The Oratory as our Mission

The Oratory as our Mission – Questions for reflection

For Personal “Meditation”

- How fit and healthy is my “oratorian heart”?

- Do I feel threatened by young people?

- When last did I have a meaningful personal conversation with a young person?

- When last did I spend some time studying something concerning the world of youth?

- Am I keeping myself up to date regarding the main issues confronting young people?

- How well am I in touch with the youth sub-culture?

- Am I constantly striving to find new ways to connect with young people?

- Do I strive to redeem the negative aspects in youth culture without being over judgmental of it?

- By my whole disposition am I communicating the Good News to young people?

- Am I able to answer the questions young people ask in their kind of language?

- With how many young people do I regularly communicate personally or by email, phone…?

- How many young people would turn to me before other “experts” for advice?

- How many young people could I depend on to the extent that they would be ready to help me

   with anything I might ask of them?

- How much of my ministry stems from my love of them and not just from a sense of duty?

- How much of my ministry takes place outside of a captive audience?

- Am I prepared to do some extra apostolate such as running youth retreats, vocations workshops,

camps, youth rallies? Or do I have a minimalist approach to my ministry?

- How many religious vocations have I inspired?

- Where possible, do I strive to make contact with the family of the young people I deal with?

- In my work among adults, do I make them aware that youth is my main concern, and do I seek out ways to involve the laity in SDB apostolates?

- Am I prepared to form lay people by involving them in our mission?

- Do I look out for other opportunities around the locality to participate in youth events?

- Evangelization begins with the simple building of friendly relationships rather than teaching catechism & preaching: How many young people can I refer to as friends?

- Do I really view young people as the locus for my meeting God?

For community reflection:

Several official documents of the past few years stress that while we must care for all people in need, the focus for our apostolates should be the 13-25 age group.

Is this focus visible in our community?

Is our community in touch with any of this age group in the locality?

Is our community aware at least of the interests, problems and aspirations of this age group?

What are the chief obstacles to making this age group the target of our community? How can we overcome these difficulties?

Is there any project we could launch in the next year in favour of the 13-25 year olds?

Are we equipped to face the HIV/AIDS & teen-pregnancies pandemic which has become one of the principal issues to deal with in all youth-work?

Are we restricting our apostolate to what we have been doing for the last 10/20 years?

For general discussion

Are our apostolates in the province too diffuse with a multitude of personal apostolates which are not sufficiently community based?

Are we watering down our Salesian identity in ministries which are not characterised by our preferential option for poor youth? Are we in fact lacking in visible prophetic presences among poor youth?

Are some of our works lacking in evangelizing focus/content?

Is a sense of helplessness among confreres in the face of the enormity of youth problems provoking a certain apathy or lethargy among us, to the point that confreres are considering themselves not competent in the very field we ought to be specialists?

Are our plants and facilities used to their full potential to present an “oratorian” image?

How can we rejuvenate and africanise our founder DB into a role model and inspirer for local youth?