Keeping the Youth, from a Youth's Perspective

Since I am a teenager, a member of the generation our Church needs to hold on to, I really think you ought to take this post seriously. In case you're strapped for time, the argument is thus: Give 'em Jesus or they'll be even more likely to leave.

We need to keep the youth in our Church. Denying that is a bad idea. Accepting that youth will leave and expecting some conversion/reversion later in life is also a bad idea. Now, how are we going to do that?

Some would probably introduce a whole lot of tacky stuff. Others might suggest a watered-down version of everything to the extent that the Church is just another social club. I can distinctly remember youth events where there was barely any prayer at all. Again, BAD IDEA. Still others might suggest that we put our hope in parish ECF programs. As a survivor of one such program, I recommend against it. Some might still have hopes in an ethnic grouping. But come on, honestly, if I were to date a girl, the question "Are you Catholic?" would be among the first asked. Whether or not she was a pure-blooded Rusyn would not enter the equation unless I had good reason to believe that God was calling me to marry such. Nor do I want to raise a family and/or be a priest or monk (or a single layman, for that matter) for a Church based on an ethnicity.

There we have it. A list of things that won't help our Church hold on to the youth. "Wow, gee... What are we supposed to do then?" you might ask. Dear reader, allow me to propose solutions.

First and foremost. If you disregard this one no other solution I propose will work. The foundation of this must be CHRIST. If you ignore this, I will all but guarantee that my other solutions will fail epically. If we are not directing youth to encounter and relationship with Christ, we might as well just die now. If we do, I know of a vibrant Latin Rite community I could join up with (yes, it's Franciscan University's), but how many will just fall away? We need to center everything in Christ. And that invitation to relationship must be given before senior year of high school. I'd like it if I were the last person to term himself a "survivor of ECF." Center all in Christ. And of course, any good mention of Christ must include the Trinity. That should go without saying, I think.

Now, we must remember Christ's Body, the Church. I'll let Bl. John Henry Newman handle this:

And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church, as His creation,
And her teachings, as His own. -Dream of Gerontius

Youth must be taught of the Church. But again, we cannot be so foolish as to leave Christ out of this. The Church is Christ's Bride, receiving her being from His side, as Dr. Martin so frequently used to remind us. Without Christ, she is nothing; with Christ, she is peerless. Dr. Martin poetically reminded us that Christ first commended Himself to a Bride (the Most Holy Theotokos), then to a Bride (the Church). The youth must be taught to love and respect both Brides, again, for the love of Christ.

All the rest of my solutions flow from here. A solid prayer life is next. Come on. This should be a given. We need to foster prayer in our youth. Without prayer, what's the point? Emphasis on how communal worship is prayer, not voice lessons, should also be given, I think.

We also need to contribute to the development of spiritual friendships. There is a difference, Subdeacon Andrew Summerson pointed out at the Rally, between "buddies" and what he termed "friends in the Lord." With your buddies, you discuss the meaning of the weather for your weekend. With your friends in the Lord, your spiritual friends, you discuss the meaning of everything. We must contribute to this building up of spiritual friendships. Friendships centered in anything else will wither. Friendships whose core is sports, money, video games, even being alive will ultimately fail. We grow old and can no longer play. We lose our jobs and no longer work. The next video game comes out and we lose interest. We die. All these cores are changing, and with a change in the core comes a change in friendship. Christ remains unchanging. If we build up spiritual friendships among our youth, our Church will be stronger.

There you have it. That is my plan to keep the youth. It really does all boil down to Christ. We need to foster that encounter and relationship without which we might as well all go lay down and die. No foolishness, no watered-down theology, no absence of prayer, however well-intentioned, is going to help at all, only Christ.