The ______________should be a great experience for your son or daughter and for your entire family. It provides an opportunity for you and your youth to learn and dialogue together about
important things in life like their faith and personal responsibility for active participation in the life and mission in their church. To make the most of the experience, consider the following:
Prior to the experience
Let your youth know how proud you are of his or her willingness to take part. Pray for your youth and for the entire leadership team as they prepare for the experience. Share a special meal together (at home or out) the night before your son or daughter departs. Make sure that the young person is free from all activity at home like ball games, work, etc
during the time period of the experience. During the Program
Post the program schedule in a visible place at home and/or work so you'll know where your youth is and what she/he is up to.
Pray for your youth, for the members of your local team, for the program presenters and participants, and for the new friends they will be meeting during the program.
Do something special for yourself (and for other family members) while your son or daughter is gone: read a good book, go to the movies, invite friends for dinner, call or write someone you've been meaning to connect with, volunteer time with a group you respect and support. Following the Experience
On Returning Home: Young people return from an experience with different levels of readiness to share. Some come home tired from the work and travel, and need some sleep before they're ready to talk. Others are excited and want to share every detail —with you and with anyone else willing to listen. Still others need time to process the experience, and won't be ready to go into detail until they've put it all together in a way that makes sense to them. Some may find the experience hard to talk about, feeling that, since you weren't there, you just won't understand. Having lived with your youth as long as you have, you probably know in advance which of the above categories he or she
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will fall into! Let your youth know that you're ready to listen. Ask an initial question or two and go where it takes you.
The sharing may come out in bits and pieces rather than as a whole. You may, for example, start off hearing more about the new friends they made than about what they learned or what they did. Or you may learn indirectly about the thoughts they're carrying from a chance comment. In either case, let them tell the story at their own pace. Please, make time to listen and to hear the feelings that stand behind the spoken words.
Continuing the experience: An important part of anyprogram is learning how to integrate their newly acquired skills/information/experience into their daily lives in an ongoing way. Consider the following approaches:
Discuss how you spend your time as a family, and how you make decisions about which groups and causes to get involved with. Decide together what your "time" priorities should be for the coming month or year.
Discuss your own struggles and joys of faith with your youth.
Encourage your youth to take an active part in the activities at the parish.
Consider participating in a parish faith enrichment program.
Discuss together what you're presently doing, as individuals and as a family, to be involved and sharing your gifts. If there's more you'd like to do, decide on a project you can get involved with as a family.
Discuss together what you’re presently doing, as individual and as a family, to help grow in your faith.
Encourage your son or daughter to continue praying for those he or she met during the event.
In addition to the above it is also valuable to attach the schedule for the event so parents can follow along.
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STIPENDS
For Priests
Mass Intention stipends. This is what the priest gets for the specific intention for which the mass is said (i.e. person, anniversary, etc.). The archdiocesan norm is $5, $10, $15
Weekend/weekday Mass $35
Confession/Penance Service $15 per time/service (for presiding at service you may give an additional amount)
Mileage In accord with current rate as found in the “Clergy compensation” policy
Presentations for lay, religious or clergy
Deciding on a stipend for a presentation is certainly something that is unique to the individual and the parish/school doing the inviting. The first thing is to ask the presenter if they have a set fee. Here are some things to consider in the way of compensation:
Mileage----A starting a point is to obtain the federal mileage guidelines
Preparation time---For every hour of presentation, it is reasonable to assume that there is 2-3 hours of preparation time.
Presentation---While there is no set amount, $25 per hour (plus preparation time) is a reasonable figure.
For example: 1 hour presentation $25 2 hour preparation time $50
$75 (plus mileage)