St. John Neumann Parish uses the EDGE Program for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade religious education. EDGE is a Catholic middle school youth ministry experience created for early adolescents.  EDGE is designed to meet the educational, spiritual, emotional, and social needs of young adolescents. These students are always welcomed and encouraged to bring their friends to The EDGE Program.  Each Edge session contains four parts in order to meet the needs of our youth: Gather, Proclaim, Break it down and Send off

Our Edge program meets twice a month on Mondays from 7 to 8:30 pm.

Each night will have a different theme about our faith, and will challenge our youth to grow in a deeper relationship with our Lord. The current semester we're covering the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

So far this semester we learned:

• Calling All Superheroes: Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter & Guide. The Holy Spirit works in our daily life to deepen the presence of God within us & help us live as children of God. We received the gifts of the Holy Spirit at baptism and those gifts are strenghened at confirmation.  Those gifts will bear the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit when we choose to open/use them in our daily life.  We'll delve deeper into these 12 fruits using the examples of various superheroes throughout this semester.
• Supergirl: Generosity is giving what we have out of love for others and Charity is giving of ourselves, in the greatest possible ways, through self-sacrificial love.
• Spiderman: Faithfulness is giving God our belief, our trust, and through that trust, our actions and Joy, which is greater than happiness, that is rooted in trust and brings a deep inner peace and radiant love that stems from knowing who you are and living your life in accordance with who you were created to be.
• Hulk: Peace is a freedom from chaos and disruptions--a goal of the Chirstian life. When we lose self-control, we can let anger steal our peace. However, when we have self-control we can react properly and respond to our emotion in a manner which leads to peace. We can use every situation in our life as an opportunity for prayer and practicing self-control.
• Captain America: Chastity & modesty

• (3/30) Rescue: EDGE packet emailed to parents to cover Gentleness & Kindness
• (4/6) A New Hope AND Safe Environment: Email sent to parents to cover the SEASON of Easter and Cyberbullying.
• (4/19) Batman: Will send email to cover last two Fruits of the Holy Spirit - Goodness & Patience

Past Semester

This past semester's theme was the Corporal Works of Mercy.

 - Color My World! - Jesus wants us to live a full and exciting life for Him
 - Love One Another - We are to love everyone (not just those nice to us/easy to love) as Jesus loves us.  This requires a choice, sometimes it is a simple act of kindness and other times it means putting someone else's needs ahead of our wants.
 - Hunger Games - We are called to feed the hungry & give drink to the thirsty. We talked about both physical hunger and spiritual hunger. Together we put together 50 bag lunches that were donated to the Nashua Soup Kitchen.  Most of us are blessed to not worry about where our next meal is coming from and have a loving home.  What can you do to answer our call to help those that are hungry? Can you share our snacks at school? Can you talk to someone we see sitting alone at school/invite them to join our group? Remember in Matthew 25:40 it says "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
 - Operation Body & Soul - We are called to bury the dead.  We talked about how the body is to be treated with dignity upon death -- it is NOT to be thrown away like trash.  Because the body is sacred, and equally as important as the soul, the remains are to be honored with a Christian Burial.  Although the soul is temporarily separated from body, it will be reunited on the last day when Jesus comes again, and will rise to heaven as Jesus did.
 - For the Love of God - We have many gifts in our lives and are called to share those gifts with our brothers & sisters in need. We talked about our call to clothe the naked. Most of us have a lot of clothing... some of which we no longer wear.  Wouldn't our clothes we no longer/seldom wear be more beneficial to someone in need? Maybe during this month that we celebrate Thanksgiving, we can take a few moments to see what we can share with others so they too have much to give thanks for. NOTE: Many kids got email before class & brought in coats/clothes to donate.  From the EDGE night donations alone (2 of 3 clothing pictures below, 3rd is from parishioner donations on 11/9-10), we donated 17 coats and several bags of various clothing! By end of clothing drive, we donated over 100 coats + a dozen large bags of clothes!! 
- A Stranger and You Welcomed Me - we are called to give shelter to the homeless.We often think of those that are physically homeless, but this also includes those that feel homeless/unloved/unaccepted/unwelcomed. When we feel God stir in our heart to help someone, we should listen to the voice that questions what the person will do with money they receive, but rather answer yes to Jesus and pray it will be used wisely.  (If too concerned, there are always gift cards for food places.) We also stressed that we can live this work of mercy by inviting those we see that are alone in school to join us & our friends. We discussed St Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her love for the poor -- how she taught that ALL lives should be treated with dignity... that she took people off the streets of Calcutta to a place where they could die with dignity, surrounded by love.  That she once said "The greatest disease in the West today is... being unwanted, un;loved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love."
- A Door to My Heart + Just Visiting - we are called to visit the sick as well as the imprisoned.  We talked about those that have both physical and psychological illness (to include loneliness). That  we can live the call to visit the sick by our just being present, listening to them, telling them stories or playing a game with them.  Visiting the imprisoned includes not only those in jail/prison, but also those who cannot leave their home (e.g. nursing home). We can live the call not only by visiting (e.g. if parents want to bring us to a juvenile detention center) to remind people they are still valuable & loved by God, but also by praying for them or writing letters (only use first name if do the latter). It is not for us to judge those who are in prison (only God knows their heart), but to pray for them to repent and choose to follow Jesus. We ended the night teaching how to pray the rosary then praying a decade of the rosary on the mission rosary received as a gift for each one of them (along with card on how to pray the rosary).

All Middle School students are invited to attend even our Catholic School students!

Besides the bi-weekly gatherings, we ask that each student participate in  

• Assist at a Teen Liturgy at Least once  
• Attend the Passion Play
• Particpate in one Specific Works of Mercy Project offered throughout the year
• Attend at least 2 Community Events
• Particpate in at least one Parish Work of Mercy project (Serving at a dinner, Church clean ups, etc)

All About Edge

Within the context of faith, middle school youth are moving from a child-like spirituality to one that will hopefully reach its pinnacle, through the work of EDGE, into an adult faith commitment to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Community.

The name “Edge” recognizes that middle school youth are on the Edge in their life, and if we as a church don’t do something about it, they’re going to fall off the Edge and we are never ever going to see them again. But, at the same time, we as a church are going to give them the Edge they need in life: Jesus Christ, the Sacraments, Sacred Scripture, the Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and a Catholic Community to love, nurture and challenge them.

In Middle and High School, we ask all of our students to assist at least once a year in at our 6 PM Mass as Lectors or Hospitality.  Those who are active altar servers, lectors, or hospitality ministers who serve throughout the year, do not have to sign up.

When signing up, either choose to be a Lector or Hospitality.
When serving, please arrive by 5:30 pm on that Sunday evening, dressed in your Sunday best.  

What is
       Hospitality - Greet people as they come into the Church and hand out any worship aids
                           - Help with the collection and bring up the gifts
                           - Pass out bulletins
                           - Help organize the Church after Mass
        Lector - Proclaim one of the readings - Must prepare ahead of time!  

Contact Cheri' Andersen
Youth Minister
(603) 880-0825 x 111
candersen@sjnnh.org or
youth@sjnnh.org