The Task of Growing Up: Helping Teenagers and their Parents

Boys’ sporting day in Hyderabad

23 November 2016 — Discussion of the Fourth Theme of the course:

Youth Spirituality as a Holistic Journey of Faith: Psychological Approach

                                              

English-speaking group: 

Deli Kapani, Prakash Vijaya Maramreddy, Roshan Miranda, John Peter Savarimuthu

L-R: Roshan, Deli, Prakash & John Peter

Questions for young people 

Salesian students from Nagaland

How do the youngsters respond to the transitional changes that take place in their life from childhood to adulthood: physically, psychologically and spiritually? By way of illustration, we listed a number of situations and challenges.

• Young people leave childhood and take on new roles and responsibilities. 
• It is a period of social, psychological, spiritual, and biological transitions. 
• For many young people, growing up involves demanding emotional challenges and important choices.
• To a large degree, the nature and quality of young people’s future lives depend on how successfully they negotiate through this critical period. 
• The challenges for young people making the transition to adulthood are greater today than ever before due to globalization through internet and new technology. 
• This globalization brings new lifestyles that can cause conflict with the traditional norms and values. 
• Adolescents face complex identity crises and moral conflicts today. They like to experiment everything.
• Young people seek lives of independence from the family. Many youth get into problems of premarital sex.
• They identify themselves with the peer groups and rebel against their parents and elders.
• Many children are pampered by their parents and are not able to cope up with the hard realities of life.

Parents & children in Tonj Village (South Sudan)

Some discussion questions for parents:

Are the parents of today’s youth confident enough that their children are growing up physically, psychologically and spiritually? If so how?

• Many parents today are not confident with their children and their future because they failed in their parental duties.
• They provide financial security to their children without spending quality time with them.
• Parents insist the children to find their own way and return home after the college.
• Often young people spend very little time with their parents at home.
• Parents do not give proper sex education to their children.
• Parents should listen to their children and talk to them.
• Parents should teach children sensible online behaviour and precautions.
• Monitoring or restricting children’s internet use is important.
• Due importance must be given to the early education at home.
• Parents should decide what is good and bad; they need to be able to say ‘NO’ to their children.
• Children should be always under the supervision of the parents and not the guardians.

Summary by Prakash

Photos by Prakash, Deli, John Peter & Joe

Helping Parents as they Accompany their Children in the Faith

Chapter 2: Spirituality in the Context of the Christian Religion

English Speaking Group Members:

Deli Kapani, Prakash Vijaya Maramreddy, Roshan Miranda, John Peter Savarimuthu

9 November 2016

Discussion Questions:

1. To the Youth:
What is the meaning of all your involvement in the life of the church and what is your personal experience of God in your life?

• In many of our centres young people are very much involved voluntarily in the organizing church liturgical and pastoral activities, and social, humanitarian projects of the church. Eg: Animating Sunday liturgy, preparing children for sacraments, assisting the poor and the vulnerable people in the parish. 
• They find God in serving others. For example, in south Sudan, in Tonj parish, the parish youth prepared a land for the lepers to cultivate, and the youth prepared a local houses for them.
• The young people are volunteering in many part of the world specially the first world countries to go to the third world countries to offer services, similarly even in our centres they offer volunteer services to the poor
• The young long for God in the poor, needy, vulnerable. Seeing their commitment to serve the needy reveal their thirst for God.
• Popular devotions are increasing gradually particularly devotion to Mary.

2. To the parents:

Have you ever given proper time to your children in their search for an experience of God?  Have you taught them the source of real joy and fulfilment in their life?

• In our mission places the faith of the people is impressive and their love for Jesus and Mary is increasing by their personal experience of God.
• In many places parents are not giving good example to their children. also the environment in which the families are living in especially Africa is not conducive for the young people to grow in Christian human values. So there are challenges for the missionaries.
• Parents offer opportunities to their children to participate in the church activities.
• The Small Christian Communities offer opportunities to the young people to lead the groups and to involve themselves to prepare the children for the sacraments.
• There is technological gap between the young people and the parents. Most of the parents even don’t know whatsup, facebook, but the young people are in advance. 

Summary by John Peter Savarimuthu
Photos by Joe Boenzi