Youth 'lay it down'

By Montana Catholic staff
Several hundred youth and their adult chaperones shouted out the 10-second countdown to the official start of the Catholic Youth Coalition Convention on March 14.
With a dazzling array of light and sound, the CYC Board offered a dramatic opening performance to the convention song “Lay It Down” by David Casey, as a 16-foot wooden cross, covered in strips of cloth bearing the names of all those present, was erected on the stage.
The approximately 60-member board, comprised of high-school youth from all six deaneries, helped with the development of this year’s convention through a series of four board meetings.
Doug Tooke, coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Minisry for the diocese, introduced the weekend’s emcees – board president Willa Rector of Christ the King Parish in Missoula and vice-president of operations Kyle Todd of St. John the Baptist Parish in Frenchtown.
The two emcees then introduced the evening’s keynote speakers – Brad Farmer and Gene Monterastelli, the duo known as Apex Ministries.
After an opening sequence of juggling bowling pins, Brad and Gene launched into their version of a fairy tale, with help from several audience members. Behind their meandering tale of a boy tasked with feeding the chickens while outsmarting a wily wolf was a simple, powerful point: God calls on us to take care of his people, though we are frequently tempted and distracted.
Brad expanded on the concept, as addressed in John, chapter 21, when Jesus asks his apostles to feed his sheep, just as in the fairy tale, the boy is asked to feed the chickens.
“God, who made you for a special reason, asks ‘Do you love me?’…God will look you in your metaphysical eye and say ‘Feed my chickens.’ ”
Saying yes to God, Brad noted, is a yes of action, not just words.
He then shared a story about his younger sister, Brittany, who had cerebral palsy and other physical and mental ailments. He explained how she showed unconditional love, literally embracing whoever came to their home without first judging how “useful” that person would be.
“John Paul II said that the opposite of love isn’t hate – it’s using,” Brad noted.
He then recounted a particular Sunday morning when his sister was rushed to the hospital with breathing difficulties. Since she’d been in and out of hospitals all her life, it wasn’t an unusual event. Nonetheless, something compelled him to pray the rosary as he and his younger brother waited to hear from their parents. In the midst of his prayer, he envisioned his sister running without her leg braces and uneven gait. In the hushed gymnasium, Brad explained that this vision of Brittany running unencumbered came to him as she was dying in the hospital.
“The power of prayer is real. It isn’t just words – we were created to come to know God, to love God,” he said. “And at a glance, Brittany didn’t have a lot of offer – we judge people without knowing what they have to offer, and sometimes we bash ourselves down with lies – ‘I’m not smart enough, not pretty enough, not thin enough...’ But each person has a special purpose….Our Church needs you, our world needs you. Once you learn to love yourself, you can learn to love others as yourself.”
After the keynote, twelve priests – Fathers Mike Drury, Eric Gilbaugh, Tom Haffey, Jack Hunthausen, Bob Noonan, Mike Poole, Dan Shea, Bart Tolleson, Val Zdilla, Msgr. Kevin O’Neill, Msgr. Don Shea, and retired Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen – were available to hear individual confessions. Stations were set up throughout the gym, and two-thirds of those gathered made reconciliation.
Monsignor Don Shea said it was great to start the convention with the sacrament. The youth skits preparing for reconciliation were marvelous metaphors for the students in examining their consciences, he added.
The pastor of Pope John Paul II Parish in Bigfork said he was extremely pleased with the program and how powerful it was.
Two of the youth from Pope John Paul II Parish, Christopher and Alex Neu, helped build the 16’ x 10’ cross, Msgr. Shea said.
Sierra Olszewski and Tyler Butts from Pope John Paul II Parish gave the whole reconciliation theme in one sentence: “Examine your conscience with God, not just yourself, because sometimes you're too easy on yourself.”

‘Mega’ breakouts examine intersection of faith & art
Saturday’s session began with another keynote by Apex Ministries. Brad and Gene offered a fast-paced presentation on what makes a superhero while juggling “magnetic” objects and banter. No matter how someone receives power, they summed up, that power should be used for good and to honor God.
Saints are like super heroes, they said. Where does their power come from? From God, whom they have invited inside them, to do his will. To be a saint is what every one is here for. “You are the superheroes today,” they added.
They also talked about Jesus emphasizing the beatitudes, and how each person contains a piece of God.
Gene put on a straitjacket with assistance from a Montana teen, while explaining how it is made and how someone can escape from it through knowledge and effort. Disengaging one shoulder bone can be the start of getting out of the jacket.
With a great deal of physical effort with the jacket, he also talked about his learning disabilities. “But I’m not disabled,” he stated. As he finished speaking, the straitjacket lay on the floor at the foot of the cross, a symbol of his triumph over disabilities.
He and Brad told several stories, including one about an Italian juggler, Giovanni, who joined a troupe that traveled around Italy, entertaining people and working for God. After many years of work, Giovanni became old and people were bored with his routines.
In one town, he saw people placing gifts at a statue of a child. Giovanni wanted to do the same, but he had no material gift. So he juggled, and found a new purpose in life and a new happiness.
“We really are part of one body,” Brad said. When one part hurts or has no food or water for a day, the body suffers. “When you put a big smile on one person’s face (by providing sustenance), you put a smile on God’s face,” he added.
Morning prayer by a group from St. Ann Parish, Bonner, and two “mega” breakout sessions on art and music completed the morning and were repeated in the afternoon so everyone could attend both.
Linda McCray, an artist from Clancy, told about half of the convention-goers that she prays a quarter of the time she allots for painting. Then she starts to develop the ideas that came to her through prayer. She encouraged the youth to do the same.
The artwork produced in less than an hour focused on Holy Week and Easter. It varied from simple crosses, blue skies, flowers, hearts, eyes, doves and crowns of thorns in pastels, to bold and dark colors for similar topics and crosses along a journey. Much of it was symbolic, while other pieces were abstract.
David Casey, a musician, composer and member of the Watercarvers Guild in Helena, asked the other half of the attendees how many are musicians, athletes and artists. Many hands went up for each category. Some teens were active in all three categories.
“I like to play (music) but I don’t live to play,” Casey said, noting that if he didn’t have music, he would have developed other interests.
Sometimes the Bible really talks to you, he added. “It can change more than your day.” In reading the gospels about the Last Supper and Passion, he noted that it referred to Jesus and the apostles singing a hymn before going to the Mount of Olives.
He started researching, and realized the traditional Jewish hymns are the Psalms in the Old Testament. Five of them are sung at the end of Passover week – Psalms 114 through 118.
The afternoon ended with a prayer by a youth group from SS. Cyril and Methodius Parish, East Helena, and celebration speeches by the emcees and Tooke.
Then it was time to prepare for the evening – a banquet at Carroll College’s campus center, carrying the 16-foot cross to the Cathedral of St. Helena where Bishop George Leo Thomas celebrated Mass, and presented three “For God and Youth” awards.
A dance followed at Carroll’s P.E. Center.

‘God shining through’
On Sunday morning, a youth group from St. Luke Parish in Great Falls offered the morning prayer.
Then Jacob Schwaller of SS. Cyril and Methodius took the stage to give the youth keynote. He recounted two definitive faith moments in his life. The first happened in March 2001, when he and his little sister went for a walk. There was local flooding and the two found themselves swept up into a culvert, in danger of drowning. Schwaller said he thought he was going to die, but in the midst of that, he felt incredible peace. “God gave me the opportunity to come back; it was a defining moment and I thank him every day,” he said.
His second experience was last year, in the midst of struggles with grades and relationships. He said he kept going to church, even though he didn’t “feel anything” as he was searching for God’s presence. During Holy Week, he went to “everything” his church offered, still searching. Eventually, he said, he realized that he’d been going to his church community because it was a safe place. “God was in all those people, God was shining through all of them,” he recounted.
Schwaller then performed an original song he composed for the convention, as his little sister held the music for him. A friend joined him on stage to play several more tunes, with the crowd on their feet.
Tooke, noting how special and unique it is to have a diocesan college, then introduced the Carroll College Kirchen Ministers. The Kirchen Ministers are involved with campus ministry at Carroll; they presented a skit highlighting some of the typical college foibles, with “Conscious Constantine” on hand to steer the co-eds back on track.
Tooke then encouraged the youth to stay connected through various diocesan events, including Leadership Camp, the Kickball Tourney, Holy Spirit Conference and Son Light: Celebrating Youth Ministry event. He noted that next year’s CYC Board would be discerned during Leadership Camp, as was the inaugural board during last summer’s Leadership Camp.
As the convention was drawing to a close, a slideshow with photos and video footage from the weekend cemented memories. The board performed the closing ceremony, mirroring their opening ceremony from Friday. The cross, now bare, was carried from the stage and repositioned by the gym doors. As the board members gathered in a final group embrace, others stood in small groups, talking excitedly, blinking in the sudden brightness of the fluorescent lights, capturing photos of the cross with their cameras and cell phones – to take home.

Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 24, No. 3, March 21, 2008.