Welcome 11:00 Session 2 Guiding Youth in Discernment 12:15 p.m. - - PDF document

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Welcome

Schedule

9:00 a.m. Welcome and Gather in Prayer 9:20 Session 1 – Accompanying Youth Today / Becoming a Faith Companion 10:45 Take a Break 11:00 Session 2 –Guiding Youth in Discernment 12:15 p.m. Have Lunch and Break 1:00 Session 3 – Helping Youth Pray Session 4 - Empowering a Community that Accompanies 2:15 Gather for Closing Prayer 2:30 Conclude

Companion

To name a friend as a companion is to quite literally name another as “the one who brings to you, or who is bread for you.” It is the highest compliment you can bestow upon a person. This is a person who sustains you.

John Flaherty Catholic Collective

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Companion “the one who brings to you, or who is bread for you.”

Reflecting on Companions

Share with your partner about someone who is your companion, someone who is bread for you. How does this person lead you to Christ?

Prayer Response:

Nourish Us Loving God

Session 1 Accompanying Youth Today – Becoming a Faith Companion

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Accompaniment

“Accompanying young people requires going beyond a preconceived framework, encountering young people where they are, adapting to their times and pace of life and taking them seriously.”

Unleash the Gospel

Accompaniment of those being evangelized is an essential part of unleashing the Gospel. When Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he did not immediately begin to instruct them. Instead he first listened to them and allowed them to share their hopes and disappointments, winning their trust. He met them where they were in their faith and helped them to go further.

accompaniment

• We share bread with
• We don’t judge
• We walk along side (not pulling or pushing)
• We listen to questions
• We recognize where God is working – lead them to the holy

Accompaniment

• A perspective not a

program

• We can develop strategies

and programs that help

• It’s about

Immanuelization

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Go where youth are

• We accompany youth where

they are, and take them seriously.

• Making a choice for faith

requires a journey beyond

• ur ordinary means of

ministry.

• Because the proposed

message involves the freedom of young people, communities must engage young people in creative, personal ways.

Going out

going beyond our usual activities.

• Avoid everything that

makes the Church

• utdated and makes

people feel hemmed in

• Accompanying youth as

they face challenges

• Going to where youth

are – technology, sports…

Seeing

• Spend time with youth
• Listen to them
• Respond to their experience,

their story

• Empathize

Theresa Wiseman's four attributes of empathy:

• To be able to see the world as others see it
• To be nonjudgmental
• To understand another person’s feelings
• To communicate your understanding of that person’s

feelings

Our crosses become bridges

Calling

• Awakening youth
• Asking questions without

pre-determining the answers.

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Which young people?

“All young people without exception”

• Youth already joined through

baptism.

• Beyond that, the Church is

geographic

• We have a special call to

reach marginalized youth

Who accompanies?

• A responsible

community

• People of Reference

(adults who work with youth.)

• The family
• Shepherds of souls

(Pastors, Bishops, Vocations ministers)

• Teachers

People of reference

“The role of credible adults and their cooperation is basic in the course of human development and vocational discernment. This requires authoritative believers, with a clear human identity, a strong sense of belonging to the Church, a visible spiritual character, a strong passion for education and a great capacity for discernment.”

• Focus on God’s work within the young person

and their free response – avoid manipulation

• r coercion.
• People who work with youth need training

and support.

implications

• We accompany youth and help the

community accompany their young members

• We need to see what God is doing with

young people so we can join and support this conversation.

implications

• Programs and pastoral activities are intended

to initiate the process of accompaniment. “Pastoral activity with young people, which is called upon to start processes more than to dominate spaces, shows, above all, the importance of service to the human growth of each individual and the educational and formative resources that can support it.”

implications

• We need to reimagine our role –

see young people in new ways and be intentional.

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Accompaniment – Paradigm for Ministry

• Begins with the young

person.

• Surrounds children and

youth with love and care.

• Empowers lots of faith

companions.

• Calls youth to prayer and

discernment.

• Supports young disciples

in witness and service.

Big Picture

God is calling each young person to the fullness of life. God has been dreaming of each young person. God began a conversation. Our job is to align ourselves with this conversation. We do this by accompanying the young person.

A Faith Companion

Prays Connects Listens Empathizes Cares Witnesses Calls

Faith Conversations

Recall a faith conversation you’ve had with a young person.

• What was hard?
• What was easy?
• What worked?
• What doesn’t work?

Engaging the second voice… A Faith Companion helps young people to listen with the ear of their heart and to engage the second voice for the experiences of situations

• f their life.

Experiencing life through the lens of faith

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Watch For

Judgement Adultism Coercion Lecturing

The Process of Accompaniment

Moving away from the kid table…

5 to 1 instead of 1 to 5

Kara Powell and Chap Clark – Fuller Institute

Young Person

Parent Youth Ministry Leader Uncle Godparent CYO Coach Grandparent

Becoming a Community that Accompanies

Begin with the parish or school as a whole Assess territory for making connections Empower all of the contacts

• Parents / Aunts / Uncles / Grandparents
• Ministry Leaders / Catechists / Teachers /

Coaches / Group leaders

• Sponsors / Godparents
• Peers

Transform or eliminate existing programs Create new programs paying particular attention to outreach

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Puzzle Piece Exercise – Utilizing Faith Companions in My Community

• Ways to Invite Faith Companions
• Places to find / connect Faith Companions
• Ways to support parents and family members as Faith

Companions

• Ways to Support Youth as a Faith Companion
• Support for Faith Companions
• Training for Faith Companions

Be new!

Precisely because the proposed message involves the freedom of young people, every community needs to give importance to creative ways of addressing young people in a personal way and supporting personal development. In many cases, the task involves learning to allow for something new and not stifling what is new by attempting to apply a preconceived framework.

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