Youth ministry in the COVID19 pandemic

On this eve of the memorial of St. Pedro Calungsod, patron of Filipino youth, I want to affirm and honor youth ministers who, with creative fidelity, are coming up with and putting together usual or unconventional ways to continue accompanying young people in this extraordinary time--

• youth leaders studying current social issues and speaking up against incompetence and evil in the present dispensation, becoming a light to their fellow youth and a voice against abuse and corruption;
• 
priests, consecrated persons and lay adults who tap youthful energy in their volunteer efforts for the frontliners and the poor who are affected the worst;

• teachers going the extra mile for the education of their students;

• lay youth ministers putting together a Google Classroom on Christus Vivit (happy 1st anniversary!);

• a Youth Director doing an online youth tutorial on the teachings of our beautiful faith;

• Bishops who make evangelizing videos for home-bound youth;

• parents who, having more time with their children, take parenting to extra heights by organizing family devotions and dialogue, building the domestic church;

• and countless others--all of them mirroring Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores who was a youth minister to Pedro Calungsod.

"Sa Pagaabang" by Daryll Tudela,

showing St. Pedro Calungsod and Blessed Diego Luis De San Vitores, found in this blog.

I also pray for you all. You inspire me in my own vocation as a youth minister. Marami pong salamat!

Especially as we march towards 2021, may our individual and corporate efforts as Church, the Body of Christ, bring forth in God's grace more Pedro Calungsods among today's Filipino youth: courageous in hope, firm in the faith, selfless in love.

*Originally posted on Facebook