Contacts:
Kevin Heider (Grades 6-12),
703-494-3966, ext. 133 kevin.heider411@verizon.net
Fr. Searby, Fr. Meng,
703-494-4008, Ext. 122, 124
Junior Youth Ministry (grades 6-8) – meets Fridays, 6-9pm
High School Youth Ministry (grades 9-12) – meets Sundays, 6-9pm
We are all called to holiness in every aspect of our lives. The SEAS youth program is designed to help parents form their sons and daughters to be young adults of virtue and faith. Through engaging and exciting activities, events, prayer, and talks, the program will help form the student’s character spiritually, socially, intellectually, and culturally.
Intellectual:
From being available for confessions to giving talks on the Mass, Scripture, Church history, morality, or the virtues, Fr. Meng and Fr. Searby intend on being quite involved with both the Junior High and High School youth groups. Talks and seminars will allow the youth of the parish to ask questions about their faith so that they might share in a deeper, more mature encounter with the truth of the Catholic Church. This will also provide ample opportunities for the youth to discuss the truth of the Catholic faith with one another while focusing on apologetics and what it means to be instruments of evangelization in their families, schools, and communities.
Spiritual:
Through monthly Eucharistic Adoration, personal and group prayer, animations, music, art, and discussions, the teens will grow in a profound and personal friendship with God. During all meetings and activities the teens will also have the opportunity to frequent the great Sacrament of Confession to help them in their growth in holiness. Through frequent discussions and direction, the students will also be able to hear more clearly the will of God in their lives as they learn to discern His vocational call to them.
Service:
“Be not afraid. Put out into the deep and lower your nets for a catch.” The SEAS Youth Group will put out into the deep with a service project every semester. These projects will allow all of the teens to “preach the Gospel always and when necessary, use words.” Through serving the poor, the needy, the lonely and downtrodden, as well as those that we find in our very own families and neighborhoods, the youth group will be serving in a spirit of generosity and joyful self-giving. Through these interesting and engaging projects that will teach us what it means to have an active love of neighbor, we will focus on others before ourselves and grow to be men and women of virtue. The March for Life in Washington in January and the Diocesan Work Camp in June are just two examples of such projects.
Culture:
This year the youth program will experience something new and truly unique. Pope John Paul the Great taught that if we are to evangelize the world, we must first evangelize the culture. People encounter God in many ways, though they primarily first encounter Him through beauty. With this in mind, the youth group will be engaging all of the aspects of a cultural life in order to grow in an understanding of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. This year we will experience God and the mystery of the human person through the arts (theater, film, music, etc.) and through sports (both as participants and spectators) in an effort to become men and women who love life and true culture. It is in engaging culture that we learn where we are from and who we are truly meant to be.
Visit the SEAS Youth Ministry Website for more information. |
