Tags
Catholic Teen, Catholic Youth Groups, Life Teen, Life Teen Reunion, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Teenage social life
Much like a mother sneaking vegetables into her child’s food, the Life Teen program attracted me with its social appeal, yet secretly, it nourished a hunger I didn’t realize I’d had. Coming from a moral, though not entirely religious, home, I found Life Teen to be my escape from the rigors of my complicated adolescent existence.
In the real world I was mocked by bullying cynics, stifled by my own vanity, and ignored by the exclusive nature of high school cliques. American society writes teenagers off as apathetic, moody, hard-to-please, brooding beings with little capacity to make any meaningful contribution to society (at least until they’re of voting or working age).
But at church, I found camaraderie, support in my values, and affirmation for my unique gifts and talents. Life Teen offered a world free of cruelty, filled with possibility, and designed by an almighty and ever-loving God I was only beginning to know. It wasn’t long after I joined that I realized it was nothing short of a movement.
There were hoards of kids just like me, with the same passions and the same goals, just looking for ways to do good in humanity. For many of us, Life Teen established a personal connection to Christ by way of the mass. It was a place where teens felt relevant to the future of our church.
It was so validating to have church leaders treat us like an untapped culture with the power to change the world. It was a respect that no one else recognized, yet it inspired us to rise to the occasion and accept its responsibility. No longer did we feel overlooked. In fact, teens were encouraged to be visible as lectors, ushers, altar servers, greeters, music ministers, and Eucharistic ministers, tasks previously reserved exclusively for adults.
We grew to love ministry, seeking out more and more opportunities to honor and serve God through serving others. The homilies at the teen masses were geared specifically toward us. The music was upbeat, energetic, and planned with us in mind.
It all tilled a rich, fertile soil that would ultimately bear choice fruit and serve as both nourishment and sanctuary to blazing, susceptible souls. It was there that the teens began to appreciate the beauty of Catholic mass, and, for many of us, where we fell in love with Christ himself.
Life Teen offered us healthy and holy activities throughout the week. The life nights themselves were modeled after the Catholic mass with a gathering, a teaching, an explanation, and a send off. They dealt with catechetical aspects of our faith and pertinent issues to our age group such as gossip, peer pressure, chastity, and avoiding destructive decisions.
Also, Life nights always involved a social element that encouraged unity among the teens. The bond we shared was incomparable. There wasn’t a single person I didn’t like in our youth group. We’d seen each other through some of the most transformative moments of our lives. There was always a genuine love and concern for everyone in our Life Teen community.
Our group was bursting with perpetual joyfulness. The teens were so happy to praise Jesus, and they came to know that he was the most important reason to get excited about life. It was this jubilant spirit that emboldened us to invite friends from school to mass and other church functions—some never before having set foot in a Catholic church. We proudly donned our life teen t-shirts and crucifixes in our public schools. We swapped stories about our retreat experiences and took notes at the weekly Bible studies. Our hearts were overflowing with the love God had given, and we were eager to share every bit of it.
I remain grateful to the ones that invested so selflessly in the future of our Catholic church. From the priests, deacons, and the youth minister to the core team, the peer leaders and the parents, Life Teen was happy to meet us where we were as budding leaders of the church.
Their contributions have paid-off tenfold and continue to do so each day, through the witness of the people they guided. It’s because they rallied and championed for our souls that we stand together today as one holy, Catholic, and apostolic church. Their efforts helped forge a path for each of us to find our course to heaven and toward a deep and personal relationship with God himself.
The seeds of faith were planted in the teenagers involved in the church, and little did we know of the harvest that awaited. Strengthened by the conviction Life Teen ignited in us, we set forth on the paths before us with new eyes and new hearts, set on paying forward that which had been bestowed upon us.
It astounds me to think—as we teens ran a muck all over the Our Lady of Mount Carmel campus, having water fights and sing-a-longs—that we were among future priests and religious. Some of the teens went on to become core members, Youth Arise members, missionaries, or Catholic university alumni. Others became counselors, philanthropists, teachers, or leaders in their communities.
The Life Teen program gave birth to its share of families, uniting young people who eventually became husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers. We all came to know Jesus in our own unique ways, never fully realizing how important and special those times in the Life Teen program would become to us. It afforded us opportunities we may not have received otherwise.
Life Teen was a place where we could live out the desire in us all to be true disciples of the one and only Jesus Christ free of shame, free of resistance, and full of celebration. We praised the Lord for his blessings and looked to the needs of the world around us, some of us for the very first time. Life Teen told us that the difference we were making was happening right now and that it was never too early to live an anointed life.
We met life-long friends. We found deep-seeded passions. We encountered positive examples of what it means to live a holy life through the mentor relationships of the core team (who lived out holy marriages, virtuous singlehood, and the beauty and celebration of parenthood in all its stages). We spent time with priests and religious and were able to see the nobility of their vocations, yet the complexity of their human nature.
We received much-needed answers to the questions that burned in our hearts and were given a sense of community that prepared us for living in a parish family. It taught us that—regardless of our age—we too, were a valuable component of the social order, with enough wherewithal and clout to affect real change in society.
By speaking a truth untarnished by cynicism or selfish interest, we deepened our capacities to believe, to hope, and to love. Ultimately, the one thing we all have in common is that Life Teen inspired us to enrich the world with a light that only the innocence of youth is able to see. I’m happy to carry this light with me through life and into the kingdom of heaven from whence it came.
dianawritesablog 
Beautifully written as usual!