By Julie Godfrey Miller
Superior Catholic Herald
Rally: Young people fill St. Patrick Church
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HUDSON -- A record crowd, 850 young people and their chaperones, attended the annual youth rally at St. Patrick Church in Hudson April 2. The event, sponsored by the Diocese of Superior Office of Religious Education and Youth Ministry with the theme, "Can you hear me now?" focused on how young people can listen and discern their calling by being aware of the ways in which God reveals himself. Music for the event and for the Mass was provided by Sonar, a Catholic worship band.
Bishop Peter F. Christensen presided at the Mass, with Fr. Andrew Ricci, director of the Office of Vocations and Seminarians and pastor of the Spooner, Shell Lake, Sarona cluster of parishes; Fr. John Drummy, pastor of the Amery and Balsam Lake parishes, and supervising pastor at Barron, Cameron and Chetek; Fr. Jim Jackson, who is on medical leave; Fr. Gerald Harris, pastor in River Falls; Fr. Tom Thompson, pastor at Osceola, Somerset and East Farmington and Fr. Virgil Heinen, who is retired, concelebrating. Deacon Mike McLain, a transitional deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood in June, assisted.
In his homily, Christensen commented on the Gospel which he had chosen for the Mass -- the story of the call of Peter to became a disciple.
Simon (Peter) and the fishermen heard Jesus preach while they were mending their nets. Jesus got in one of their boats and asked them to go out into the lake where he could continue his teaching away from the crowd. When Jesus finished teaching, he asked them to go out a little farther and cast the net again.
Although they had been fishing all night, and caught nothing, Peter did as Jesus asked. They caught so many fish that the net was ripping and they filled two boats almost to the point of sinking.
Christensen said, "Can you think of anything better than to catch fish, if you like to fish? Can you imagine catching so many fish that you're not sure the nets are going to make it or even the boat will be able to get back to the shore? ... Who got hooked? My gosh, Jesus played right into their deepest desire," and they left everything in the boats, even the fish, and followed Jesus.
"Jesus knows the longings of our heart. He knows what we love to do and he lets us enjoy those things in life. But what's interesting, those who meet Jesus, choose Jesus over the greatest desire and they end up fishing in a whole new way, which they love even more.
It's amazing," Christensen said, and added, "If you want to k now what God is like, read the Gospels and watch what Jesus does. What Jesus does is what the Father does and desires for the world."
Jesus also wants people to really long for him. "If we really want him, he will never, ever, ever deny us that gift. Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you; ask and you will receive."
But God never pushes himself on people, because if he does, it is no longer love. Christensen likened it to asking someone to send him a Valentine card. If he got that card he would never know if it was from love, or because he told them to.
"Maybe tonight, at this beautiful Eucharist, we can say, 'Above all, Lord, let me hunger for you. Use me as you desire for me to be used.' It's always going to be for the good. 'Fill me as you desire for me to be filled. Have mercy on me as you desire for me to experience that mercy. Love me as you desire for me to be loved.' He answers that prayer."
After Mass there were three speakers on hearing God's call. The first was David Neuschwander, a 20-year-old seminarian from Hudson, who attends St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn.
He spoke about how people hear the Lord's call and why they should hear the Lord.
He said, "Every single one of you is called by the Lord. You have been called by God to follow his plan. He has a plan for every single one of us. This plan for you, I guarantee you, is going to bring you the most happiness, the most joy, than anything you could ever think of. God's plan for you is so amazing."
Neuschwander said he asked the Lord what his plan was because he knew God's way was the best way, God's way was the greatest way that he could follow and he is so joyful following the Lord.
"To hear what he want's you to do, you have to ask him straight out, and you have to listen to him, but that listening to him, that was a little tough."
He likened trying to hear God to trying to carry on a conversation at a loud concert.
To hear the Lord, a person has to be quiet, without television or other distractions. He suggested that all the people get down on their knees when they get home that night and ask God what he wants them to do with their lives and then listen for the answer, "He will tell you where he wants you to go."
He added, "The Lord calls every single one of us to motherhood and to fatherhood, without exception, every single one." For most that will mean marriage and motherhood or fatherhood, but for some it will mean the different kind of parenthood that comes with a vocation to the priesthood or to religious life.
Another way of listening to the Lord is reading the Gospels, Neuschwander said. "The Scriptures are so amazing. It's the word of God. It's Jesus Christ. ... You can't read the Scriptures without being changed, without the Lord speaking."
He challenged everyone to open the Bible and read a page, a paragraph, a line of the Gospels and then "listen to those desires in your heart. What does that make you want to do? What does that make you desire? Because that desire is what the Lord wants."
The things that bring you deep happiness and joy are the Lord speaking to you, he said.
He added that if you start getting really worried and anxious, that is the evil one, the devil who wants to push you off the path.
He summed up saying that if you want the answer you have to ask the question and then listen in the silence, listen in the Scriptures and listen in the deep desires of the heart.
The second speaker was Adam Laski, a 19-year-old from Holy Trinity Parish in Haugen, who also attends St. John Vianney.
He said, "When you respond to that call of the Lord you will begin to find true joy, peace and fulfillment, and when you begin to hear that calling you will begin to realize that you are called to something much greater than yourself."
There is no doubt when you hear God calling, Laski said, and he knows because he experienced it. When he was a sophomore in high school he had been searching for what the Lord wanted him to do, searching in different churches and different experiences, looking for something real and good and true.
Kneeling in the grass on a warm summer night, he asked the Lord what he should do. What was there for him to do that no one else could do?
The Lord is not calling people to live boring, depressed lives, he said. The Lord wants people to live their lives to the fullest.
"How is it that we can live our lives to the fullest? The Lord tells us in his First Commandment that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength. How to we love the Lord? ... The most perfect and simple way is going to Mass, every Sunday. It's the greatest thing that will ever happen to us. We receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist."
Communion is the most intimate relationship we can have with the Lord, he said, and added that love of God is expressed in prayers, in saying the rosary and in offering small changes in our lives.
Laski said he had always planned to be married, have a "million" kids and a great job, but that's not what he heard from the Lord. He heard, "What about the priesthood."
He said he hid for a while, but knew the Lord was coming after him. He found a mentor and began to fall in love with the sacraments again. Through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, he was led to a deeper relationship with the Lord.
The final speaker was Ricci. He talked about the basic concept: "God made you. God knows you. God knows your gifts, God knows your talents, God knows your needs and God longs for you to have a relationship, but in order for that relationship to be real its going to require a couple of things."
Ricci said there are three things to do to build a relationship with God.
First, get rid of the distractions -- including the good things, anything that can make a person lose the path. "If you're trying to pray when all that other stuff is going on, you ain't prayin'."
Second, you have to give God your attention. He said it is very hard not to respond when someone calls your name and "God calls us by name."
He said, "We either have a relationship with God and it changes our lives, or everything I'm about is just a lot of hogwash and the fact is your life and all its meaning and all its power and all its beauty and all its possibility is an untapped potential. Give God some attention each day."
The third requirement is discipline. It takes work to focus your entire attention on a person. The same is true for prayer, he said. It takes discipline to spend a little time each day in prayer. It takes time and effort to built a relationship with God.
He said, "Give God your best, and prepare to be amazed."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2008