Attracting Youth to Catholic Parishes

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I live in a town with about ten parishes. I have experienced three types of youth group at three different parishes. Here is my analysis:
  1. The hook-up youth group. Yes, you read that correctly. The adults are clueless and the co-ed classes take full advantage of a large building with lots of little rooms. :eek:
  2. The boring confirmation classes. This parish doesn’t even have a high-school youth group. Why? After confirmation, they don’t want to go back to preschool level material. (literally, high school confirmation classes are taught with preschool level materials :mad:.)
  3. The strong youth group. This youth group spends more time on its knees than the first two combined, starting every meeting with Eucharistic Adoration and a decade of the Rosary.
The first two are liberal parishes. The third is a more conservative parish. Y’see, we don’t want to be good little children. We don’t want to be entertained. We want to be trained. Trained for the spiritual battlefield. We don’t want to be good Catholics. We want to be hardcore, defenders-of-the-faith Catholics.
 
Having discovered powerful exorcism prayers on You tube, by a Rome trained exorcist priest , Fr.Machado , have come to recognise how good You tube sites can be a good resource , to bring prayer life , to many youth as well as others , whenever there is felt a need for a ’ communal ’ prayer life experience .

Having family or youth groups meet may be 1-2 times a month, to watch together Fr.Barron’s excellent for beauty and theological lessons series on Catholicism or the churches even loaning out the series , for a small fee , to families who find it hard to atttend in person and persons in the group sort of checking with each other , like in a book club ,as to where the members are , inorder to encourage each other - these may be starting steps .

store.wordonfire.org/Anniversary-Catholicism-DVD-BoxSet-Soundtrack-p/wf-70.htm?gclid=COLRi_3Y5bECFQX0nAoduTsAQQ

All in the groups can be encouarged to listen to the following sites , or other similar good sites , daily, or even couple of times a day or when ever they feel the need for that power of prayer , with other persons -

youtube.com/watch?v=FAg0yj3LdCc - good to remind famiies and young people , as to how much we are in warafare, against the prowling lion , and often such a perspective might help many to remove the blinders from blaming God for problems and thus having lost faith !

youtube.com/watch?v=KiM9uJIN64g&feature=related - Litany of saints , in Latin, a langauage that the enemy seems to respect more ; again, to bring the healing mercy of God , to even the lives of the forefathers - since in God’s eternity , time is an illusion !

youtube.com/watch?v=T4xaxCHV4zE&feature=related - inviting in the Holy Spirit …

The above might be good for those who want to do door to door evangelisations too ,offering to pray with the family , for their issues, with the aid of the above sites .

Offering blessed medals , such as the St.Benedict medal, with the exorcism blessing, as well as the Miraculous Medals also would be good help for familes - since the medals come with good leaflets expalining its actions and benefits , would be easy to share .

benedictinemissionhouse.com/index.php/d-medals-stbenedict

amm.org/giftshop/gifts/details.asp?giftID=1073&emlcode=IEU2&donor=

Good to know how many resources are out there and the youth recognising that The Lord is to be their help , in esp. moments of pain and lonliness and how much power God wants to share , when one is in His grace and friendship , to help so many around them too through their prayers ,even in the midst of their busy schedules and hopefully , they then would make time to attend the Liturgy as well as other activites even more regularly , at the parish level , such as nursing home visits , inorder to share the above with more persons !

God bless !
 
Would include making available the Ignatius Study bible , with its exceellent notes for the young , who can then use same for self study -

ignatius.com/IProducts/29980/new-testament.aspx

Eucharistic Adoration , 1-2 times a month , where in some of the time can be dedicated to letting the group read The Word , in silence , might help to make it even a richer experience !
 
Our youth ministry is the best that it has ever been. Our present Youth Minister is actually a convert to the Catholic Faith and he is very dedicated to evangelizing the youth and keeping them interested in their Catholic Faith. You can explore our Youth Ministry website for the many things going on and perhaps get some ideas for your own youth ministry. youth.starofthesea.net/
 
zab said:
Our youth ministry is the best that it has ever been. Our present Youth Minister is actually a convert to the Catholic Faith and he is very dedicated to evangelizing the youth and keeping them interested in their Catholic Faith. You can explore our Youth Ministry website for the many things going on and perhaps get some ideas for your own youth ministry. youth.starofthesea.net/
Click to expand...
Awesome. Thanks!
 
TrueLight said:
Awesome. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hi TrueLight,
Zab’s parish has an awesome reputation throughout the archdiocese.
You might want to spend a bit of time on their website or contact their priest and youth ministers with your questions.
starofthesea.net/
They set a high bar…and, as Zab notes, are getting a response.
 
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