A true treasure to be shared
If I were a betting gal, I would say that almost everyone had some sort of challenge growing up. Some people struggle with navigating social circumstances, some with a difficult home life, and others with finding a direction in life. Personally, I struggled with confidence. Of course, a classmate’s occasional sharp tongue was known to hurt, too.
If I were a betting gal, I would say that almost everyone had some sort of challenge growing up. Some people struggle with navigating social circumstances, some with a difficult home life, and others with finding a direction in life. Personally, I struggled with confidence. Of course, a classmate’s occasional sharp tongue was known to hurt, too.
Luckily, I found myself drawn to the Church and various activities and committees. Due to my lack of confidence, venturing to a youth group gathering never piqued my interest. Even now, as a mother of a 14-year-old son, the thought of suggesting he attend a youth gathering doesn’t come naturally.
Last year, though, my son asked to attend several different gatherings and thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship and the catechesis, but selfishly, I rationalized that getting home after 9 p.m. on a Sunday night was completely out of the question. Yet, the true absurdity derived from my own short-sightedness.
To explain, last year, I interviewed Madison Jaubert for the cover story of an issue with the same theme of youth and young adult ministry. In our interview, she remarked how important it was for youth to have true, supportive, and faithful friends. Speaking from experience, those relationships “really unlocked a new freedom” in her “to pursue holiness” and what she knew to be right, instead of “pleasure.”
Jaubert’s quote exemplifies why it isn’t exactly prudent to be short-sighted when it comes to our youth. Every parent knows that there will come a time when children start deciding who they want to become. Friends move into the coveted place of confidant and companion, and parents take the back seat.
Who our children surround themselves with will undoubtedly impact their choices and their path to Heaven.
Donna Peters, highlighted in this issue’s cover story, knows this truth firsthand and is preparing to accompany the youth of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in St. Florian when they travel in early August to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. Being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of fellow Catholics will, most certainly, leave its mark, and that is exactly what Peters knows and wants: our faith to be experienced, lived, and shared.
Our Catholic faith would not exist, nor will it continue to exist, without the youth, for the young people of today will be the men and women of tomorrow passing on their faith to the next generation. Prior to one World Youth Day gathering, Pope St. John Paul II said it best: “The mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that of the Redemption He worked for all men, constitute the central message of our faith … and [the Church] entrusts it to her children as a precious treasure to be safeguarded and shared.”
May we all strive to guide our youth and young adults to view our Catholic faith as the true treasure that it is.