The holiday season is a busy time for everyone, including youth workers. Even this year, without special holiday pageants or in-person youth group Christmas parties to plan, we have to think about how to teach and celebrate some of the most important days in our faith calendar. I’m struggling to balance festivity and teaching on Advent with our normal math and language curriculum at school. If you’re still figuring out what to teach, here are five ideas to get you started in your youth or young adult ministry.
Advent is the perfect time to dive into Marian theology. Mary understands waiting during this period more than anyone – this was when she was waiting for her baby son’s birth. Can you imagine a more preparatory and excited waiting than that of a first-time mother? Beyond that, Mary knew her baby was the Messiah that Israel had been anticipating for hundreds of years. Many of us are waiting, especially this year – waiting for a vaccine, waiting to see family and friends, waiting for school and other activities to be back in-person… Who better to teach us how to wait than Mary? This is an especially fitting time to lead a Marian Consecration, which can be led daily on a platform where people can tune in at their leisure, such as Instagram or Facebook stories.
As I read Luke’s Annunciation, the contrast between Zechariah and Mary is striking. Zechariah is a priest who has studied God for years. He was chosen to enter the holiest part of the temple – chosen by a lot because men had died from experiencing the presence of God so strongly. Zechariah, with all his privileges and education, can honestly expect this to be the holiest moment of his life, yet when an angel appears with good news, he responds by questioning and asking for proof.
However, Mary is an uneducated young girl going about her daily life when Gabriel appears to her. Her questions are valid – never before had a virgin given birth! Gabriel’s news is not all good – she will be ostracized for her pregnancy – yet Mary agrees wholeheartedly.
Take this further in discussion – how are we, Zechariah? How are we educated and privileged in areas of faith? Do we really expect God to show up in the holiest places – in adoration, in mass, in confession? How are we, Mary? How are we young or uneducated in faith? Do we expect God to show up in our regular lives? Do we say yes to God when it is hard?
What kind of media do we normally engage with during this season? If you’re like me, it’s Hallmark movies, Love Actually, and Michael Bublé. How could we make different choices to add holy music or movies into the mix? What kinds of movies and music would you recommend to your youth to get into the true Christmas spirit? Your youth probably have a few ideas already – how can they share those with one another and build community? There are many options for tandem movie-watching via Zoom or Netflix for a virtual “Holy Christmas Movie” night. Or maybe you want to make a Spotify playlist where all the teens can add their favorite Catholic Christmas song.
Most of our Advent calendars give us things each day – chocolate, ornaments, even ALDI’s adult Advent wine calendar. I’m sure some of your teens are familiar with these. How can we instead foster daily giving practices during Advent? Could you encourage teens to go through their things and give one thing away each day? Or students could pray for someone each day and use those written prayers to build a calendar. What else could they give? Time? Help around the house or with younger siblings? Teach on the value of giving instead of receiving and how it prepares our soul, and see what ideas your students have for a giving calendar to mark the days.
If you’re doing a weekly gathering, it is easy to decide to teach on the virtues of the four candles: Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. However, it is hard to make such a wide virtue like Hope concrete. Consider using the lives of the saints to guide your teaching. The vivid examples of the lives of the saints can be a profound inspiration to young people. Here are a few saints to get you started; I would suggest choosing no more than one saint each week so you can talk about the details of their life.
Hope: St. Jude, St. Monica, St. Josephine Bakhita
Peace: St. John Paul II, Blessed Oscar Romero
Love: St. Nicholas of Myra (yes, Santa), St. Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin, St. Joseph
Joy: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Thomas More, St. Francis of Assisi
Brooke is a cradle Catholic who has done a bit of everything in Youth Ministry – summer camps, high school campus ministry, parish ministry, youth conferences, etc. Currently, she lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and works at a Classical Catholic school teaching second and third grade. She loves her job because she gets to go to Mass every day and teach about Medieval Saints. You can find her at https://brookeannbuth.wixsite.com/writer.
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