Youth Ministry  

Diocesan Youth Pilgrimage to Lourdes

Each June a group of young people travel to Lourdes as part of the Limerick Diocesan Pilgrimage to work as helpers to the many sick people who also travel from our Diocese.

This trip is a chance for young people from all over the diocese to participate and assist with the Diocesan Pilgrimage, to get to know new people and to experience friendship, fun and faith.

Details for our 2008 Pilgrimage will be confirmed by December 2007. Early booking is essential as places are limited.

Fundraising & Preparation for Pilgrimage

As a group we do bag packing each year to contribute towards the overall cost of the youth pilgrimage and hopefully (if we raise enough money!) we might be able to reduce individual fares. This fundraising is an important part of the preparation both socially and financially and it is expected that all those traveling as part of the pilgrimage will help out and participate in these events. Pilgrims will be notified about dates and venues after Christmas.

Details of preparation and pre-departure meetings will be announced as the year progresses.For further information please contact Karen on 061-400 133 or just drop into the Pastoral Centre.

World Youth Day 2008

'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.' Acts 1:8

World Youth Day is the largest youth event in the world and will attract an anticipated 500,000 pilgrims to Sydney from 15-20 July in 2008. We are bringing a group of pilgrims from the diocese. While the dates are to be confirmed the Limerick pilgrimage will be from July 9th — July 23rd. If you are (or will be) over the age of 18 and are interested in travelling to Sydney please contact Aoife or Chris in the Pastoral Centre for an application form as numbers will be limited. The official website of the pilgrimage is www.wyd2008.org and you also log onto their ePILGRIMAGE by way of preparing for the event.

The travel details are as follows:

Preparatory Evenings

By way of preparing as a group we will gather one evening every month. The goal of these evenings is to allow the group travelling the opportunity to get to know each other and to ensure that we prepare adequately for what hopefully will be the experience of a lifetime. The venue may be Limerick Diocesan Pastoral Centre, but this may vary.

Dates: Friday Sept 28th, Oct 26th, Nov 23rd, Jan 25th, Feb 29th, Mar 28th, April 25th and May 30th.

If you intend travelling to Sydney being present at these evenings will be essential.

Peer Mentoring & Student Council Training

For Teachers/Chaplains

The Youth Ministry Team has been running peer mentoring and student council training for many years. This September we are giving t eachers\ chaplains\ catechists the opportunity to see what training is involved in both these

programmes. The goal of this evening is to encourage, enable, enthuse and resource teachers\chaplains\catechists to the extent that they can confidently and competently run training for these programmes in their schools.

Date: Tuesday September 4th

Venue : Limerick Diocesan Pastoral Centre

Time: 7.00 -9.00 p.m.

Cost: To be confirmed.

Retreat In-service Day for

RE Teachers/Chaplains/Catechists

Date: Tuesday 9 th October 2007

Venue: Dominican Biblical Centre

Time: 9.30am – 3.00pm

Cost: € 20.00 per teacher. ( Resources consisting of two data CD’s containing retreat material and one CD of scripture meditations will be available on the day for €15.00 )

Aim & Proposed Content:

The overall aim of this in-service day is to encourage, enable and resource teachers\chaplains\catechists to the extent that they can successfully run Transition and 5th Year retreats in their schools. Two different retreats will be presented, there will be work done on retreat giving, there will be an input on guided meditation and also an input from Bishop Donal Murray.

(Lunch will be provided on the day)

‘Do this in Memory’ Night

The ‘Do this in Memory’ programme can be an excellent programme which assists, children, teachers, families and parishes in preparing for First Holy Communion. An evening is being held to explore the programme and to impart the knowledge and skills required to implement this programme in parishes throughout the dioceses. It will also be an opportunity for parishes where this programme is already up and running to share their wisdom while hopefully gaining fresh ideas. This event will only take place if there is enough interest throughout the diocese so pre-booking is essential.

Date: Monday September 10th

Venue: Woodlands House Hotel, Adare.

Time: 7.00—9.00 p.m.

Cost: To be confirmed.

Pre booking is essential to ensure this evening will take place, so please ring the Pastoral Centre if you are interested.

Prayer Project ‘07

Diocesan Youth Project

We are asking students in the Limerick Diocese to compile and collect a

selection of people’s favourite prayers. Also they can use the opportunity to compose a prayer of their own. This project is open to all secondary school students and senior students in primary school. All projects must be submitted to the Pastoral Centre before/on Friday 1st February 2008.

All entrants will receive a certificate from Bishop Donal Murray in recognition of their work at two award ceremonies:

Primary School Participants: Wednesday Feb 20th

Secondary School Participants: Wednesday Feb 27th

Both award ceremonies will take place in St Michael’s Church, Denmark St. at 11 am.

Confirmation Retreats

To help in the preparation of children for confirmation, we will be offering retreats to confirmation classes. Availability is limited and so if you or your parish school are interested in benefiting from these retreats please contact us at the pastoral centre.

Muintearas Íosa Events!

A Scare at Bedtime!

- Halloween Gathering

Our annual Halloween celebrations will take place in St Munchin’s

College on Saturday October 27th, 2007. As usual booking is essential to ensure this event takes place so if you are interested please contact the Pastoral Centre.

‘Dec the Halls’

Advent Gathering

Our annual advent gathering will take place in St Munchin’s College on Friday November 30th, 2007. As usual booking is essential to ensure this event takes place so if you are interested please contact the Pastoral Centre.