By Jay Sorgi • Posted March 27, 2026

People serving in Catholic ministry help to feed Christ’s flock.

Parish staff working with young people are themselves fed with knowledge and wisdom, along with coffee and pastries, at Deanery Family Gatherings organized by the archdiocesan Office for Ministry with Youth (OMY).

“It really becomes a way for us to listen to the needs and the joys of our ministers,” OMY Director Marisally Santiago said about these gatherings  that take place most months out of the year usually at a local restaurant.

“It’s really checking in on ‘What’s a challenge? What’s a win that you want to celebrate?’ We can connect and collaborate. It’s really an opportunity for us to be able to be out in the field and check in, or give an opportunity for people to come in, share with us and share with each other.”

The recent encounter of Lisa Bull, director of youth formation for Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Parish in North Wales, with Santiago and OMY Associate Director Jennifer O’Neill became a moment to refill the spiritual tank over hot coffee and warm hugs.

“Anytime I’m in their presence, they just fuel me,” Bull said.

“They give me affirmation that I’m on the right path with my missionary discipleship of the kids. It’s very easy for me to project my agenda to the children, but that’s not my agenda. It’s our Lord’s agenda, and these women helped me to fuel (the belief) that I am actually on that path of the Lord’s work.”

O’Neill sees these “office hours” as a chance not just to talk about what’s happening in the field with youth ministers and young people, but to minister to the youth ministers and build a circle of connection between them.

“Just to be able to be a community together, it’s something I think is beneficial for the ministers, and beneficial for us,” O’Neill said.

“They can talk together (and) can build their own community that’s not necessarily who they see every day. It’s easy to get caught up in parish life; it’s easy to get caught up in, ‘The pastor needs this, and this teacher and teens need that,’” which is why it’s important “to get a time away from that and also process what they’re doing with their prayer life,” she said.

The gatherings begin and end with prayer, with what Santiago describes as “sacred listening” to each minister’s unique personal, professional, and spiritual needs.

“I think definitely the struggles that you hear are different for everybody,” Santiago said. “One struggle a minister had was that not having time to fill for the youth, but her thriving young adult program was overabundant. This one youth minister had a thriving youth program, but had young adults that she couldn’t plug into.

“Immediately (the first) said, ‘Bring your young adult, the one that you can’t find a way to plug back in. Bring her over to my young adult group, because we’re thriving.’”

Santiago says that all these Spirit-led strategies are meant to solve what studies show has been the thing youth and young adult ministers have struggled with over recent years.

“Lack of support in the parish, being overwhelmed, being overstretched,” she said. “We want to make sure that the message is clear: we are here to support you. We’re here to support pastors, we’re here to support those that want to walk with young people, whatever that looks like.”

“The work of youth ministry is so beautiful,” said Ashley Bennett, the coordinator of ministry with youth and young adults for St. Jude Parish in Chalfont. “I love being in it so much, but sometimes it’s hard to see immediate results. There’s nothing else I’d rather do with my life, but it is sometimes very exhausting.

“Being able to connect with other ministers, people that are also in the field that are also doing the same work that I’m doing, to be able to have that opportunity to share the successes, the moments where I need a hand, to be able to share what’s beautiful.”

Santiago and O’Neill see the ultimate vision of these Deanery Family Gatherings as both meeting the ministers’ needs and empowering them better to fulfill the very reason why OMY exists.

“We can help not just ministers, but the entire Church of Philadelphia, acknowledge young people, see young people, and engage youth, to see themselves as agents of transformation for any youth,” Santiago said.

“It’s critical for people to see that they are agents of transformation for youth.”