Author: admin

Our Mission: VENTURE to meet teens where they are

admin
75375676_2468306776628641_7164679394521251840_n

Not many know what we really do and some may be apprehensive about encouraging their teens so we want to send this message:

To our faithful parish and Bayshore Community, your support of our fundraisers and activities make evenings like this possible. Bringing back and implementing ideas and advice from a 2 day youth ministry boot camp, our team of leaders is dedicating themselves to bring your teens on a journey living a life of faith built on respect, meeting each teen where he or she is at in life.

Tonight's meeting with walking tacos gave us an opportunity to share the passion we have for this group. The central focus was built around being who God has called us to be. Removing the masks we sometimes use to hide our inner self. Each was reminded that as part of this group they are called to enter our room being who they genuinely are, removing the masks that sometime they have in different groups and situations. With sports, school, honor societies, extra curricular events, activities and more there is so much pressure on the youth today to always have their A Game and not enough time to really self-reflect on who they really are.

VENTURE is a Youth Group with a mission to build a community of teens who have fun in a social setting, while putting their faith into action with a life of respect. ALL TEENS are invited to our events and activities, no matter where they are on life's journey, they are welcome here. We are thankful to call St. Catherine's our home and blessed to have the support of our pastor, Fr. Dan, and Parish Community. You are always welcome to get ask about gettinf involved yourself by not only donating time or resources, but especially by praying for our ministry and encouraging your teens to be involved also!

Blessing Bag Brigade Community Thanksgiving Dinner

admin
bbb-thanksgiving

Blessing Bag Brigade NJ is sponsoring a Community Thanksgiving Dinner right here in our parish. We are super excited to be part of this joint VENTURE! Today is a great day to make the decision to get involved, to be active, and to participate in this social justice service outreach. All are invited to help, donate, attend, setup, and cleanup. A link to the sign-ups for planning purposes is here: Blessing Bag Brigade St. Catherine's Community Dinner Sign-Up

We look forward to continuing to work with Blessing Bag Brigade NJ, keep your eyes opened for future events like these.

The Blessing Bag Brigade NJ is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to showing compassion and humanitarianism towards the homeless. Our mission is to help them find some comfort. We wish for this situation not to exist, but the fact of the matter is, there are homeless that can’t afford basic necessities.

dinnercontact

Venture to the C.A.F.E. on Sundays

admin
venturecafe

VENTURE to the C.A.F.E.

The VENTURE C.A.F.E. (Comfortable Area For Everyone) is  a place where everyone is welcome. It was a vision created by teens in the Bayshore Area who were looking for someplace to go to just be themselves. They wanted a coffee house combined with a pool hall. Thus the VENTURE C.A.F.E. was designed! The C.A.F.E. is located in the school building.

During our Weekly VENTURE Meetings on Sunday high school and middle school teens will be engaging in captivating activities, compelling discussions centered around various topics, games and social gatherings, open gym with structured and unstructured games of their choice. Meetings begin and end with prayer with the opportunity to more deeply embrace the catholic faith during our Monday Veritas Nights starting this Fall.

All are welcome. There is no religious requirement to participate in our activities or be part of our group, however, our team of leaders is dedicated to living and modeling our own catholic faith, and we strive to pay attention to the direction the Holy Spirit is guiding us in. You will find when you walk through the doors of our C.A.F.E. that it is our goal to welcome and meet newcomers with authentic charity, much like Jesus did – no matter where they may be on life’s journey! The only requirement to VENTURE is that each person commits to maintain RESPECT on 3 levels:

Respect for Self in the way you dress, you speak, you act, and you care

Respect for Others by including their ears, their eyes, their bodies, their property, their differences or similarities

Respect for Property by treating our buildings, rooms, equipment, games, bathrooms with care

We hope you encourage your teens to come drop in one Sunday, if you have any questions – send us a text message 732-419-8298, we love hearing from others interested in our group!

“God’s love can only unleash its power when it is allowed to change us from within. We have to let it break through the hard crust of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age. Only then can we let it ignite our imagination and shape our deepest desires.” – Pope Benedict XVI

 

Parish BBQ – Sunday 10/13/19

admin
YG-bbq

CLICK HERE TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE and pre-order your burgers and hot dogs (it is not required to pre-order or register, but it is extremely helpful for us to plan, and makes it MUCH easier for your family to get their food on Sunday)

Join us this Sunday (10/13/19) for food, fun, fellowship, and more! Come meet members of our parish, let our grill master cook for you and the family, and enjoy activities and fun events for all (Rock Painting, GaGa Ball, Giant Jenga, Ultimate Frisbee, Kickball and whatever the kids want to engage in!)

Friends of any age are welcome to join us as we invite the community to check out our newly renovated Social Space for our Youth Groups and Teen Events, while Fr. Dan officially blesses the TEEN VENTURE C.A.F.E. (Comfortable Area For Everyone),

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER OUR
CAKE BAKE CONTEST

Do you have what it takes to make a winning cake??
Bring your cake creation to the BBQ and Enter this Free Fun Competition!
(cakes to be judged on presentation, originality and taste)

 

A Blessing in Disguise

admin

It wasn't always this way! A true blessing in disguise. After a storm caused the roof to lift and water to enter our social space, the group had no choice but to renovate and replace. We were blessed to have new carpet installed, and asked input from our teens what they envisioned this new room to look like. They wanted a pool table, a new look, fresh paint on the walls, and COFFEE! Yes, they wanted a coffee type cafe! We heard, we asked around, and it happened! After many man-hours later, our room is nearly ready for the new group of teens who will be making their way through the doors! A fresh start, a new look!