The goal of Life Teen
"is to completely transform the idea of what youth ministry is in our
church and what it can be," said the director of events for the
Mesa-based organization. "It needs to be more dynamic. It's not meant to
be boring, but to be an experience on Sunday night and not just a
class," said Stephen Lenahan. "Everything in our church is so grand, why
not for our youth on a Sunday night by showing them the beauty of our
church?" Lenahan, who works in Life Teen's Atlanta office, made the
comments to The Catholic Sun, newspaper of the Phoenix Diocese, during
the organization's mid-June conference in in Scottsdale. The annual
Catholic Youth Ministry Training Convention, sponsored by Mesa-based
Life Teen Inc., was an opportunity for new and seasoned leaders to be
renewed and affirmed in their ministry. The conference had as its
"Inspire," and it didn't disappoint the 700 attendees with its 60
breakout sessions lead by well-known youth leaders offering practical
and comprehensive training. Topics ranged from how to balance a budget
and lead a youth group meeting to relational ministry and dynamic
environments.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...