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Rejoice!
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December 5, 2023How do you mime a football game? Or climbing Mount Everest? Or… the Last Supper? Two hundred teens from different parishes around the diocese entered a creative competition at the Corpus Christi edition of the Global Celebration of Young People, an initiative that Pope Francis started two years ago. Traditionally held on Christ the King Sunday, the event, organized as a joint effort of the Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministry, was moved this year to the First Sunday of Advent because of the closeness of the date to Thanksgiving.
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer,” taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, was the motto for the day. Bishop Michael Mulvey invited the youth to take St. Catherine of Siena as a role model, who wrote a lot about the importance of self-knowledge in the spiritual life. “This is the knowledge that God loves me.” He invited the teens to spend time with God and to say to him, “I love you.”
He shared with the teens what happened to him when he had a terrible day and came home in the evening sad, upset, and angry. “Then I heard in my heart the invitation, ‘go and pray,’” the bishop continued. Sitting in front of the crucifix, he started laughing. “It was as if Jesus was saying to me, ‘You think you got it bad… look at me!’ And then, I understood.” This intimacy with God would give our lives meaning.
This friendship with God could be summed up in the phrase, “You, Lord, are my only good.” It means offering every activity to Him with the words, “‘This is for you.’ This exam you have to take, this conflict with your friend you have to resolve, this home for your parents…,” said the bishop. In this way, each one could always live Jesus’ advice to pray.
Another part of the program was a testimonial from Leah Saldivar, a student at TAMUCC, about her trip to World Youth Day, joining Bishop Mulvey and the other 24 pilgrims of the diocese. She described how God led her to Lisbon, Portugal, and the deep spiritual impact the event had on her: “It was such a strong experience to receive communion with 1.5 million young people my age,” she shared. And she was moved thinking, “Why me? How come I can be here?” She encouraged everyone to plan on attending the next World Youth Event in 2025 in Rome and the World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, Korea.
The now annual celebration concluded with an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and the opportunity for confession, which many teens attended.
