This past Monday, Jan. 8th, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, which follows the Epiphany because both are events by which God makes his mystery clearer to the human mind.

This day commemorates the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist. The baptism of our Lord was a symbol and not a sacrament because the sacrament of baptism washes away sin, and Christ had no sin.

This is a wonderful time for your family to light your baptismal candles and renew your baptismal promises in prayer together.

*Prayer for the Renewal of Baptismal Promises in image and a printable PDF linked below.* -Beth

Youth & Parents will attend Apostle Sunday, featuring Joseph, son of Jacob.

Siblings are welcome & invited!

Last Friday the Youth & Teens had a fabulous FIRST FRIDAY together!

They completed a service project for our parish by assembling Epiphany Home Blessing Kits, shared pizza for dinner, and finished with an epic game of Hide & Seek!

Many thanks to the Youth & Teens who were present to pass out the Home Blessing Kits to the parishioners of St. Nick's at each of the 3 masses this past weekend!

See all of the First Friday FUN in the videos below.

We began our morning together sharing the memories we made over Christmas break and the surprise of the string lights hung around the Youth Room!

Next, we finished the second half to complete the 5th session of Symbolon for Teens, Who Is Jesus? (linked below). We learned the Hypostatic Union is that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is One Person both Human AND Divine. We also discussed that Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church is His Bride, meaning that God loves His people so much that He bound Himself to us for all of eternity as is done in the Sacrament of Marriage. The Youth were asked to imagine Jesus standing before them and how they would answer if He asked the question He asked His Apostles: “Who do you say that I am?”

We then watched videos about the Star of Bethlehem and Epiphany (linked below) and celebrated by sharing a King Cake. Caydence found the tiny baby Jesus and was crowned Queen for the day! This meant she could choose what we would do for the rest of our time together, FREE TIME, which all of the Youth enjoyed.

Our Queen for the day then passed out a King Card with the history of the tradition on one side, a recipe on the other side, and a baby Jesus attached to the card for each Youth to make their own King Cake at home. It was a wonderful day with the Youth together again!

No EDGE/ RE.

Youth & Parents will attend Apostle Sunday, featuring Joseph, son of Jacob. Siblings are welcome & invited!

After watching and listening for my first few months as Youth Minister, learning what the Teens seem to enjoy most at HSYG, I realized we needed to take our faith formation a different direction to satisy their interests.

With that in mind, I began the search and found the God Is... Collection from YDisciple. It consists of 10 themed sessions made for Teens. Each session includes a short video with accompanying scripture, prayer, and prompts to start coversations within the group. (View the entire collection with the link at the bottom of this section, including the Videos, Leader's Guide, Participant & Parent sheets for each session.)

Last Sunday, we began the first session, God Is Faithful (linked below), resulting in a nice discussion with a variety of input from the group. It gave the Teens an opprtunity to share their interprations, to know that it is ok and relatable to have questions about our faith, and how they can know that God Is Faithful.

We then watched a video about Epiphany (linked below) and celebrated with sharing a King Cake! The group was served and no one found the tiny baby Jesus. They had to go back for seconds and finally Luke found the baby in a bite!

Luke was crowned King for the day and got to choose what we would do for the rest of our time together. He chose to play a board game. After some back and forth they chose to play You've Got Crabs!

As they left the Teens received a King Card with the history of the tradition on one side, a recipe on the other side, and a baby Jesus attached to the card for each Youth to make their own King Cake at home. Some of the Teens provided good feedback and suggestions on this new format for HSYG, to include that they are looking forward to future Sunday's with more disscusion followed by FUN!

We will begin our second session of the God Is... Collection, God Is Real.

Youth & Teens (from EDGE & HSYG) are invited to join us in the Youth Room 5:30-8:30pm for our FEBRUARY FIRST FRIDAY on Friday, February 2nd!

This will be an opportunity for the Youth & Teens to enjoy an evening together as they complete a service project for the Elderly & Homebound of our Diocese. Pizza will be provided.

Next class will be this Sunday Jan. 14th, 1:30-3pm in the Youth Room.

It is mandatory for both the Catholic parent and candidate to attend the sessions.

For all Children and Youth (ages 5-17) from all parishes.

Every Saturday at Sacred Heart Cathedral from 1pm-2:45pm.

Per the Diocese policy for the safety of everyone, a minimum of 2 adults are required to be present for all Youth Ministry activities.

Ideally we would have at least 4-6 volunteers (preferably more), allowing for at least 1 assistant present for the HSYG one Sunday per month. We are also still in need of at least 1 more assistant for the EDGE class.

While the search to locate others who have current certification with the Diocese is ongoing, we have reached a point where we need to request that parents assist on a rotating basis so that we can continue to safely offer HSYG.

Please consider completing your certification, and/ or asking individuals who you think would be a willing volunteer. Or, you can submit suggestions for me to contact.

All youth ministry volunteers must have current certification for the course of Serving Vulnerable Populations and a Criminal History Record Check on file with the Diocese. More information can be found by visiting Adult Training on the Diocese of Fairbanks website. Diocese of Fairbanks - Adult Training - Fairbanks, AK

Call or Text 907-978-4786

Email stnicksym@cbna.org
Office hours are as follows:

Sunday 10am-7pm

Wednesday 3:30pm-5:30pm

It is a privilege to work with St. Nick's Youth!

As always, please never hesitate to contact me for any reason.

I pray you are having a blessed week.

In Christ's love, Beth