VINCENTIAN MARIAN YOUTH GREECE
together in FAITH, together in HOPE, together in LOVE for Christ!
what are the requirements?
To be an active member, you must:
- Commit yourself to the Christian and Vincentian lifestyle. In other words, you must love the Christian faith and follow its teachings, and you must love the poor and try your best to serve the poor whenever possible.
- Have a sincere desire to help build up the Church and to work towards the betterment of yourself and those less fortunate than you.
- Take part one time in the Marian Consecration Ceremony.
- Try your best to attend the prayer group meetings and participate in the activities of the Association.
- Carry out a task, when you volunteer for it, conscientiously and to the best of your abilities.
can you participate in an event without being an active member?
Of course. We know that you are busy with your daily lives. We do encourage you to become a member, however. It costs you nothing, except some of your time. And yet you can help so many others.
how much time do you need to invest in VMY if you become a member?
This depends completely on how active you are.
- If you volunteer to be a core team member, more time will be needed of you, especially when the upcoming event requires your attention.
- If you are a member, but you are not on a core team, you only need to help with the event for which you have signed up.
Note that being a member does not mean that you should leave those organizations that you currently belong to. The Association simply provides the necessary resources to help you in what you do, as well as the resources you may need to help others. We ask only that you follow the Association's principles, which are: 1) to love Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and 2) to evangelize and serve the poor, following the spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul.
do I have to be a Catholic to join VMY?
VMY participants, and the individuals that VMY serves, can be of any religious background. However, VMY members must be Catholics.
WHY SHOULD I JOIN VMY?
If you want a chance to grow closer to Mother Mary and Jesus, a chance to nurture your spirituality, a chance to meet a lot of interesting, young people like yourself, a chance to lessen the sufferings of your fellow brothers and sisters, a chance to develop your leadership skills, a chance to go to beautiful places at very little or no cost, and a chance to have an AWESOME and FUN time, then YOU SHOULD JOIN VMY.
why should you join the VMY Association?
- The head of the Association is the Blessed Mother Mary herself. In 1830, Mother Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré and declared, "I want an Association for the young to be founded where I will pour out many graces." You cannot go wrong with an Association if Mary leads it.
- The Association has been in existence for over a century and has over 200,000 members worldwide in 80 countries. It is well established and has resources all over the world.
- The Association provides a practical means to help you cultivate and nurture your spirituality, and you can do it with others. The Association is grounded in the spirituality of Mother Mary and Saint Vincent de Paul. For this reason, the Association can help you in the formation process.
- This is a great chance to help yourself. For example, through the events that VMY has, you can develop your leadership abilities.
- This is also a great chance to help others. Imagine how great it would feel to serve our homeless brothers and sisters with many other young people like yourself. And this is just one example of the many ways to help.
- This is a chance to meet a lot of interesting, young people of all nationalities who share similar interests as yourself. Who knows, you may make lifelong friends through the Association.
- It is fun. We do all kinds of cool stuff, like prayer group meetings and monthly group sessions, workshops, liturgical celebrations, retreats, and pilgrimages. We go to beautiful places. And, on top of it all, the Association subsidizes the cost from its fund and asks you for only a very minimal fee to symbolize your commitment.
how is VMY different from other youth ministries?
VMY has the ability and necessary resources to bring youth groups from all over the world to participate in projects, which can range from serving food at a nearby homeless shelter to taking a missionary trip to help the poor in a developing country. VMY, in a sense, serves as an umbrella organization to help bring youth groups together to achieve a common goal: to love Mother Mary, Jesus, and each other, especially the abandoned and the poor.
While each group has its own strengths and talents, when the groups come together, VMY hopes that barriers are broken. There is no "my group is better than yours" feeling. Rather, there is a feeling of a larger community, the worldwide Church, coming together to serve God and each other.
what age group does VMY serve?
VMY serves people of all ages. Typically, VMY members are from 13 through 40 years of age. If you are under 13 or over 40 (and you are still "young at heart"), you are more than welcome to take part in VMY.