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By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
COVINGTON—Even Georgia’s hot July weather could not
dampen the energy generated by 1,200 teens as they massed under a huge tent to
pray, listen to speakers, support one another as Christians, kneel in worship
and dance for joy during the Steubenville Atlanta conference.
The theme was “A Taste of Heaven,” and the FFA/FHA
campgrounds in Covington did seem to be a world apart July 28-30.
In a wooded setting, Catholic teens 14 to 18 from eight states,
accompanied by youth ministers and adult chaperones, slept in cabins, ate in a
main dining hall and had a chance to swim, exercise and play volleyball.
But the focal point was the red and white striped tent where
conference Masses were celebrated, where priests wearing stoles sat on folding
chairs to hear teens’ confessions and where the amplified music was a good
thing to hear.
The music, provided mainly by St. Ann’s Life Teen Band from
Marietta, was a celebration of Christian spirituality. At times the tent
rocked. At other times the musicians, led by Ed Bolduc, settled the exuberant
congregation of teens into hours of quiet prayer and worship of God. On
Saturday night July 29, preaching and singing introduced several hours spent in
adoration of the Eucharist. As Father Tim Hepburn carried the monstrance up and
down the aisles and blessed the young people with the Eucharist, they knelt on
the ground in prayer.
The summer conferences for Catholic teens began on the campus of
the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. In recent years, conferences
have been held regionally also so more teens can attend. In Atlanta, the Faith
Enrichment Institute is the local host, while Franciscan University plans the
conference and provides the speakers.
FEI relied on 150 or more volunteers to do behind the scenes work,
including hospitality, transportation, setting up and taking down sites,
providing prayer teams, manning a 24-hour adoration chapel, staffing first aid
stations and handling other needs.
The conference was sold out in April, said Deacon Loris Sinanian,
an FEI founder, who hopes the Covington site can be adjusted to admit 200 or so
more next summer. Only about one-third of the teens came from the Atlanta
Archdiocese, something he said disappointed him. Youth groups also came from
Alabama, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Michigan and Ohio.
He was deeply touched by the spirituality of the teens.
“Just seeing their love for the Eucharist made me choke
up,” Deacon Sinanian said. “What we are doing (through the total
conference) is deepening that love, teaching them Jesus does accept our faults,
but we need to know what is right and what is wrong.”
Deacon Bert Berding, 72, was struck by the teens’ response to
the time of adoration of the Eucharist.
“I have never heard such an outpouring,” he said.
“They were crying. They were so emotional. You could feel it. It was just
inspiring. You felt like you could reach out and touch God when he went by
you.”
The morning of July 29, speakers in separate men’s and
women’s sessions talked to teens about the issues of self-respect,
self-control and seeing themselves in light of God’s love, not the inner
voices belittling and criticizing them, whether from advertisers, rock music,
peer groups or their own self-doubts.
Speaker Tammy Evevard from Birmingham, Ala., the mother of three
children, said many young women struggle with harmful behavior patterns like
eating disorders, self-mutilation and extensive sexual activity.
“We do not believe that we have everything in us ... to live
miraculous and holy lives,” she said, inviting the teens to think of
themselves instead in light of Mary’s Magnificat.
Encouraging the teens, speakers Karen Reynolds from Franciscan
University and Kate O’Brien, a youth minister at St. Francis Cabrini
Church in Littleton, Colo., taught on the virtues of temperance and fortitude.
Val Schnurr, shot nine to 15 times in the Columbine massacre, was
able to answer “yes,” when one of the gunmen asked if she believed in
God, O’Brien said.
“That is an example of fortitude. Jesus was in her, giving
her the power to say yes, I believe in God. Fortitude gives us God’s power
to make our hidden selves grow strong to become holy women of God.”
In their questions to speakers, one young woman asked how she
could make her prayer more than “just asking God for stuff.” Another
asked what to do when she had fallen “into some bad ways with
guys.” One had concerns about a friend who talked about
seeing spirits; another had a friend who had
become addicted to drugs and wondered what to do.
Celebrating Mass for the young women, Father Dave Pivonka, TOR,
encouraged them to see themselves in light of God’s word of truth.
“Look in a mirror and say, ‘I am made in God’s
image and likeness.’ It is the first step we need to be transformed,”
he said. “I am not talking about your appearance. I am talking about your
heart. I am talking about your soul. Ladies, you are gorgeous because you
reflect the image of God. Do you believe it?”
He also coached them to cheer in unison to the guys, “Treat
me right!,” a cheer which they gleefully recited at the closing Mass on
July 30.
Jim Murphy, a national speaker from the Catholic charismatic
renewal, addressed the entire gathering the evening of July 29 on Mary’s
role as a teenager whose “yes” to God changed the world.
“God is really wild about you and that’s a fact,”
Murphy told the teens. “He created us in order to share his love with
someone. ... God gave humanity his yes. He created us. He is stretching out to
embrace all of humanity ... My sin is one ugly no. Throughout humanity there
has been God’s yes and our no.”
Reflecting continually on the way Mary totally embraced God’s
will, Murphy said, “Thank God one of our own, one little girl from our
group had the guts and the courage to say yes. Where would we be tonight if
that little girl from our group had said no instead of yes?”
“If you’ll say yes to God one more time,” he
continued, “you will play a role in getting us back to the garden with God
... God said yes, Jesus said yes, Mary said yes. Let’s join in the chorus
of yes.”
At the closing Mass, at which Archbishop John F. Donoghue
presided, Father Pivonka gave final words of encouragement to the cheering
congregation.
“Just be yourself,” he said, “be a Christian. God
will take that, he will bless it, he will multiply it and change those around
you ... If you want to change the world, be yourself ... be faithful to the
call you have received. The church needs you.”
At the conclusion of the Mass, Father Pivonka asked young men
thinking of the priesthood and young men and women thinking of the Religious
life to stand up and come forward for the archbishop’s blessing. Over 50
young men stood up for the priesthood and many for the Religious life. They
received a cheering, standing ovation from their peers. |
