Here we go.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Tony and I am the Disciple in Service at Sacred Heart. For the next year, I will be living a life of prayer and simplicity so that I can grow closer to God and discover where He wants me to go in the future.
It’s really great to see you all here, because if I was your age, I would not be at this type of event. When I was in high school, my faith wasn't something very important to me. Even though I went to a Catholic high school, my faith life was at a minimum. Most of my friends were Catholic as well, but we didn't really talk about our faith. At times I would resent being Catholic. When my friends would hold LAN parties, I would always have to leave early because my family went to 9am Mass every Sunday. Luckily, I didn't see a reason not to be Catholic, so I continued to live my lazy Catholic life. True story, the inspiration for my confirmation name, Rachael, wasn't the Archangel, but the ninja turtle.
Things changed when I went to college in 2010. I went to school at Western and became involved with the WWU Newman Center. There, I met great friends, including April, and learned a lot about my faith. During those 4 years, I went on a lot of retreats, just as all of you will, I hope. The great thing about going on retreats is that you are completely away from everything but God. There’s no Facebook, no Youtube, no Tumblr, if you guys do that. It’s just you, a bunch of awesome Christian friends, and God. Most of the retreats I attended were only 3 days long, but at the end of every retreat, I was on a Jesus high. I felt so connected to God and my faith and I just wanted to keep the feeling forever. If we could have stayed in Sedro-Wooley or Anacortes or wherever those retreats were being held, I would have been totally happy. A little background, I’m a pretty introverted person, so me wanting to be away from home for an extended period of time is a rare occurrence. I think that Peter was feeling the same way when they were up on that mountain. He was so happy and just wanted to stay at that place forever. But Jesus said no, we have to go back down the mountain and meet the people.
At the end of those three day retreats, I felt so in tuned with God, but after leaving and getting back to real life, that spiritual high would slowly fade away. Honestly, for me, it’s hard to feel a connection to anything when you have to wake up at 7:30am. So, I would hold onto that high until it eventually would go away and my regular routines would set in. After retreats, I would promise myself that I would pray a Rosary every night. A couple days later, it would be a decade of a rosary each night. And a couple days more and I wouldn't be able to find my rosary. Than my prayer life would be pretty dismal, at least until the next retreat happened and I was on another spiritual high. Hope is not lost however, because I my prayer life has gotten better in the past year. Still, it’s not at the place I wish it would be, and that is where you have an advantage over me.
You’re all still in high school. How old are you? (Get answers). I’m 22 years old, and I wish I could tell my 15/16 year old self to work on being a better Catholic. I hope that you will use the time to build a solid foundation for your faith, because that foundation will help you to continue to build your relationship with God for the rest of our lives. Just like my retreats, there will be times where you will be on top of the mountain and feel completely in sync with God, but you will have to come down. Though you may not feel that spiritual high you had on the mountain, how you pray and connect with God now will continue to sustain you, like how a runner who practices for a marathon will do better than someone who decided to do it on a whim and downs three Red Bulls beforehand.
The best way for you to do this is to live your faith in your everyday life. Whether you are at school or sports practices, you can bring God with you. It can be simple things like remembering to pray before eating lunch or ask St. Sebastian to watch over you during a sports game. As you gain in confidence, try talking to your friends about what you believe. Don’t force it on them, because that doesn’t work, but just let them know that your faith in important to you. My old roommates had bad habit of using the Lord’s name in vain, so one night I decided to talk to them about this issue. It led to some interesting conversations and even though they would occasionally slip up, I knew that they were trying and I was happy with that. So, you don’t have to go and make big sweeping changes to your life in just 24 hours. It’s going to be a slow, gradual process, but that will help you to stay connected with God over time. It may be quicker to try and build something in just one sitting, but most likely it will end up falling apart pretty quickly. So, take your time, slow and steady does win the race.
Besides praying and trying to live your life in a more Christian way, there’s one more thing that I hope you will do, especially when times get rough. I hope you will trust in God. The world is a scary place and as you grow older, you will see just how scary a place it can be. But God is the light in the darkness. There have been many times where I felt lost or alone and didn’t know where to go, but God was always there for me. He always came through for me, and not always in the way I expected. During my senior year of high school, I was finishing up my college applications. I had applied to a couple Catholic Universities, WWU and UW. My dad is a huge UW fan and he had always been pushing me to become a Huskie. So one day I was looking over my apps when I made a terrible discovery. My UW app was late. I hadn't looked at it in a couple days, and had accidentally missed the deadline. I went into shock. I felt like I had let my parents down, which is something I never wanted to do. I panicked. I considered just running away, because I didn't know what to do. My dad would be disappointed in me, my mom would be disappointed in me and as an overly self-conscious person, I despise letting people down when they are counting on me. So, I did the only logical thing and ran outside into the rain, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I cried as I walked away from my house, I didn’t have a direction, but I just needed to get away. All these negative thoughts swirled through my head. What if I don’t get into any other colleges and UW would have been my only shot? What if I missed out on the chance to go to a really good school that wouldn’t bankrupt my parents? Should I just forget about going to school this year? As I walked, I cried out to God to help me. That was probably the first time I called to God for help, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Eventually, I made my way back home and told my sister what happened. She told me to go take a nap, so that’s what I did. Before I fell asleep, I prayed to God one more time. I asked for his help and his forgiveness, but I didn’t know if he would listen to me.
The next morning, my sister told my mom, who told my dad. I woke up for breakfast and the two of us ate together. He told me that he would always love me and be proud of me. After hearing him say that, I thanked God, because my worst fear, of my dad thinking I was a failure as a son had not come true. I had further reason to thank God when I got accepted into every other school I’d applied to. If I had been accepted to UW, who knows if I would have gone there or WWU, but in the end, He had a plan for me, and my time at Western was 4 greatest years of my life. God watches out for us. Please never forget that, because He wants to help you whenever you need Him.
So, I hope that my talk has given you some ideas for the future. Your experiences are going to be different from mine and you will experience God in your own unique way. Just remember that you never have to go at it alone. There are people like April and Father Joseph who can help you when you feel lost or just need someone to talk to. As the body of Christ, we are all want to be like Peter on top of that mountain, but life doesn’t work like that. We have to come down from the mountain, but we can still take what we saw or heard or felt on that mountain and bring it down with us. And with that, let’s bow our heads in prayer, here at this camp, and ask God to guide us and let His love shine through use for all to see.
Peace and Love
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