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Catholic YM Blog
The Catholic YM Blog has been referred to as "the 411 of Catholic Youth Ministry." Your blogger is D. Scott Miller, director of the Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore... Read more...
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- The Jesus Preference
- ReBuild Avril
- We Didn’t Start the Fire
- The Church of Facebook
- All Things Possible
- Upside-Down Church
- CYM News 01-23-12
Recent Comments
- Catholic Youth Ministry Blog » CYM News 01-30-12 on Neighbor Jack
- Billy on We Didn’t Start the Fire
- Pat Clasby on RIP JoePa
- Lesley Franzen on The Protester
- Contra on The MTV Generation
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I believe this picture, or something similar, hung in my childhood home. In my memory, there was a jovial, rotund monk on the far right who was laughing/ giggling at the artist’s problem.
I rediscovered the painting (artist: Toby Edward Rosenthal) recently on a visit to a local monastery hosting a workcamp. And I stood for a good ‘ol long while just a’thunking upon it.
This seems as good as any visual representation of the challenge of youth ministry today. We want to do as good a job as possible to represent to the next generations a church we perceive as strong, vibrant… ummm, errr, ahhh, awake! Yet, to do such a thing, we are gonna have to make sure that the church is actually … ummm, errr, ahhh, awake!
And, that’s the conundrum, the problem.
Do we fear getting involved with the church because we are unsure of what mood we will find it in when it awakes? Is it easier for us to work unencumbered by relationship/ relating to the older church, leadership, the pastor?
In some youth ministry circles, there is conversation revolving around the suggestion of post-denominational youth ministry. Yet, in Catholic circles, hospitals, religious orders, colleges are all looking anew at catholic identity.
In this day and age of the mosh-pit merging of faith in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, our role is not to just “portray” the Church as awake, but to ensure that it is awake.
This video has been making the rounds of youth ministry blogs, and, perhaps, rightly so.
This is yet another caveat warning regarding attractional youth ministry.
There is not a win in whatever warfare is being fought if a kid is won but a parent is lost.
Can’t you see that you’re not making Christianity any better? You’re just making rock-n’-roll just a little bit worse.
More and more, our ministry with young people has got to be just a little bit less about the kids and just a little more about parents, significant adults, and the structures and venues that incorporate young people into a vibrant multi-generational community and not to be excluded to the isolation of their peers in the skateboard park.
Test everything; retain what is good.
And what is true here?? Well, PRAISE HIM!
Welcome back… Missed you too! Hope your Fourth of July weekend was awesome!
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News from Around: Celebrating some partnerships this week…
BALTIMORE– Our Catholic Review just finished a four-part series on Millennials. Each centerfolded article was also featured on the cover as well. It is a great series and you might want to call attention to it in your next e-newsletter or Sunday bulletin. The link for it is www.catholicreview.org/millennials (Scroll down to find all four parts!) JAMESTOWN, NY –The Jamestown Jammers will team up with the Jamestown Chapter of the Credit Union Association of New York and other area credit unions for a canned food drive to benefit St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Youth Organization in Dunkirk and the St. Susan Center in Jamestown for the second straight year. Last year, the Jammers and the local credit unions combined to collect 250 pounds of food to benefit the St. Susan Center, which provides hot, nutritious meals to those in need. The CYO also helps feed the hungry through its food closet program. Learn more from the Post-Journal |
News from ‘Round Here: Last Sunday, I went to mass at Saint Bernadine in the city. They have an annual youth mass and rally which involves mass, speaker, and acknowledgment of the kids who graduated (kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college…) You graduated, you are getting mentioned by and hugged by the pastor. (You get that they value education?) Father Bob Rivers, author of From Maintenance to Mission provided an in-service on Monday. Back to the office and an informal job interview and dinner with a campus ministry applicant rounded out a full day. Tuesday was primarily newsletter development day. The evening saw me at an outdoor venue featuring a kid band of many kids who had participated in our programs, including our summer intern on the drums. Despite a technical glitch deciphered by Susan the sleuthing secretary, the newsletter went out Wednesday. Mid-day saw a run to the airport to drop off my boss and another run to the Park Commission to follow-up on a check. We set a date on Thursday for a pastor-YM luncheon… Cool. Also, another run to BWI to drop off a co-worker and then off to the Mount for Catholic Life. Got home for a four-day break and was asleep before 7pm. Friday and Saturday were about household chore like painting kitchen chairs, laundry/ironing, baking a holiday cake for the daughters. |
