Message from the Director

Have you ever felt the presence of God?

What a great question. It makes for wonderful conversation among friends. The answers may surprise us. What would be our answer?

The reality, of course, is that God is always present. He longs to be in communion with each of us. He even humbles Himself to take on the form of bread, so that in consuming Him at every Mass we attend, we are nourished by His very presence within us.

When we open the Bible, He speaks to our hearts and minds, challenging us to recognise Him in the words we are reading. He is present in our hands and then in our minds through the gift of the sacred scriptures.

When we call out to God in our prayer, the gift of His Spirit fills us, as the literal meaning of spirit is akin to that of breath, wind or life. God is always moving in our lives as the wind moves around us. His breath allows us to be alive as every breath contains His presence. 

God is present in every encounter of love we have. The love of family and friends is the presence of God as we are told by St John in the Bible that God is love. Where-ever there is love there is God.

The important thing is to be conscious of God being present! This is why we live for God full on, full time, all the time – cause God is always present to each of us! Hopefully each of our youth groups and retreats brings out this truth. The hard part is actually paying attention! God is present! Can you feel Him?

Friday Night

24:7 Glenorchy

24:7 Nedlands
24:7 Osborne Park

24:7 Rockingham

24:7 Servite

24:7 Whitfords

Sunday Night

24:7 Armadale
24:7 Balcatta

24:7 Floreat

24:7 Greenwood

24:7 Ocean Reef

Padbury CPS Year 5 Leadership Retreat
St Dominic's Staff Retreat

Salvado Yr 6 Confirmation Retreat
St Luke's CPS Yr 3 Reconciliation Retreat
St John Bosco College Yr 6 Confirmation Retreat

St Dominic's Parent Reconciliation Workshop

Mel Maria Attadale Campus Yr 4 Eucharist Retreat

We had a super cozy night at 24:7 Applecross last week. Starting the night off with some mingling time, games of ping pong, UNO and Chess battles! Link Chasey was our first game of the night, with the aim of the game to stay untagged as long as possible. Weaving in and out of the chain, dodging walls until finally we formed one big chain. Our second game was the classic PVC pipe, putting our strength and balance to the test. A quick drink break, then into an introduction into the term 4 theme... 'Miracles'. We began to break this open with our Youth Minister, Ellena introducing what miracles are and explaining why Jesus performs them, before concluding by breaking open how we can see them in our life, with Volunteer leader Luke, sharing a miracle from his life. And what better way to end an amazing night then with some pizza and more fellowship time?!? Next Youth Group is on the 30th of October. We also have a Morning Tea after the Sunday 9:30 Mass. Get ready for some hectic soccer, basketball and yummy food.

On Sunday night at 24:7 Balcatta, we were joined by 30 young people for our highest attendance ever! We started the night with the chair game, before we moved onto the most embarrassing game of all time, "Honey, I love you". With lots of red faces and awkward laughs. We then sat down and had some food before we heard our Youth Minister Jen talk about what prayer is. It was really interesting hearing all the different types of prayer, and why we actually do pray, even though sometimes it seems pointless and that God isn't listening. We then ended the night with our usual prayer circle, where we each got a chance to pray for our intensions. Join us next week as we look into the ACTS prayer method!

What a great night 24:7 Ballajura had last week! We started the night off with a classic game of Kitty wants a chair. We then played a Ballajura favourite, continuous dodgeball. We finished off with an epic game of reverse charades! We started our term theme: Getting to know Jesus. Josh gave a great talk on Mary's relationship with Jesus and how we can build a relationship with him through Mary, which then led us into a Marian Reflection. We hope to see you all again in two weeks!

What an incredible night last week at 24:7 Cottesloe! We started the night off with a game of name tag! We had one person it and the only way to avoid getting tagged was by shouting out someone else's name out so that they were then it. It was so much fun sprinting around trying to get everyone else out, while also trying to avoid getting it as well. We then moved onto the coin game after we had finished this. We split off into two teams and we passed a coin under the table. We then all had to smash our hands on the table and the other team had to guess where the coin was. It was a tricky game, trying to figure out who had the coin. Once we finished the games, we then listened to our youth minister Anthony introduce our term topic: Journeys of faith. This term we are going to hear from very special guest speakers and their lives but to start us off, we had Anthony share about his life and his journey with God through his life and how he has come to his faith. It was really inspiring listening to him and the difficulties that he had been through and seeing how God still looked after him and watched out for him during his life. Next youth group, we have a very special guest speaker: Fr Liam! We have an awesome night instore for you and come along to hear about his life and how he saved someone from a shark attack! Can't wait to see you there.

Last week at 24:7 Greenwood we had an amazing night of music, games, food and fun. We started the night with an intense game of boys vs girls, before moving to the game Commando. It was great to see the different cheeky and creative hiding spots people were able to find. We then moved into the main part of our night which was Show & Tell. It was great to see all the special items that people had brought in and was amazing to hear all the stories behind why these items were so important. A special thank you to Tina who gave up her Sunday evening to cook an amazing pasta dinner for everyone. Join us next week as begin to open and unpack our theme for this term!!

Last week at 24:7 Neddies, we had a fantastic start to our new term! We opened our term with Chair Wink and Kitty Wants a Chair, some epic games. After we broke open our term theme: "Saint (...) Pray for Us!" We learned a few new names with the Name Game before ending our night with fellowship and Dodgeball. Next week, we will be listening to one of our leaders share about their Confirmation Saint, and how they are inspired by their life and works!

What an amazing night at youth group last week! We kicked off with a few games. We got our brains churning whilst playing a strategy game, Empires! Where you have to find out who each person was pretending to be and build up your empire. We then got the blood pumping with a game of PVC pipe. We all linked hand in a circle, had to try and eliminate others by  pulling them into the pipe! Things got heated to say the least. To cool off the night we had some pizza and got into the content. We had one of our youth ministers talk on prayer. Why should we pray and what is the importance behind it? And we look to continue this for the coming weeks as we delve deeper in our faith!

What an amazing night at youth group this past week! We kicked off with a few games. We got our brains churning whilst playing a strategy game, Empires! Where you have to find out who each person was pretending to be and build up your empire. We then got the blood pumping with a game of PVC pipe. We all linked hand in a circle, had to try and eliminate others by pulling them into the pipe! Things got heated to say the least. To cool off the night we had some pizza and got into the content. We had one of our youth ministers talk on prayer. Why should we pray and what is the importance behind it? And we look to continue this for the coming weeks as we delve deeper in our faith!

What an awesome night at 24:7 Osborne Park! We kicked on with the term and had a great time with some awesome games! Our first game, 'Hop Paper Scissors Shoot' was an absolute hit!! It brought the energy up so quickly! Next we had the 'Charades Relay', with the aim to act out whatever the phrase was and have the final person in your team guess it right!! We then ended the night with some words of wisdom from Mrs Blair, who shared about worldly values and where we as Catholics stand with these. She also broke open some ways that we can stay firm in our faith and not fall into some of these issues in society. Of course we finished up with some food, fellowship and an AMAZING game of soccer! Join us next week as we look forward to having another ripper time!

Last week we had an awesome Game's night to get us up and going for Term 4! We enjoyed the chaos (and animal noises?!) of Back to Back as people raced across their group to find their partner. Our second game was a bit of a hybrid between Hide and Seek and Charades, that's right Hide and Seek Charades! Of course, the icing on the cake, was finishing off a great night with some Dodgeball! Next youth group we are very excited to introduce our final piece of the puzzle of our Year Long series of Discipleship. In Term 1 we looked at disciples from the past. in Term 2 we heard stories from disciples of the present, people that you and I know! In Term 3 we explored who we are through looking at our identity in Christ. And now, to complete the transformation, we will be preparing our young people for their own epic journey of discipleship themselves! Join us!

We started 24:7 Servite off by explaining our term theme which is 'Works of Mercy'. After we played a game called 'the name game', where one person is 'it' and they have to try and tag the people around them. The only way someone is safe from getting tagged is if they say someone else’s name and then that person is 'it'. Then, we played electric piggy where there is one person in the middle of the circle trying to catch a ball that is being thrown around and if they catch the ball or tag the person who has the ball then that person or the last person to touch the ball goes in the middle and is the new 'piggy'. Lastly, we played music trivia where a song was played and everyone had to try and guess what the name of the song is or where it is from. We finished the afternoon off which prayer and free time!

Last week at 24:7 Woodvale we had an awesome night. Our incredible Mcees, James and Naiara, opened the night with our first game, “cross the river”. Everyone broke into teams of 5 and each were given a stack of 4 chairs. They needed to get their whole team across to the other side of the room using the chairs and not touching the ground. Next, Stefan led us in “Famer Sam”. One person was chosen to be farmer Sam in the centre of the room while the others lined up against the wall. Everyone would have to chant: “Farmer Sam, can we cross your mighty old dam”. Farmer Sam would then call out an item of clothing, and people with that item could cross safely. The rest would have to try and not get caught! The last people standing, won the round. After all this chaos and competition, we made a circle of chairs and listened to our amazing student leader, Nathan, give his first talk. He broke open our theme “how to love like Jesus”. He spoke about how we have to love others like Jesus, when they’ve hurt us, or when we feel angry and sad. We took a look at some examples of how Jesus loved when he felt angry, hurt and upset too. To finish, we split off intos mall groups with those around us and discussed some questions about the talk, and what everyone got out of it. We concluded in prayer circle, grace and then headed off to eat food until the end of the night. Next time we’ll be looking at, “how to love like Jesus, even in the good times!” We hope to see you there.