The Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Diocese of Burlington suggests the following opportunities for youth to grow in faith as they practice social distancing.

The most important thing is Mass. Sunday Masses are available for participation on the Vermont Catholic website, along with a prayer for a making a spiritual communion: vermontcatholic.org/news/communication/tv-mass.

Various social media channels, priests, etc., are live-streaming their daily private Masses as well.

Video Contest

Send us a video answering the question “Why go to Steubenville?” and you can win $50 off Steubenville East registration.

Virtual Youth Serve

Many of you know about our summer program, VCYS, during which Vermont teens fan through the Burlington area serving the needy. In the spirit of VCYS, we’re doing a Virtual Youth Serve. We can still serve the Lord’s people even when we’re stuck at home. Each day, we’ll post a daily challenge for ways teens can serve their community and/or household.

Marian Consecration

In this unusual season, the world is turning to the Blessed Mother. Pope Francis has written a prayer to Our Lady for the end of the coronavirus, and is asking the faithful to pray the rosary. Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne has asked that each parish erect a shrine to Our Lady with a votive candle kept burning for the end of the pandemic.

Using livestream videos on social media, we’ll be leading teens in a simplified version of Marian Consecration. While Marian Consecration typically takes place over 33 days, we’ll do it in the span of nine, enough for a novena. We begin on March 27 and end on April 4. On Palm Sunday, April 5, we will consecrate ourselves to Mary.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to have access to these opportunities.

While these efforts are intended for youth outreach, families and people of all ages are welcome and encouraged to participate.

There are many opportunities for virtual youth nights, conferences, etc. Here are the best ones we’ve found:

Project Youth Ministry Live: Every Sunday at 8 p.m., join in a virtual youth conference. It will be like Steubenville East, with games, talks, music, prayer and thousands of people.  Create an account here: projectym.com/watch.

Be Not Afraid Conference: Get videos from top-notch Catholic speakers delivered to your inbox every day and join young people from all over the country in prayer: staceysumereau.com/be-not-afraid-conference.

Damascus Live: Damascus is a Catholic camp for teenagers, facilitated by young adults. Every weekday at 10:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. they’ll live stream a discussion of the daily Mass readings, praise and worship, youth nights, etc.: facebook.com/catholicyouthsummercamp.