FAITH Saginaw Summer 2008 : Page 2
f r o m t h e e d i t o r T here is something special about young people. I am reminded of that each year as the high school graduation season rolls in and out. Encountering the Class of 2008, my wife and I recently had a good laugh as we remembered our own high school graduation in 1998. Perhaps you, too, might remember that feeling of being on top of the world, conquering 13 years of education and ready to fearlessly leap into the rest of your life. As the spouse of a youth minister, I often have the opportunity to be blessed by encounters with the youthful idealism, energy and hope of teenagers. And being just 10 years removed from my own high school days, I like to think I still maintain some level of that same anything-is-possible attitude. It’s an attitude of hope from which we adults can easily find ourselves detached. I’ve been involved with enough parish councils and committees in the last decade to know it sometimes is easier for a group of aging leaders to ask how to cut back or end this or that rather than consider how to make something happen or encourage and empower others to be more involved. It’s a struggle many of our communities face: How can we be a people of hope? Pope Benedict XVI provided an excellent model for encouraging both young and old during his April visit to the United States. “In front of you are the images of six ordinary men and women who grew up to lead extraordinary lives,” the Holy Father told young people and seminarians gathered in Yonkers, N.Y. “Each responded to the Lord’s call to a life of charity and each served him here, in the alleys, streets and suburbs of New York.” “I am struck by what a remarkably diverse group they are: poor and rich, lay men and women – one a wealthy wife and mother – priests and sisters, immigrants from afar, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior father and Algonquin mother, another a Haitian slave, and a Cuban intellectual. “St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. John Neumann, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Venerable Pierre Toussaint, and Padre Felix Varela: any one of us could be among them ... Inflamed with the love of Jesus, their lives became remarkable journeys of hope. “For some, that meant leaving home and embarking on a pilgrim journey of thousands of miles. For each there was an act of abandonment to God, in the confidence that he is the final destination of every pilgrim … These six people laid open the way of faith, hope and charity to countless individuals, including perhaps your own ancestors.” As we continue to pass our faith on to each new generation, may the young people encountered in this issue of FAITH Saginaw rekindle our own youthful energy and inspire hope. - Matt Treadwell is editor-in-chief of FAITH Saginaw and communications director for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw. people of hope we can learn a lot from our youth FAITH Saginaw Summer 2008 Liturgical Calendar: Blessed Junipero, Priest July 1 | St. Thomas, Apostle July 3 | St. Elizabeth of Portugal July 4 | St. Antho
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