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Youth & Young Adult Ministry: In a Dead Zone—The Challenges of Prayer with a Screen-based Culture

Last year, on the eve of All Saints Day, a teenager showed up at my door searching for candy and donned a self-made t-shirt for his costume that can only be described as “genius.” The shirt simply said, “Terrifying,” and had two images emblazoned upon it: the icon of a dead phone battery and the icon representing “no wi-fi available.”

I laughed out loud. It was the perfect indictment of modern culture through a teen’s eyes. It also illuminated a severe problem that parents and catechists currently face when trying to introduce this next generation to the timeless and eternal Father. How do we guide a young soul with little or no prayer life into an intimate relationship with God, especially in the midst of this over-stimulated and screen-based culture?

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Mark Hart serves as Executive Vice President of Life Teen International and as a frequent presenter at Steubenville Conferences. A twenty-year veteran of youth ministry, Mark is a best-selling author, popular Catholic speaker and weekly radio host on The Catholic Channel, SiriusXM 129. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, Melanie, and their four children. You can connect with Mark online at biblegeek.com.

This article is from The Catechetical Review (Online Edition ISSN 2379-6324) and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of The Catechetical Review by contacting [email protected]

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