Youth Speak News

New Year’s resolutions. Those three words are on everyone’s minds come the end of December, and even in the first few weeks of January. They are bandied about, handed around like so much Christmas fruitcake, and then, like said fruitcake, are forgotten or thrown away the moment the year actually gets going. But yet, so much angst and hand-wringing goes into the making of these resolutions.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd Toronto are inviting students to help better the lives of women in developing countries this Christmas and beyond.

Christians from a variety of cultures have different ways of focusing on Christ during this holy season.

A friend once told me that we are not only Christians, but we are also a Christmas people. I thought, “How can this be?” We do not flaunt Christmas garlands and holly on our houses year round. But she told me that we are a people that celebrate Christ’s birth and epiphany every year. In doing so, we are called to spread His message of joyful waiting, unconditional love, peace and humility. We are given this wonderful opportunity to tell others about how Christmas came to be and we can share the definitive reason of the holiday with others. We can do this through service to others.

A new ethics program is calling teens age 12 to 18 to embrace interfaith and intercultural education.

TORONTO - As part of an Advent project, the Ryerson Catholic chaplaincy collected socks at the university’s student centre for the homeless population in Toronto this past month.

Alongside almost 200 people involved with youth ministry, I recently found myself at Toronto’s Nativity of Our Lord parish sharing in the desire to learn how to become better teachers of the faith to young people.

Christmas is the peak toy drive season and charity organizations are urging Canadians to remember teens when they give this holiday season. Teens are often forgotten when shoppers hunt for items to donate.

In Love Never Fails: 120 Reflections, author Debra Herbeck compiles a list of what notable figures have said about love throughout history.

As a young person intending to enter the field of science, I can attest to the anxiety that Catholic students with similar aspirations experience when faced with the supposed conflict between science and religion. This myth of science and religion being incompatible is propagated by our secular society, and consequently causes students to feel the need to pick between their faith life and their affinity for the sciences.