REFRESHED

AN EDGE ISSUE NIGHT ON

MAKING TIME FOR GOD
SCRIPTURE SUPPLIES NEEDED MEDIA
Jeremiah 29:11 • Candles SUGGESTIONS
Mark 6:31 • Adoration supplies Song: “All Who Are Thirsty”
• White Christmas lights by Kutless (Strong Tower, BEC
CCC • Paper Recording)
2559-2565 • Pens Song: “Restless” by Audrey
2672 • Chairs Assad (The House You’re
Building)
YOUCAT
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GOAL
The goal of this Edge Night is for the middle
school youth to learn the importance of taking
time away from the distractions and noise of life
to be refreshed by God in prayer.
EDGE NIGHT AT A GLANCE
The Edge Night begins with Eucharistic Adoration
in order to surprise the youth and help them
begin the night feeling refreshed by prayer. After
Adoration, they will play a game that demonstrates
how hard it is to hear God over all the noise in our
lives. This will transition into the talk that explains
the importance of taking time away from noise
and distractions to build up a relationship with
God in prayer. The youth will then have time for
discussion and an activity to help them make time
for prayer in their daily lives. The Edge Night ends
with a prayer challenge for the upcoming week
and a large group prayer.
ENVIRONMENT
Set up the main room for Eucharistic Adoration as
the youth walk in. Have the lights dimmed and/or
hang white Christmas lights around the room to
create a peaceful light. Utilize as many candles as
possible around the altar.
CORE TEAM FORMATION
If we truly desire to grow in our relationship with
Jesus, it is essential that we carve out intentional
time to be in prayer and away from distractions.
Often we can become so focused on leading
others to Christ that we forget to take time out
of our schedule to bring ourselves to Christ. One
of the main Scripture verses we will focus on with
our middle school youth this week is about Jesus
taking the time to be by Himself and to pray.
Read the following Scripture verse and use the
questions for discussion or personal reflection:
“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported
to him all they had done and taught. The because
so many people were coming and going that they

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did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them,
‘Come with me by yourselves to a quite place and
get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a
boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:30-32).
• How often do you take time in your day to go
to a quiet place to rest and pray? How can you
make more time for this?
• What is the significance of Jesus calling His
disciples to rest? How does this apply to you
and your life?
• What are some distractions in your life? What
can you do to make more of a quiet place in
your day?
• How can we lead and encourage our youth to
take time away from distractions?
GATHER
ENTER IN
(5 min)
As the youth arrive, have a few Core Members
outside the doors to the main meeting space.
Before the youth enter the room they will be
encouraged to turn off their cell phones and
iPods if they have one. If possible, have the youth
turn them in for the Edge Night. Have a box or a
bag to collect all of these items at the entrance to
the room. Then, have the Core Members instruct
the youth to enter the room in silence.
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
(15 min)
As the youth enter into the room, have Core
Members there to help them stay quiet and
reverent and direct them to go and kneel or sit
and pray. Have your music minister play quiet
reflective music during this time of Adoration and
be sure to have a time for silence too.
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TO THE PARENTS
This week, we talked about the importance of
taking time away from distractions to rest and
to have quiet prayer time with Jesus. In today’s
culture, it is easy to let screen time, school, and
even extracurricular activities become a priority
over our faith. We challenged the youth to think
about ways that they can be more intentional
about taking time away from distractions in order
to pray. Here are a few questions you can ask your
son or daughter this week:
• What did you learn about making time for God?
• What are some ways you are thinking of
“unplugging” this week?
• What are some things we can do as a family to
make more time for quiet and quality time for
each other?
After the Blessed Sacrament has been reposed,
play an upbeat song to end this time of Adoration.
ALTERNATIVE PRAYER
SUGGESTION
(15 min)
If your Edge program is newer or you do not think
that your middle school youth are at a point yet
where Eucharistic Adoration would be fruitful – the
following is a suggested alternative prayer to use
during the beginning of the Edge Night.
Gather in all the youth in silence and ask them to
sit down quietly. Begin with a brief explanation
about the importance of prayer and putting
it first in our lives. Then lead them in a time of
prayer beginning with an Our Father and then ask
for any specific intentions the youth may have for
the week (make sure that the Core Members are
ready to chime in if they youth do not respond).
Once all the intentions have been stated say a
prayer of offering them to God and then have an
extended time of silence for the youth to offer
prayers they may not have said out loud. They
may be uncomfortable in the silence but try to
challenge them by letting the silence be profound
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 even if it is uncomfortable. Close this prayer by
saying a Hail Mary and a Glory Be.
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
(5 min)
Welcome all of the youth to the Edge Night and
give a brief explanation of why you began the
Edge Night with time for quiet prayer. Explain to
the youth that sometimes we can get so busy that
we forget to stop and pray, and that prayer is the
greatest way for us to be refreshed in our lives
and helps us to keep our focus on Christ in all that
we do. Then, introduce any youth who are there
for the first time, recognize any birthdays, and
say a short prayer.
OVER THE NOISE
(10 min)
Break the youth into two groups. Assign one group
the bible verse Matthew 28:19 “Go, therefore, and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.” Assign the other group the bible verse
Luke 1:38 “Mary said, ‘Behold I am the handmaid
of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your
word.’” Instruct the groups to take turns shouting
their scripture verse as loud as they can all at the
same time – to make it more fun have some say
it as fast as they can and others a slow as they
can. The point of the game is for the other team
to correctly say the verse that the opposing team
was shouting out. Once one team has shouted
and the other has guessed, switch and have the
other team shout and the other team guess.
If you want to make this a competition, time to
see which team can correctly guess the verse the
fastest. If time allows play another round with
different scripture verses.
PROCLAIM
“REFRESHED” TEACHING
(10 min)
This teaching can be found on pages 34 to 35.
Here are the main points from the teaching.
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• There are many things in life to distract us from
prayer and our relationship with Christ.
• Prayer will refresh us and help us to keep our
lives focused on Christ.
• We need to make places and time to pray in
order to hear God’s voice.
BREAK
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
(10 min)
Break the youth into their small groups. Open
in prayer and use the following questions for
discussion:
• What are some of the major distractions in your
day?
• How much time during the day do you spend on
your phone, computer or TV? Do you think you
spend too much time on these things?
• What is your favorite place to pray? Why? How
could you create a prayer space if you do not
have one?
• What is one way you like to pray? What is one
type of prayer you want to learn more about?
WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
(15 min)
Supplies:
• Paper
• Pen
Keep the youth in their small groups and hand
out to each youth a piece of paper and a pen. Give
them time to write down everything they do in
one day, from the moment they wake up to right
before they go to bed. Tell them to be as specific
as possible and write down how much time they
spend doing each thing.
When they are finished, have them share with
one another to see how similar or different their
schedule is from the other members of their
small group. Then challenge them to find places
in their day to add time for prayer and silence,
which may require them to move things around.
Have each youth write down two or three very
real and practical changes they can make this
week.

TAKING IT DEEPER: SMALL GROUP

ADAPTATIONS FOR 8TH GRADE:
Supplies:
• Paper
• Pen
• Bibles

For the 8th graders looking to go deeper, have

them do the same activity of writing out what
they do each day but challenge them to put more
time for prayer in their days. Also discuss with
them how they can bring prayer into their daily
activities. Help them to share about the different
activities they do and how they can bring God
into those activities. For example offering up
their homework time and struggles for specific
intentions, or praying before sporting events, etc.

SEND
CLOSING PRAYER
(20 min)

Bring all of the youth back into the large group.

Challenge them to actually pray during the times
that they said they would during their small group
activities and ask them to be ready to share their
experiences at the next Edge Night. Close the
Edge Night by praying together an Our Father or
Hail Mary.

FURTHER ADAPTATION IDEAS

• If you are not able to do Adoration, bring the
youth into the church for prayer and praise and
worship at the beginning of the Edge Night.

• Invite a Core Member to share ways that he or

she has made changes to his or her schedule in
order to fit in prayer.

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 REFRESHED
TEACHING
WORLD OF DISTRACTIONS
Often we are consumed with the noise of the world around
us, and there are countless things at our fingertips that can
continually distract us from what God is trying to tell us. Just like
our game demonstrated, it is hard to hear the word of God when
there is so much noise. This can happen in our daily lives too. Life
can get so noisy with TV or music on all the time that we cannot
hear things God may be trying to tell us.

When we take time to turn off all these distractions and pray,
we are making time for God on our lives and allowing Him to
refresh us and talk to us. Prayer is all about a relationship, and our CCC 2565
relationship with God is the most important relationship we have, Mark 6:31
so it is necessary that we find time in all the busyness and noise to
go to a quiet place to pray.

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Begin this section with an example of a friendship. Call up a middle
school youth to be your friend for this demonstration.

This is my new friend (fill in the name of the youth). We have not
known each other for a very long time, and it is important that we
get to know a little bit about each other. So, what is your grade,
your favorite food, and your favorite thing to do on the weekend?

As soon as the youth tries to talk, have the speaker put in headphones
and turn on his or her iPod to listen to music – you can also play loud
music in the room to make the point that you cannot hear the youth’s
response. After a few minutes resume the conversation.

You know I could not really hear you, but I want to talk to you
more. Oh wait, I just remembered that my favorite TV show is on
right now and I cannot miss it again – all my other friends have
been talking about it and I do not want to miss out. So sorry,
maybe next time.

At this time ask the youth to go sit down and proceed with the talk.

This is not a great way to build up a friendship and, as you can

see, I did not really seem to care about this person. A lot of times
this is what our relationship with God can be like: We have good
intentions to pray – but we are easily distracted. Sometimes it
takes a lot of determination to pray and to listen to God. It is
helpful that we make a good environment to pray.

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 MAKING SPACE TO PRAY
Since many of us can be easily distracted, and there are a lot
of things vying for our attention, it is important that we are
intentional in our prayer time. That means we turn off our cell
phones, iPods, computers, TVs, or leave them all in a separate
room. It also means not saying yes to every extra curricular activity
CCC 2672 or making sure that your sports events or hobbies do not take all
YouCat 498 your time and give you no room for prayer. It is important that you
YouCat 493 give yourself space to be quiet and to listen to God and to talk to
God. If you have a special place in your house or your backyard
– go there to pray. The point is to have some time to take a break
from all the noise, distractions, and busyness to be with God. If you
do this not only will you feel more refreshed but it will make you a
better athlete, musician, friend, and student because God will pour
out blessings upon you in your relationship with Him.

Prayer can look different for a lot of people. You can read scripture
verses, you can journal, you can pray a rosary, you can pray
traditional prayers like the Our Father or Hail Mary, or you can
simply sit in silence and say the name of Jesus. It is important that
you find something that works for you, and the only way to do that
Jeremiah 29:11 is by trying different things. You can also start small – even five
minutes a day can make a huge difference in your life. You do not
have to give up everything in your life and only ever pray, but God
does want to speak to you and refresh you. He wants to shower His
love upon you and be a part of your life so that He can help you.
God has great plans for you and He wants to share them with you –
all you need to do is give Him a chance.

One of the greatest ways we can pray too is at Mass. The Mass is
the high point of our faith and it is there that we receive the Body
and Blood of Jesus Christ. This is the best thing that we can do for
our relationship with Jesus and for our lives in general. At Mass
we are taking concrete time out of our lives to worship God and to
be present to Him and listen to His word. There is nothing more
essential to your prayer life and relationship with God than going
to Mass every week. If this is not something your family does I
challenge you to talk to them about making this a regular part of
your family life.

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 REFRESHED CHECKLIST

EDGE NIGHT CHECKLIST

EDGE NIGHT DATE: WEEK PRIOR TO EDGE NIGHT:

____________________________________________ ⃞ Hand out/email the Edge Night to the Core

Members
EDGE NIGHT TOPIC:
⃞ Assign duties to the Core Team
____________________________________________
⃞ Pick videos and/or songs

CORE TEAM ASSIGNMENTS: ⃞ Gather all the supplies

Environment ________________________________ ⃞ Email Core Team the Edge Night Core Formation

Opening Prayer ______________________________

WEEK OF THE EDGE NIGHT:
Games _____________________________________
⃞ Prep for games and the environment
Proclaim ____________________________________
⃞ Meet with the Core Member doing the Proclaim
Closing Prayer _______________________________ (if applicable)

Videos: ____________________________________ DAY OF THE EDGE NIGHT:

____________________________________________ ⃞ Email Parents the information about the Night
and any announcements
____________________________________________
⃞ Gather and Prep for the night
Songs: ____________________________________
⃞ Pray!
____________________________________________

____________________________________________

Notes

______________________________________________________________________________________

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REFRESHED EVALUATION

EDGE NIGHT EVALUATION

INSTRUCTIONS:
Evaluation is a key to successful ministry. Use the following questions to discuss
and evaluate your Edge Night.

What is going well at our Edge Nights? What can Would you be interested in leading prayer,
we improve? explaining games, or giving a Proclaim teaching?

__________________________________________ __________________________________________

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__________________________________________ __________________________________________

Was there one particular part of this Edge Night Are our Core Meetings effective? How can I
you did not think was necessary? What and better serve you as a youth minister? What can
Why? we do to better serve our youth?

__________________________________________ __________________________________________

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