Young Catholics urged to spread the light of Christ

   
    There was nothing hidden about God’s love on March 9 when hundreds upon hundreds of young Catholics gathered at Abbey Youth Fest to pray, sing, dance and reveal their love for Jesus and the Catholic Church.
    The theme for AYF 2013, on the grounds of St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College near Covington, was “Hidden + Revealed.” The daylong celebration included music by the Sarah Kroger Band, Covenant 7, Chris Cole and Gungor; Mass with Archbishop Gregory Aymond; evening vespers with Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown; adoration by candlelight; and three nationally known speakers – Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Augustino Torres, Jason and Crystalina Evert, and Mary Bielski.
    The day also included plenty of time for the eighth through 12th graders to take part in the sacrament of reconciliation, get to know one another and visit the many informational booths set up around the large field.
Strength in numbers
    “I’ve been coming here a few years, and I love all the young Catholics being here,” said Nick Johnson of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ponchatoula. “It lets you know you’re not the only one” living your faith. “Plus,” he said. “Jesus is here!”
    Ashley Zamjahn, with the youth group from St. Rita Church in Harahan, agreed with that: “It’s nice to see young Catholics together worshipping God,” she said.
    Music was a big draw for many teens, including Claudia Otto of St. Rita – “It’s fantastic!” – and Jourdan Beaco of Academy of Our Lady in Marrero, who added something else she loved about Abbey Youth Fest: “Everybody is so nice.”
    Rachel Gaspard and Tesa Lemoine of St. John the Evangelist Church in Prairieville visited the Daughters of St. Paul booth, wanting to find out more about religious life. Wearing camouflage T-shirts emblazoned with “Called for Duty,” the girls said they loved both the music and the message of the day.
    The message, “Hidden + Revealed,” was delivered in lively fashion by the day’s first speaker, Father Torres, a Franciscan friar who is superior of St. Michael’s Friary in Paterson, N.J., and dedicates his life to serving the poor. But, as Father Torres told the youth, he wasn’t born a Franciscan friar. He had to open up his heart and hear God’s voice. He had to let the hidden meaning of his life be revealed.
Trial and error
    “It took me a long time and a lot of mistakes to find out why I am here,” Father Torres said. “I started wrestling with things when I saw the pope (John Paul II) one World Youth Day and stopped doing things I had been doing. I said, ‘I need to change, Lord. What do you want me to do?’ Slowly, I heard a word in my prayer, ‘Be a priest.’”
    Father Torres said he wrestled with that voice in his heart, asking God for “anything but that … because I thought I couldn’t do that. But God was with me every step of the way. When you say yes, God reveals his love every single day.”
    Speakers Jason and Crystalina Evert, who have traveled the world speaking to more than 1 million teens, encouraged the young people to find God’s love by embracing the virtue of chastity.
    Mary Bielski, a national youth speaker who recently moved to New Orleans, closed out the evening by reminding the crowd of the awesome power of God’s love.
    “God is not afraid of your darkness,” she said. “The God of the universe humbles himself and comes to us. Love wants to reveal itself.” All we need to do, Bielski said, is put our hearts in a place where God can encounter us.
    “In the darkness,” she said, “God sends the light,” the light of Christ.
    As Bielski spoke of light overcoming darkness, hundreds upon hundreds of candles were lit and God’s love was revealed in the faces of young Catholics kneeling in adoration of Jesus Christ, who reveals all that is hidden.
    Karen Baker can be reached at [email protected].