Dear Friends,
Our parish Youth Ministry launched its opening events this week—Life Teen night for High Schoolers and Edge for the Junior High children. I want to honor our Youth Minister, Miguel Nuñez, who has done a very good job in organizing the program and forming a team.
Parents: you have a big role to play if your highschoolers are going to benefit. We are all aware of the challenges teens face to remain faithful Catholics. Their beliefs—assuming they are strong to begin with, are continually confronted by their peers, social media and, often their teachers. This is true whether they attend Catholic or public school. In fact, those in Catholic High Schools can often be the most difficult to convince that they can benefit from a youth ministry because they get “all the religion they need in school.” What they may not realize is that the study of theology in school is very different from an evangelistic environment where they can have an encounter with Jesus Christ.
As parents, you are their primary teachers (and evangelists). You can encourage them to at least give it a try. Having them invite a friend or two will obviously help a lot. But once they meet the rest of the kids and start to feel welcome and loved, they will be eager to come on their own.
Our 4th annual school Gala, Night to Soar, is four weeks away. We very much want this to be an all-parish event and there are still plenty of tickets available. For those of you who have not attended one of the Galas, it is a fun evening with food and fellowship. And, of course, it is also a fundraiser—our biggest one for the school. The school parents are very loyal and generous, which is in addition to the tuition they pay. But I would hope to see a good number of non-parents present. To be clear about the economics, it costs the parish $6,900 to educate each and every student in the K-8 school. The parents pay a maximum of $5,900 in tuition, leaving the rest to be covered by grants, fundraisers and parish subsidies.
If you cannot attend the Gala, you can go to the school website and bid on a number of great items (including some of my most recent photos, framed and ready to hang). Please put the Gala—October 15th—on your calendar.
May God bless you and your family, Fr Charlie Goraieb
BACK TO LIST