My name is Ricky Prego. I’ve been a member of this Parish since I was baptized here eighteen years ago, and I’m a student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.

I was asked to speak today about my experiences with stewardship as a child, teenager, and young adult; but what I really want to talk about is how the young people of our parish can do their part for our Church and community, and how they can do some of the same things that I did as I was growing up in this Parish.

We hear about stewardship as giving our time, talent, and treasure to serve God, our Parish, and our community; but what does that really mean? It means giving in any way you can. When I was a little kid, I used to put money into the poor boxes at the back of the Church, whether it was spare change that I had or dollar bills that my dad gave me to donate. When I started to get an allowance, I began using the children’s collection envelopes and I donated a dollar or two every week. When the Church’s bell system was replaced, they were collecting donations right after my birthday, and I donated some of my birthday money to replace the bell system. And when I got my first part-time job, I made a pledge to the Repair My House campaign as well. My point is, the youth of the parish can give back by donating money, even if it is only a few dollars.

The easiest way to give back isn’t by giving money; it’s probably giving of your time and your talents. There are so many different things I have been involved in in our Parish, and all of the youth of our Church can do the same thing. I used to volunteer during the summer at Vacation Bible School, doing everything from helping with snacks and crafts to leading activities in the Church.

There are other small things that are going on in our Church all the time that people of all ages can participate in. In the fall there is always a leaf raking party, a Saturday morning when parishioners get together to help clean up the leaves around the Church, the school, the rectory, and the convent. This is just one example of something that I have done before, and there are many more ways that each and every one of us can give a few hours of our time per week to give back to God by helping the Church and each other.

Over the past few years, I’ve also helped at the carnival that we have here every June. Many of the years I was there the Saturday before the carnival started, setting up the tents, tables, food tent, the dunk tank, and putting up fences. I always tried to help out every night in some way, whether it was working in the soda tent, at a game, in the food tent, or in a ticket booth. And for the past few years, I have stayed late on the last night to break down everything when the carnival is over. There are so many jobs that need to be filled by volunteers by the Parish during the carnival, and if you can give a few hours of your time during Carnival week, you’ll help out a lot, and you’ll have fun doing it.

The longest activity that I have done here at St. Matthew’s is what many of you have seen me doing before – serving as an Altar Server, which I had done for eight years until I graduated from high school and moved on to college. This is the perfect opportunity for the younger kids in our parish to get involved. It is a very rewarding experience, because it brings you into the mass. In my last few years as a server, I was honored as serving as Master of Ceremonies for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.

I enjoyed all of these ways that I have given back to God through stewardship, but the way that I feel that high school students can participate in stewardship is by joining Youth Ministry. I was only a member for two years of high school, but once I joined I had a great time. I manage a web site for our Youth Ministry group, and now that I have graduated high school, I’m still involved as a junior advisor. Youth Ministry does all sorts of things to give back to God, our Parish, and our community, such as helping the Father’s Club by serving food at their comedy nights, having bake sales, babysitting during this past year’s parish mission, attending Diocesan Teen Masses, assisting at the 9:00 Childrens’ Liturgy every week, going on a trip to New York City during Christmastime last year, writing Christmas cards to recovering American soldiers in Washington, DC, helping to decorate the Church before Christmas, serving dinner at the Ozanam Family Shelter, attending the New Jersey Catholic Youth Rally at Great Adventure, giving free swim lessons at the YMCA for the children of the Ozanam shelter, staffing the soda tent during the carnival, holding a car wash to raise money for the Ozanam Shelter, and holding an end-of-year picnic in June. We will also be running games at the Parish Picnic next Sunday, and we will be hosting the quarterly Diocesan mass on November 16. Youth Ministry is by far the best way for teenagers to get involved in the Parish. We meet every first and third Sunday of the month at 7:30 PM in the Parish Center. If you are interested in joining, we are having a video game night (tomorrow night / tonight) at 7:30 in the Parish Center.

As you can see, it isn’t hard for children and teenagers to participate in stewardship of time, talent and treasure. If you are interested in learning more about how you can get involved in Youth Ministry or any of the other things I mentioned, feel free to talk to me after mass.

Thank you.