Welcome from the Director:

First of all, I want to welcome you to the Diocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry and pray that you are on your way to finding what you are searching for, and hope that we can be of help to you in your journey to deepen your relationship with God and in finding your “place” in today’s church. I just know that God is saving a seat for you --hmmm, now its your job to find out which one in the building it is! We want to help with that.

I live in Port Henry (yes keep looking east on the Diocesan map, and then look down) and live with my 11 year old son, Noah and my mother Colette.  I am in the habit of saying that I recently moved back to help my parents and raise my son in a safe, healthy environment, but I really can’t anymore because that was 10 years ago. Yes, you read correctly,  I am a single mother AND work for the church! (All the details are incorporated in my witness talk and hope to share my story in more detail with you one day).

Being a mother is my number 1 job and while the pay stinks, the rewards are out of this world. My son and I spend a lot of time together enjoying hobbies such as model trains, volunteering for the Adirondack Railway and attending model train shows and camping.  Like every other kid on this planet he enjoys video games (I try to keep up) and is a wiz on the computer.  But I will have lots of time to tell you all about him throughout my ministry in the diocese. For me, my hobbies include reading, movies and when possible just sitting, quietly in the present moment soaking in all of God’s goodness.

Besides being the Director of Young Adult Ministry, I am currently the Director of Religious Education for the Catholic Community of Moriah, which includes both St. Patrick’s in Port Henry and All Saints in Mineville, NY.  I love my parish community and see the unbelievable potential that we hold within our community and with the guidance of Fr. Scott Fobare are actively thinking out of the box to help parishioners experience the awesomeness of God, and to continually learn about their faith.

For the past 8 years I have worked as the Manager of Administrative Services at Families First in Essex County in Elizabethtown NY a non for profit agency that works with children and families who are struggling with mental health issues. The experience has given me a keen awareness of the struggles with families in today’s world and the lack of inspiration and support so many families live with. While it is a “secular job” I think I have grown in my faith most while helping others through my employment with Families First. (I invite you to check out our new website familiesfirstessex.org).

I hold an Associates Degree in Religious Education from Mater Dei and a BA in Philosophy from Wadhams Hal Seminary. Being a part of both these institutions was an amazing experience for me and gave me an incredible foundation in which to start a career in lay ministry. Upon graduation, I became a Youth Minister for 4 parishes and a catholic school in Paducah KY and after that worked as the Catholic Campus Minister at the University of Mississippi.  During this time I really fell in love with working with young adults in the church and am honored that so many of them allowed me to journey with them. During my time at Ole Miss, I organized a thriving campus ministry program, a traveling retreat team, mission trips to Saltillo, MX, lead prayer experiences, taught RCIA for young adults and learned much from my Baptist campus ministers on the unbelievable importance of hospitality and welcome.

I believe that we are all searching for something that can give us meaning in a world that is very much interested in taking meaning out of everything. I believe that we can insist that hope is real and that a group of people who love God and others really can change the world. I believe that together we can help each other become the kind of people that God intended us to be and bring about a church that reflects that. In the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: Pope John Paul II writes: "if Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross. For this reason, in response to their enthusiasm, I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become 'morning watchmen' (cf. Is 21,11-12) at the dawn of the millennium" (ibid.,n. 9).

My job … is to gather the watchmen (and watchwomen) and provide fellowship as we follow the morning son into a new day. I hope that you will take the challenge.