Last weekend, my wife Stephanie and I along with our pastor took a group of 11 teens to the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Today, I wanted to share with you our experience of this powerful three day pilgrimage.
NCYC is the largest single gathering of Catholic youth in United States. So approximately 24,000 teens from across the country gathered together under one roof at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Indianapolis Colts play football. This conference is held every two years. This year the theme was, “Here I Am Lord (Aqui Estoy Señor).” To summarize the message of the weekend:
- Jesus calls each of us to a great adventure – to build the kingdom of God.
- We are challenged to use our gifts to transform our world.
- (Here I am) to live the Gospel, and to deepen our relationship with Jesus (Lord).
- Together we prayed, learned, celebrated and strengthened our hearts for discipleship in order for us to be able to say, “Here I am, Lord. Send me!”
The main sessions were held in the stadium where we were addressed by some of the top Catholic keynote speakers in the country. In addition to the keynote speakers, our teens had an opportunity to go to various workshops on a variety of topics such as social media, chastity, immigration, vocations, living out their faith, and many more. We also danced, sang, and prayed to the top Catholic musicians and songwriters. Our teens learned a lot about their faith, prayed in ways they never considered before, and simply had a great time.
One of the best things about NCYC is the opportunity to meet other Catholic teens from across the country. We met teens from all 50 states. And we have all sorts of items and silly hats that we trade with other teens in order to get to know who they are and where they’re from. It’s great for them to see that the church is more than just the people in their own suburban area.
We learned the most powerful prayer in our Catholic faith. It’s the sign of the cross. It says that everything we do, we do in the name of Christ. We are declaring that we belong to Christ, that we want to obey him and accept suffering. When we make the sign of the cross, we are really putting a target on ourselves.
When we think of a target, we often think of hunting (which goes great with St. Hubert being the patron saint of hunters). If you can imagine a hunter sitting in a tree waiting for game to arrive, peering through their scope. They are looking at the cross hairs (cross) aiming at their target. It’s the same way with God – God is watching us. When we make the sign of the cross, God is telling us, “Yes? You called? I’m right here with you.”
When we make the sign of the cross, we are acknowledging that we have a personal relationship with God…but then we must extend that to others (service to others).
“We cannot engage culture unless we let Him (Jesus) first engage us, we cannot dialogue with others unless we first dialogue with Him and we cannot challenge unless we first allow Him to challenge us.” ~Cardinal Dolan
This Advent, I invite you along with our teens to accept Christ’s challenge. Let us prepare ourselves so that we can respond to the light of Jesus’ presence. Let us allow Jesus to enlighten us and transform the darkness of our lives so that we may become a light that will lead others to God. This Advent let us always remember that we are walking around with a target on us – that God is always with us. And let us strive to have the courage to take the next step on our journey of faith by saying: “Here I am, Lord. Send me!”
