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| Founded at | Mesa, AZ |
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| Headquarters | Mesa, AZ Atlanta, GA St. Louis, MO |
Official language | English, Spanish |
President & CEO | Randy Raus |
Vice President & CIO | Mark Hart |
| Website | lifeteen |
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| Part of a series on the |
| Catholic Church |
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| Overview |
 Catholic Churchportal |
Life Teen is a Catholic youth ministry organization in the United States.
Life Teen's mission statement explains, "As a Eucharist-centered movement within the Roman Catholic Church, Life Teen leads teenagers and their families into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church". [1]
Life Teen provides parish-based programs. The Life Teen program for high-school teenagers is used by over 1,800 Catholic parishes in 24 countries, across North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
In 2003, [4] they launched the Edge program for middle-school pupils, which was used by almost 1,000 parishes in 10 countries. [7] [8] As of 2005, over 100,000 high-school-aged Catholics in the US attended Life Teen each week. [4] [9]
Life Teen was established in 1985 at St. Timothy's Parish in Mesa, Arizona. The founder and then-priest Dale Fushek said he believed the Church needed a new approach to evangelize Christ to the Catholic youth in the area. Fushek was later excommunicated when he opened a non-denominational, Protestant-oriented worship center in the Phoenix area. He was ultimately laicized by the Church in 2010 following allegations that he had sexually abused teenage boys and young men. [10]
Though Life Teen is present in fewer than 10% of American parishes, more than 40% of American seminarians had some connection to the program during their teenage years. [11] [12]
Life Teen is headed by a five-member administrative team including President and CEO Randy Raus, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Mark Hart, Vice President of Ministry Advancement Steve Allgeyer, Vice President of Parish Services Joel Stepanek, and Vice President of Missions and Operations Jason Ball. [13] Its 23-member board of directors includes Bishop Everard De Jong, Bishop James Wall, four priests, and several laities from around the country. [13]
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Life Teen helps Youth Ministers and adult program leaders, known as Core members, minister to young Catholics in a parish setting. Teenagers typically attend a Sunday Mass specifically intended for their families and other interested parishioners. Music and homilies are focused on teenagers, who are invited to be trained in approved liturgical roles such as lectors, ushers, altar servers, greeters, and Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Following Mass, a "Life Night", which incorporates teaching in Catholic beliefs, interactive activities, and socialization, is held.
Many Life Teen Programs hold events such as Bible study and other social events. Life Teen and Edge programs are encouraged to host two weekend-long retreats for members throughout the year. [14]
Life Teen holds youth-focused masses, [15] which it says are the most important part of its program. [14] Particular efforts are made to create a welcoming atmosphere, reverent and relevant music, and an engaging homily that speaks to the issues in teens' lives. [14] The music ranges from traditional Catholic hymns, sometimes with a modern arrangement, to Catholic worship songs. Life Teen has a transcription of a video talk by Fr. Robert Schreiner [16] explaining the role of music within Liturgy.
Following the Mass are gatherings that are aimed to be enjoyable and to challenge teenagers to deepen their relationships with God and to learn about the Catholic faith. [14] Known as Life Nights, the gatherings consist of four segments; Gather, Proclaim, Break, and Send, which are derived from the flow of the Mass. [17]
Life Nights consist of catechetical, issue, and social nights. Catechetical nights are designed to teach teenagers about aspects of the Catholic faith, issue nights deal with real-life issues such as gossip, chastity, and drinking, and social nights are designed to help teenagers build friendships and strengthen social bonds. [17]
Life Teen promotes seven core values. [15]
In addition to high school youth ministry, Life Teen has been expanded to other areas of ministry. It offers training events, summer camps, youth rallies, and conferences. [4]
Life Teen operates summer camps at Camp Hidden Lake in Dahlonega, Georgia, and Camp Covecrest in Tiger, Georgia. [21] The camps are designed to build friendships, allow attendees to have fun, and deepen their faith through prayer and experiencing the sacraments.
Camp activities include games and outdoor activities. [21] [22]
The camps also encourage and assist teens to develop a deeper relationship with Christ. In addition to the Mass, attendees can partake in the sacrament of Reconciliation, listen to speakers, and praise and worship music, and attend Eucharistic adoration. [22]
In 2012, Bishop Pierre-André Dumas asked Life Teen to build a base on diocesan land in Madian, Haiti. He tasked Life Teen with bringing Catholic youth ministry to the Diocese of Anse-à-Veau et Miragoâne. The base currently serves teenagers in the area through Bible studies, Life Nights, and discipleship. The base brings together both Haitian and American missionaries. [23]
The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion, Blessed Sacrament and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion, giving his disciples bread and wine. Passages in the New Testament state that he commanded them to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many". According to the Synoptic Gospels this was at a Passover meal.
Transubstantiation is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ". This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, "the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered". In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
Open communion is the practice of some Protestant Churches of allowing members and non-members to receive the Eucharist. Many but not all churches that practice open communion require that the person receiving communion be a baptized Christian, and other requirements may apply as well. In Methodism, open communion is referred to as the open table, meaning that all may approach the Communion table.
World Youth Day (WYD) is an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985. Its concept has been influenced by the Light-Life Movement that has existed in Poland since the 1960s, where during summer camps Catholic young adults over 13 days of camp celebrated a "day of community". For the first celebration of WYD in 1986, bishops were invited to schedule an annual youth event to be held every Palm Sunday in their dioceses. Nicknamed "The Catholic Woodstock", it is celebrated at the diocesan level annually—in most places on Palm Sunday from 1986 to 2020, and from 2021 on Christ the King Sunday—and at the international level every two to three years at different locations. The 1995 World Youth Day closing Mass in the Philippines set a world record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event with 5 million attendees. This record was surpassed when 6 million attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis—again in the Philippines—20 years later in 2015.
Eucharistic adoration is a Eucharistic devotional practice primarily in Western Catholicism, but also to a lesser extent in certain Lutheran and Anglican traditions, in which the Blessed Sacrament is adored by the faithful. This practice may occur either when the Eucharist is exposed, or when it is not publicly viewable because it is reserved in a place such as a church tabernacle.
Msgr. Joseph M. Champlin was a Roman Catholic priest, author, and lecturer.
Peter Julian Eymard was a French Catholic priest and founder of two religious institutes: the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for women.
Eucharistic theology is a branch of Christian theology which treats doctrines concerning the Holy Eucharist, also commonly known as the Lord's Supper. It exists exclusively in Christianity and related religions, as others generally do not contain a Eucharistic ceremony.
The phrase Catholic youth work covers a wide range of activities carried out with young people, usually in the name of the Catholic Church and with the intention of imparting the Catholic faith to them and inviting them to practice and live out the faith in their lives. Activities in the field range from small scale youth groups attached to parishes or Catholic schools, to large international gatherings, such as World Youth Day. It is a field which has evolved much over recent decades, especially in comparison to more formal methods of education or catechesis within the church. Nearly all dioceses and a great deal of parishes have some form of youth provision running, although a great deal of areas particularly in the developed world are finding youth work both more difficult and rare as the numbers of young people regularly practicing the Catholic faith continue to decline. In contrast, though, the new and exciting developments of recent decades and particularly the influence of the new movements within the Church are ensuring that youth work continues to be an active and fruitful field.
Eucharist is the name that Catholics give to the sacrament by which, according to their belief, the body and blood of Christ are present in the bread and wine that are consecrated during the Catholic eucharistic liturgy, generally known as the Mass. The definition of the Eucharist in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as the sacrament where Christ himself "is contained, offered, and received" points to the three aspects of the Eucharist according to Catholic theology: the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Holy Communion, and the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner". The Church describes the Mass as the "source and summit of the Christian life", and teaches that the Mass is a sacrifice, in which the sacramental bread and wine, through consecration by an ordained priest, become the sacrificial body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as the sacrifice on Calvary made truly present once again on the altar. The Catholic Church permits only baptised members in the state of grace to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
The sacrament of holy orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishops, priests, and deacons, in decreasing order of rank, collectively comprising the clergy. In the phrase "holy orders", the word "holy" means "set apart for a sacred purpose". The word "order" designates an established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and ordination means legal incorporation into an order. In context, therefore, a group with a hierarchical structure that is set apart for ministry in the Church.
The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, commonly known as the Sacramentinos is a Catholic Clerical Religious Congregation of Pontifical Right for men founded by St. Pierre-Julien Eymard. Its members use the nominal letters S.S.S. which is the acronym of its official name in Latin, after their names. By their life and activities, they assist the Church in her efforts to form Christian communities whose center of life is the Eucharist. They commit themselves to the implementation of this ideal in collaboration with lay men and women engaged in various ministries.
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms priest refers only to presbyters and pastors. The church's doctrine also sometimes refers to all baptised (lay) members as the "common priesthood", which can be confused with the ministerial priesthood of the consecrated clergy.
Jesus Youth(JY) is an International Catholic Movement, approved by the Holy See.
There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those who receive them with the proper disposition.
The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), or Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, is a process developed by the Catholic Church for its catechumenate for prospective converts to the Catholic faith above the age of infant baptism. Candidates are gradually introduced to aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices. The basic process applies to adults and children who have reached catechetical age. Previously, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults was known as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The name was changed in 2021 to reflect greater fidelity to the original Latin.
The role of a Catholic catechist is to catechize the faith of the Catholic Church by both word and example. The Directory for Catechesis states that faith must be "known, celebrated, lived, and turned into prayer" in a personal and total encounter of the heart, mind and senses with Christ. St. John Paul II describes the aim of catechesis as putting "people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ."
NET Ministries, also simply known as NET USA or NET is a Catholic youth missionary organization.
944 Catholic parishes in 10 countries have an Edge ministry for their middle school youth.
The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."136 "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."
