Approach young people using “Listen, Teach, Send”

Since vocation ministers work closely with youth and young adults, it helps them to understand the direction that American bishops are encouraging in ministry with young people. In 2024, the bishops released the 48-page pastoral document, “Listen, Teach, Send: A National Pastoral Framework for Ministries with Youth and with Young Adults.” Two of those involved in shaping the framework offer an overview of its approach to youth and young adult ministry. 

Several realities spurred the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to craft a new framework for youth and young adult ministry. Among them were the declining number of young people considering consecrated religious life and the sacraments of holy orders and marriage. The increasing rates of institutional disaffiliation and a mental health crisis affecting millions of youth and young adults also fueled the bishops’ initial discernment in this area. The USCCB felt the time had come to respond to these realities in a proactive and pastoral way. The process leading to the eventual passage of “Listen, Teach, Send” (LTS) was couched in intentional listening to women and men who have a heart for youth and young adults (including vocation ministers) and young people themselves. These groups communicated a mixture of frustration and struggle fused with joy and hope (not unlike the experience of the disciples on the way to Emmaus). In response to what they heard, the U.S. bishops crafted a framework “as a summons to local faith communities across the country to renew their efforts.”

The audience for LTS is wider than previous pastoral statements from the bishops around youth, collegians, and young adults. Lay people, consecrated religious, and ordained pastoral ministers in Catholic parishes, college campuses, dioceses/eparchies, and organizations are certainly intended readers, but so are parents and families of young people, peer ministers within the youth or young adult demographic, and any Catholic leader whose ministry or work intersects with young people. The bishops were mindful that this should include vocation directors and ministers, whose efforts regularly involve conversations, pastoral care, and accompaniment of those between 13 and 39. 

This is the opportunity the bishops put before all who read and reflect on the framework: carefully and prayerfully consider how you listen, teach, and send forth each youth or young adult the Lord places before you at any given moment. 

So that this framework is not a theoretical ideal or the property of a select few professional ministers, we begin this summons in the home and with our loved ones. We are not imagining an abstract concept, group, or data demographic; rather, we have in mind the young women and men we know or interact with on a regular basis. Each of them has a unique name, face, and identity: beloved by God and integral to the mission of the Catholic Church. 

As you read this article, we encourage you to pause for a few moments to reflect on the name, face, or identity of a youth or young adult whom you know or encountered recently. Start there and dive in.

Listening

When we listen to another, do we receive their words in our ears, or do we stop, pause in reflective silence, and strive to understand the story or perspective that person wants to offer us? This is a key challenge that the bishops offer us: to approach all youth and young adults with a listening heart. The first step in engaging a young person is authentic listening. Anticipating concerns about the overuse of the word “listening” in recent years, the bishops broke open the experience in four intersecting ways: encounter, presence, understanding, and healing. 

For vocation ministers, the encounter and full presence can occur the instant an individual steps into your community, office, or activity. Even more so, recognizing that many youth and young adults are not walking in our direction, listening exercises also mean going out to them and taking note of their lived realities. The U.S. bishops echoed Pope Francis in noticing that a growing number of young people are struggling, suffering, and navigating difficulties. How, then, can we more intentionally encounter young people “with loving and generous pastoral concern” before we ever mention work with vocations? How can we stop and listen to them without interjecting, fixing, or filling the silence? Many times, young people just want to be heard. When a youth or young adult knows you are simply there because you care, it can help establish trust that is foundational for further formation and engagement in the faith. 

In LTS, the bishops challenge us to still our incessant need to react or respond immediately. This can allow for a better understanding of the young person in our midst–across the generational, cultural, or experiential lines that may exist. Such acts allow us to witness the uniqueness of each person by directing our focus on the individual before us. We can appreciate his or her story because it is indicative of the human story, which we also share.

Finally, knowing someone’s story can (and often does) reveal deeper pains or hidden wounds, which can hinder a relationship with Christ or the community. The vocational journey of a young woman or man could be rooted in a sensitive element of her or his story. If it is not addressed or if there is no movement toward healing brokenness, a young person’s wounds could fester and grow, potentially eclipsing a mature and fruitful relationship with Christ and the People of God. A vocation minister has a prime opportunity to accompany youth or young adults in their midst through grief or anguish; not to fix or resolve the pain, but to become a trusted and concerned companion. How can you be that person? How can your community’s charism or spirituality offer hope for a youth or young adult who may be struggling, isolated, or uncertain?

In all this, practice patience and gentleness. The listening process takes time and effort, as trust needs to be built up slowly. However, it can yield a strong and fruitful bond when the young person recognizes he or she is listened to and cared for as a son or daughter of God. 

Teaching

How many of us recall with fondness a teacher or mentor in the faith who saw us as we were and welcomed us? We reflect kindly on many teachers and mentors we have had in the faith throughout the years who saw us and welcomed us into a deeper relationship with Christ, modeling virtue and joy. Their examples of virtue, and especially their patience with us, as we grew in deeper understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, formed a foundation for our faith to blossom. These teachers and mentors guided us towards a stronger relationship with Christ by sharing the truth, beauty, and goodness of the faith and inviting us to ponder the meaning of these things for our own lives and our relationships with Christ and others.  

As vocation directors, you are spending much time investing in men and women who are discerning the call of the Lord in their lives. The relational aspects of your ministry are rooted in the same relational aspects of Christ’s ministry. Your accompaniment of these young men and women serves as an intentional teaching dialogue on the ways that God is working in their lives. You have been invited to patiently walk alongside others and share the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ and the Catholic faith with them. The question of, “How am I inviting people to enter more deeply into a personal relationship with Christ to hear His calling for their lives?” can at times feel urgent. However, in looking to the example of Christ from Scripture, you can be encouraged that He is also there accompanying you as you journey with others. 

The bishops provide insights and encouragement for this teaching role of accompanying others in the faith, and specifically, in your work as vocation directors. In your ministries, there is a beautiful opportunity to provide formation that anchors young people discerning consecrated and religious life in the teachings of the church and to see these young people as collaborators in this work. In LTS, the bishops remind us that the development of the kerygma and a growing atmosphere of community life and fraternal love are foundations for this work to flourish.  It is beneficial to have strategic conversations with members of your religious communities, fellow priests, seminarians, sisters, or brothers in formation about how you live out community life and fraternal love and share the kerygma. 

Consider spending time in prayer and conversation, asking the following questions. Does our community live in such a way that the love of Christ is known and reflected to one another? Would young people be attracted to our community life? What liturgical and sacramental celebrations are part of our community life? How do we invite young people to participate in our family of faith as priests, sisters, brothers, consecrated men and women, etc.? These are important areas to reflect on with others so that your accompaniment of young people discerning God’s will can find a home that engages their gifts and talents in service to the larger church. 

Sending

Is your heart burning to serve Christ in your ministry as a vocation director? What a joy and a gift it is to share the love of Christ with others in your daily work. You have been called to this ministry at this time for a particular purpose in service to the Lord. How do you share the Good News of Christ in your work as vocation directors with young people? How do you witness to Christ in your daily conversations and routines? We can become so focused on all the things that need to be done in our ministries that we don’t spend time reflecting on how we live as we do these things. Are young people attracted to the joy that is shared in your ministry?

The bishops provide guidance on how to send out the young people we accompany on mission to the larger world. They remind us that we do not need to keep young people in long training programs for many years before we encourage them to proclaim the love of God. We can overcomplicate daily tasks and unintentionally add complexity to the processes of discernment and formation. 

Take a moment to reflect on the message from the bishops and how it is manifested in your ministry and community life. The bishops specifically mention this, saying, “Pastoral leaders, vocation ministers, and families can invite young people to consider all the ways God may be calling them in life.” 

In doing so, you can be a witness for young people to the dynamic joy of being sent on mission. Consider spending time in prayer and conversation, asking the following questions. How do we encourage the young people who are discerning God’s will for their lives to have an enthusiastic spirit? How do we serve the Lord with charity and justice in our particular state of life? How do we encourage the men and women who are discerning God’s will to take the lead in serving our local communities? What opportunities do we provide for young people to discern serving and leading in the church as a consecrated or religious man or woman? Do we share the stories of our founders, foundresses, and saints from our religious communities and dioceses as beautiful witnesses for our young people? How do we witness through our partnerships with various ministries with young people? 

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Vocation directors are invaluable collaborators with families and the church’s ministries with young people. As the bishops noted, those who accompany youth and young adults are most effective when they work in collaboration with the entire community. The church in this way works together across an interconnected network of ministerial fields for the good of the mission entrusted to us by Christ. As such, the church moves forward in these ministries as a “community on a journey.”

Like so many others in this community, you are a tremendous gift to all members of the Body of Christ, especially young people who are discerning God’s call. Thank you for your faithfulness as vocation ministers accompanying youth, young adults, and their families. To continue the journey ahead, we encourage you to build in time for your own reflection, conversation, and reevaluation to prayerfully engage with youth and young adults. You are living out a beautiful calling in service to the Lord, modeling for young people what it means to be sent out enthusiastically on a holy mission by pointing to Christ, who listens, teaches, and sends each of us with a love beyond compare. 

For a PDF (English and Spanish) of Listen, Teach, Send: A National Pastoral Framework for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults, as well as supplemental resources and media tools,  go to: tinyurl.com/ypw6t6zu

Paul E. Jarzembowski is the associate director for the laity at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a Bernardin Scholar in Practical Theology. Maria R. Parker is the assistant director for the laity at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She is dedicated to helping  youth ministers.