Youth Ministry Resources - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A:

YOUTH ANGLE: U R SALT 4 EARTH + LITE 4 WORLD

Salt & Light: two essential ingredients for things to grow and live. Jesus tells his disciples that they are these essential ingredients to help the world grow and live. GROW & LIVE. Not die & decay. By World we mean its people, all of creation, the environment. So this is our task - this is our mission.

How do we do that? How can we be salt + light - how are we the essentials to help the world grow & live?

First we have to remember what NOT to do - not to do things that promote death & decay. Things like discouraging, negative criticism, squashing, hurting, ignoring, killing, bombing, selfishness, destroying or keeping basic needs from people.

We need to encourage and nurture, give hope, challenge, and make sure that each ones needs are being met - by donating to charity, fighting for justice, helping someone with their homework, recycling a coke can, visiting a neighbour, helping others first, smiling at a stranger, saving water, saying thank you, moving a snail from the footpath to the grass, comforting a grieving friend . . . all these actions and many more that you know of promote growth & life. Before you make a decision or take action ask yourself: Am I being Salt 4 earth and Lite 4 world?

Manuela Macri

Year C: Luke 5:1-11 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

If you attend mass frequently you soon notice that the Scripture we hear read each Sunday falls into a pattern spread across a three year cycle. Years A B and C - there is probably more practicality, rather than inspiration, behind the terms selected to describe these cycles. After some time it is easy to say to yourself 'Oh yes, this is the story about…' and we can find ourselves not listening as carefully as we should. Today's Gospel is the story of fishermen who initially caught nothing. We probably all know a few fisherfolk who have similar stories to tell, especially about the one that got away. It should be a couple of years since we heard this story about Simon, James and John. A lot has happened to us during that time and we are at a different stage of our lives. God takes this opportunity to speak to us anew, using a familiar story.

Simon, James and John were middle class people who were partners in a thriving business and yet after the miracle catch they left everything and followed him. What a powerful experience it must have been for them to meet Jesus. Jesus offered them a new way of life and also changed Simon's name to Peter. Peter's later missionary success, like his catch, was not his own doing, but God's. Like Peter, James and John, we too are asked to follow Jesus. All we need to do is say YES. I don't think that God is asking us today to leave our families, jobs and goals behind. However, I do think God is asking us to leave our attachment to certain things behind. It might be helpful to reflect on our way of life and see if we live by the gospel of consumerism or if we are making choices that are life-giving and God focussed. Then what we are doing will not be our own doing, but God's.

Cate Mapstone

Youth Ministry Resources 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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