Inter-parish youth group connects students

Friday, Mar. 03, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — The St. Ambrose Parish/J.E. Cosgriff  Memorial Catholic School Youth Group members began Sunday  night by attending Mass at St. Ambrose Catholic Church. Afterward, they filed into the school library, chatting happily with fellow classmates and students from other schools alike for their Feb. 26 meeting.

Cosgriff seventh-grader Mi-tchell Bledsoe said the youth group is “a good time to hang out with friends, meet new, different people and help others.”

“I like that we can just talk to teachers, eat pizza and talk about religion,” agreed Joseph McDonough, a sixth-grade Cosgriff student who has gone to four meetings of the youth group.

This youth group is unique because “it’s open to the whole parish; (it’s) not a Cosgriff thing only,” said Betsy Hunt, Cosgriff’s principal. 

Students from Clayton Middle School, Hillside Middle School and Dilworth Elementary School also have attended meetings of the youth group, which is open to anyone in the parish area, including students who might not be Catholic, Hunt said. 

“We want (all the students in the parish) to get to know each other. Young people from other schools are as much a part of the parish as Cosgriff students,” she said.

After filling up on pizza at the Feb. 26 meeting, the students briefly discussed that evening’s homily with Martina Gehrig and Jill Curry, who both teach religion at Cosgriff. Then, at individual work stations, the students completed a craft they had begun the week before, making door hangers for rest homes. 

“Our goal for today is to help spread love,” Gehrig told the students as they worked. “We have a lot of old people who need love. They are loved, but sometimes they need a reminder.”

The door hangers, which will be donated to Sarah Daft Home, Catholic Community Services and anyone else who would like them, have inspirational messages written on them and will be the first thing the residents of the rest home see each morning and the last thing before going to bed, Hunt said.

The youth group, which was formed last year, is meant to “increase and renew faith formation and pastoral service with young people, through prayer, Mass attendance, community service and recreational sports and activities,” said Hunt.

Hunt had felt a growing need to be doing more for the faith lives of young people in her parish, she said. 

Pope Francis, who has spoken repeatedly on the importance of ministering to kids and keeping them a part of the Church, spoke to youth in a recent letter that read in part: “I invite you to hear God’s voice resounding in your heart through the breath of the Holy Spirit. … A better world can be built also as a result of your efforts, your desire to change and your generosity.” 

The hope is members of the youth group will be encouraged to listen to advice like this, Hunt said. 

Gehrig said she and Curry both were enthusiastic when Hunt pitched the idea of a youth group. The two religious education teachers now lead the youth group discussion, help with the crafts, and even participate in the games the students play at the end of the night. 

A few of the stated objectives for the group are to “address the spiritual, cultural and social needs, and growth of the youth in the St. Ambrose Church community; [and] to encourage our youth to live as disciples of Jesus Christ through prayer and Mass attendance.”

Hunt said that so far she is extremely happy with the youth group, which usually has about 45 middle-school students at the meetings. They have undertaken volunteer efforts such as tying scarves for the homeless and raking leaves in the community.

The large number of young people in attendance and the work they do for the community is a sign of how effective the group is, but the bonds being formed between the young people are just as important, Hunt said. 

“Some people have a stereotype of what Catholic students are supposed to be, what public school students are supposed to be. The truth is they’re all the same. They’re all looking to be loved and accepted,” Hunt said.