ALUMNI NETWORK - YOUNG LEADERS CONVERSATION RESOURCES
Online formation sessions resources
In April 2020 we launched our young adult conversations - 13 nominees from the previous three years of the awards meet weekly to join in and grow together, hearing from specialists in the field, sharing their faith and learning more about our global world. Resources shared throughout the conversations can be found below.
Our Creed can be found here.
Our letter to Adult Catholics can be found here.
Our prayers can be found here.
Join the National Justice and Peace Conference (18th July). More details here: https://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/
To read:
A letter to a young activist: https://jimandnancyforest.com/2014/10/mertons-letter-to-a-young-activist/
Learn more about Christus Vivit
To watch:
Sitting in Limbo on BBC 1
Ted talk: Intersectionality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o&t=307s
The School that ended Racism - Channel 4
The BIG Climate Teach-in:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Pzzt9d9yY&feature=youtu.be
Ongoing projects that Alumni can help with:
Prepare the future: https://millionminutes.org/future
Women in Black vigils: You can see our previous 'solidarity at a distance' vigils here http://london.womeninblack.org/
Social justice/action:
Tom Allan SPARK Project Tom Chigbo Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koHAxuTw7gc/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xa1ZNy4HQ&feature=youtu.be
What does a CAFOD campaigner look like? | Leila’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki36VL-0ACY
Ella’s interview: https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/31686
Tom and Anna - Prepare the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOZr1PXw9pI&feature=youtu.be
Promoting better well-being:
Covid-19 anxiety workbook- A tool to help you build resilience during difficult times
Spirtuality and well-being powerpoint slides from Sahaya Selvam, sbd
Food poverty:
Church support: https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/church-support/
Find a Food bank: https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/find-a-foodbank/
The Climate Coalition:
https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/glasgowactionplan
Actions to take part in:
Justice for Belly Mujinga: https://www.change.org/p/govia-thameslink-justice-for-belly-mujinga?fbclid=IwAR0QyS50mlfBkn0T6GawbV3ghlMa_04o12GoTtNjderBz2kejQPR1S32q34
Five weeks too long (The Trussell Trust): https://www.trusselltrust.org/five-weeks-too-long/
Black Lives Matter: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/black-lives-matter-write-your-mp
- https://www.change.org/p/department-of-education-battle-racism-by-updating-reading-lists-at-gcse/psf/promote_or_share?guest=existing&short_display_name=Sophie%20&recruiter=84947159&source_location=react-fe
- https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/12573/practical-ways-to-fight-racism-in-the-uk-today-black-lives-matter-london
Laudato Si:
Read the whole thing: https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf
Listen to the whole thing: https://columbans.co.uk/columbans-launch-encyclical-letter-laudato-si-in-audio-format
A nice summary of the whole document: https://www.progressio.org.uk/sites/progressio.org.uk/files/laudato_si_guide_web.pdf
Useful video clips:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHlzOWp8ZQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ed6YgtJtkk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Lz7dmn1eMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt7ngnQjQXI
Reflections:
139: "It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems. We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental."
144: "As life and the world are dynamic realities, so our care for the world must also be flexible and dynamic. Merely technical solutions run the risk of addressing symptoms and not the more serious underlying problems."
226: "We are speaking of an attitude of the heart, one which approaches life with serene attentiveness, which is capable of being fully present to someone without thinking of what comes next, which accepts each moment as a gift from God to be lived to the full."
222: "Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption. ... It is the conviction that “less is more”. A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment. To be serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, opens us to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment.
205: "Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us."
139. Sometime ago, a friend asked me what I see in a young person. My response was that “I see someone who is searching for his or her own path, who wants to fly on their two feet, who faces the world and looks at the horizon with eyes full of the future, full of hope as well as illusions. A young person stands on two feet as adults do, but unlike adults, whose feet are parallel, he always has one foot forward, ready to set out, to spring ahead. Always racing onward. To talk about young people is to talk about promise and to talk about joy. Young people have so much strength; they are able to look ahead with hope. A young person is a promise of life that implies a certain degree of tenacity. He is foolish enough to delude himself, and resilient enough to recover from that delusion”.
Dorothy Day:
Reading: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/633.html
Optional (free!) documentary: https://www.pbs.org/video/revolution-of-the-heart-the-dorothy-day-story-lwz697/
”Young people say, "What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform these actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.”
”We are all called to be saints, St. Paul says, and we might as well get over our bourgeois fear of the name. We might also get used to recognizing the fact that there is some of the saint in all of us.”
Other links:
To learn more about our Alumni Network explore our page here.
Speak up for young people
Celebrate young people