Every month in this Jubilee Year dedicated to hope, I am writing one column on a particular ministry in the diocese which offers hope to others.
In January, I wrote about our Catholic schools, in February about Catholic Charities, and this month about our youth ministries and programs throughout the Diocese of Madison.
Our diocese leads the way in engaging our youth in religious formation, the practice of the sacraments, and service to others.
Youth are a hope for all
I am always encouraged and inspired by our young people preparing for Confirmation.
I read the letters the candidates send to me, learning about their hopes and struggles, their spiritual growth, and their many service activities.
Confirming them in the Holy Spirit is always a point of celebration for the whole community and a deep consolation to all of us, that our beloved young people are still listening to the call of Jesus and responding.
I pray they all remain faithful to the spiritual commitment they have made.
Camp Gray is a national model of Catholic camping.
Every summer, hundreds of our children and teenagers enjoy a week of joyful camaraderie, immersion in the beauty of nature, and a deepening of their relationship with Christ and the Church in the wonder of God’s creation.
Many of our young people say that their experience at camp as both participants and counselors transformed their lives and led them to a desire to dedicate their lives to God and the Catholic Church.
Love Begins Here is a summer service project for teens in our diocese to give of themselves in local works of charity — painting someone’s house, helping at a food pantry, cleaning up a cemetery, or visiting with the folks at Catholic Charities Adult Day Center for the elderly and those with special needs.
Love Begins Here combines these service experiences with prayer, formation, and fellowship to help our young people integrate the love of God and love of neighbor in their emerging understanding of Catholic discipleship.
Again, thousands of people in our diocese attest to the power of this experience on their path of Christian conversion.
Totus Tuus is a summer program, akin to Vacation Bible School, in which our children and teens learn the Christian story of salvation through the Mysteries of the Rosary.
Led by young adults, including our seminarians, Totus Tuus is a combination of prayer, fun, and learning, meant to lead our youth to both a deeper experience of Christ and understanding of the Catholic faith.
A parental component involves the mothers and fathers as well in growing their love for the Lord along with their children.
All of these summer programs benefit thousands of people in our diocese and equip the leaders with requisite skills which will serve them and the Church for years to come.
Family provides example
Many of our parishes have embraced Family Catechesis as a new way of forming our young people in the Catholic faith.
As the primary catechists of their children, parents are essential in the spiritual growth of their children.
Family Catechesis, as its name suggests, involves the entire family through sessions of prayer and formation at the parish, but parents also receive materials to carry on this catechesis at home in the ensuing weeks.
Parental example and involvement is vital if we truly want our children to learn, absorb, and practice the faith.
This new pedagogy has been surprisingly fruitful and effective in many of our parishes.
Campus ministry at Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center at UW-Madison and St. Augustine University Parish at UW-Platteville is spiritually on fire.
This year, close to 140 college students will receive the Easter sacraments and come into full communion with the Church.
The students’ participation in Mass, Confession, Eucharistic Adoration, Bible study, and Christian fellowship is truly a wonder to behold!
The spiritual practice of hundreds of college students on secular campuses is truly the work of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of tremendous evangelizing effort.
Everything mentioned above can only happen because we have excellent and faithful leaders — priests, deacons, religious, and laity; leaders on the diocesan level and the parish level, staff, volunteers, and parents; young people themselves as well as seasoned adults.
They all come together to offer our children and young people authentic experiences of Christ and the Church.
They all are committed to evangelization, catechesis, and service.
In such a spiritually rich environment, our youth inspire, serve, and lead each other to the Lord.
Such remarkable works give all of us great hope, not only for the future of the Church, but right here and now in this corner of the vineyard of the Lord.
I am so grateful to everyone who makes this holy dynamism expand and glow with the fire of the Holy Spirit!