St. Anthony, pray for us
By Steven Polley
Director, Office of Youth Ministry
Recently
I had the honor to serve as a confirmation sponsor for a young lady, Aubrey
Hageman, from St. Anthony’s Parish in Fowler.
It was a special night as Aubrey graduated
last Sunday, and has been involved in diocesan youth ministry since she began attending
summer camp in middle school. Over the
years she has remained involved in all forms of parish and diocesan youth
ministry.
She truly has been a witness and role model
to many young people, and I have seen the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit come
alive in her. But this confirmation
night had an extra touch as well.
Dave Geist from
here in
And still
there was another dimension to this evening.
As I watched these 17
young people receive the sacrament, I counted at least 10 of them
who have been involved in diocesan youth ministry in some way or another over
the years.
My thought was,
“Here is a small parish that has responded to my continued invitation to get
our young people more involved in youth ministry and more deeply rooted in
their faith.”
It was a joy to see these 17
young people get confirmed. Some of them
have graduated and will be moving on to the next phase in their lives. But whether they have graduated or will be
seniors, one thing is certain, they will be taking a solid foundation of faith
with them wherever they go. I know that each of them will see the presence of
God in all things, and that God will continue to guide and bless them on their
journey.
I have been reading, “My Dear Young Friends,”
a book with quotes from Pope John Paul II to the young people over the
years. One of his quotes states, “The
human being has a deep-rooted tendency to think only of self. One who chooses to follow Christ, on the
other hand, avoids being wrapped up in himself and does not evaluate things
according to self interest.”
As I looked at these young men
and women from Fowler and the many other young people from around the diocese
who have been involved in youth ministry over the years, many of whom graduated
this year, I can tell you they have moved from a self-centeredness
to an other-centeredness.
So if you will permit me, I would like to
take a little time and focus on the underclassmen.
At some point during my years of teaching I
saw a billboard that said, “Congratulations graduates; Kindergarteners only 11
years, 180 days to go.”
In the year 2007 one thing is a
little different. Our young people will
be attending school 186 days. So I took
the liberty to think of our Kindergarten kids and the next 12 years, 186 days
of school for each year, or 1,116 hours per year, which means that these young
people have approximately 13,392 hours of school left before they graduate.
In a previous column I wrote about how each
week God gives us 168 hours and I proposed the question of how many of these
hours do we give back to God in gratitude for the time God has given us.
We can all recall the maturation in faith
this year’s seniors witnessed. How can
we now look at the underclassmen, juniors on down? How can we look at these hours they have left
before they graduate, and how can we use this time to help form them into
stronger Catholic Christians, thus building up the Body of Christ? How can we minister to them in a way that
leads them to other-centeredness?
I invite you to turn to the Patron Saint of
your parish, as I turned to St. Anthony for this column, and through this
prayer and intercession find a new quality in the time that we give to each of
our young people. Let’s use these 13,000
plus hours and form stronger disciples of Christ. May God guide and bless you during these
summer months, and thank you for continuing to respond to God’s call.