FEARLESS
2013 Life Teen Theme
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Life Teen SpoTLighT
FEARLESS
2013 LIFE TEEN THEME
LIFE NIGHT OUTLINE
CATECHISM
# 1808
# 1817-1821
YOUCAT
# 303
# 476
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 23:4
Psalm 27:1
deuteronomy 31:6
matthew 10:28
matthew 14:27
matthew 28:10
KEY CONCEPTS
christ repeatedly commands
his disciples to “be not
afraid.” he also speaks this
command to us, especially
when we face persecutions
because of our faith.
between experiencing fear
as a reaction or emotion and
allowing fear to dominate
our decisions. The love of
god casts out fear.
GOAL
The goal of this Life night is to introduce teenagers
to Life Teen’s 2013 theme, “fearless.” it will challenge
teens to not allow their fears to overcome them,
and to trust in christ in all circumstances.
ABOUT THIS NIGHT
By submitting our wills to
god we overcome our fear;
trust in christ provides us
with hope and fortitude.
This Life night begins with a fun game that
combines trivia and gross food in a hilarious way.
This “fear factor” game transitions into a teaching
that distinguishes between fear as a natural
reaction and becoming our fears; Jesus call us
to be fearless – that is, to not allow our fears to
overcome us. The teens discuss this idea during
the Break in their small groups. The Life night
closes with a time of eucharistic adoration that
will challenge teenagers to let go of their fears and
have courage in christ as their savior.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment for this night should be set
up like a haunted house. have shredded black
garbage bags hanging from the doors that teens
fake cobwebs and put them along the walls, and
scatter fake bugs around the room. The idea is to
create an environment that resembles a cheesy
haunted house, but not to create something truly
terrifying. in the front of the room have a table
and chairs set up for the opening game.
for the send portion of the evening you will
need to have an altar and monstrance set up for
eucharistic adoration, along with two baskets in
front of the altar. one basket will be empty, and
the other basket will contain st. michael prayer
cards.
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MEDIA SUGGESTIONS
video: “2013 Life Teen Theme: fearless” (Life Teen
video support: Person of christ)
video: “fearless Logo Loop” (Life Teen video
support: Person of christ)
GATHER
necrophobia – fear of death or dead things
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Pediophobia – fear of dolls
coulrophobia – fear of clowns
(5 min)
The youth minister should gather all of the teens
together to begin the Life night. he or she should
lead an opening prayer and welcome any teens
“DON’T BE SCARED” GAME
(15 min)
You will need to invite one team to represent each
class for this game that combines trivia and fear
factor challenges. have the teens come up to
the front of the room and explain that each will
be representing his or her class in the opening
challenge. give each teen a noisemaker to “buzz
in” with.
can be awarded. reveal four boxes, each with a
allow the teen with the most points to pick his or
just allow them to pick from boxes one through
four). after every teen has received their “mystery
box,” have them reveal the food item inside. it is
recommended you put one tasty food item in a
box (e.g. a candy bar), and a couple of gross or
spicy items in the other boxes (e.g. head cheese, a
jalapeno pepper, a bottle of goat’s milk).
available for all the members of that teen’s class.
explain that the contestants will be read the
and they will need to use their noise maker to
signal they want to guess what the name means
(arachnophobia is a fear of spiders). each correct
PROCLAIM
“FEARLESS” TEACHING
from which to choose. use the following fears as a
starting point for your questions, and feel free to
add more if you would like:
agrizoophobia- fear of wild animals.
acrophobia – fear of heights
mysophobia – fear of germs or dirt
cynophobia – fear of dogs
arachnophobia – fear of spiders
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(10 min)
Freaked Out
Think of the last time you were really afraid;
were you watching a movie, at a haunted house,
about to speak in front of your class? everyone
has moments when they feel fear.
fear is a natural human response to a perceived
threat. it is an emotion that god put within us to
protect us. We should feel afraid when we are
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in a car that is going way over the speed limit,
because we could get seriously hurt or killed.
fear also can motivate us to action. We may feel
fear for one of our friends who is making poor
decisions, and be moved by our fear to talk to
them about their choices.
feeling fear and positively acting on it is not a
bad thing. Without fear we would walk around
in dangerous neighborhoods, leave our houses
and cars unlocked, and probably do some
reckless things.
Becoming Fear
fear isn’t always positive, though. sometimes
instead of feeling fear, we become afraid. This
kind of fear is unhealthy; when we become
afraid we stop doing things that we enjoy doing,
become anxious, and instead of being moved to
act we feel paralyzed.
This kind of fear results in phobias; these are
fears that have no grounding in reality. a person
who has a phobia of speaking has become so
overwhelmed by anxiety that he or she couldn’t
possibly get in front of a room to speak.
fear that paralyzes us and stops us from being
who god is calling us to be is not good.
Fear and the Gospel
Jesus’ disciples were not immune to fear. They
were human, like us. Jesus often had to tell
them to “be not afraid.” in fact, this command is
uttered by Jesus more often than any other.
Why is Jesus so concerned with us being afraid?
disciples was to spread the gospel to the whole
world. This was a scary proposition, especially
when Jesus had told them they would face
persecution.
to stand with christ; but in the face of death and
execution, he becomes afraid and denies christ.
Likewise, there is an instance when the disciples
are all together on a boat and a storm arises
at sea. The disciples become fearful and wake
Jesus, who is sleeping. Jesus calms the storm,
and then reprimands the disciples for their fear
and lack of faith.
fear can drive us to lose trust in christ and even
deny him. do you feel afraid to share your faith
in school or invite a friend to church? if someone
is making fun of christ or the catholic church, do
you feel afraid to speak up? Being afraid of what
others will think is not who we are called to be
as catholics.
Love Casts Out Fear
We can’t get rid of fear as a reaction or an
emotion, but we can resist becoming our fear. We
can heed Jesus’ call to “be not afraid.” We do this
by radically trusting in god our father.
The night before his death, Jesus prays in a
garden. he feels fear for the next day, and prays
to god the father. rather than running away, or
begging the father to stop the execution, Jesus
simply trusts in the father’s will.
This is the perfect example of how we are called
to react to fear. if we radically trust in god,
then we have nothing to fear. We don’t need to
fear people who may judge or make fun of us,
because we trust that we are just in god’s eyes.
The martyrs didn’t even fear death because they
trusted in christ. They took very seriously his
words to not fear “those who can kill the body,
but cannot kill the soul” (matthew 10:28).
We are called to be fearless, especially in our walk
with christ. Jesus asks us to leave sin behind, to
boldly share our faith in him, and to lead others
closer to him. These things can cause us to fear,
but trusting in god’s love casts out all fear.
BREAK
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
(20 min)
The youth minister should break the teens up
into small groups of six to eight teens with a
core member. each core member should lead a
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brief opening prayer, and then use the following
questions to begin a discussion:
on people?
What fears did you have as a child that you
overcame as you got older? how did you
overcome those fears?
do you think the disciples were afraid to follow
christ? Why or why not?
in moments that we become afraid?
fear? What fears do you need to hand over to
him?
SEND
has given us a model to not be afraid; he asks us
to completely trust in him when we have fears and
doubts.
Tell the teens that they will have an opportunity
to be in the presence of christ through eucharistic
adoration to close the Life night. invite your parish
priest and music minister to be present for the
closing of the Life night well in advance. instruct
the teens to think of what fears they have in their
own lives and in their faith, and ask them to write
them down on the index card. during eucharistic
adoration they should prayerfully hand these
fears over to god; as a sign of their trust in christ,
they should come forward and lay their index card
in the empty basket in front of the altar. after
doing so, they can pick up a copy of the st. michael
prayer to pray in times of fear and distress.
close the Life night with Benediction and the
recitation of the divine Praises, then have your
group pray the hail mary and ave maria together.
ADAPTING THE LIFE NIGHT
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
(25 min)
gather all of the teens back into the main meeting
room and have a couple core members give each
teen an index card and a pen for the closing prayer.
Take a couple of minutes to recap the main points
of the Life night:
Play the opening game in small groups rather
than having a couple of teens come forward.
give each small group a few seconds to discuss
an answer and then use their noisemaker to
make their guess. This will involve more people
in the opening activity.
christ repeatedly commands his disciples to “be
not afraid.” he also speaks this command to us,
especially when we face persecutions because
of our faith.
as a reaction or emotion and allowing fear to
dominate our decisions. The love of god casts
out fear.
By submitting our wills to god we overcome our
fear; trust in christ provides us with hope and
fortitude.
explain to the teens that everyone experiences
fear, but christ tells us not to become our fears.
even Jesus experiences fear, but he hands his fears
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notes
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