The Archdiocese of Melbourne Youth Office has been in contact with us, getting to know our young adult group's mission, activities, goals and listening to what we desire for the future of the Church in Melbourne. In response they’ve created a ‘Ministry Hub’ connecting all youth and young adult ministers across the Archdiocese for fortnightly formation, monthly Masterclasses and a platform to provide resources, training, connection and support in evangelising ministry groups, parishes and local communities. The Church exists to evangelise and our young adult group exists to lead others into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There’s no bells and whistles, just the intimacy of God.
Thursday night began the first formation night on a series on discipleship, in which two other members of our young adults group who felt the calling to Apostolate joined on zoom. With over 30 youth and young adult leaders and leaders-in-training we heard a testimony on discipleship, discussed our own conversions, ways we evangelise and were led through a prayer meditation on scripture (the Road to Emmaus). The main takeaways were the importance of making missionary discipleship and evangelisation the normative in our lives, parish and ministry. Many young people today feel ‘ripped off’ that no one openly speaks, teaches or shows them how to get to know Christ.
Personally encountering God in prayer, the Bible, relationships, ongoing moments of conversion and proclamation of the Gospel should be the normative language of all our ministry. Getting to know Christ intimately and making Jesus the centre of lives so that we can go out into the world and proclaim His Good News is our baptismal call. We left on fire with the Holy Spirit, chatting away about what we’d heard and encountered with other young people and signed off to continue our own personal prayer. We ask that you continue to pray for us, the young people of Melbourne and for our parish that we continue to dedicate ourselves to the mission of the Church and spread the joy of the Gospel.
Pictured: The Ministry Hub Leaders representing all regions of our Archdiocese!
