Formation Content of

New Evangelization Week

We want every teen participant and their parents to be fully informed about the content and experience they will receive by attending New Evangelization Week. After reading this section, if you have any questions, please contact Joe Mailhot.

joe.mailhot@gmail.com or 207-239-9242

If you haven’t already, please view the sample schedule to get an idea of the flow of the days spent at N.E.W. You will see that each day is packed with intellectual formation, corporate prayer, daily mass, confession available from multiple priests daily, small group discussions, times to bond over meals and fun activities.

There are 21 workshop sessions total, most of which consist of a 30 minute presentation followed by a 30 minute small group discussion.

Intro and Closing Sessions: Take inspiration from our event patron St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and our event motto, “Verso l’alto” “to the heights” these bookend sessions will present the teens with the inspiring challenge of dedicating their lives to following Christ to the heights of the spiritual life, the heights of friendship, the heights of answering God’s call to holiness and call to evangelize.

Discipleship sessions: These 4 sessions will focus on the Gospel message, the Kerygma. We will explore through Scripture God’s love for us, the reality of sin, and the Redemption found in Jesus Christ.

Christian Living Sessions: These 3 workshops will focus on the virtues needed to live a Christian life in community, such as right speech, reconciling relationships, and commitment to a community of believers.

God’s Call: These 4 sessions will explore God’s call on our life and how we respond. The Universal call to holiness, the great adventure of answering your vocation, living in the world but not of the world, and living the moral life.

Men’s and Women’s sessions: 4 workshops will separate the men and women to consider their relationship with God and one another as uniquely created by God as man or woman. These sessions are not what would be considered a “chastity talk”. These sessions will explain Catholic truths about who we are as men and women that will counter the cultural confusion about gender. We will examine being sons and daughters of God, brothers and sister to one another, Biblical characteristics of authentic masculinity and femininity, virtues and vices unique to the two genders (not narrowly focused on sexual morality), and Vocations to priesthood, religious life, and marriage.

The topic of sexual morality will be touched upon briefly as it will inevitably come up. Please know that sexual sins will not be discussed graphically or in depth, but that the virtue of chastity before marriage will be explained. Inevitable and common questions such as “how far is too far” “what counts as pornography” or “but what if we love each other” will be answered by re-stating the question as how to pursue the ideal of chastity before marriage. “Verso l’alto,” we aim high for the ideal of living the moral life as a profound Yes to God.

Prayer Workshops: 4 different prayer workshops will explore the immense treasure that is found in Catholic traditions of prayer. We will learn about and practice praying the Rosary, a daily examen, the liturgy of the hours, reading Scripture, novenas, litanies, Eucharistic Adoration, the importance of silence, and consistency.

This is the content of the information that will be presented to the teens and processed through small group discussion, reflection, and prayer. Remember that all this formative information is received in the context of being “away on retreat” and in community with Catholic peers, as well as being experienced amongst daily mass and the sacrament of reconciliation.

New Evangelization Week is an experience of Catholic Formation. Formation is the integration of knowledge, belief, and the daily pursuit of virtue. The fruit of formation is maturity. The body, heart, and mind are all involved in the experience. The goal of spending this time away is to not only be inspired to live a life more fully dedicated to Christ, but to be equipped in practical ways to live that life closer to God, as a more integrated human, in a community of supportive peers.