You Are The Future You Are My Hope Term paper

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"Let the children come to Me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." In 1976, the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) issued a document entitled "A Vision of Youth Ministry." It was a guiding and illuminating response to the challenges of the effective bringing of American youth closer to God by showing them the ways and reasons of what it is to live a good Christian life in a relationship with the Lord. This document was a great success in youth ministry in the United States, but, two decades after its publication, in 1997, the USCC, in response to the new challenges and needs of the present day youth, issued a new document entitled "Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry." The new document is based on the fine tradition of the one of 1976, except that "Renewing the Vision" meets three new challenges. Since the new document is concerned basically with the same problems as the previous one, except for the three new goals, my research paper will be based on the concepts of the 1976 document as well as on the reviewing of the three new challenges of "Renewing the Vision."

Although these two documents are concerned with the spiritual development of the American youth, I think that they can be used by the youth ministers of the whole world, because, if we look at young people around the globe now, we will find them facing pretty much the same problems as the youth of the United States do.

. . . When Jesus Christ came down to earth with the Good News of salvation, He died and rose for the salvation of the people of all ages of all the nations of the world that were at that time, that are now, and that will be. After Christ resurrected and ascended to Heaven, He left the leadership of the Church to the apostles who have been succeeded later by bishops up to the present day. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Catholic Church's bishops with the pope as the head to ensure that the message of salvation is being rightly brought to the people of God who constitute the Church. Although the salvation message of Christ is always the same, the methods of presenting it to people by the Church are different, and that is because there are different age groups of people who accept it in many different ways. What that means is that you cannot, for example, present the same concepts of the faith that require the intelligence of an 18-year old to 6-year old children. That is why the Catholic Church teaches the principles of its faith depending on the age groups and capacity of the recipients. General Directory for Catechesis talks about four general age groups to whom the appropriate pedagogical methods of the teachings of the Church should be applied, and these groups are: adults, infants and young children, young people, and the elderly or the aged. In our case, we will be looking at presenting the salvific message to the young people.

Any ministry of our Church requires three things: "to proclaim the good news of salvation, to offer itself as a group of people transformed by the Spirit into a community of faith, hope, and love, and to bring God's justice and love to others through service in its individual, social, and political dimensions." Moreover, in any ministry of the Church, the life of our Savior Jesus Christ should always be as an example to follow. The vitally important thing for youth ministers to remember is that if they want to provide the ministry as the Church wants them to do, they must give themselves in relationship to others, namely, young people, not even being afraid to lay down their life in service to them. In other words, they have to put their whole heart and will in the ministry, because on them might depend the salvation of a young person's soul which is every person's greatest treasure.

Christ gives all of us different gifts that He wants us to develop as perfectly as possible, so, if we are feeling like we received a call for working with young people, then it is up to us to develop it to the best of our ability. But if you feel that you somehow cannot work with youth, it is better to leave the ministry than to continue doing it, because, otherwise, it might evolve in a gradual, and unnoticeable ruining of young people's lives. In other words, it is better not to be a youth minister at all than to be a bad one.

First of all, every youth minister should keep in mind two goals that the youth ministry demands in order to provide a good work with the young people, and they are:

1. "Youth ministry works to foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.

2. Youth ministry seeks to draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission, and work of the faith community."

It is very important for a youth minister to establish a relationship of a confidence with the young people. If a young man or woman trusts a youth minister, then it will be much easier to work with such people and present Christ and His teachings as the model and pattern to follow. Moreover, the Sacrament of Reconciliation has great importance here, because through Confession, in addition to its primary goal of purification of the soul from the burden of sins renewing God's grace, a young person learns to trust other people. Why? Because if he or she is not afraid to tell his or her sins to God through the priest as the mediator, then it has some influence on him or her in learning to trust others. In addition, it is important to remember to show to a young person how God works in his or her daily life, that He is not someone who is unreachable, but someone who wants to communicate with His child, so that he or she would find the true and peaceful goal in his or her life.

Young people should see that their youth ministers really care for them and ready to listen and to help them in a Christian way with whatever problems they have. Youth ministers should also make young people participate in an active Christian life, and the best way to do that would be to get them involved in the life of their own parish, so that they would see and feel the joy of working for building God's Kingdom on earth. It is very helpful for young people to get a sense of belonging to a community, because "God [is] to be found in people" and, thus, the youth ministers should try to organize different sports activities, camping, helping poor people, visiting hospitals, doing some charitable volunteer work etc.

By working with youth, it is always good for the ministers to teach young people to share with others the knowledge and experience of living a good Christian life, because this is exactly the way the Gospel message is being spread around the world - through sharing in joy of salvation with other people.

The relationship between young people and their families is also essentially important in youth ministry, and that is exactly one of the new challenges that "Renewing the Vision" is confronted with. The problem in American society today, as well as in the most of the world, is that children do not spend enough time with their families, and that is because "consumerism and entertainment media often encourage a culture of isolation." That is why youth ministers should talk with the young people about the importance of mutual balancing their life in regard to spending more time with their families, because it is a family where young people learn how to go on with life in the world. That is why a task of every youth minister is to make sure that young people get from their families the best Christian moral and practical values.

Another part of the youth ministry is to teach the young people to be able to make the right moral decisions in their lives, and this process requires to have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, because faith is "one's conviction of the ultimate character and meaning of existence - [it] is the resting place of the heart and the orienting guide of the mind," and who if not our Good Lord can give us this peace of heart in making morally good decisions. Very often the easiest solution to a problem is not always the best one, therefore, it is crucially important for a youth minister to provide explanatory and good Christian reasons for a young person to make the right moves in life. Youth minister...

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Lorimier, Jacques de, Graveline, Roger, and April, Aubert. Identity and Faith in Young Adults: A Study in the Religious Pedagogy of Young Adults. Translated by Matthew J. O'Connell. New York / Paramus / Toronto: Paulist Press, 1973.
Moore, Joseph. Getting in Touch With Jesus: A Spiritual Guide for Young Adults. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications, 1980.
Net Ministries, Inc. "Youth Worker's Handbook." West St. Paul, MN: Net Ministries, Inc., 1998.
Parks, Sharon. The Critical Years: The Young Adult Search for a Faith to Live. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1986.
Pennock, Michael. Moral Problems: What Does a Christian Do? Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1979.
Pope John Paul II. "You Are the Future, You Are My Hope:" To the Young People of the World. Compiled by the Daughters of St. Paul with permission from L'Osservatore Romano. English Edition. Boston, MA: St. Paul Editions, 1979.
The New American Bible. Saint Joseph Edition. New York: Catholic Book Publishi ng Co., 1992.
United States Catholic Conference. "A Vision of Youth Ministry." Washington D. C.: USCC, Inc., 1976.
United States Catholic Conference. "Renewing the Vision: A Framework For Catholic Youth Ministry." Second printing. Washington D. C.: USCC, Inc., 1997.
United States Catholic Conference. General Directory for Catechesis. Fourth printing. Washington D. C.: USCC, Inc., 1999.
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