St. Joseph Youth Ministry

Enjoy your Halloween this Friday guys.  Be safe!  Oh, and if you’re wondering if All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation this year, it’s not since it falls on a Saturday.

If you didn’t go to Fright Fest, everyone had a great time!  We have pictures, but we took them the old fashion way so it’ll take a little longer to get up on the website.  They’ll get here though!

Get Signed Up Now!!

Permission Slips are due soon! (Sunday Oct. 12 or Tuesday Oct. 14)  We had a blast last year, and this year is going to be even better.  See some of our photos of our last trip here.

The bus leaves St. Joseph Parking lot at 8am Saturday October 25th and we will arrive at the park at about 10am.  We will spend all day at the park and get back on the bus to head home at 10pm.  We should be back at the St. Joseph Parking Lot at about midnight that night.

A permission slip can be picked up in the church vestibule.  (Or you may now print one off from the link HERE.)  Please turn them in to either Michelle (on Sunday at the 7pm Teen night) or on Tuesday (to the Religious Education office).  You can also turn them into Michelle at mass since I’ll be at all 4 masses this weekend.

The first annual Parish Picnic will be held on Saturday, August 24, 2008!!

There will be

• hotdogs,
• chips,
• lemonade,
• rootbeer floats,
• face painting,
• volleyball,
• basketball,
• frisbee,
• bean bag toss,
• and of course the playground all available on our very own parish grounds!!

The picnic will last from 12 (noon) until 4pm.

Please join us!  And if you’d like to help out with serving the food or working in the background for a shift please contact Michelle and let me know!!

Thank you to those who have already volunteered so much of your time and agreed to help on the day of the picnic.  You’re gift of time is greatly appreciated!

As much fun and faith sharing as we had at CYX, the storms on Satuday night wrecked havok for one teen present at the retreat.  Nicoletta Codutti from St. James the Less in Highland left CYX early to be with her family after her house was struck by lightening and caught fire.  No one was injured in the fire, but let us keep Nicoletta and her family in our prayers as they rebuild they’re house.

We were reminded in the readings this past Sunday that our home is not a building; it is in Jesus, and of course our family as an extension.  The Codutti family may have lost their house and their belongings, but they have not lost their home.  Let us pray for them to not lose hope during this difficult time!

For more information and information on how you can help, visit the St. James the Less, Highland website:  http://www.life-ministry.org/.

Thank you to our Director of Religious Education who opted to use the Vacation Bible School annual Service Project to help the Codutti family!  And thank you to all who donated!

This year was our first year at CYX, and we’re already looking forward to next year!  We’ll definitely be more prepared (no forgetting towels or sheets!!) and I’m sure it will be even more fun.  We heard and sang some great music, watched praise dancers from Ss. Monica and Luke, experienced age-determined learning sessions, met teens from other parishes in the diocese, had free time at Camp Lawrence with a BBQ!, and a dance Saturday evening.  We got to see live feed from Austrailia during the World Youth Day Mass, and more locally, the teens from the Diocesin Youth Council acted out the Passion, the Rag Man, and some less serious skits (like the “Whose Line is it Anyway? version of explaining the weekend’s rules).  We had parish time in the evening which included a foot washing ceremony along with individual sharing.  All in all it was an exhausting yet awesome weekend filled with faith and fun!

Read more at http://www.dcgary.org/youth/cyx/index.htm.

See photos from CYX on our photo page HERE as well as on the diocesin photo page HERE.