Kudos & Thanks for our Great Confirmation Retreat & Youth Ministry Concert! Many thanks to Kathi Bonner, DRE and Judy Pluta, DYM, for their year-long planning and execution efforts for our best-ever Confirmation retreat and Youth Ministry concert held last weekend. Our guest retreat director was nationally known musician and evangelist, Jesse Manibusan Saturday’s day-long retreat was filled with projects and events designed to enliven the faith of our youth and to bring them closer as a community. Music, talk, and interaction—mixed with the Sacrament of Reconciliation-led to a wonderful event and one that elicited a number of “awesome” responses from the participants.
Sunday night’s Youth Ministry concert, open to the parish and surrounding youth groups, was excellent and engaged the youth to become evangelizers. I want to take this opportunity to publically thank Kathi Bonner and Judy Pluta for making this event happen and happen so successfully. Since last November they have been interviewing and vetting speakers and musicians, developing activities to engage the Confirmation students and youth of the parish, and attending to all the details of bringing in a guest speaker to our parish and then sending him on his way to his next venue. Work-ing with other wonderful parishioners—including our newest member of the Youth Ministry Team, Diane Whittemore—as well as Ray Bonner, Agnes Dickinson, Kathleen Mangiafico, Sheila Prats, Betsy Garrison, Lisa Genovese, Manuela Hanshaw, Steve Whittemore, Eileen Bredice, Mary Beth Beilat, Kathy Duford, Janet Hall, Joanne Kombert, Sharon Geoghan, Rachel Tully, Regina Firestone, and Holly Brennan. Thank you to all for your generosity and assistance.
In addition to hosting this event for our Confirmation students and youth ministry members, Jesse Manibusan went to work holding a catechist training session on Sunday morning for all of our religious education teachers –thanking them for their service and inspiring them to pass on the faith to our youngest members; and then worked with our Contemporary Music Ministry in the afternoon helping them to expand and fine tune their already gifted talents. It was an exceptional weekend of events and I thank all for their involvement and hard work. I also want to thank our Confirmation students who really participated well in this event and did so with appropriate reverence during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
And to our youth at the concert, they also represented our parish well. The “apple certainly does not fall far from the tree”. Thanks!