And happy and find deep meaning in life and embrace the meaning. We will talk about how the Catholic Church can engage the rising generation. Theres an office of youth and Young Adult Ministry. Today were talking with george about our younger people. What are younger catholics seeking from the church . Where do they find meaning and a deeper life of faith . How can we help the young people to answer their deepest questions and di certain their mission in the world and integrate that nonl into their future work and family and Community Life . After this brief break, join us for a discussion on how young people can grow in faith, love and purposefulness. [ music ] the south bays first bart station is fuelling another big trend. As local leaders try to pair transit and housing. We have constructed high density units. Santa rosa wants a massive housing complex near the bart train stop but will bay residents leave their folks behind . Original reporting from kfiix news. Hello and welcome to mosaic. Amanda george is our visitor today. Shes the coordinator for the youth youth ministries for the arch diocese of california. Welcome. Thank you. I would like to find out something about you. You have an interesting biography. Yeah, im from the bay area. I have a background in tech and bio tech as well. I am new to the arch diocese. I started in february as coordinator of youth and adult ministry. Congratulations. Thank you. Now i am excited to be working here and helping youth and young adults grow in their faith and supporting parishes in efforts to asis our young people. You have a big job. 92 parishes and everyone should have a working Youth Ministry program and Young Adult Program and it seems like its your job to coordinate and structure that. Well, to assist, right . To assist parishes in their efforts and to provide the source of things that parishes couldnt do on their own like cross parish events and arch diocese events so also to consult with parishes finding it difficult to start a Young Adult Ministry. And need some advice. And youre experienced as a young person yourself. Did you convert to catholicism and grow up catholic . I did. I have a typical cradle catholic experience. Went through the motions in my teens. I prayed with rosaries on car rides and then in my 20s i wasnt really feeling that the faith was super compelling even though i never lost faith in god or stopped believing or praying to mary. If i was scared or Something Like that. But i wasnt practicing my faith in my 20s and then i had an experience of intense suffering at work and my mother encouraged me to seek so lass in the church and go to mass on sundays and then my aunt would bring these catholic Lighthouse Media cds to Family Gathering and one thing she brought was 15 things to do in the mist of suffering. I listened to it on the way to wosh and listened to it on repeat. And it was huge for me. All i wanted to do was get my hands on more of these cds and more of this catholic teaching that i somehow had missed even though i went to sunday school and had communion. I didnt know these things i was hearing. It was fascinating to me. So i started listening to catholic radio all the time. I didnt know what music was popular anymore because i listening to catholic radio and it trans formed my faith. The more i learned, the more i wanted. I was seeking out young adult groups and diocese of san jose and arch diocese of San Francisco making a whole new group of friends. I have more friends now than i ever imagined i would have and its hard to keep up with them all but uts trans formed my whole life when you say suffering i wont inquire into personal details but you were working in the hightech industry. Yes, i was working t a bay owe tech company and it was a time of persecution in my job not faith persecution or anything like that but just kind of wrong place at the wrong time kind of. And you know, taking the fall for somebody who you know was not available to persecute. So it was a rough time, coming home crying every day hugging my dog when i got home and just crying. Couldnt make it through mass without crying. Thats human behavior. Theres a lot to cry about. But specifically you found solace and meaning. In other words, you found the meaning of your life. I think it really opened me up to the purpose of suffering in our lives and the redefrp tive quality of suffering. Escape i that cd. The cd 15 things to do in the midst of suffering, it cracked it wide open for me and i thought i can do something with this. Not just like why is this happening to me. In hindsight i really consider that time of suffering to be one of the biggest gifts god gave me in my life because it completely changed my path in life. If it had not been for that, i wouldnt be sitting here today. I dont think i would be happy where i was i understand what youre saying. That you found a way through the suffering and to make use of the suffering. Yes. Suffering really truly is a gift. I can say that with 100 could have had. I have found that in subsequent times where i had to suffer in life, ive been able to see this is not a punishment but its a gift and god is inviting me to learn something and grow somewhere, maybe preparing me for something new lapping in my life and i find myself more hope and questioning. Happening. And curious about where the suffering might lead, even as etc, painful. What i like about your story, i think youre saying this catholic faith you renewed didnt give me a way to avoid looking sorrow and suffering in the face. It gave me a way to understand it and offer it for redemption. Which is something many young people go through. They wonder what life is about and what theyre here for. Well come back in a few seconds and talk about the different aspects of your ministry. The Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministry. Stay with us. Were talking about ministry to youth and the young catholics. We have amanda george, coordinator of youth and Young Adult Ministry. Those are two categories on your website. You have a richly populated website, the arch diocese so under ministry theres a Young Adult Ministry full of events and resources and information all there laid out nicely. So Youth Ministry is ages 13 17. Teenagers. Correct. And Young Adult Ministry, lets talk about Youth Ministry first. The Young Adult Ministry is aging up into the 50s now. Failure to launch is going on. Right. Youth ministry is dealing with teenagers. Yeah. You have events for them and socializing and online communications. Yes, Youth Ministry can take many different forms. Any time youre working with youth in the church, youre doing Youth Ministry and people dont realize that. If you doing scouting and your troop is related to a church based scouting troop, and they have catholic religious emblems you can earn for your catholic faith, thats Youth Ministry. If youre working with altar servers who are teens, youre doing Youth Ministry. Its not just a youth night on a friday night or sunday night where a youth minister is there and thats the only person who does Youth Ministry. Any time youre interacting with teens in the church youre doing Youth Ministry. Part of your job is to awaken the people on the ground to the nature of what they do. Right. And provide resources and so on definitely. So we are available to help parishes in the arch diocese connecting with them with different resources as far as programs that they can subscribe to and materials available at no cost. Speakers connecting them with speakers that they can use for rallies or retreats or just bring a speaker into their youth night to offer a different voice or faus to interact with that might keep things more engaging for regular ongoing Youth Ministry. So im also available to act as a consultant with parishes who are maybe trying to do Something Different with their Youth Ministry that they generally havent done before or trying to talk it up a notch or a parish that doesnt have Youth Ministry, we can come in and help consult and assess the situation and who are their young people in their parish and what are they looking for and what is their experience in life . And what sort of program might best benefit them. Yeah, theres no one size fits all parish program. Theres endless resources that you can draw attention to. I notice also on your website, you have pay juror events Cross Diocese events. The summer you had a couple of events. Theres one coming up in september. Tell us about those. Yeah, earlier in july we had youth on a mission. We had 92 young teens from five different diocese in the north cal area and that event is disciple ship Training Camp for teens with leadership potential where they learn practical skills to help run Youth Ministry in their own parish. So that can be a huge help to youth ministers who are often volunteers and theyre doing this out of the goodness of their heart and for the passion they have for our young people. This allows our young people to really help and really take some ownership of their own Youth Ministry they participate in. It was a great success, the workshops were well received and then we followed up just a week later with stew benville nor cal which is a collaboration between Franciscan University of stew benville and they put on conferences around the country. We were so happy to have one this year and we had 985 teens. All from this area . Yes, Northern California and four states. California, oregon, nevada and hawaii. Yeah. People came from hah hey to attend. Interesting. It was phenomenal. Really incredible. Even had healings. We had a man there who has the gift of laying hands and healing and somebody was healed of a torn acl while at this conference. Its been a long time since i was a teenager but i remember being shy about my faith and the idea of getting out in the open and mixing with other people, 900 people from five states who are smarter and better than you are, you make new friends. Tons of new friends. A lot of new friendships made there. At one point i was manning a table and i was talking to the teams as they were coming by looking at Different Things and one of the girls was on her phone and showing her friend something that she had posted to social media and she was commenting on how her friends who are not at that conference were commenting on this saying where are you . Because she was posting videos and stuff of the music performances we had there, the faith and worship music. Everybody was energized and shes like my mom made me go and i thought it would be boring but im pretty much flabbergasted of course she didnt use that word. Young kids continue say that. What i understand is these conferences are well done and well organized and put on and have deep and thorough catholic teaching and a lot of enjoyment. Yes, the incense and everything was beautiful. So thats a little glimpse into Youth Ministry, age 1317. When we come back, well talk about Young Adult Ministry. Those who are older and perhaps searching. Stay with us. Youre right in library with pope francis, working from the top of the executive line. Pope francis has a survey for young people ages 1630. And theres a 2018 program on youth and faith and world youth day coming in 2019 and here you are dealing with young adults in our local arch diocese. You left the church and fell out and came back. I think thats a fairly typical example of what happens with young people. Theyre searching for something. Who are the young adults you work with in the arch diocese of these three counties . Young adults, many of them transplants. Its rare when you meet somebody else in the arch diocese who grew up here. I was going to ask that. Seems to me this place is a magnet for young people. They come for jobs. Right. Yeah, a lot of young adults move here having Bay Area Experience and Silicon Valley and San Francisco experience. Its a great resume builder and its exciting to move to california even though they may need to buy some sweat shirts when they get here. Theres a question of how can young people live here because its so costly. Many young adults move here wowed by the salaries that they get offered thinking oh gosh, 60 thousand dollars is a lot of money per year. Back home they would be flying high on 60 thousand dollar but they get here and find out that rent for an apartment is 2500 dollars a month and they quickly realize 60 thousand dollar is not much if you want to live in the city. So here are these people uprooted and newly set down and you have events for these young adults. I noticed things like theology on tap. You meet in a bar and hear a talk about catholics. Theres a single con fres, also good. Something called on fire . Yes, its an event coming up in september. It will be at six flags marine world park in valejo. Its foe cussing on the nor cal area and its for adults focusing. Well have five bishops present and well have mass there and well have speakers and catholic musicians. Speakers for both youth and talking about youth topics and those addressing young adults. Theres a lot of socializing in this format. I understand that. And thats to the good because you cant become a catholic on a westboundinar. Webinar. What are the most popular sorts of gathering for young adults . What do they really respond to . I would say that the most popular gatherings that i see the most of with young adult ministries are either talks focusing on learning more about the faith and practical aspects of the faith like catholic dating and the other, the most popular ones i see are adder ration based. And that means prayer . Yes, before the blessed sacrament. Silent prayer. I will say ive only ever seen it silent prayer followed up by fellowship at a nearby republican. But i would think so. After an hour of prayer that seems unlikely. How do i put it in our day and age of constant communication to back out for an hour and communicate with god as best you can and let god communicate with you. Seems look a strange way to spend a saturday night . No . Its not on a saturday night. Usually on a tuesday. Which i think is easier to sell. But no, i think people know that they need the silence. They dont necessarily realize it until they get it. Once they do, they keep coming back. Yeah, that makes sense. Is your general estimation of the young adults that you know, this cohort going through clenl perhaps and are single married, searching, what is the thing they seek most deeply . What are they looking for . I think the authenticity. They want to be their authentic selves and interact with others in an authentic way and they want the Authentic Church as well. They want the fullness of the faith. I think theres a lot of people who think maybe some of the teacherings of the church are too hard for young adults and it turns them off. I disgrow. I dont think its the challenging teachings of the faith that turn off young adults. Its watering down the faith and that lack of authenticity in watering it downturns them away. Because theyre seeking whats real and true. And if theres any hesitation about speaking the truth, of course in love always in love but if the truth is being hidden or kind of skirted, they sense that. And they dont want that. That makes sense. So bright young people doing their jobs and looking for some meaning in life and you helped them to find that. I know that you have lots of other things to tell us about. Were running out of time. Thank you for being here and we recommend people go to the website and find all the riches there. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for joining us on mosaic. See you next time. Lots in store this morning. But first. A treat for the ballerina in your house. I know ive got one in mine. Theres new film out. And it s called. leap starring elle fanning. I got a chance to talk to her about her new film. Lets take a look. Thanks to elle fanning for spending some time with us. Since i can remember, ive wanted to dance. Oh no. It was there with my mom when i was a baby. But dreams are not reality. They have a cool in paris. You a dancer at the ballet . You wouldnt last more than five minutes out there. Are you sure about that . F