Simon Carrington fired up for chastity at ACYF 2017

By Jordan Grantham, 19 April 2018
Simon Carrington at the ACYF 2017. Photo: Diocese of Parramatta

Newly married couple Simon and Madeleine Carrington founded Fire Up Ministries last year to promote the New Evangelisation and chastity. Their ministry was a hit at the Australian Catholic Youth Festival 2017 (ACYF) and is currently based at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, St Marys.

ACYF was the first major event where Fire Up Ministries had a stall to encounter the public and share their ministry.

Simon prayed in advance for the success of the highly anticipated festival and for the blessing of the young people he would speak to about healthy relationships and sincere dating.

“I knew attending the Mass with thousands of other Catholics around Australia would be an amazing experience, and it certainly was!” he told Catholic Outlook.

Simon’s talks were Are we Dating? on the first day of ACYF and What to do before “I do” on day two.

“The highlights from my talks during ACYF were the young people who approached me afterwards to thank me for the talk, or to ask further questions about what I spoke about,” Simon said.

“Truthfully, the most effective part of any presentation on the Catholic faith is before and after it – the prayerful preparation before and the encounters with the young people afterwards. This is where true evangelisation happens!”

RELATED: ACYF

Simon saw many graces associated with ACYF.

“I think God was dropping Holy Spirit bombs during the plenaries!”

The morning and evening plenary sessions in the Qudos Bank Arena held up to 19,000 young people. The Friday night plenary included 20 minutes of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, described by one commentator as a “small miracle”.

“I love that ACYF meets every person at their own level, and God supplies the grace necessary for each individual person, to encourage them to just take one more step closer to Him,” Simon said.

“One young man told me that during Matt Maher’s music, he had always doubted whether Jesus really did rise from dead, and when Matt Maher was singing the lyrics ‘He has risen from the dead, He’s alive! He’s alive!’ he knew in his heart that Jesus has truly risen! That’s grace!”

Simon and Madeleine’s day-to-day work involves presenting the message of healthy relationships to many young people through high school seminars, parish events, retreats and conferences.

Fire Up Ministries has several groups for different demographics that meet weekly.

“There is a men’s group that meets each month, which I lead and a women’s group that Madeleine runs.”

Fire Up Ministries also holds prayer nights with the Rosary and Lectio Divina, as well as Fire Up Faith Formation nights where guest speakers present to the joint men’s and women’s groups.

 

Fire Up Ministries

E: simon@fireupministries.com

M: 0412 219 739

W: www.fireupministries.com

 

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