Youth Missions 2026
- May 1
- 3 min read
By: Luis Nava
Everybody is looking for love and peace in their lives, and during the days leading up to
Easter Sunday, the young people participating in Youth Missions go out to spread the love of
Christ to the world. Founded in Mexico in 1987 after St. Pope John Paul II called all Catholics to
evangelize, Missionary Youth has grown to impact 800 thousand people in 24 different countries
every year. It was started by a group of young people from Regnum Christi, and in 1994, the
addition of more families led to the establishing of Missionary Family, a facet of Missionary
Youth. In 2002, “Color y Fuego Misionero” became a new facet, growing Missionary Youth to
include teenagers.
In Pontiac, Michigan, the Missionary Youth and Family has been meeting in St. Damien
and going on missions during the Sacred Triduum since 2023. This year, in 2026, Youth
Missions moved to St. Clement in Romeo. There, teenagers and young adults helped clean a
local food pantry and repaint part of it, they prayed outside an abortion clinic, and they went on
house visits.
Angelina Cortés, a coordinator of the missions, explains that the main objective is to visit
families and share a message from the Gospel with them, like remembering the Passion of
Christ. During house visits, teens ask those they are meeting for prayer intentions. They also
carry a wooden cross, known as the missionary cross, near stores asking for prayer petitions from
passers-by. If anybody has a petition, they can write it down on a post-it note and place it on the
cross. On Easter Sunday, Mass is offered for all of those petitions, and throughout the year,
missionaries take the cross to their homes and choose sticky notes to pray for.
Throughout missions, teens get to play games like dodgeball, make a campfire, and have
other bonding activities. Spending days together with your fellow missionaries – eating together,
having fun together, traveling together, serving together, and praying together – really helps you
feel like a family. A family that is joined together by a love of God.
Emanuel, a Missionary youth, was asked how Missions helped him grow closer to God,
and he said that it helped him “[learn] more about my faith.” He explained that he was born into
a Catholic family that went to Mass and prayed before meals, but that he did not stop to think
about those actions. He said, “When I got to [do] missions, they explained some of these things I
would do, and they also taught us the importance of them. That way we could recommend them
to the families [we visit] and teach it to them if they wished to learn.” Being a missionary
exposed Emanuel to questions that he had not asked himself, encouraging him to “want to learn
more.”
When asked how he served God and others through Missions, Emanuel replied, “One
main way I was able to serve our Lord was by sharing His love with others. Like when we went
to the streets of Romeo asking for prayer intentions, and just sharing the joy God gave us.”
Emanuel enjoyed making people feel loved, and he said, “My favorite part of it was passing out
stickers to people, and seeing the joy on their faces of a simple gift.” He also enjoyed sharing
God’s love through house visits, as well as by his service at a nearby food pantry. He hopes it
“will help that pantry to continue doing good works and to help more people in need.”
Next year, if you feel called to join Youth Missions, I encourage you to do so. It is a great
environment to be a part of, as you will make many friends and establish strong bonds with
fellow Catholics. More importantly, you will be helping others grow closer to Christ, and
growing closer to Him yourself through prayer and service. Let us continue to live out the
missions in our daily lives.
As Cortés says, “Mainly we want to leave [those we visit] with a message of hope. A
message of hope because Christ rose, destroyed death, and reopened the gates of Heaven so we
can get there.”
Sources:
demptoris-missio.html
i-parish-to-unleash-the-gospel-this-holy-week
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