Fear Is Better Than Nothing

The sad truth is that lots of people stop practicing their faith. Fervor, gusto, and warm emotions indicating God’s presence disappear, and so people call it quits (ironically, these are the same people who keep saying that they desperately want to find the perfect person to marry, forgetting that at some point in the marriage, they will inevitably wake up one morning and instead of feeling butterflies in their stomach, will feel a tinge of weariness because their spouse has been being annoying – do they call it quits then? But I digress). When these sentimental feelings disappear, the worst thing that a person could do would be to do away with religious feelings and actions altogether, and become apathetic. This is the real danger zone. Christ said that if we are “…lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, [He will] spit [us] out of [his] mouth” (Revelation 3:16). The “who cares?” attitude does absolutely nothing to help us in our lives here on earth. It is better to have a strong opinion about the faith, either way – it shows passion and a hunger for truth. People who lack a conviction show that they aren’t applying themselves. So don’t think that I rejoice when I find out that someone has left the Church because of anger, or confusion, or resentment. It is truly sad. But I do thank God that this person is still trying to interact with the world. And one of the ways I’ve seen people interact with the world after turning their back on Christ is through fear.

Our Primary Focus

On June 12th, I travelled down to Scottsdale, Arizona for the National Life Teen Training Convention that was held for all youth ministry coordinators who had already subscribed, or were thinking of subscribing, to their youth ministry program. It was such an amazing time, filled with so many great people, so many great talks, and so much great music.

A lot of information was thrown at us over the course of 4 days. With over 500 people, we had to choose different breakout sessions. But after every session of "How to Recruit Leaders" or "Teaching Teens and their Families to Pray", or "Leading Teens into Sacred Scripture", all 500+ youth ministry coordinators and 70 priests came back together and listened to a talk that mentioned The Eucharist, or a talk that mentioned Mary. Accompanying all of this was prayer, and there was lots of it. Everywhere. Liturgy of the Hours when we woke up, prayers during general sessions, prayers at the beginning, middle, and end of breakout sessions. Daily mass and Eucharistic Adoration. Liturgy of the Hours before we went to sleep. It was incredibly challenging, yet incredibly peaceful.