Make It Happen
This program involves two distinct phases: 1) Large group Mass and meal with guest speaker; 2) Simple meals and discussion hosted by young adults in their home.
Mass
- You will need to secure the use of the church for Mass and make all the necessary preparations for the liturgy. The celebration of the liturgy can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish to make it. Many young adults express the desire for engaging liturgy with their peers, so this is a great opportunity to provide a dynamic experience with music and involvement in the ministries that they might not typically experience (but be sure to clear all these with your celebrant!).
- You’ll need to make plans for a weekday Mass. It’s nice if this can be a Mass specifically for young adults, specifically for this event. If your parish offers weekday Mass in the evening, you could piggy back on of that. If you are planning a Mass separate from the church’s regular schedule, volunteers will be needed to serve as lectors, Eucharistic ministers, and music ministers. Someone will need to write petitions for Mass — it would be nice to have them focus on issues regarding community and hunger.
Meal
- Space must be reserved (parish hall, school cafeteria, etc. — or what the parish uses for its community gatherings) for the simple meal, which will follow the Mass. You will need to set up tables and chairs for seating during the meal. Set up an additional two tables for the serving area.
- The meal will need to be prepared ahead of time and ready to be served once Mass is over. The meal should be simple — soup, rice and beans, or use one of these recipes from Catholic Relief Services. An easy option is to prepare soup and put it into crock pots so that it is warming during Mass. Vegetarian options are preferable to maintain the notion of simplicity. As this is a simple meal, you can limit the beverage options to just water. Fill up a few pitchers with water, or use a sports cooler that has a spout.
- At the conclusion of Mass, invite everyone over to the space for the meal.
- Once everyone has been served and seated, invite the guest speaker to talk for 10-15 minutes and encourage attendees to ask questions afterward and continue the conversation at their table.
- The speaker should be secured several weeks in advance. Invite the speaker to address the issues of local/world hunger, food insecurity, or simple living. Suggested places to start looking for a speaker include local food banks or soup kitchens, arch/diocesan office of justice and peace (someone that works with Catholic Relief Services), Catholic Worker community members (former or current).
- Be sure to mention the upcoming simple meals being hosted at homes and encourage people to sign up to attend one of those.
- After everyone is finished, clean up and turn out the lights!
Follow-Up Meals
- As a part of the advance preparation, you will need to enlist the help of a few young adults willing to host a simple meal of their own. The intended audience size for these meals is seven-10 young adults.
- The host is provided with a complete resource (See “Recommends” section for a sample) that takes him/her through the welcome and introduction, opening prayer and Scripture, discussion questions for during or after the meal, and closing prayer.
- Once you have secured two to three young adults to host a meal, create a sign-up list for each of these dates. Include space for name, e-mail address, and phone number. These sign-up lists are to be made available at your parish’s large group event.
- After the event, the information gets passed on to the host so that he/she can contact the guests and provide any further instructions (i.e. address, directions, parking details).
