September 9, 2009 // Local

Huntington youths deepen liturgical and service life

Todays Catholic

Jon Stotts, left, pastoral associate for youth ministry and liturgy at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Huntington, was an adult leader at a Young Neighbors in Action (YNIA) mission trip in Baltimore this summer. He stands with Katlyn Stebing and Mariah Strass, both students at Huntington North High School (HNHS), Meagan Harrell, adult chaperone, and Chris Landrum, Bryce Johnson and Mike Hinen, also HNHS students. In front is JJ, a staff member of the high school where the team stayed.

By Kay Cozad

HUNTINGTON — The youth at Ss. Peter and Paul Church have not been sitting idle this summer thanks to their dynamic parish youth program. In addition to the regular weekly high school small group meetings, after-school middle school ministry, youth group Sunday gatherings, service opportunities, retreats and dodge ball Sundays, under the guidance of Jerid Miller, pastoral associate for youth ministry, adult formation and R.C.I.A. and Jon Stotts, pastoral associate for youth ministry and liturgy, 10 Huntington North High School students had the opportunity to travel on a Young Neighbors in Action (YNIA) mission trip to serve the poor.

The YNIA summer mission program, according to Miller, is threefold. First, it “gives youth an experience of broader church by gathering with other Catholic youth from across the country.” It also “provides hands on service experience” and lastly it puts that “experience into the context of Catholic social teaching.” Miller says, “It challenges the participants to go back home and get involved in service to those in need in their community.”

Five students were assigned to Miller, who accompanied the group to Cincinnati, where they worked at Visions, a daycare facility that supports poor urban families. Stotts accompanied five other students to Baltimore where they painted offices and served lunches to the homeless at the Franciscan Center, an outreach agency that provides emergency assistance to those in need.

All the teens returned home with a renewed desire for service opportunities and were anxious to get to work within their own community.

Miller says, “To begin we are focusing on the needs of our parish families and the elderly trying to identify those in our own parish community that are in need.”

About his summer service experience in Baltimore, sophomore Bryce Johnson wrote in “Exsultet,” the parish newsletter, “It showed me what real struggling people actually look like. And that doing anything to help, even something little, is always appreciated. Visiting Baltimore has given me the want and desire to help our city!”

The summer missions were divine venues for these faith filled teens to prepare for this year’s youth group theme — “community.” Miller reports, “As we meet over the course of the year to explore what that theme means in terms of our Christian identity and mission we work towards preparing the youth for a culminating experience the following summer by participating in a YNIA mission. … Next year we are looking at sending three or four groups as this program becomes a corner stone of the Ss. Peter and Paul youth ministry.”

Another summer opportunity was participation in an annual retreat to St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. The program, One Bread, One Cup, is a five-day liturgical leadership conference focusing on the word, sacrament and mission of the Catholic Church for high school youth and campus and youth ministers,” according to the archabbey’s Web site www.saintmeinrad.edu. Two newly confirmed students, Paul Bickel and Courtney Karst accompanied Jon Stotts this year.

The program, says Stott, taught the students, who joined over 100 others from around the U.S., how to “live from a liturgical standpoint.” The days were filled with the chanting of the Liturgy of the Hours, along with contemporary services. “But it was all done with respect and reverence,” he reports.

The students participated in small group theological reflections and general sessions taught by monks on Scripture and the sacraments. They enjoyed recreational opportunities after lunch as well. Afternoons were geared toward service groups where students learned about and practiced the art of being a extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, cantor and more. The inspiring days were well balanced with theological teaching and social events.

An added bonus of the conference was adult leadership sessions for the chaperones. “It reaffirmed the ministry and empowered us to see what we could do,” says Stott, who found meeting the adult ministers there a positive networking opportunity.

His hope for the students — “I hope this will be one of the solutions to the crisis we’re facing in youth ministry. The kids don’t know why they’re Catholic. They haven’t had the experience to enter into the life of Christ as to influence their life decisions. By giving them this experience rooted in tradition we tell the kids they can be part of it at the parish. It starts and ends with liturgy.”

Student Paul Bickel felt the retreat was worth the time. “It’s a life changing experience,” he says. Courtney Karst agrees saying, “It was inspirational seeing other teenagers who also unconditionally love God.”

Miller and Stott are encouraged by the students’ response to the summer offerings and look forward to guiding them this fall in local service ventures.