Youth meet Christ in others

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Local youth were touched by trips to shrines this summer, and they touched other people – thanks to a parish program created to fill a void.
St. Patrick Parish in Whitinsville started a program called Youth In Action three years ago, said Aileen Lemoine, St. Patrick’s director of student ministries. YIA gives youth opportunities to connect service with their faith, similar to the national Young Neighbors In Action program which was dissolved in part because of financial challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You will meet Christ in those in need, in each other, and in engaging liturgies, adoration and morning and evening prayer,” says a YIA flier. “As you grow in your relationship with Christ through service you will discover the connection between Scripture and service … Catholic social teachings, and living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. … During the week, youth and their leaders plan for ways to continue to serve and grow in the faith back home.”
Last summer and this summer, St. Patrick’s partnered with Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Leominster, this year taking 19 high schoolers to Port Chester, New York, from June 25-July 2, Mrs. Lemoine said. There they worked at St. John Bosco Parish in a soup kitchen and doing maintenance on the property.
This year’s other YIA high school week, July 24-30, was closer to home. St. Patrick’s took six youth from St. Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough and 20 from St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Upton to clean up the St. Therese Shrine in Nasonville, Rhode Island, in preparation for the shrine’s 99th anniversary celebration on Aug. 21.
Twenty-seven St. Patrick’s parishioners in grades 5-8 spent one day at the shrine, continuing the anniversary preparation, as part of this year’s YIA middle school week, Aug. 8-12.
The Church of St. Therese of Lisieux and Shrine of the Little Flower were founded in 1923, four months after St. Therese was beatified, and are now a mission of Our Lady of Good Help Parish, says the website burrillvillecatholic.org.
“For the past few summers we have taken our Youth In Action middle school students there” for a spiritual outing, and they learned about saints, Mrs. Lemoine explained. “It was something the kids enjoyed.” They also learned about volunteering there.
“We thought it would be a good thing to combine the service part” with spiritual lessons at the shrine, Mrs. Lemoine said, so this year the parish arranged for the service trips.
Silvia Aldredge, shrine coordinator, said, “The normally quiet grounds rang out with the sounds of their laughter and even some country music, as students cheerfully got started on painting all of the shrine’s 50 park benches, cleaning the statues and devotional spaces and helping regular volunteers with ongoing landscaping projects.”
She said that regular shrine volunteers were impressed with how enthusiastic the students were and how much they accomplished. A longtime friend of the shrine commented about their great attitude and said it was a real joy to see so many young people there.
Mrs. Aldredge told the youth about the shrine’s history and Sister Grace Coffey, of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, a longtime shrine resident, told them about the patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux. Sister Grace told stories of healing through St. Therese’s intervention, that shrine visitors have shared with her.
Father Jose Parathanal, of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, pastor of the shrine and its parish, told the youth about the concept of pilgrimage, joining faith to works, and the grace received by participating in programs like Youth in Action, Mrs. Aldredge said.
The youth appreciated seeing pictures of St. Therese and learning about her “little way” and that they can make a difference in the world in small ways, Mrs. Lemoine said.
She said a middle school student, who never seemed to find something that helped connect him to the faith, connected with what Sister Grace said about St. Therese.
The middle schoolers also went to Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston, for a spiritual trip, she said.
Almost all of them, filling out evaluations, commented that they enjoyed the shrines and that the shrines impacted their faith, Mrs. Lemoine said.