Diocesan High School Youth Rally touches teens

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Youth reacted positively to a gathering where they heard about heaven, hell, and an ordinary/extraordinary teenager.
About 200 teenagers and adult leaders attended the 2023 Diocesan High School Youth Rally Nov. 5 at Anna Maria College in Paxton. It included Mass with Bishop McManus, keynote talks and a question-and-answer break-out session by international speaker and comedian Paul J. Kim, a session about lectio divina (a method of praying with Scripture) and a session with games and prizes.
“It was a good day,” said Timothy Messenger, rally organizer and director of the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. “I think the speaker did a really good job engaging” the teenagers.
“It really touched me,” said Desiree Degon, 16, of St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish in Worcester. “I started crying. … God is there for you and God loves you. … He had his life taken for me.”
She said she hadn’t been in a good mood that day before attending the rally.
“For a couple weeks now I’ve been feeling like something’s missing,” she said, adding that she thought she found that missing piece at the rally.
“I’m not afraid anymore to connect with God,” she said.
“All of us took the information very seriously,” said her fellow-parishioner Christopher Gray, 15, who called the rally – his first – very peaceful. “We’re always going to remember this.”
“I’ve got a feeling that they really got something today,” said Richard Caron, a religious education teacher at St. Joseph Parish in North Brookfield for 43 years. He said he and two other adults brought 11 teenagers from the Brookfield parishes. He saw teenagers singing and a couple of youth he didn’t know joking at first, then turning serious and listening.
A member of his group – Adrien Lamas, 15, of St. John the Baptist Parish in East Brookfield – commented, “I enjoyed the keynote speaker, and the games were fun.”
“It was a really lovely experience,” said Emma Morse, of Annunciation Parish in Gardner and Our Lady Immaculate Parish in Athol and a member of the Diocesan Youth Discipleship Team. “I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go. I thought the speaker was really good; he was very funny. I enjoyed just having a gathering” of faith with so many teenagers.
“It was very informational,” said Marianna Valera, 15, from St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish. She said the speaker said many things she could relate to and take with her.
Among the topics were one’s present choices and eternal future.
Our mission in life is to get to heaven and take as many people as we can with us, Bishop McManus said in his homily.
The way we choose to live the “meager years” we’ve been given on earth will affect where we spend eternity, Mr. Kim said. He imitated a “fire and brimstone” preacher and said he didn’t want to scare people. But, he asked, if hell isn’t a reality, why would Jesus die on the cross?
Mr. Kim imagined the last judgement from Matthew 25 in modern terms.
“I was hungry and you gave me food,” Jesus tells someone he welcomes to heaven.
“Awesome, but I don’t remember ever sharing my nuggets with you,” responds that person. Jesus explains that whatever we do for others, we do for him.
A person whom Jesus condemns objects, “I never saw you in my life; if I knew it was you, I would have handed you a Gatorade, maybe.”
We can’t earn salvation, Mr. Kim said. We need to “acknowledge Jesus Christ as savior and lord,” put faith in his promises and walk in his ways.
Mr. Kim gave examples of people to treat like one would treat Christ: parents, siblings, “even the people who can do zero to your social status” and people online.
“Whatever we do or text or post or comment, we do to Christ,” he explained.
He urged teenagers not to compare themselves to others, but to be themselves and be a gift to God and others.
Both Mr. Kim and Bishop McManus talked about Blessed Carlo Acutis, who said, “All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies.”
Mr. Kim noted that this Italian born in 1991 was diagnosed with leukemia and died as a teenager. He created a website that catalogued eucharistic miracles (miracolieucaristici.org/en/Liste/list.html) and had other hobbies, attended daily Mass, and made care packages for the poor.
“He was a normal kid” – but not normal in that he put God first, Mr. Kim said.
Bishop McManus said Carlo was an athlete, a “regular young teenager” who went to church even though his parents weren’t practicing the faith, and who is on the way to sainthood.
“He’s a great example for you to look up to,” the bishop told his teenaged listeners.
Natasha Rodriguez, a religious education teacher at St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish, described the youth rally as eye-opening, touching and something to get teenagers to really think.
“I can’t wait to have the after-conversation,” to hear what they thought, she said. And she hopes to use information gained there in her classes.