About AYM
Youth Group Meeting: Every Thursday night, the youth group gets together for some fellowship and prayer time. We always meet from 7:00pm – 9:00pm in the multi-purpose room of the school (except the fourth Thursday of the month, which is XLT!). These meetings generally begin with hangout time – sometimes we play Frisbee, sometimes we just chill. Then we move inside and Pete or a CORE member leads the night with some kind of activity followed by a talk, discussion, and prayer time. The topics range from Church teaching, to Scripture, to living a Christian life. We talk about whatever is going on in the lives of today’s teenagers and how a relationship with God makes all the difference. It isn’t scary or weird, in fact, it’s usually a lot of fun!
XLT: XLT is a praise and worship adoration night hosted by St. Catherine Laboure. It’s awesome because God in flesh is there and because all of the area youth groups attend. It’s one big party. There is always time for socializing, a great speaker, and the band is really good too.
Daily Bread: In the summer, we get together for 8:00am Mass every Wednesday morning. Afterwards, we walk up the street to St. Louis Bread Company and have breakfast together. This event feeds the mind (good conversation), body (delicious Bread Co. food), and spirit (Mass).
Softball: Every Tuesday during the summer, we get together on the upper fields and play softball. Well, we call it softball anyway. It’s actually Indian Ball, but that doesn’t make it any less competitive (or entertaining). The best part is, we usually go out for ice cream or snow cones after we play.
Women’s Night: The female CORE team members organize this event during the summer for teenage girls. We meet on Sunday nights from 7:00 – 8:30 in the multi-purpose room of the school. We talk about topics that apply to young women, study the lives of the holy women who have gone before us, enjoy girl talk and TONS of food, and (the best part) NO BOYS ALLOWED!!!
Project Life: This is a weeklong service retreat (in June) sponsored by the Office of Youth Ministry. We spend a week going out in small groups and serving a community during the day and then meet for retreat sessions in the evening.
Steubenville: This summer youth conference is put on by Franciscan University, and the Office of Youth Ministry brings it to St. Louis. It takes place one weekend in the summer on the Missouri State University’s campus in Springfield, MO. We travel down by bus and join thousands of other teenagers for an intense weekend of speakers, Sacraments, and praise and worship. This is one conference that is anticipated all year long.
Luke 18: This is a weekend retreat for Parish 8th graders. The teens from the youth group give the talks and lead the small groups. The 8th graders grow closer to each other and to God, everyone has fun, no one gets much sleep, everyone gets a T-shirt, and the 8th graders get to see how great youth group is!
The Way, Truth, and LIFE: Every January, the youth groups takes a very long and always exciting bus trip to Washington D.C. (and back) for the Pro-Life March. We join tens of thousands of other Pro-Life advocates in standing up for the right to life. The Office of Youth Ministry provides programming to make this a retreat-type experience, and the days we aren’t marching, we tour D.C.