Christ the Divine Shepherd Youth Group

The Christ the Divine Shepherd Youth Group will start our 2019-2020 school year on Sunday evening, Sept 8th at 7 PM in the cafe of the Lourdes Center.  If you have a child that is a student in 7th through 12th grade,  they are eligible to participate in the CDS Youth Group!  We open at 7 PM with snacks and refreshments while the students hang and play an intro game or activity.  We move to the bible teaching or lesson followed by small group conversations on how the idea or topic applies to 13-18 yr old kids, and we close with awesome games in the gym or using technology that excites the kids to want to come back week after week!  Kids today truly need a moral compass more than ever, so send them to the MPH Catholic Youth Group Sunday evenings at 7 PM starting on Sept. 8 to help them build a strong Catholic GPS to help them avoid accidents in daily life.  If you have any questions, please email Christopher Cooley at servingothersoulsstb@gmail.com.  Take care and God Bless! 

Welcome to the CtDS Youth Group, which consists of 7-12th graders from St. Bartholomew, St. Bernadette,  St. Gerald Majella, North American Martyrs, and St. Susanna in the Monroeville/Penn Hills Group of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

We are a group of 7th through 12th graders striving to understand our relationship with Christ within our schools, our friends, our church, and our lives.  We also want to have a blast in the process of discovering Christ and how we can use His gifts to make the world a better place.  Our meeting draw between 25-45 kids per week who are looking for a fun and safe place where young adults can learn how to be a Catholic in the 21st century.

The CtDS Youth Group currently meets in the lower Cafe of Lourdes Center on the campus of St. Bernadette's Church (245 Azalea Drive, Monroeville, PA 15146) on Sundays nights from 7-9 PM.  During these 2 hours, we play games in the cafe, upstairs in the gym, or outside on the church campus as well conduct a lesson related to growing the faith of the YG members.  

Our goal is to train these young Catholics into servant-leaders who know their faith and are able to discern when to make a stand regarding their faith in daily life.  It is important to teach young adults that a Catholic lifestyle is not boring and dry with lots of rules, but quite the opposite.  We must show them that the why behind the precepts of the church set clear walls for our members and Catholics to have infinite choices of diverse, entertaining, and exciting activities to bring joy to their lives while enhancing their faith and ability to share with others.  Rules and laws are taught to be restrictive and narrow-minded, but once clear walls are set in the mind of a young adult, the chaos that fills daily life and the choices of so many teenagers, can be replaced with faith, hope, love, and most of all peace, something that is in short supply in teenagers in the 21st century.

The Christ the Divine Shepherd Youth Group will serve as the 3rd Serving Other Souls chapter, www.servingothersouls.org, besides the Franklin Regional chapter and Plum O’Block Reach Out Group.  The FR SOS and Plum Reach Out are secular and do not mention Christ and concentrate on servant-leadership through service to the community, but at the CtDs Youth Group SOS chapter, we not only build the servant-leadership skills but we also connect those skills to Christ and the Church.

Vist our Instagram page at: https://www.instagram.com/christdivineshepherdyg

To receive text blasts about upcoming CtDS Youth Group events, you can do it in one of three ways:

• click the blue “Join Class” button above at top of page and enter your phone number in the joining process to receive text blasts of upcoming CtDScYouth Group info.
• You can also click the “Join Now” button while visiting this site on your phone to signup for texts blasts on your phone instantly.
• Lastly, you can open the Remind app and click add class and enter the class name @ctdsyg after the @ symbol in the app.

Come join us anytime to get to know Christ and who you can be in God’s Kingdom while having a great time with our Christ the Divine Shepherd Youth Group members. Contact our Youth Minister, Chris Cooley, at servingothersouls@gmail.com if you have questions or plan on attending our events.  Take care and God bless!

Video Clip 1 (Scourging of Christ from Passion of Christ movie)
Video Clip 2 (Cruxification and Resurrection of Christ from Passion of Christ movie)
The Passion of the Christ Permission Slip (due to graphic nature for students under 18)

Required Permission Slip for all Youth Group events (or Mission Trip)