barn-replacementThe Barn is a symbol that we value our youth in this vibrant and growing parish. This beautiful building, so at home in our rural Georgia setting, evokes for us the images of harvest found throughout our Scriptures, where so often the Lord compares the Kingdom of God or the Word of God to a seed or to a harvest. We are conscious that in this place the seed of our Faith will continue to be planted and nurtured in the future generations of Catholics. Here we hope to communicate they should live always knowing that they are precious to the Lord of the Harvest!

The Barn is conceived as a casual setting built for the education of our teens, providing them a combination of casual meeting spaces and more conventional classroom spaces. The rooms in the Barn are dedicated to heroic Catholic Americans so that our youth may grow in the appreciation of their heritage. Our high school teens (called LIVING IN THE LIGHT) use the main and upper floors of the Barn for both their classes and their casual meetings. The principle gathering space is dedicated to Mother Seton (our first American saint). The two rooms upstairs where Living in the Light meets are dedicated to St. Kateri Tekakwitha and to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos. The middle school teens (called IMPACT) meet downstairs in the Barn in a classroom that is dedicated to the memory of Prince Gallitzin (who in some ways might be thought of as the first U.S. priest, though his heroic story is so very interesting besides). These holy spiritual ancestors helped to spread the Gospel in America, and in each room there is something that tells their story, so that our young people may have great models to look up to.

The Barn is also equipped with showers for occasions when our youth might have a lock-in. Likewise, the Barn has a small kitchen and picnic tables (just inside the door, but also on the generous front porch) to make the space suitable for coming together for informal cookouts and meals as well. As our great, American parish continues to grow, the Barn will remain a dynamic component of our parish campus, as a place set apart for our young people, that they may know that we value them, who are in so many ways our future.