By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI
Participants in this year’s Youth 2000 Walsingham Prayer Festival.
Photo Youth 2000 Facebook page
Dioceses around the world are developing strategies to support and encourage the faith journey of young people. I had the opportunity to speak to a group of young people in London who attended the annual Youth 2000 Walsingham Prayer Festival from August 21–25. The theme this year was The Journey.
About 1,000 young adults journeyed from various parts of the country to the outdoor Festival held near the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Norfolk. It included “international speakers, live music, workshops, discussions, prayer, sports, social times, evening entertainment and loads more”.
Youth 2000 has been in existence for 24 years. Its Facebook Page states that it is “an independent, international initiative that helps young adults aged 16-30 plug back into God at the heart of the Catholic Church. Its main distinguishing feature is the emphasis it places on celebration of the Mass and Adoration of the Eucharist”.
The writer, Damian Arnold, says this is “the biggest residential Catholic retreat for young people in Britain… The simple message that has transformed the lives of thousands of young people: the power and healing of Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament. The devotion that was popularised by St Francis of Assisi in the 13th century has caused a ripple that has spread outwards to young people in Britain who have been brought back to friendship with Jesus, active involvement in the Church and to evangelisation of their non-Christian and non-practising friends.”
“We encourage people to pray silently and deeply before the Blessed Sacrament,” says the Youth 2000 website (www.youth2000.org ). “In our day-to-day lives we are surrounded by the TV, music and mobile phones beeping. The silence allows people to focus on deepening their relationship with God – for us to speak to Him, and for Him to speak to us.”
Arnold states that “Youth 2000’s mission statement is to give young people… a gateway back to God…Praying to Our Lady is a way of being ‘whisked to God’, while praise and worship is a ‘hymn gym’. The weekly prayer groups convened around the country are places to ‘chill out not freak out’.”
The prayer groups are very hands-off, according to the website. “There’s no pressure for anyone to noticeably participate. You can just sneak in at the back and scope things out for the first week if you like. There is complete freedom to dip in and out.”
22-year-old Samantha told me that she has participated in the Festival for the past five years. She said: “It is an amazing experience. Camping in the field and meeting other youth who, like me, are trying to resist being pulled into a life away from what my faith teaches me remind me that witnessing to Christ requires effort. The journey is never going to be easy. What helps is to know that there are other Catholics – young and old – who are prepared to journey with us young adults. We are not alone. Our Church is alive. Sometimes in my parish I get the feeling that the youth are not given an opportunity to participate in the various ministries in a meaningful way. Coming to this annual Festival reminds me that we have the ability to make a tremendous contribution to our parishes, our workplaces and so on.”
Edward, 28, disclosed: “I had stopped going to church and to confession for many years. Since I started going to this Festival and to other Youth 2000 retreats, I have had a personal conversion and my faith is now stronger than ever. I now lead a youth group in Eucharistic adoration and in praying the rosary in my parish. We need to be open so that the Holy Spirit will work in and through us to renew the face of the earth. God is working in my life.”
David Barrett reported in the Catholic Herald on Bishop Mark Davis’ (Shrewsbury) homily at the Festival. Inter alia, the bishop said young Catholics are being called to be witnesses “along every road of life”. They “are being called to be authentic and convincing witnesses if their contemporaries are to come to know Jesus Christ…”
He reminded the gathering that “what is so often told to young people today is: ‘Make your own mind up! Go left, go right – see what works for you!’ No, we need the truth, we cannot find our way without the Truth. Youth 2000 has never sought to offer guesswork to new generations but sure directions on which we can depend,” he said. “Catholicism – pure and simple… And we can be sure of these directions because the Holy Spirit has been promised to the Church. ‘When the Spirit of truth comes,’ Jesus promises, ‘he will guide you to the complete truth’.”
Let us guide our youth in T&T also.
