Blog

"A young adult heard about how on the feast day of St. Rita, individuals across the nation participate in collecting canned goods to donate to different local charities. This young adult began a food drive and has advertised to the young adult group. Overall, he did this through his own volition and generous heart. I am excited to see that many young adults have come to drop off goods, and are asking questions about how they can help out!"

"We recently had our large parish education fundraiser, "Carnivale". In the course of the night, we had a staggering number of our volunteers and parishioners comment on how young the crowd was. This being an event we have hosted for over a decade, and an event that is 21 and over, it was exciting for our parishioners and our volunteers to witness firsthand how many young adults are connected to the parish. One elderly parishioner made the statement, "we must be the cool parish now," in reference to the activity of our young adults. It was a comical reminder that the seeds we are planting are growing."

"One couple in our young adult community got engaged and the group is planning a bridal shower."

"We had an amazing night with our Boomers group! We had a “Mardi Gras Party with the Boomers," which included a potluck dinner, beads, and “speed friending” – sharing Lenten practices and ideas. We concluded the night with Praise and Worship all together and sharing highlights. Everyone enjoyed the night and got a lot out of it."

"We welcomed one young adult into Full Communion with the Catholic Church in February and are preparing four young adults to enter at the Easter Vigil."

"We host a monthly Theology On Tap, which usually brings out a very consistent crowd of people. Though not super big, it's usually a decent size. The leadership team has been doing some extra prayer time for growth and more connection in our community. Long story short, our March Theology on Tap was our biggest number of people yet. It is truly God working in this community."

"Our youth ministry coordinator, Nestor, is a bilingual, part-time employee and full-time college student. Our youth (grades 6-12) are comprised of mostly Hispanic young teens. Nestor, only 21, has such a connection to these students aged 11-17. He relates to them culturally. They respect him for being older and relate to him because he is not much older than most of them. Nestor has added other Hispanic Young Adults to the Youth Ministry Team, and it is working very well. Nestor will be inviting young adults of the parish to form the majority of the Youth Ministry Team next school year. We are all very excited about what it means for all involved and the future of our parish."

"February was an amazing month of welcoming new young adults to the parish and enjoying time together at our annual Valentine's Dinner. The most rewarding ministry moment was seeing a young adult return to Mass after a period of time of not attending. His mother told us one day that this young man had said, "If I can play basketball in the gym there at Cathedral, I'll go back to church." Thanks be to God that our open gyms for basketball somehow opened his heart to bring him back to the church."