The One Accompanied 83
Youth ministry must also foster vocations among young people, in both
the strict and broad sense. Living a vocation means responding to a call in
a particular way. The Lord calls all people to respond to his call by serving
the mission of the Church. He calls some young people to serve through
matrimony or ordination, others to profess vows and live as religious broth-
ers, sisters, or nuns, and still others to dedicate their lives to the service of
the Church as single people. Youth ministry must accompany young people
as they work to view their day-to-day lives as a mission that responds to the
Lord’s greater call to sainthood and holiness. Christians, young and old,
“cannot think of his or her mission on earth without seeing it as a path of
holiness... because the vocation of our lives is sainthood… “[E]ach saint is
a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific mo-
ment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 19). It
is the responsibility of youth ministries to become environments in which
discernment and vocational pursuit are normal and encouraged.
Finally, youth ministries must accompany young people as they tran-
sition, grow, and become young adult members of their parish. Instead of
young people vanishing from their parish as soon as they graduate from
high school, youth ministries should work to integrate young people into
parish life, prepare them for college campus ministry or parish-based young
adult ministries, sponsor non-youth ministry spiritual events, and prepare
them for service or leadership positions as they transition out of regular
youth ministry meetings and events. This will allow young people to know
that their parish cherishes them and values their participation in the parish
community. In a similar way, youth ministries must challenge their young
people to develop habits of prayer and worship to keep the spark of disciple-
ship alive after they age out of youth retreats and youth ministry meetings.
Additionally, adult leaders can and should continue to mentor those they
have accompanied in faith and life, continuing to help them find fervor and
constant renewal in the kerygma.
Preparing and Forming Parish Leadership
In addition to members of the faithful, parish staff and volunteers can
also benefit from accompaniment. Younger or less experienced staff mem-
bers or leaders can be accompanied by more seasoned colleagues or vol-
unteers. As new leaders are hired or appointed by the parish, they can be
accompanied in the beginning of their ministry in order to learn the joys