Saturday Night Live

by Mika Reyes

Whenever I think about church group activities, I used to think about older people who have experienced life much farther down the road gathering to discuss what God h. in store for them, or little children in Sunday school learning about the Bible. The CTK Youth Ministry’s Saturday Night Life (SNL) completely changed my view of church group activities. Rather than the audiences that I had thought of above, there were people ranging from their early teens all the way to people in their late twenties who come from different backgrounds. The people who would usually go the monthly SNL are parishioners who are either a part of the organizations under the parish or parishioners who hear about SNL in Mass.

While we tackle varied topics that range from light to serious concerns of young people, one that particularly stuck in my head was a talk given by one of the members of the CTK Youth Ministry, Jared Sarmiento. Jared related his experiences on changing jobs—from one that he liked to one in a rival company. Prior to this session, most of our topics had been mostly fun and lively with a perspective of Christ in mind.

After his talk, everyone was divided into smaller groups where we shared our own personal experiences. I found it somewhat strange to share my personal stories with people whom I only saw once a month for SNL since I don’t attend Mass in CTK. That’s when I realized that God brings people together for various reasons.

In my perspective, God’s reason for bringing together the CTK Youth Ministry and the attendees of SNL is because He knows that we, the youth, are all looking for something. We need someone that who will help us make sense of this crazy world before we choose to make a difference, not only for ourselves but for our future as well.