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NCYC-MASS Nov-2-2005 (850 words) With photos. xxxn
Enthusiasm, energy mark closing Mass at Catholic youth conference
By Suzanne Haugh
Catholic News Service
ATLANTA (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholic teenagers, many wearing T-shirts with slogans such as "Discover Jesus" and "i pray," sprinted through stadium aisles Oct. 29 to claim front-row seats -- not for a football game, hockey game or concert, but for Mass.
More than 16,500 teens from across the United States gathered at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to conclude the 2005 National Catholic Youth Conference.
The Oct. 27-29 event, packed with guest speakers, workshops and presentations to enrich their faith, allowed young Catholics to experience with their peers the diversity and support of the broader church community.
The closing liturgy really "brought the Mass to life," said Rebecca Schmitt, 16, from the Diocese of Belleville, Ill. "There was so much energy, even in the quiet moments."
Youths waved colorful kites on long poles, liturgical dancers filled the air with incense and the conference's youth choir sang "Come Holy Spirit, send down your fire," as more than 120 priests and deacons and 15 bishops, including the main celebrant, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta, entered.
In his homily, Archbishop Gregory reminded the teens that Jesus was their age at one time and focused on the important relationship between parents and their children.
"Part of parents' jobs is to help us mature in ways that will guarantee our happiness as adults," he said. "Part of a young person's responsibility is to remind parents that you are already making good progress in growing up -- maybe faster than a parent might notice!"
Archbishop Gregory said God's "great act of ... becoming a man like us gives him an intimate understanding of our human condition, and it allows him to know entirely what goes through the minds and hearts of young people."
"I have every reason to believe that Jesus would be very much at home in such a gathering of young people, as we have hosted in Atlanta this weekend," he added. "I have every confidence to believe that he is here in our midst even as we speak of him."
During Communion, bishops and priests were led by Atlanta's seminarians to various stations throughout the stadium. Teenagers quietly came forward to receive Christ in the Eucharist and then returned to their seats to kneel or stand in silent prayer or song.
Following a medley of songs sung by the youth choir, well-known Catholic singers Tom Booth, Jesse Manibusan and emcee Steve Angrisano came forward to also lead the congregation in praising God as people in the upper balconies waited to receive Communion.
Following the final blessing and procession, joyful noise erupted and kites flew throughout the stadium once more. Angrisano came into the altar area as everyone still lingered, not yet ready to leave after the two-hour liturgy.
He reminded the young people of three things: to pray, to gather with their community and to participate in the sacraments.
"We need you -- believe, believe, believe," he implored them.
The group of animators, youths from various dioceses who led prayer services and songs throughout the event, then led their peers in one last song, "Winds of Change," the conference's theme.
"It's amazing," said Brittany Gonzalez, 16, of San Antonio. "Our church (in Texas) is a little church, but wow! I come here and realize how the religion itself is huge."
Wiping away tears, animator Colleen Murphy, 15, from the Archdiocese of Atlanta, called it "an awesome privilege" to perform before so many of her Catholic peers.
"It's something I definitely want to do again in two years," she added. "I'm going to miss my fellow animators."
Josh Dainton, 15, of the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., said the speakers at the conference "really had an impact" on him, noting especially Jason Evert's talk on sexuality, which taught him that you don't have to have sex to be a man.
"You're more of a man if you wait, and it shows respect for your future spouse," he told The Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta's archdiocesan newspaper.
The exuberant show of faith left Brian Garcia, a freshman from Louisville, Ky., attending his first National Catholic Youth Conference, feeling like "I was Baptist."
"It was like a completely different place, wild and strange, but also really spiritual," he said.
In addition to speakers and liturgies, the conference offered young people opportunities to experience various forms of prayer -- from listening to a high school choir from Taize, France, to praying the rosary to a contemporary mix of music performed by a Life Teen band -- and to join in eucharistic adoration.
Youths made rosaries, prayer journals and blankets for newborns. They filled donated backpacks with toiletries, learned about fair-trade products and played a pro-life "Jeopardy"-type game and putt-putt golf with seminarians as part of Peachtree Corners, the thematic park that allowed teens to explore different aspects of their mind, body and spirit.
"To me, (the conference showed) "that there are so many youth interested in the church," said Jennifer Ramirez, 17, of San Antonio. "They're ready for leadership in helping the poor and fighting for justice."
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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