GYM Youth Ministry

Connections
Leadership
Developing Service and Social Skills
and having FUN while living our Catholic faith!

One of the goals of Youth Ministry at St. Gregory the Great Parish, is to gather and engage youths to grow into responsible participants in the life, mission, and works of our Catholic community.  Our ministry is not just about programs and events.  It’s about fulfilling that need to connect, be in relationships and feel a sense of belonging.  We want to empower our youths to live as disciples of Jesus in the world in which we now live so that become strong leaders and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  Our ministry helps to stimulate our youths as they share their unique gifts with each other, our church community the entire community at large.


Our ministry goals include:

• Enabling our youths to live as disciples through their involvement in service, ministry and leadership opportunities.
• Creating opportunities to enter into healthy relationships of trust and respect with their peers and with adults.
• Actively supporting positive development, values, & life skills
• Provide opportunities to experience and express caring, service and compassion for others.                    

• Baking all the refreshments and helped serve Parish Christmas Festival
• Adopted, shopped and delivered Christmas Gifts for 3 Catholic Charities families
• Obtained toiletry donations and made approximately 60 toiletry bags for Mt. Carmel patients.
• Collected 400+ coats during January Coat Drive for Appalachia
• Planned and Implemented February’s Mardi Gras Parish Festivities
• Made approximately 75 Easter Baskets donated to Mt. Carmel Guild) and a local Trenton Charter School
• Assisted with the SGG Carnival

As you can see, we take our youths on a dynamite journey in faith building!

The Year of Youth is a yearlong celebration of youth and young adults in the Diocese of Trenton designed to facilitate greater opportunities for our young people to encounter Jesus Christ and to engage them more intentionally into the life of the Church.

Goals for the Year of Youth

• To increase the active engagement of young Catholics in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and help them to grow in faith as missionary disciples.
• To celebrate the gifts of young Catholics and increase their opportunities to make a difference at home, in their school, their parish, their Diocese and the world.
• To challenge misconceptions about the Church and cultivate a more positive attitude among young adult Catholics about the desire of young people to live and witness their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• To inspire parishes throughout the Diocese of Trenton to welcome young people, help them to feel at home and encourage participation in parish life.
   

The Year of Youth Fest, on October 14 at St. Mary of the Pines in Manahawkin, will be the official kickoff event for the Year of Youth! Our event will begin with Mass with Bishop O'Connell and include an opening procession of young people representing parishes and schools from around the Diocese. All communities are encouraged to invite all young people and their families. Young representatives from each community will be invited to carry a parish/school banner as part of the procession.

Join us after for food and entertainment featuring “Young Catholic’s Got Talent.” This talent competition will have 2 age groups (junior high and high school) with great prizes. Please invite your talented young people to enter. For more information please contact Jerry Wutkowski at 609-403-7182.


Year of Youth Prayer 

Loving God and Father,

You have given us every good gift and promised to be with us always. We ask for your blessing as we journey through this Year of Youth in the Diocese of Trenton.

Surround us in your care and enfold us in your love.

Guide our bishop. Inspire our priests, our deacons, our religious, and all the faithful. Bless our families. Strengthen our parishes and schools.

Make this be a time of grace for the young Church; a time of growth and renewal for all who take part in this Year of Youth.

Send your Holy Spirit among us to awaken in our hearts the courage to live the joy of the Gospel in everything we do.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Amen.