High School Youth Ministry
& Confirmation Preparation

High School Youth Ministry is a two-year program of faith formation and preparation for Confirmation. Teens are encouraged to grow in their personal faith. We invite teens to look at their life experiences and recognize and respond to God’s constant loving presence and God’s call in their lives. Our goal is also to help teens grow in their understanding of and connection to the Church.

High School Youth Ministry has three main parts:

1. Sessions

Sessions meet Sunday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm about twice a month from late September through April. Occasionally we meet at a different date or time for speakers or sessions that we do in collaboration with other parishes.
Sessions are a combination of large and small group formats that include teaching, discussion, prayer, reflection and fellowship through the use of use of speakers, multi-media, activity, discussion, music and liturgy.
Sessions meet primarily in the parish school
Calendar of Sessions

2. Community Service

Through community service we encourage teens to adopt a lifestyle of faithful service to others as disciples of Jesus.
20-25 hours of meaningful community service is expected each year.
Up to half of their hours can be earned starting in the summer.
Students track their hours and turn them in to their small group leaders when they are finished. Click here for Record of Hours form (PDF)

3. Retreat

(in the second year of the HSYM program)

The retreat is a time set aside for prayer & reflection to help confirmation candidates focus on their interior spiritual life & their personal relationship with Jesus, and to help them discern their response to God’s outpouring of love and how they will live out this Sacrament as a regular part of the parish.
Teens have consistently reported the retreats to be the highlight of their year, standing out as major turning points in their faith.
Retreats are scheduled for mid November and late January. Teens in the second year of the program must attend one of the weekends
Retreats are off site. We leave from the parish by bus at 8 a.m. on Saturday and return by about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Confirmation Preparation

2010 Confirmation Sacraments are movements of God in our lives. But sacraments also presume that movement and change are also going on in the life of the person experiencing the sacrament. All sacraments are both rituals/ceremonies and ways of life, which precede and follow the ritual.

Each individual teen is responsible to determine his or her own readiness through prayer, reflection and dialogue with their family, sponsors and catechists. The age of the person cannot be the main determining factor of readiness.

Confirmation is not about deciding to be Catholic. By virtue of one’s baptism, they are already Catholic. Confirmation, a sacrament of initiation, completes baptism. Confirmation is more about a teen responding to God’s generous outpouring of love and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Click for photos from 2010 Confirmation

For celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation a teen should:

Be able to freely request the Sacrament of Confirmation and give reasons for doing so.
Regularly attend and participate in Mass and the sacraments of Eucharist & Reconciliation.
Have an adequate grasp of the basic content of the Catholic faith.
Be open to growth in their faith & opportunities for Christian service.
Be able to recognize that he/she is a unique individual with gifts to offer, and begin to assume the responsibility for ministry and service to the parish, the Church and the world.

In addition to the above, each teen is expected to:

Regularly attend and participate in two years of the program (this includes Edgewood HS students).

Three or more absences in any year may mean make-up sessions or delaying Confirmation.
Teens entering their Sophomore year w/out attending their freshmen year will be confirmed in the spring of their junior year.

Carry out 20-25 hours of Community Service each of the two years.

Up to half of the hours can be done in the summer.
Teens are to keep track of their hours on the Service Hour Sheet (click for PDF)

Attend a Confirmation Retreat:

In the second year of the program, teens attend one of the two Confirmation Retreat weekends. Teens must attend the entire retreat and not arrive late or leave early.
Teens will be assigned a weekend with their small group. However, requests to switch weekends are okay based on availability of space on a first come first serve basis.
There is an additional fee for the retreat.

Turn in a copy of their Baptismal Certificate:

If the teen was not baptized at St. Maria Goretti, they are to obtain a baptismal certificate and turn it in to the Religious Ed. Office in the school.
For those baptized at St. Maria Goretti, please provide the date of baptism to the RE office.

Choose a Sponsor and Confirmation Name fill out the Blue Sheet (click for PDF)

The Blue Sheet is mailed out to confirmation candidates over the summer and is to be turned in by September 30th.

Teens are to meet with their Sponsors four times:

Teens should meet with their sponsors for prayer and discussion twice before Christmas and twice after Christmas.
Materials to help you and your sponsor with your discussions will be mailed to you both.

Write a Letter to the Pastor and the Bishop:

Teens state in their own words why they want to be confirmed, how and where they have grown in their faith over the last two years, and how they plan to continue to serve the church and others through their confirmation.

Attend the Confirmation Practice.

After the bishop notifies the parish of our Confirmation date, we will schedule a date for practice.
The teen should be at the practice. Their sponsor is invited to come if they can. If the sponsor can not attend the practice, then one of the parents is asked to attend and pass the information on to the sponsor.