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3 young Lebanese men turn small Bible study into largest in the Middle East #Catholic A year ago, three young Lebanese men started a small Bible study group in their parish hall. Today, it has grown into what organizers describe as the largest Bible study initiative in the Middle East, with more than 3,000 people taking part in the gatherings.Each session follows a simple but carefully structured program. It begins with approximately 40 minutes devoted to explaining and exploring a passage from the Bible, followed by approximately 15 minutes of spiritual reflection. Participants then move on to an interactive segment featuring games and questions about the Bible or other topics related to the Christian faith, such as Marian apparitions. The gatherings are free and held under the supervision of Catholic priests.Behind each session, however, lies an extensive preparation process. Jimmy Chaaya, one of the initiative’s founders, explained that he seeks to vary the topics from week to week and studies the selected passage with a hermit.His research includes examining the original Greek words in Scripture, their meanings, and the cultural context in which they were used alongside the Church Fathers’ interpretations of the text. He also consults Jewish writings, geography books, papal homilies, and other sources. Once his research is complete, Chaaya submits the material to several priests for review and approval before presenting it to participants. More than 3,000 people now attend a Bible study in Lebanon, believed to be the largest in the Middle East, which was started by three young adults. | Credit: Charbel El Hajj Initially, the Bible study gatherings took place on Mondays. As attendance grew, the team added a second session on Tuesdays and is now preparing to introduce a Wednesday gathering as well. Chaaya said the team hopes to expand beyond its current location in the town of Antelias.To that end, the organizers are training people to lead similar gatherings in other parts of Lebanon while their long-term vision extends beyond the country’s borders. Charbel El Hage, another founder, said the team hopes to bring the initiative to other countries, particularly in the Middle East, where he sees considerable potential for such efforts to grow.El Hage noted that the initiative has benefited from the support of the Maronite Archdiocese of Antelias from the outset as well as broad support within the Church. This backing, he said, has helped the project develop smoothly.Attendance is not limited to Catholics. According to Chaaya, Christians from various churches and denominations — including Orthodox Christians and Protestants — have joined the gatherings, alongside people from other religious backgrounds, including Muslims. He added that a number of participants are currently preparing to receive the sacrament of baptism. More than 3,000 people now attend a Bible study in Lebanon, believed to be the largest in the Middle East, which was started by three young adults. | Credit: Charbel El Hajj Although the initiative is aimed primarily at young people, team member Majd Samia stressed that there are no strict age limits. “Everyone needs Jesus,” he said, which is why the gatherings are open to all. For Samia, the strong turnout reflects young people’s thirst to hear the word of God and explore it more deeply. This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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3 young Lebanese men turn small Bible study into largest in the Middle East #Catholic A year ago, three young Lebanese men started a small Bible study group in their parish hall. Today, it has grown into what organizers describe as the largest Bible study initiative in the Middle East, with more than 3,000 people taking part in the gatherings.Each session follows a simple but carefully structured program. It begins with approximately 40 minutes devoted to explaining and exploring a passage from the Bible, followed by approximately 15 minutes of spiritual reflection. Participants then move on to an interactive segment featuring games and questions about the Bible or other topics related to the Christian faith, such as Marian apparitions. The gatherings are free and held under the supervision of Catholic priests.Behind each session, however, lies an extensive preparation process. Jimmy Chaaya, one of the initiative’s founders, explained that he seeks to vary the topics from week to week and studies the selected passage with a hermit.His research includes examining the original Greek words in Scripture, their meanings, and the cultural context in which they were used alongside the Church Fathers’ interpretations of the text. He also consults Jewish writings, geography books, papal homilies, and other sources. Once his research is complete, Chaaya submits the material to several priests for review and approval before presenting it to participants. More than 3,000 people now attend a Bible study in Lebanon, believed to be the largest in the Middle East, which was started by three young adults. | Credit: Charbel El Hajj Initially, the Bible study gatherings took place on Mondays. As attendance grew, the team added a second session on Tuesdays and is now preparing to introduce a Wednesday gathering as well. Chaaya said the team hopes to expand beyond its current location in the town of Antelias.To that end, the organizers are training people to lead similar gatherings in other parts of Lebanon while their long-term vision extends beyond the country’s borders. Charbel El Hage, another founder, said the team hopes to bring the initiative to other countries, particularly in the Middle East, where he sees considerable potential for such efforts to grow.El Hage noted that the initiative has benefited from the support of the Maronite Archdiocese of Antelias from the outset as well as broad support within the Church. This backing, he said, has helped the project develop smoothly.Attendance is not limited to Catholics. According to Chaaya, Christians from various churches and denominations — including Orthodox Christians and Protestants — have joined the gatherings, alongside people from other religious backgrounds, including Muslims. He added that a number of participants are currently preparing to receive the sacrament of baptism. More than 3,000 people now attend a Bible study in Lebanon, believed to be the largest in the Middle East, which was started by three young adults. | Credit: Charbel El Hajj Although the initiative is aimed primarily at young people, team member Majd Samia stressed that there are no strict age limits. “Everyone needs Jesus,” he said, which is why the gatherings are open to all. For Samia, the strong turnout reflects young people’s thirst to hear the word of God and explore it more deeply. This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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More than 3,000 people have joined a growing Catholic Bible study initiative in Lebanon as organizers launch more days and times throughout the country and beyond.

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How the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ inspired a camp for Catholic fathers and sons #Catholic Inspired by the movie “Top Gun: Maverick,” a D.C.-based youth ministry is using a weekendlong camp to build mentors and strengthen the bonds between Catholic fathers and their sons.The annual “Top Gun Father and Son” camping event welcomes dads and sons for a mission to grow closer, strengthen their relationships through challenges and reflections, and partake in faith-filled adventures.Encounters, Convictions, and Your Decisions (ECYD), an international Catholic association of adolescents with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, hosts the annual weekend at Camp Castleton in Virginia for boys in fifth to eighth grade and their fathers.The event is only one of the fruits of ECYD, which also carries out other youth clubs, camps, leadership trainings, and gatherings.Father Vito Crincoli, LC, the director of the ECYD Leadership Training program in D.C., told EWTN News the ECYD ministry is “based on the spirituality of Jesus calling you to be his friend.”“Itʼs an international movement,” he said. “In Washington, D.C., in particular, weʼve been putting a lot of emphasis on forming dads to be mentors for our clubs.”“One is because we donʼt have as many priests as we would like to run the youth ministry. But also, above all, we want to create vibrant apostles, vibrant laypeople, to run youth work. And because men really want to be mentors.”“Weʼve noticed in these past years of our ministry that thereʼs been such a desire for the men to want to be involved. And we saw that precisely through the father-son weekends we do. It awakens something in them.”Men “want to do more,” Crincoli said. “They want to give more.” A father and his son at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli Finding unexpected inspiration from filmWhile the camp grew out of the desire to minister to Catholic men, it was ultimately a fictional adventure film about U.S. Navy aviators that set the idea into motion.After noticing a “father and son tone” in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” Crincoli was inspired to bring together families for the event, which now welcomes anywhere from 20 to 40 fathers and sons.Crincoli was inspired by the relationship between the film’s characters Pete Mitchell and Bradley Bradshaw, better known by their call signs “Maverick” and “Rooster.”While the two Top Gun pilots are not related, Crincoli noticed a bond between them that is unique to a father and his son.In the movie, “Maverick is trying to be the best dad he could be for Rooster. Experiencing his own limitations, but also just trying,” Crincoli explained. “And then Rooster is looking for the type of dad he wants: ‘I need a role model in my life. Someone who can guide me.’”“Weʼre really trying to tell the dads: ‘Be a dad as a mission.’ Itʼs a mission of love. The whole idea of Top Gun Father and Son is that you and your son are a team. Youʼre preparing your son for life.”“Thatʼs what Maverick was doing with Rooster. He was preparing him for battle.”Top Gun Father and SonWhile at the camp, the group has previously been joined by members of the U.S. Naval Academy, including a Catholic former Top Gun pilot who “gave a talk to the dads about learning to fly with your kids — learning to fly with them through life.” Retired Top Gun pilot Lt. Adam Farber speaks to participants at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event held at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli A pivotal part is the “moment where the dads earn their wings,” he said. “We had somebody donate real Navy wings to us.”“Itʼs a ceremony. Weʼll have the wings on the table, the flag, the dads line up and then … the dads become ‘Top Gun dads’” and “they get their wings.” It “begins the mission of the weekend.”To help the participants live out the mission, the dads have “a training camp,” Crincoli said. “In that training camp we have different activities.”The activities include anything from dodgeball and nighttime “missions” to quiet time in prayer. The weekend includes “different dynamics and different adventures” to create fellowship and teamwork between the fathers and sons.During dodgeball, “itʼs the fathers and sons as teams against each other,” Crincoli explained. “But then, if their son gets hit with the ball, the dad has to go and rescue his son.”“Thereʼs even a night mission that the son and the dad have to do together. There was one year that we did a mission where the dads and kids had to crack codes and to find the missing pilot. But they have to do it together — the son and dad.”The event also includes father and sons giving each other their own call signs and explaining why they chose them for each other. Itʼs a “dynamic of ‘How well do you know your son, and how well does your son know you?’” Father Vito Crincoli and Top Gun Father and Son weekend participants hold the Encounters, Convictions, and Your Decisions flag at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli Along with the mission-center games, the group most importantly spends time in prayer throughout the weekend.The “most beautiful” part of the event is when “we have the adoration — father-son adoration together,” Crincoli said. “The dad and his kid, they both come up to receive the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. Itʼs a very intimate moment.”“Then we have the finishing Mass. And after the Mass, the dads and the kids are together,” and “itʼs the award ceremony.”Then, “the dads give their wings to their sons” and “as theyʼre pinning the wings to their son, theyʼre praying over their kids. Theyʼre blessing them. Theyʼre encouraging them.” A father blesses his son at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli The many ‘lights’ that come from the eventThe last day includes “a debriefing with the dads,” Crincoli said. “We sit down with the dads and we start asking them, ‘What has this weekend been for you?’”“The dads begin to express different comments,” Crincoli said. He further reflected on some of the past insights he has heard from fathers.  “The men say, ‘It is great to be with men that believe what I believe.’”“Another, he goes, ‘Itʼs beautiful, itʼs great, to be with men who are strongly Catholic, who are bonded by their sons, and that we could be a community.’ One of the dads said, ‘I really want to be a mentor in this because … this is an extension of my fatherhood.’”After the weekend, “they come back,” Crincoli said. They come back as mentors for ECYD clubs or take part in its other camps.“There are so many different lights that come from this,” he said.The next annual Top Gun Father and Son will be held the weekend of Oct. 17–18. It will include the presence of members of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former Navy Seabee chief who will support the weekend with leadership and inspiration.
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How the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ inspired a camp for Catholic fathers and sons #Catholic Inspired by the movie “Top Gun: Maverick,” a D.C.-based youth ministry is using a weekendlong camp to build mentors and strengthen the bonds between Catholic fathers and their sons.The annual “Top Gun Father and Son” camping event welcomes dads and sons for a mission to grow closer, strengthen their relationships through challenges and reflections, and partake in faith-filled adventures.Encounters, Convictions, and Your Decisions (ECYD), an international Catholic association of adolescents with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, hosts the annual weekend at Camp Castleton in Virginia for boys in fifth to eighth grade and their fathers.The event is only one of the fruits of ECYD, which also carries out other youth clubs, camps, leadership trainings, and gatherings.Father Vito Crincoli, LC, the director of the ECYD Leadership Training program in D.C., told EWTN News the ECYD ministry is “based on the spirituality of Jesus calling you to be his friend.”“Itʼs an international movement,” he said. “In Washington, D.C., in particular, weʼve been putting a lot of emphasis on forming dads to be mentors for our clubs.”“One is because we donʼt have as many priests as we would like to run the youth ministry. But also, above all, we want to create vibrant apostles, vibrant laypeople, to run youth work. And because men really want to be mentors.”“Weʼve noticed in these past years of our ministry that thereʼs been such a desire for the men to want to be involved. And we saw that precisely through the father-son weekends we do. It awakens something in them.”Men “want to do more,” Crincoli said. “They want to give more.” A father and his son at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli Finding unexpected inspiration from filmWhile the camp grew out of the desire to minister to Catholic men, it was ultimately a fictional adventure film about U.S. Navy aviators that set the idea into motion.After noticing a “father and son tone” in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” Crincoli was inspired to bring together families for the event, which now welcomes anywhere from 20 to 40 fathers and sons.Crincoli was inspired by the relationship between the film’s characters Pete Mitchell and Bradley Bradshaw, better known by their call signs “Maverick” and “Rooster.”While the two Top Gun pilots are not related, Crincoli noticed a bond between them that is unique to a father and his son.In the movie, “Maverick is trying to be the best dad he could be for Rooster. Experiencing his own limitations, but also just trying,” Crincoli explained. “And then Rooster is looking for the type of dad he wants: ‘I need a role model in my life. Someone who can guide me.’”“Weʼre really trying to tell the dads: ‘Be a dad as a mission.’ Itʼs a mission of love. The whole idea of Top Gun Father and Son is that you and your son are a team. Youʼre preparing your son for life.”“Thatʼs what Maverick was doing with Rooster. He was preparing him for battle.”Top Gun Father and SonWhile at the camp, the group has previously been joined by members of the U.S. Naval Academy, including a Catholic former Top Gun pilot who “gave a talk to the dads about learning to fly with your kids — learning to fly with them through life.” Retired Top Gun pilot Lt. Adam Farber speaks to participants at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event held at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli A pivotal part is the “moment where the dads earn their wings,” he said. “We had somebody donate real Navy wings to us.”“Itʼs a ceremony. Weʼll have the wings on the table, the flag, the dads line up and then … the dads become ‘Top Gun dads’” and “they get their wings.” It “begins the mission of the weekend.”To help the participants live out the mission, the dads have “a training camp,” Crincoli said. “In that training camp we have different activities.”The activities include anything from dodgeball and nighttime “missions” to quiet time in prayer. The weekend includes “different dynamics and different adventures” to create fellowship and teamwork between the fathers and sons.During dodgeball, “itʼs the fathers and sons as teams against each other,” Crincoli explained. “But then, if their son gets hit with the ball, the dad has to go and rescue his son.”“Thereʼs even a night mission that the son and the dad have to do together. There was one year that we did a mission where the dads and kids had to crack codes and to find the missing pilot. But they have to do it together — the son and dad.”The event also includes father and sons giving each other their own call signs and explaining why they chose them for each other. Itʼs a “dynamic of ‘How well do you know your son, and how well does your son know you?’” Father Vito Crincoli and Top Gun Father and Son weekend participants hold the Encounters, Convictions, and Your Decisions flag at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli Along with the mission-center games, the group most importantly spends time in prayer throughout the weekend.The “most beautiful” part of the event is when “we have the adoration — father-son adoration together,” Crincoli said. “The dad and his kid, they both come up to receive the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. Itʼs a very intimate moment.”“Then we have the finishing Mass. And after the Mass, the dads and the kids are together,” and “itʼs the award ceremony.”Then, “the dads give their wings to their sons” and “as theyʼre pinning the wings to their son, theyʼre praying over their kids. Theyʼre blessing them. Theyʼre encouraging them.” A father blesses his son at the 2024 Top Gun Father and Son weekend event at Camp Castleton in Virginia. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Vito Crincoli The many ‘lights’ that come from the eventThe last day includes “a debriefing with the dads,” Crincoli said. “We sit down with the dads and we start asking them, ‘What has this weekend been for you?’”“The dads begin to express different comments,” Crincoli said. He further reflected on some of the past insights he has heard from fathers.  “The men say, ‘It is great to be with men that believe what I believe.’”“Another, he goes, ‘Itʼs beautiful, itʼs great, to be with men who are strongly Catholic, who are bonded by their sons, and that we could be a community.’ One of the dads said, ‘I really want to be a mentor in this because … this is an extension of my fatherhood.’”After the weekend, “they come back,” Crincoli said. They come back as mentors for ECYD clubs or take part in its other camps.“There are so many different lights that come from this,” he said.The next annual Top Gun Father and Son will be held the weekend of Oct. 17–18. It will include the presence of members of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former Navy Seabee chief who will support the weekend with leadership and inspiration.

unitedyam

The annual camping event welcomes dads and sons for a mission to grow closer, strengthen their relationships through challenges and reflections, and partake in faith-filled adventures.

Read More