Norms of youth ministry

The Provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil Centro-Sul, Brazil Centro-Norte and the District of Amazônia finalised in April national norms of youth ministry.
The document, started in 2004, was produced by the inter-Provincial Commission for the evangelisation of young people, supported by a group of studies and with the help of Father Hilário Dick, SJ. About one hundred young people and animators of Marist youth ministry (MYM) collaborated in the writing of the document. The national meeting of liaison people of the MYM took place in January 2005 in the city of Florianópolis, and strengthened the document and the commitment of the young people and animators in the new perspective of work with the Marist youth of Brazil.

This proposal marks the history of inter-Provincial co-operation in Brazil. It is more a matter of gaining the support for a common project of action and of evangelisation of young people, respecting its diversity and richness, than of fixing norms.

Its implantation will be done gradually as the Provinces and District reorganise themselves. The proposal aims above all else to defend young people and to engage them in the Church and society to live a project in the light of the Gospel. Under the acronym MYM, Marist Youth Ministry is attracting and engaging a lot of people.

Here are the proposed objectives: to reorganise the Provinces and the District, to refound the ?Remar? movement, to bring together the youth ministry of Brazil, to call the Church and the Institute to evangelise in order to respond better to the needs and the challenges of young people, to take up again and to renew proposals that have been developed already.

In order to strengthen the proposal of the MYM, an emblem, a flag, a credo and some musical works have been produced at the national level. A collection of thematic notebooks, called ?Notebooks of the MYM? was produced at the rate of two or three notebooks per year in order to help in training the young people and the animators.

A document is in the process of realisation, ?Process of education in the faith?, a work of the MYM and will be ready at the end of this year. From their own knowledge and experience, every young person will be able to trace their own journey in five stages by being inspired by places and symbols taken from the Bible, theology or of the Marist world.

The MYM is an enticing and stimulating proposal that has been born as one of the first fruits of the restructuring between the Administrative Units. It is also a cry for many brothers and collaborators that they carry in their hearts for these young people who are the face, the sign and the gift of Jesus and Mary for all Marists.

Brother João Carlos do Prado
Inter-Provincial Co-ordinator of the mission sector