By MARY STADNYK
Associate Editor
Youth group members work on a Christmas project in the hall in St. Catharine Church, Holmdel.
A work of the Holy Spirit: that’s how Rose Farrow describes the collaboration between St. Catharine Parish, Holmdel, and St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, in offering a unique and effective way to provide ministry for young people.
Farrow, pastoral coordinator for faith formation in both parishes, explained that it had been several years since St. Mary Parish had a youth ministry program. While there were some requests for a program, “considering the busy lives our families live, there was not enough promise of consistent participation to warrant our own group.” As a way to have some outreach for youth, she said that when she was the parish’s Confirmation prep coordinator, she reached out to St. Catharine Parish to see if members would be open to including teens from St. Mary’s in their program “that was already alive and active.”
Farrow said that in 2024, she saw an increase in young people seeking to become Catholic, and the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults/Youth Ministry collaboration “was born out of a need to better serve this section of inquirers by working together toward the common goal of accompanying young people into a deeper relationship with Christ, the Church, the parish community and forming disciples.”
“This youth ministry collaboration provided the OCIA youth an opportunity to become integrated in the parish with parishioners their own age and the youth ministry group an opportunity to be models of faith and companions on the journey.”
Farrow maintains that the benefits of the youth ministry model are rooted in the willingness and support of the pastor and youth minister, who allowed her to make changes.
“Audrey Krastins, the coordinator of youth ministry in St. Catharine Parish, wanted to add a faith component that she needed help with, and I wanted a group of teens to accompany and witness to the OCIA teens on their faith journey,” Farrow said.
“It made sense to share our blessings,” she added. “We each brought our unique gifts, experiences and resources to this collaboration.”
Farrow said now OCIA/YM Sundays include a faith-sharing component rooted in the catechumenate model based on the Lectionary, liturgical calendar and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The ice breakers are rooted in that Sunday’s Scripture, and a service component allows the young people to put their faith into action, she said.
During Lent, a mini-retreat challenged participants to reflect on their relationship with Christ, finding Christ every day and getting to know Jesus in the Eucharist. Youth ministry teen leaders were trained to lead the group in faith sharing, and a panel of teens shared personal witness stories about their own faith journeys.
“In this fledgling year, whatever successes we had came to us through hard work and trust from the pastor and youth ministry leadership team, but mostly because we worked with the understanding that we are merely the instruments and God would provide the necessary tools and graces for the work,” Farrow said.