Youth and Family Ministry

Know yourself as a soul, a child of God!

You are the children of God,
the sharers of immortal bliss,
holy and perfect beings.
- Swami Vivekananda

At the turn of the 19th century as America’s mind had just been opened by the writings of Thoreau and Emerson, a young man from India—Swami Vivekananda—addressed the 1893 World Parliament of Religions calling humanity into active remembrance. "Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that ye are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies. Let positive, strong, and helpful thoughts enter the mind from very childhood." These empowering words struck a chord of Truth with those who received them, regardless of race, age, creed, or religion.

It is from this context of divine wholeness that we offer our Youth and Family Ministry at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment. We are informed through the teachings of the Eternal Way, the golden thread of truth found at the core of the world’s religious traditions, that we all are indeed children of God/Goddess/Spirit. Regardless of our color, size, shape, or age—we are each uniquely imbued with Divine Spirit just as a wave is imbued with the same water of the ocean.

With this light of divine remembrance as our beacon, we are committed to fostering awakening to the One Truth known by many names in our youth and families by celebrating the unique expression of Spirit in each individual in ways that lead to living soul-centered lives in harmony with others. In support of this vision, each Sunday we offer our Youth Spiritual Education programs for youth from infancy into their teens during our morning worship services. 

Our YSE program curriculum includes experiential learning opportunities based on the basic human values found at the core of our world’s great religious traditions (truthfulness, harmlessness, right action, love, peace) as well as time for practicing inner listening through meditation and prayer. 

We know that we love the children of God, when we love God.
-1 John 3:1

In order to support our young people in this manner, we must first begin to awaken and remember ourselves. Therefore, we support parents in ‘remembering’ in ways that support both their own path and their path as a family member—so that we may establish environments in our homes that nurture the soul life of our children. Our work is to establish an outer environment that supports youth & families in a way that fosters growth of that supportive environment in homes, neighborhoods, schools, communities, cities —that it may eventually be realized as an "inner environment" within the youth. In addition to our Sunday YSE Programs we nurture the spiritual life of our families by providing a variety of programs ranging from family potlucks to parenting skills classes and hatha yoga for moms & babies to camps, retreats and soulful youth-centered spiritual dramas (such as God is All-in-All: the Story of the Bhagavad Gita, or the Story of the Buddha). 

Our job is to love God in all.