upcoming youth group events!

I am so sorry that I have severely neglected the blog! I hereby promise to do better. But just in case I am forgetful, I will list the next several+ weeks worth of activities!!!

This Sunday, 12/11 will be our monthly Holy Hour! Fr. Gerald will be here to expose the Blessed Sacrament and lead us! We will have dinner following the Holy Hour and will conclude with a fun activity!

Saturday, 12/17, we will be doing an evangelistic activity to conclude our year. We will meet at OSP for pizza briefing at noon, then we will hit the streets! We'll go door-to-door in some of the neighborhoods that our under our canonical jurisdiction and very simply greet the folks, let them know we are the youth of Old St Patrick and ask if there is anything they would like us to pray for. We'll note all prayer intentions, meet back at the church for debriefing and a time of prayer for those people we met. It will be GREAT! Timing will be approx 12-4 pm. If your parents can drive, please contact me ASAP

Sunday, 12/25: no youth group - CHRISTMAS!

Sunday, 1/1/2012: no youth group - Mary, the Mother of God and New Year's Day (we'll all be sleeping in, going to Mass, and watching football, right?)

Sunday, 1/8: Christmas Party Swing Dance - the feast of the baptism of the Lord concludes Christmastide! We will celebrate with festivity and dancing!

Sunday, 1/15: our monthly Holy Hour! We will specifically pray for the upcoming pilgrimage to the March for Life; for all YG members traveling there and all who will witness for LIFE in DC!

Saturday, 1/21: depart for Washington DC and the March for Life!!!

Sunday, 1/29: It will have been a LONG time since our last topic night... so, how about a topic? I am planning on bringing in a guest and having a night discussing suffering in the Christian life. Stay tuned.

Holy Hour // Fun Hour

This Sunday = HOLY HOUR TIME!!! We will begin at 5:30 in the church and spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament and close with Benediction with Deacon Frank Papp. Stick around for pizza and glow in the dark capture the flag (glow stick). Dress warm - this will be FUN!!!

Don't forget to register for the March for Life!!!!

CATHOLICISM

You are all invited to an event at the parish for high school on up! We will be showing the 1st episode of Fr. Robert Barron/Word on Fire Ministries' epic 10 part series called Catholicism. This episode, "Amazed and Afraid - The Revelation of God Become Man," will show in the parish center tonight at 7. He will take us to sacred places in Israel and Rome and talk about the importance of the Incarnation. There will be snacks. Please consider coming!

Check out the trailer/extended preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXz7CiIovJ8&feature=related

Carmelite Spirituality 101

I am really looking forward to this Sunday, October 16th! A young man and 3rd order Carmelite, who is a friend of mine and a new parishioner, will be joining us to give an overview of Carmelite spirituality and prayer. We will also discuss the way two Doctors of the Church, Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, describe the journey of the spiritual life toward perfection. There is much we can learn from these two great Saints about the growth and development of the spiritual life and the process by which people normally advance, that we too may grow in perfection. You won't want to miss this! Come for dinner and fun at 5:30, followed by our guest speaker.

If you missed this past Sunday....

Last Sunday we introduced the whole semester and watched a great video presentation! If you missed out, we talked about the universal call to holiness and introduced the more specific pathways of holiness that will be our sub-topics discussed this semester.

We will PRAY before our Eucharistic Lord in monthly holy hours (2nd Sunday each month), talk about the Sacraments, the Saints as models/guides in the spiritual life (specifically Sts John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Therese of Lisieux, Bernard of Clairveaux, etc); and individual vocation as the place where God accomplishes the work of sanctification in us. Toward the end of the semester I am working on a Vocation Panel to talk to us about how the different vocations God can call us to are the ways he intends to sanctify us. We will hear from Sisters, seminarians, married couples, and priests!

The video is worth a watch - on a big screen if you can swing it! I don't have it on DVD, but you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KqziOKZ4AE.

Youth Group Holy Hour Sunday, October 9th

We have a fun night ahead of us this Sunday, October 9th! It is our first Youth Group Holy Hour of the Semester with Fr. Gerald. Anyone who wants to can come pray the rosary in the church at 5:00 pm. Youth group will officially begin at 5:30 pm in the church with the Holy Hour. We will then head to the parish hall for dinner (around 6:45) and afterward we will have a bonfire outside, roast marshmallows, make s'mores and play games. Volleyball, kick ball, ping-pong and basketball will be available.

This past Sunday, we heard that Blessed John Paul II tells us that “training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer…" and the Eucharist is the food that sustains us in our quest for holiness and the source of our strength. So, let us go to the Eucharist and train for our quest for holiness!

Sunday 9/25

Youth Group this Sunday: 

All are invited to our first "topic" night of the year. I am happy to announce that our speaker will be our very own Father Gerald. He will be speaking about doing all things in life with excellence.

Come at 5:30 for a pizza dinner in the hall. Then we will play an epic game (how to describe it? capture the flag on steroids? balloons are involved...). After we catch our breath and clean up we'll hear from Father Gerald and conclude about 8 pm. 

There will be a rosary led by Michael DiLaura in the Church at 5 pm for all who are interested!

Photos from Spring Retreat 2011