designed by Bryan Clifford

SMYG
St. Mary's Youth Group
Youth Director
                                     Chris Kozlowski                                   
     Phone:  248-844-8665

St. Mary of the Hills Vision for Youth Ministry:
   ‘Empowering young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.  To draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community.  And to foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.’– as stated in “It takes a Whole church – Renewing the Vision”  

UPCOMING EVENTS

Emergency Medical Treatment Release Form - one must be on file to attend SMYG events.

Fall Retreat Permission Slip

The SMYG “Minute to Win It” Kick-Off is this Wednesday from 7-9 PM in the gym.  Our Kick-Off represents the beginning of a new year for SMYG.  We’d love to see new faces and to meet new people at this meeting.  All 9-12th graders are invited to attend this meeting.  The meeting will run from 7-9 PM in the gym; no sign up is necessary.
 

The first month of the SMYG year is dedicated to making the group feel comfortable with each other by getting to know each other better.   Once we establish a baseline for knowledge for each other we then dive into deeper discussions with regards to our faith and how to apply our faith in everyday life.  I am continually humbled and amazed at the discussions that happen year in and year out at SMYG. 

Calling all parents.  For many years I’ve asked parents to consider “pushing” their children to attend youth group meetings, but over the last few years as the group grew bigger, I have not.  I feel guilty about this.  Regardless if we are a 50 person youth group or a 15 person youth group, each and every high school student is part of our group and we want them to attend.  I love to hear of the successes of all of the wonderful youth that make up SMYG.  Each and every person brings unique perspective on all of our various subject matter.  Parents, I’m asking you again, please encourage your child to attend SMYG at some point over the first month, and ask them to try it out at least three times.  Our meetings are unique and we use various educational models to help the lesson stick, so if you are an artist you may really enjoy a certain type of meeting, or if you are an athlete you may enjoy a more physical meeting, so don’t judge the entire youth group on one two hour session.  I don’t ask parents to push their kids into SMYG so that we have bigger numbers, I ask parents to push their kids into SMYG because I look around and see so many amazing families at St. Mary of the Hills and know that many parents did indeed help push their kids into SMYG. Because of the gentle prodding from parents we have established an amazing group of kids who truly enjoy coming together for both discussion and to accomplish special tasks; like painting houses, serving food, cleaning up gardens,  and some of the other SAW projects that we accomplish together.  

If you are a parent or high school student who would like to stay in the loop with regards to  SMYG events send me an e-mail requesting to receive our weekly e-mail.  This e-mail includes some SMYG basics for the week, the readings for the upcoming weekend, and a brief reflection on these readings with how it applies to SMYG.  Permission forms and upcoming events may also be part of this e-mail.  Please send a request to chrisk@smoth.org if you’d like to receive these e-mails.  At any point if you’d like to stop receiving the e-mails send a similar request to chrisk@smoth to stop receiving the e-mail.

If at anytime you have a question about an event (or anything SMYG or JYG related, please contact me.  Director of Youth Ministry

UPCOMING EVENTS
(All Meetings in the St. Joseph room 7-9 PM)          
SMYG SCHEDULE
September 1               Official Kick-Off
September 8th            SMYG Meeting
September 15th          SMYG Meeting - GIFT
September 22nd         SMYG Meeting
September 25-27        Fall Retreat

SMYG is a group of high school students who come together to build friendships and strengthen their faith by discussing timely topics in a positive environment.  We’d love to continue encouraging all high school students to give the group a try.  Remember even if you have not been to a meeting in a while that the doors are always open for new members.  Every high school age person in our parish is invited and allowed to bring friends to our meetings.  I truly hope to see YOU at one our upcoming meetings.