Youth Ministry Update

Our Youth Ministry and Confirmation Programs for the parish cluster are now in full swing.

Our Sunday evening Confirmation pro- gram is off to a great start. With the moving of the Confirmation age to 8th grade for all three parishes, we have almost 200 teens preparing for the Sac- rament of Confirmation! Our teens are blessed with an amazing group of Cate- chists who all have a deep love for the Catholic Faith and a desire to share that faith with our teens.

The rotation amongst the three parishes has also been going very well. We have teens from at least nine different school districts, and mixing the teens together has been a great blessing for them as they have had the opportunity to get to know their “Catholic brothers and sis- ters” from all the schools involved in our parishes.

With the combining of the youth minis- try programs within the cluster, we felt a need to add more opportunities for our teens to gather together and grow in their faith. On Wednesday evenings at 7:45pm a group of young adults from within our parish cluster lead small group teen bible studies for grades 7-12. It’s a great opportunity for our teens to gather together and dive into the Scrip- tures with their peers. Our youth have named this gathering “DIGG” (Digging Into God’s Graces) and the Cluster Par- ishes rotate hosting this event.

On Sunday evenings, following our Clus- ter Confirmation Program, our POP2 (Power of Prayer and Purity) youth pro- gram gathers at 7:45pm at the same parish that hosted the Confirmation classesthatevening. Ournightbegins with an activity or social event for our teens, such as a game of basketball or Lightening, or even Glow in the Dark Capture the Flag with the nice weather. We follow that gathering up with a large group teaching by Father Gallas – which is a great blessing for our teens! As

always, we end in the Church for 10-15 minutes of prayer with teens also having the opportunity to go to Confession.

Our Wednesday evening Faith Formation program at Ss. Peter & Paul for grades K-6 continues to roll along. I can’t say enough about how blessed we are to have the same group of dedicated catechists for our children! Many par- ishes struggle to find volunteers every year, while here we are so Blessed to have the same Catechists every year – some who have been volunteering long- er than I have even been here! As in years past, we start the evening at 5:30pm with a delicious meal catered by Dobos.

One of the “unseen” Blessings that is happening at Ss. Peter and Paul right now is the growth of the local home- school community. Every other Friday a group of families gather for a CCM pro- gram (Classical Catholic Memory). There are over 100 children, ages 12 and under, involved in this group! The group focuses on memorization in a variety of areas, such as Latin and Reli- gion, and also subjects like Chemistry and World History. It’s great to have so many “little people” in the halls!

As always, everything mentioned above would not happen without your prayers and support. We are so blessed to have a parish cluster that is dedicated to the formation of our children. Please con- tinue to keep the youth, and our cate- chists, in your daily prayers.

In Christ –
Ryan Heim
rheim@saintsppta.org