Today I have spent time in worship, food and conversation with priests from this diocese discussing ministry to young people.
As part of my journey in conversation to understand more youth ministry from a catholic perspective today was very helpful.
As a group, as well as enjoying a wonderful lunch we talked about the journey that we are on with young people and how everything that is done has the end of drawing people (young and older) into the Mass which is that place of encounter with Jesus. It is about the community of the Church. It was also expressed that the struggle with Fresh Expressions is that from the Catholic perspective a group meeting in Starbucks for worship is not Church, it cannot be an end in itself. This raises all sorts of questions, but is a challenge to see how we draw people to Church, rather than create church around them.
Another point made was the importance of being explicit, helping young people to recognise that the Mass is the key focus for this part of the Church, that God became flesh, the incarnation, not just about knowing about God, but encountering Him.
We talked about having high expectations of young people, not that they would achieve, but that they would engage with, be part of what is happening.
From my more evangelical perspective I do need to get my head round the question as to how young people are drawn into faith and the encounter at the Mass, but again I am heartened because the core is about meeting the Living Christ and growing in faith.
However we express our worship it is a joy to meet and share with people whose desire is to see others come into fullness in Christ, in this case people who have a commitment to facilitate it.
It is a great privilege to talk with so many different people about their faith and their calling. Through it all I want to sift and ultimately support and resource work in parishes, which is where it happens, after all.
There are no comments for this entry yet.
You need to be registered and logged in in order to leave a comment.