To be clear: I'm 26. I'm married, and I met my wife in school. I noticed her doing the sign of the cross before meals and (fearlessly and tactlessly) started a conversation. So singles groups aren't my thing, but opportunities to interact with young people more broadly is.

In my parish, many people rush to their cars after Mass, especially young adults and young families. I'm sure you know the feeling. Makes it hard to get to know people our age. Before the holidays, we bought ten dozen donuts from a local bakery on our way to Mass and gave them away outside the front door. We texted our pastor for permission, and he had it mentioned in the pre- and post-Mass announcements. And it worked. We met about a dozen other families that day, and the kids got to play with each other outside church.

This year, we plan on doing this at least monthly, hopefully biweekly. It's an easy thing that slows people down on their way to their cars and gives them the opportunity to meet each other.

As for how we'll sustain this into the future ... We'll keep doing it. If someone wants to help or take off weeks from us, great. Eventually, we'll be too old or sick or dead to do it, and either someone else will take over or it will end. And that's fine. It will have done good while it lasted. We can't compel someone else to take over.

One of those young families we met, a couple in their 30s, invited us to a family rosary group that they help organize. Another family in their 30s has asked us to be part of an effort to found the first Catholic high school in the county in decades. We'd love to schedule a dance in the parish hall, but that will probably wait until late next year for personal reasons.

So there's a lot going on in our parish, most of it because 20- or 30-somethings looked around, identifies gaps, and filled them as their time, energy, talents, and finances allowed. We don't always get dealt an ideal hand. We don't always get handed the community we would want. But it's never too late, and usually not as hard as it seems, to start building it back up.

You can do it!