CARINA parish’s youth group is going from strength to strength after staging its first rock Mass.
‘We had a ball,’ said Grant Sparks, one of the group coordinators for the Mass at Our Lady of Graces Church, Carina on March 17.
A large contingent of instrumentalists who had been practising for weeks accompanied the singers.
‘It was great to see the kids bugging their parents to go to Mass that night,’ said Grant.
‘Everyone who was involved was young and our World Youth Day candidate Michael Van Pelt addressed the congregation at the end of Mass to kick off fundraising for his trip.
‘As Michael said, the young people are the future of the Church, we have to encourage them.’
The popularity of singing has led to regular Friday night rehearsals for young people and Grant said they were looking at making singing a regular event in the line-up of youth activities in the parish.
Complementing the success of the rock Mass was a cooking night on March 15.
A large number of young people turned up to cook Asian stir-fry.
‘So many teenagers live in shared houses at some point and instead of cooking two minute noodles all the time, we’re hoping to provide them with life skills to make more diverse meals,’ said Grant.
He added that Our Lady of Graces was a multicultural congregation and that they were looking at bringing parishioners in to interact with the youth and teach them to cook a dish from their homeland.
‘It would be a perfect opportunity to expand their horizons.
‘Life skills are important to us, and worth the big clean up at the end of the night.’
