Youth Ministry Digest for August 28, 2009

Youth Ministry is headed online! This past week Youth Ministry launched several online initiatives that you can get involved with right now. For starters, we now have our own Youth Blog. The blog will be updated two or three times a week. It can be found at:

http://titusfatimayouthministry.blogspot.com/. (add it to your bookmarks)

Designed for the high school aged members of our parishes, I hope everyone can benefit from the fun and accessible content we'll be adding. From the blog you can find:

• The website we designed specifically to keep parents up to date with everything Youth Ministry is doing.

• Our online calendar.

• A link to our brand new Facebook group. Please note, the Facebook group is open only to high school aged members of St. Titus and Our Lady of Fatima parishes.

Let me also assure everybody that we will continue to communicate through traditional channels as well and will take every step possible to not disadvantage those who cannot or do not wish to access the Internet.

In addition to this exciting news, please be aware of the following dates:

• There will be an information session for parents of high school aged children who are interested in the Youth Group. This meeting will be held in the Upper Room (the building next to the rectory) at Our Lady of Fatima Church on September 8th at 7PM. This meeting is not mandatory if your child wishes to participate in Youth Ministry, but is highly recommended.

• Any parent of a high school aged teenager who would like to chaperon or volunteer with the Youth Group must attend a mandatory meeting the following week. This will be held in Titan hall (under the Church) at St. Titus on September 15th at 7pm. Please RSVP with me no later than Thursday, September 10th. If you cannot make it on this date please contact me, and I will accommodate you.

• Any teen involved in Youth Ministry last year is asked to please volunteer some time for a small recruiting event on September 20th. Contact me if you can help or would like more information.

• Finally, the Youth Minister will be coordinating a trip to the Alive Again! event on Sunday, September 12th. The cost is $15 per teen, and a bus has been provided courtesy of Fr. Paul and Fr. Howard. The bus will leave from the Our Lady of Fatima lot at 12:30pm. We will be returning at 11pm. The mass, to be held at the event, will satisfy your Sunday obligation. Permission forms are available in the Church vestibule or on this webpage. Please RSVP on Facebook.
  

Anybody with questions or comments about these developments is encouraged to contact me at titusfatimayouthministry@gmail.com or (724)375-7940.

Adam

Your Intrepid Youth Minister

p.s. Here is a picture of one of my dogs getting a bath

One...One...AH AH Ah ah

Update: Now there are three.

Person has joined the Facebook group.

Carry On,

Adam
Your Intrepid Youth Minister

Back to School

For many of you, the School year starts up today. I know the announcement for the blog hasn't been in the bulletin yet, but I want to let you all know that I'm praying for all of you.

You should pray too. In fact you should use prayer to modulate your day. Before you start class, why not think a quick Hail Mary to yourself? When you are busy, I'm sure, studying and never goofing off at school ever, take a break, go to the drinking fountain and mumble a quick Glory Be.

For the ill-informed:

Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;
blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Glory Be
Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be: World without end.
Amen.

The Prayer of Tobias & Sarah

The Book of Tobit is one of my favorite books of the Bible; it's also one of the most overlooked. I hope that by the time you've read this you will think that this is a huge oversight. I think the thing that impressed me the most about it was the way parts of Tobit feel like they belong in modern times, rather than thousands of years ago.

Tobit is the story of Tobias and Sarah. Sarah has been married seven times, but on her wedding night, each time, the demon Asmodeus kills her new husband. Tobias is on his way to Media when he meets another traveler. He doesn't know it, but the other traveler is the angel Raphael in disguise.

After Tobias and Sarah meet and get married, Tobias uses some advice Raphael gave him to defeat Asmodeus.

Then Tobias remembered the words of Raphael, and he took the fish’s liver and heart out of the bag where he had them and put them on the embers of the incense. The odor of the fish so repelled the demon that he fled to the remotest parts of Egypt [the desert]. But Raphael followed him, and at once bound him there hand and foot.
Tobit 8:2-3

This section sounds like something more in sync with The Lord of the Rings than other parts of the Bible.

Tobit isn't just a story about a married couple, an angel and a demon, though. It is also a story about how God answers prayers. Right after Raphael drives out the demon Tobias and Sarah know they should immediately pray to God because they are so grateful for the help and happiness he has given them.

Blessed are you, O God of our ancestors,
and blessed is your name in all generations for ever.
Let the heavens and the whole creation bless you for ever.
You made Adam, and for him you made his wife Eve
as a helper and support.
From the two of them the human race has sprung.
You said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;
let us make a helper for him like himself.”
I now am taking this kinswoman of mine,
not because of lust,
but with sincerity.
Grant that she and I may find mercy and that we may grow old together.
Tobit 8:5-8

How has God helped you out of a bad situation, like he helped Sarah and Tobias? When have you, unlike Tobias and Sarah, not been quick to thank God, when He has answered your prayers?

The other nice thing about Tobit is (hint!) its short. Short enough to be read in an afternoon (hint!).

Find the Reference; Win 5 Points

I found this on a website about Geoffrey Chaucer, its the first verse of a very good song translated into Olde Englysh. Figure out what its a reference too, email me (or put it on our Facebook wall) your answer and win five points.

p.s. The points don't go towards anything. I will try to put trivia or a puzzle or some other sort of question up a few times a month. And I will track the points. So still try.

Help Wanted

Is anybody free on the morning of September 20? I need some people who were involved with the Youth Group last year to help me with a small recruitment event. We will be using the oppurtunity to let other people know how great Youth Group meetings were, all the fun stuff you did and how they can get involved.

A few days before the 20th we will be having a short get pow-wow to work out the details. Please let me know you can help be emailing me, getting in touch with me on Facebook or leaving me a voicemail at (724)375-7940.

Alive Again!

Update: Now you can RSVP on Facebook.

On September 12, at 12:30pm anyone grades 9-12 who has a permission form and $15 may go to Alive Again! An Event of Hope.

Alive Again! is an event being held at St. Benedict the Abbot Church, it will feature a concert with Matt Maher, mass with Bishop Zubik (it counts as Sunday mass), some speakers and dinner (included in the cost). We will be returning at 11PM.

You should be able to find a permission form in the Church vestibule or by clicking here.

Welcome to the Youth Blog

Hello everyone,

Let me introduce myself, I'm Adam, your new Youth Minister at St. Titus & Our Lady of Fatima parishes, and this is our blog. I started at the beginning of August and I have been working very hard to get everything ready for the upcoming Youth Ministry year.

We are going to have our first regular meeting at the start of October, but before then there are a couple of things I would like to fill you in on:

• I'm going to be holding an information session for your parents on September 8, 2009 in the upper room (that's the building above the rectory garage) at Our Lady of Fatima at 7pm. Your parents don't need to come for you to do (awesome) Youth Ministry stuff, but there's going to be a lot of stuff about the Youth Group that I'm going over at the meeting. So bug them about it.
• If your parents want to help out chaperoning when we go off site, or volunteering some other way, there is a meeting they need to attend in the St. Titus Church hall at 7pm on September 15. If your parents want to volunteer this meeting is mandatory. If they are going to be attending the meeting, they need to RSVP with me. So bug them about that too.
• We are on Facebook! If your parents let you use Facebook, click here and join our group ASAP!
• We do have one rule on Facebook though, you can't friend me or any other adult that you know through Youth Ministry directly. Its a legal thing that we have to do to protect everybody's privacy.
  
• One last computer thing, you can check on upcoming stuff through our online Calendar.

So please check this blog often, I'm hoping to write something new two or three times a week!

Thanks,

Adam
Your Intrepid Youth Minister