Like a moth to a flame

For the youth and young adults of the Archdiocese of Kingston, the past 15 months has been a challenging year as we have struggled, like many others, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the adjustments necessary to create a new norm. For the Youth Commission, the Catholic Young Adults Movement (CYAM) and the Catholic Youth Movement (CYM), it meant a new way of reaching and engaging with the youth and young adults in our parishes, while adhering to the protocols and remaining physically distant. The year 2020 presented an opportunity for us to reflect and assess our annual events (Bible Quiz, Camp Fire, Youth Explosion, Jamaica Day, and CYM Sport’s Day) and acknowledge that while they all fed our need for fun and camaraderie, there was still much lacking in our focus on building intentionally, our spirituality and relationship with God.

Armed with this knowledge and a firm resolve, the first half of 2021 has found us able to host a number of prayer nights, games evenings, fellowship ‘lymes’; two four-week virtual retreats: Reawakening – Rising in Your Purpose (for youth), Agape – Inner Peace in Divine Love (for young adults); a four-week Servant Leadership Workshop Series; and a Pentecost Novena that saw persons participating from as far as the United Kingdom! Technology has been a blessing in this regard. One of the biggest blessings from these events is that many of the youth and young adults have forged new friendships and have remained committed to meeting weekly with their retreat facilitators/mentors even after the completion of these events. Glory to God!

With these successful activities breathing life back into the youth arm of the archdiocese, we were charged with “What is next?”, and truthfully, we were not quite sure. So, we retreated. No, we did not run away and abandon the call, but rather took some time to discern, to truly listen, plan and lay our vision for the youth for the rest of 2021 into 2022.

The weekend of July 9-11 saw members of the YC Core, as well as leadership and members from the CYM and CYAM, journey in faith on retreat to Our Lady of Dunsinane, Manchester. We were joined by our archbishop, the Most Rev Kenneth Richards, Youth Commission Chairman Rev. Fr. Rohan Tulloch S.J., and Youth Director Rev Fr Mario Burton. For three days, isolated in the cool hills of Manchester, with open minds and hearts, we prepared and readied ourselves to listen and grow in deeper understanding of God’s call and direction for the youth and young adults of the archdiocese. Leading up to the weekend, we were encouraged to pray, reflect, and open our hearts to the person of Jesus Christ; getting “to know and love Him more, build His kingdom and bring His glory into the world.”

For many of us, the weekend was our first opportunity to be together, in person, in over a year. Every opportunity was made to catch up, reflect, and pray together, share meals together and have good fun with each other. The work began, on Friday night, as our retreat facilitators, Kevin and Anna-Lisa Rodriguez, guided us through a meditation on the Baptism of Jesus. “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10). We pondered the state of our personal relationship with God, acknowledging where we were and how we felt about God’s love in our own lives.

The work continued on Saturday with three gripping and provoking talks: Jesus Calling – we were challenged to be single-minded, to think of our role as one would think of a revolutionary (Nechayev, Sergey, The Catechism of a Revolutionary, 1869) and how might this manifest itself as we seek to build the Kingdom and pursue a relationship with God; Friendship with Jesus – a real tangible look at the friendship Jesus had with his disciples and how that might look in our lives; Is the Church attractive to Men, a talk originally given at the Synod of Bishops by Fr Tom Foresst in 1987 and fully relevant to our experience today!

By midday of Saturday, the theme of our retreat ‘Like a moth to a flame’ began to truly reveal itself and take form. At first, we were all confused by the metaphor and direction of the theme – a moth to a flame, what - doesn’t a moth die when it is exposed to light, much less a flame? We are the moths, and God is the flame or the light. The light attracts but also confuses the moth, and despite any natural fear to avoid the light to remain alive in the world, the moth has an uncontrollable desire to draw closer to the light. We should take the same approach in our lives, allowing the light of God to confuse and diffuse our worldly desires. Let us not resist, but rather uncontrollably draw closer to the light because our faith teaches us that by drawing closer to the light, we will inherit a greater kingdom beyond our time on Earth. As people of faith, and leaders of our youth, we, too, must deny our limited understanding and confusion and trust our journey as we move towards the light. Only then can we truly realise our calling and the direction for our ministry.

Each talk afforded us group breakouts full of introspection, meaningful discussions, encouragement, and prayer and set the stage for two intense and lengthy plenary and planning sessions. Each in our respective arms, YC Core, CYM and CYAM, and with renewed vigour and openness to allow God to speak and guide us as we minister and serve for the upcoming year. Hours were spent jotting, discussing, and dissecting different gaps we saw that needed to be filled, exploring the expressed desires and intents from our youth and young adults, and from those, we formed our plans. We moved in the direction of the light, allowing God to speak His desires through our thoughts.

In the upcoming weeks, the fruits of this time spent in communion and reconnecting with God will come to fruition. Until then, we ask that you continue to keep the youth and young adults of our archdiocese and our country in your prayers that they may desire to draw closer to God and build a personal relationship with Him. Brothers and Sisters, even in our own lives, with single-mindedness, let us choose to respond to God’s calling for our lives, welcoming Him into deeper communion with us so that we can learn to appreciate and love Him more than before. He already dwells within us, so let us seek to reconnect, especially during this period when we are tempted to drift away in frustration or confusion. By opening ourselves entirely to God, we will gain our heart’s desire for the heavenly response, “with you I am well pleased.” God is love.

Renee Hitchener attends Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church and is a member of the Youth Commission and the CYAM Core teams for the Archdiocese of Kingston.