to mourn is passing. May his soul, and the souls of all our faithful departed, rest in peace.

An obituary has not yet been published this morning.

REFLECT

Continuing from last week…

Let’s begin by teaching what the Bible says about spiritual maturity, with a special emphasis on those elements that are neglected by juvenilized Christians. We need to ask hard questions about the music we sing, the curriculum materials we use, and the ways we structure activities.

We must understand this very simple fact: young people are not called to youth ministry, religious education, or religion class.

Young people are called to discipleship.

There is a difference – a real difference. One calls young people to programs, classrooms, and events, the other calls young people into relationship with our risen Lord.

One requires registration and a book. The other offers authentic love, forgiveness, and a responsibility to foster that relationship by Sunday worship, daily prayer, and serving our neighbors. We have to stop behaving as those these two options are mutually exclusive.

And we know that making these changes in they way we minister will work. We know from the Pew Study on Religion, the follow up studies of the National Study of Youth and Religion, and Kaiser Family Foundations and the great work from Springtide that young people who are in relationship with Christ – by way of effective youth ministry – say over and over again that their relationship with Jesus is deepened, they understand their Christian faith better, know how to apply their faith to their daily lives, and make better moral choices.

There are two key points here – effective ministry and relationship with Christ. The and is essential.

LAUGH