yaab

A&B Diocesan Catholic Youth Service

Archive for category Prayer & Spirituality

Can your young people help make a Million Minutes of silence?

May 5

Posted by yaab in Prayer & Spirituality, Resources for Youth Ministry, Stuff you might wanna do | No Comments

A message from the Million Minutes team:

—

Young people can get a tough deal in society today.  Shut out of decision-making, scape-goated by the media and silenced by society, we know it’s not fair, and we want to do something about it.

That’s why we’re asking young people all over the UK to stay silent. It’s a sign of solidarity, it’s a chance to take time out to consider others, and it’s a way to raise money for brilliant projects that aim to support young people to transform their own lives.

And we’d like to reach a million minutes of silence pledged by May 8.

http://www.millionminutes.org/get-involved/stay-silent/

When and how much silence is up to you. Maybe your youth group could stay silent together in their next meeting, or for a silent vigil. There are resources to help online – session plans, guided meditations and videos to help set the scene and explain the concept.  http://www.millionminutes.org/resources

And as we’re trying to raise money as well, there are sponsorship forms, help to set up online fundraising and details of the projects we’re hoping to help and how you can apply for money too.

If this is your first introduction to Million Minutes, I hope you’ll be inspired to join our cause. And if this isn’t, I hope it gives you the push to need to help your young people make a genuine difference to young lives in the UK and overseas.

http://www.millionminutes.org/get-involved/stay-silent/

Best wishes

Daniel Hale

Million Minutes

Video series about Teens and the New Missal

May 4

Posted by yaab in Liturgy, Prayer & Spirituality, Resources for Youth Ministry | No Comments

Liturgy Training Publications have launched a series of videos of Young People talking about the new missal.

The series is well worth a look, and probably worth using as part of your youth group programme.

Here are the first couple of videos:

Bishop Kieran talks about Young People and Youth Ministry

May 3

Posted by yaab in Prayer & Spirituality, Resources for Youth Ministry | No Comments

Bishop Kieran

In his pastoral letter this Sunday, Bishop Kieran talked in part about young people and about ministering to them. Bishop Kieran is the Bishop for Youth for England & Wales, which makes his thoughts in this area especially interesting and important.

It’s worth popping over to the diocesan website to read (or listen to) the message as a whole, but here is a snippet:

 

Again because of the length of the process of producing and distributing a message like this, especially if you are hearing it from a CD, I am actually writing this before Easter. In fact it is the evening of the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The sun is shining and I have just come from a gathering of our young pilgrims – the ‘Redshirts’ – preparing to go out to Lourdes in July.

[...]

What do we wish for ourselves and for one another? The sort of phrase that we often use is something along the lines of ‘My very best wishes,’ if it is written, or ‘Wish you all the best,’ if it is spoken. But what is the best that we could wish people?

Certainly in terms of the young people that I was with today, the best that I could wish them is not just they grow up happy, safe and confident, but that Jesus is a real part of their lives and that they have the courage to live out the gospel. I believe that if Jesus is missing in their lives, and if the gospel is not part of the way they make decisions, then their lives are not the best; there is something missing that means their lives are not as rich and challenging as they could be. The best for them is part of what we hope to offer them in Lourdes and in our preparation for and follow-up to that experience. We are saying to them, ‘This is the best that you can have. Here is faith, here is a relationship with the person of Jesus, here is the gift of healthy and unselfish friendship shared between you, and offered in service to others.’ That is the best. That is what they deserve.

When Jesus appears to the disciples in today’s gospel, he tells them that ‘As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you.’ He is sending us out to bring the best to people, not just as a wish, but as reality. We are challenged to find ways to show people that this is the best. It is not to be found in ambition, fame or possessions. This is the sort of vision the first reading speaks of today, where we hear how the faithful sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds, where they prayed and celebrated together, and shared their food gladly and generously. The best is like this; it is to be found somewhere in God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

 

An exciting autumn ahead for young people in A&B

Aug 29

Posted by yaab in Local news, Lourdes Pilgrimage (non-Redshirts), National Youth Sunday, Papal Visit 2010, Prayer & Spirituality, Redshirts 2010, The Redshirts (LYSG), World Youth Day, WYD 2011, Youth Gather, Youth Gather 2010 | 1 Comment

Flick.com user: gisleh

Okay, okay… well we know you’re probably a bit gutted that the summer is over and that those sunny days have been replaced by clouds and rain, but we are fairly confident that the autumn ahead of us is going to be a great one. There is just so much coming up for young people in the diocese. Here is a small taste…

By the way, before we get into it, just a small point: As you’ll see below, we are making use of Facebook events via our Facebook page. If you click on the links below, the Facebook events will give you the details, like times and places etc etc. You can also use the Facebook page to tell us you’re coming – though in most cases you still have to book properly with the youth office. Got it…!?… Good :)

Plenty of reunions for the Redshirts

Getting together at Guildford and Dalesdown

The experience of being a Redshirt is one that people will continue in Lourdes in the future, and also something that they will hopefully continue in their parishes, communities and their lives. If you have been a Redshirt, you’ll know that it changes you in a lot of positive ways.

To help people reflect on the experience there are a few reunions in the months after Lourdes. We are all meeting together for an overnight stay at Guildford on September 11th and then again for a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

A chance to apply for Redshirts 2011

If you want to go to Lourdes with the Redshirts in 2011, watch this space… details will be appearing on the site during the autumn. In the meantime, why not have a look at our Redshirts page, which gives loads of information. Or you can have a look at what past Redshirts have got up to by clicking the categories on the left hand side of this page (and down a bit!)

Preparation for World Youth Day next summer

Now that World Youth Day 2011 is less than a year away the preparation with the Diocesan pilgrims will step up a gear. There is a day for pilgrims at DABCEC (Crawley) this coming Saturday, and then a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

Youth Gather 2010 at St. Richard’s, Bexhill

This promises to be an awesome day, as always! Have a look at the Facebook event page for more details. If you are bringing a (school or parish etc) group, then purleeeeeze tell the youth office. Also, if you feel like doing a bit of walk marshalling, then please tell us that too!

More work on yaab, including a database of youth groups

As you might have noticed, we have been waving a bit of a magic wand over yaab lately – and thanks for all the positive feedback, by the way :) – and we’re not done yet. We are planning to use the integration with the Facebook page to communicate more and more news, meaning that once you have become a ‘fan’ of the page (I mean… you’ve done that right??) you’ll get news on your Facebook news feed whenever you log in, as well as on the site.

The one part of this site that’s looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment is our Youth Groups page. Are you in a youth group? Or, do you run one? If so, tell us all about it because there may be young people in your area hitting the site who might be really interested to know about it.

National Youth Sunday 2010

We don’t have much details about this yet, other than the fact that it will be marked on Sunday November 21st – the Feast of Christ the King – and that the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation will be putting some resources together to mark the occasion. As soon as more news becomes available, we’ll stick it on the site. Until then, why not let us know what you are planning to do in your area?

The visit of Pope Benedict

It can’t have escaped your notice that Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the UK in jus a few weeks time. Some young people from the diocese are going up to London to see him, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. For more news and details, why not check out the official site.

Advent daily prayers for young people

Building on our successful daily prayers from past Advents and Lents we will once again be putting together some daily Advent prayers for young people. There isn’t much on the site yet, but by Advent time, there will be loads of resources as well as prayers for each day.

In the past, the prayers have proved popular with young people, Chaplains, form tutors, youth leaders, parents and loads of other people in A&B and beyond.

Daily Prayer Resources for Lent and Prayers for Group Reflection

Feb 12

Posted by yaab in Prayer & Spirituality | No Comments




http://www.footstepsthroughlent.orgFootsteps through Lent has been put together for two reasons. Firstly to give people a place to find daily reflections during Lent, and secondly to give groups some resources to pray with.

Everything can be found on the website.

The daily refections are accessed simply by clicking the link for the right day.

The group reflections can be downloaded in pdf format.

http://www.footstepsthroughlent.org

Advent Prayers from YAAB!

Nov 25

Posted by yaab in Prayer & Spirituality | 1 Comment

http://advent09.yaab.co.uk

We are pleased to announce the launch of our youth prayer website for Advent 2009. Each day has a reflection and a prayer, all of which takes about a minute each day.

http://advent09.yaab.co.uk