Been on a retreat for you lately?  If not, get an encouraging message from the North.

OTTAWA, ON, CANANDA — Youth ministers can easily lose focus, confidence and direction when dealing with the “swirling mist of grey” that surrounds Catholic youth today, says the youth and young adult outreach director of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Young people are asking “Why should I care about being Catholic? Why do I have to choose? What difference does it make who I sleep with?” said John Beaulieu. Teenagers see life in terms of “my truth and your truth.”

They come to Christ “with conditions,” Beaulieu said during a retreat for youth ministry workers in the Ottawa Archdiocese March 7. They go to youth group on Friday night, and then have oral sex with their girlfriend on Saturday night. Youth ministers need more than a small candle to break through, he said. “You need a bright light to be seen in a thick fog.” The solution, he said, comes from a life of holiness and prayer and through doing things with Christ rather than in his name as an idea or a concept.  More here.

A word about the ninth component of a comprehensive approach to Catholic Youth Ministry.

PORTLAND, OR — Scores of Catholic youths gather at a Portland rally this month to hear that everyone has a vocation — whether it be to priesthood or diaconate, religious life, marriage or single life.  Local vocations directors and Serra Club members have decided to concentrate their outreach to two crucial moments of childhood and adolescence — the age of 11 and grade 11. That’s why the program is called Focus 11. This month’s rally is for sixth graders.  In a letter to principals of Catholic schools, the vocations alliance says: “We, vocation directors in the Archdiocese of Portland, always note to the students these basic truths when we make presentations about vocations: All are called to holiness. Everyone has a vocation.” More here 

And they all are heroes… or should we call them SHEroes.

SAN ANTONIA, TX — The Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, also known as the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of their arrival to the United States from Italy in 1908. The sisters’ mission is, and always has been, to provide a quality Catholic education to youth, especially those less fortunate. More here.