Picture the scene: 500 teenagers praying one for each other in complete silence. As the evening progresses, songs break out and hundreds are dancing, jumping, and singing. Would you remain seated when the crowd is rejoicing? How would you react when a teenager says he would devote his life to Jesus in front of all the parish?
Such feelings of gratitude, excitement, and complete trust in God is what I felt during my regency working alongside youth in Tabasco, Mexico. However, my time at the Jesuit parish there did not start this way. My regency taught me how to trust God and to collaborate with others in the parish’s work of walking with youth.
San José y Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, located near Tabasco’s capital Villahermosa, has 27 chapels scattered across 15 different villages. Unlike many parishes in the United States, a typical Mexican parish has one primary church whose priests and ministers serve various chapels tucked away in local neighborhoods or in the surrounding towns. The sacramental and pastoral needs of all my parish’s chapels were provided by myself, two Jesuit priests, and a young man discerning the Jesuits.
Of course, the work was not our own. We worked together with a body of 400 eucharistic ministers, acolytes, lectors, musicians, catechists, ecologists, human rights advocates, and traditional medical practitioners. It’s really touching to witness all the time these people spend at their chapels organizing activities all together. This parish community has embraced the synodal way of working, promoted by Pope Francis, in which the people of God walk together. Based on the way of proceeding of Christian Base Communities, the parishioners are called to see the reality they live, think on what to pray and discern for, and take part in a decision as one church to work all together. This methodology allows us all to collaborate with creativity and great faith in the construction of God’s Kingdom, all of us doing the best we can to grow in spirit as a big and one Church.
Despite this amazing community collaboration, I noticed that most of the servers were adults. Moreover, the youth groups had been long overlooked. Facing the reality of an elderly aged parish, the Jesuits and community leaders made a big effort to rethink how to make youth feel they are an important part of the church, and that we, Jesuits and servers, need them. We had to apply this same framework of see, think, and work to focus on the needs of our youth.
TO SEE
Because the three Jesuits at the parish had been in Tabasco for less than 2 years, our first commitment was to understand how youth groups worked in the past when hundreds of youth would attend. Years ago, the youth group organized massive events inspiring and forming teenagers to be missionaries in their local communities. For example, an adult catechist shared with me that during high school she used to travel all weekend on missions to different villages in the parish. She and others would plan retreats and participate in celebrations of the Eucharist. Back then, it was all possible because her safety was not a question. Sadly, her own children today cannot have the same experience because of the increasing violence in Mexico.
To better comprehend these realities, the pastoral team held a focus group with youth. They affirmed a feeling of uneasiness when using public transportation — or simply when leaving home. The adults understood the serious challenges of violence, migration, and school dropouts that many youth face. Consequently, we knew that God was inviting us to offer a space for youth where they feel safe, free to express themselves and inspired to make new friends. We wanted to lay the groundwork for youth to have an encounter with God’s unconditional love for us.
TO THINK
The new way of working with youth in the parish needed great creativity to share Ignatian spirituality with a wide variety of people. A revitalized youth group would need massive activities that still foster a personal experience, mature young leaders , and of course, much Christian charisma. Our team of Jesuits and lay leaders settled on four different initiatives: a special Mass for youth once a month, a week-long summer silent retreat, various weekend-long retreats, and massive celebrations during Easter, Pentecost and the Feast of Guadalupe. To help promote these opportunities, a team of youth leaders made social media posters and videos which, little by little, got the word out.
Gradually, the popularity of the talks and Youth Masses grew. In June 2024, 40 people gathered for our first special youth Mass. By October, 290 children and young adults gathered in two different chapels for an evening of prayer, formation, fellowship, and Eucharistic adoration. I am moved to tears just to remember how happy the adult servers were when noticing that more than one hundred youths were at their chapel, all participating with a great desire to be a part of the Church.
As the youth gathering grew, some enterprising young leaders took the initiative to form a youth group in their villages with 5, 10 or 25 members meeting regularly and planning their own events. Their enthusiasm attracted adults to help nurture their growing small groups. The planted seeds were now growing, and we adult leaders only needed to continue supporting their work.
TO WORK
I admit not to have trusted God’s plan for the first youth activities planned. The challengers were immense, but the adults of the parish inspired me. When they began to support the new youth ministry saying “let´s do anything for our young”, their energy inspired me and the other Jesuits to keep our enthusiasm up. Some of the adults in far-flung villages continued to invite the adult organizers to visit and plan an activity at their own local chapel.
More than just counting the youth’s growing attendance to each activity, their presence in the parish and their faith in God renewed the adult leaders’ hope. Youth Masses are still ongoing and are thriving. Hopefully by the end of this year, the two-year plan to visit all 27 chapels will become a reality. It is important for our youth to know all the chapels of their parish because, in a couple of years, they will be the leaders who will give talks, lead activities or retreats, and become Eucharist Ministers. Thinking about the future helped us to know what we wanted to do now: get our youth involved in the church.
Working with youth is not easy. Once we understand that they only need a place where they can feel safe, where they can express themselves, and where someone will listen to them, without judgment, they will encounter a merciful and loving God. We can spend much time planning retreats, praying, and attending many Eucharists, but if we do not model the way, our work will be in vain. Adult leaders need to show ourselves as people in need of God too, as companions of Jesus, to demonstrate to the youth that the church is a place where they can experience God’s love.
Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in Christus, the publication of the Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus.
Photo courtesy of author
