Hi
I am Bill Kraus, the volunteer youth mentor at OLPH. These are tough days to be a Catholic in high school. I know that may seem like a strange way to start an introduction, but it is true. The church scandal. A society that only values what you can produce; how good you are at a sport; or what you can do for me. A culture of “you do you,” while ignoring that some of what is done is wrong and harmful to yourself and others. A world where the rules seem to be made by the popular crowd, and the rest are standing outside. A world of constant noise and too many people to please.
On top of all of this, you are supposed to be deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life after high school (no pressure!) and it seems like everyone has an opinion about what you should do and how you should do it.
We are not made to walk through life alone. Family and friends help us, but even then we can struggle to find someone we can talk to. Someone who won’t judge us or share what we have to say with others. There are SO many big questions we want to ask, but who do we turn to?
At OLPH, we have a high school mentoring program. Each week, a small group of teens meets with two adult mentors to talk about what you want to talk about. This is not religious ed. This is about walking with you to help you learn about who Christ is and how to build a personal relationship with him. We don’t worship some obscure idea of a distant “God” or some idea of “I try to be a good person.” We each have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and when we connect to him, it changes everything. We have openings right now to join these groups.
If you are interested or have questions, please respond reach out to me at