Annual Youth Ministry Theme

This year's youth ministry theme in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington is “I will love.”

If you would like copies of this image for your youth ministry program, please email April with your request and a brief description of how you plan to use the logo.

When the Office of Youth Ministry prayerfully considered what our annual theme would be, we decided that we would incorporate Mother Teresa in honor of her canonization which took place during this ministry year, on September 4, 2016. 

The phrase “I will love” comes from Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s address to the United Nations on October 26, 1985. Every day we are faced with new stories of acts of hatred and prejudice – a seemingly endless list of reasons to be angry and hopeless. We have the choice to be dragged into the mess and be hurtful, or as Christians with our hope in Christ, we can make a firm resolution to love. When we experience the love of Christ, our response is to share that love with others.

The three blue stripes in our logo are inspired by the sari worn by the Missionaries of Charity, Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s order, as part of their habit. The stripes are curved to indicate movement as a reminder that we must be active in our efforts to share Christ’s love with the world. Mother Teresa’s ministry was one of love in action, and there is much for us to learn from her courageous example.

“And so today, when we have gathered here together, let us carry in our hearts one strong resolution: I will love. I will be a carrier of God’s love. For that is what Jesus came to teach us: how to love one another.” - Saint Teresa of Calcutta in her address to the United Nations on October 26, 1985

“Jesus is not the Lord of comfort, security and ease.  Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and to set out on new and uncharted paths.” - Pope Francis at the World Youth Day Prayer Vigil on July 30, 2016

Post Card Resource

“It is impossible to grasp the concept of evangelization unless one tries to keep in view all its essential elements.” - EN 17

In order to assist you with understanding the Church’s language about the process of evangelization as well as contemporary verbiage we have provided a post card with what we hope will be some helpful visuals. Special thanks to the Diocese of Sioux Falls for the idea. See below for details.

front of card

This graphic illustrates the process of evangelization as described in ecclesial documents. We have also provided you with references to these documents that will help explain the individual steps in greater detail.

EN – Evangelii Nuntiandi – Paul VI

RM – Redemptoris Missio – John Paul II 

CT – Catechesi Tradendae – John Paul II 

GDC – General Directory for Catechesis – Congregation for Clergy 

back of card

The Five Thresholds of Conversion are the five steps that every person goes through on the path to discipleship as Sherry Weddell describes in her popular book, Forming Intentional Disciples. These steps are based on Doug Schaupp’s work in evangelization at UCLA. For a very informative description of these five steps please watch this short video by Fr. Robert Barron.

The Pyramid of Spiritual Commitment: Duffy Robins describes a typical youth ministry program as a “mixed bag of kids whose commitments are all over the place.” The Pyramid of Spiritual Commitment provides an illustration of this point. In his book Building a Youth Ministry that Builds Disciples he details what all of these spiritual commitments look like and later helps the reader understand what they can do to help teens move forward in their spiritual commitments.

The Four Earmarks of Discipleship are described in an article by Greg Ogden entitled, Making Disciples Jesus’ Way: A Few at a Time. In this article he discusses his observations on the necessary components for building true and lasting disciples. In this article he asserts that disciples are made in relationship, not programs. He goes on to outline four earmarks or hallmarks of how a disciple relationship differs from a program. We especially like that he outlines a way to do this most effectively in small groups and not in a one-on-one relationship. The full article can be downloaded here.

Downloads

If you are interested in reproducing this postcard for your youth ministry program we have provided two versions for your convenience. The first is a pdf you can download and send to a printer to print your own copies of the postcard or you can download an 8.5 x 11 version that can easily be printed at your home or office.

If you have any questions on downloading or printing this resource please contact the Office of Youth Ministry at 703-841-2559.