Hope in Our Youth

Three weeks ago, I began my annual summer trip to Denton, Texas where I work as the Associate Director of Residential Life (aka Dorm Dad) for the Mean Green Debate Workshops. This means I leave the comfort and love of my home to live in a dorm hall at the University of North Texas with about 300 high school debate students for four weeks. In addition to the discomforts of living in college dorm room, I still have to find time to pray and attend Mass.

This is not always easy to work around my ever evolving, "on-call" schedule. Nevertheless, the MGW staff has always been great about accommodating my need to attend Sunday Mass. This year it has meant attending the 8:30AM Mass at Immaculate Conception here in Denton. My close friends and family know I am not a morning person. This has not been easy, especially after serving the late night duty the nigh before.

What has motivated (and necessitated) me to attend the early Mass has been a few of the campers who have asked to be taken to Mass during the brief "free" time they have on Sunday mornings. Most of the other campers sleep in, do laundry or meet family for breakfast at the local IHOP. I have been pleasantly surprised and genuinely impressed that these students are committed to attending Mass even though their parents aren't here to make them. This tells me, at some level, these kids get the meaning of the Mass. It also tells me that that their parents have instilled in them a love and appreciation for the Liturgy and the Eucharist. Most of all, it gives me hope.

Chreasters: They're Not Too Far Off the Mark

"Chreaster" Cactus

As we were leaving Mass, Stacey made an observation about how full the Church was. This led to a discussion about Chreasters, CEO's or whatever other name you want to call people who seem to only show up for Mass on Christmas and Easter.

The point of this post is not to judge these folks. Instead I want to reflect on the point that something stirs in their hearts, drawing them to Mass on these very holy days of our liturgical calendar. I believe they come, because despite whatever reason they stay away the rest of the year, they know those days are holy and they must stop whatever is going on in their lives and acknowledge our Lord. They aren't that far from coming back. St. Augustine said "Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in you." Indeed they are. I think it is very fitting that one of last night's psalms was Psalm 42:1, which reads, "as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

Instead of judging these children of the LORD, we need to embrace them. We need to go out of our way to be cheerful and helpful. For example, we can share our New Missal worship aid to help them with the recent changes. We can leave our comfort zones and actually greet them, introduce ourselves. We can let them know they are welcome, even if they are sitting in "our seats."

As parishes we need to do a better job making resources like Catholics Come Home readily available so they will have an easier time figuring out what to do to "come back" to the Church. It's amazing to me that most parishes don't use Christmas and Easter as opportunities to draw these folks in. We are missing out on a great chance for real evangelization.

Finally, we all need to pray for them and for ourselves. We should pray that God ignites that little spark in their hearts and we need to pray that we are prepared to be used as instruments of God.