"Dear young people, make the most of these years of your youth. Don't observe life from a balcony.
Don't confuse happiness with an armchair, or live your life behind a screen. Whatever you do, do not become the sorry sight of an abandoned vehicle. Don't be parked cars, but dream freely and make good decisions. Take risks, even if it means making mistakes. Don't go through life anaesthetized or approach the world like tourists. Make a ruckus! Cast out the fears that paralyze you, so that you don't become young mummies. Give yourselves over to the best of life. Open the door of the cage, go out and fly! Please don't take early retirement." - Pope Francis, Christus Vivit #143
St. Anthony's Youth Group generally meets at 6:00pm, following the 5:00pm Mass, on Sundays in the Lower Church. Youth Ministry is made up of teens in 6th-12th grade. We seek to integrate our faith by engaging the whole person by serving others, praying together, and just having a good time. For more information or to sign-up, contact Hailey Pomara at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Our parish Youth Ministry is built on three pillars:
I. Prayer
Jesus invites us to worship in Spirit and Truth. An essential aspect of Youth Group is to give a voice to the prayer that kids and teens in our parish community feel. At each meeting there is an opportunity to pray. Youth Group also gives teens the chance to plug into other times of prayer, including the monthly Holy Hour for Vocations, retreats, & other prayer activities.
II. Community
In the Gospel, Christ gathers a community together. They walk together as friends with different gifts and talents. They even have different interests and tastes. But at the end of the day, they realize that they are all part of the One Body of Christ, which is the Church. Youth Group gives an opportunity from kids to be kids together. They can gather together and have fun with various activities, whether it be an open gym or movie night, pizza or conversations, kids that come to youth group gain lifelong friendship as part of the parish community.
III. Service & Stewardship
A key aspect of Youth Group is stewardship -- doing good for others. But there is a requirement: we have to have fun doing it. An important Gospel passage that our Youth Group has reflected on for many years comes from Matthew 25. Jesus is talking about judgement day and uses an analogy of goats and sheep. The goats represent the people who did nothing for God during their lives, while the sheep are the good guys and will inherit the Kingdom of God, because they did good things while on Earth.
At judgement time, God will call us to His side and say, “when I was hungry, you fed me; when I was thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was naked, you brought me clothing. But we (the sheep) will question God, “when did I ever see you to give you food, or drink, or clothing?” And He will answer, “when you went on the Midnight Run and Breakfast Run, and participated in the Turkey Trot, Prison Ministry, Peanut Butter & Jelly Gang, Project HOPE, and made Military Care packages, Valentine’s, fundraised and collected food and money for your parish food pantry, and countless other times." When we do things for others, even the “least” of our brothers and sisters, we are actually doing them for God.
