Ignite Your Torch, part 2

... for part 1, go here...

The workshops were academic lessons that the youth could choose from at different times. The topics were:

"Healing and the Holy Spirit,"
"Parts of the Eucharistic Prayer and How to Pray during Mass,"
"Prayer 101: The Basics,"
"Eucharistic Adoration Will Change the World,"
"The Mass: Why We Say What We Say and Do What We Do,"
"A Woman's Way of Prayer,"
"The Mass and the Meaning of Life,"
"The Living Eucharist: The Place of Encounter with Jesus Christ,"
"The Eucharist as the Revelation of True Love,"
"Security for Purity: Counting the Cost,"
"Examination of Conscience,"
"Why Do I Have to Confess My Sins Out Loud?"
"Unforgiveness: The Devil's Stronghold,"
"The Road of Abraham,"
"The Action-Packed Life of [Blessed] Pier Giorgio Frassati,"
"Imaging the Divine,"
"How to Talk to a Hostile Culture,"
"How to Answer Protestant Objections to the Mass,"
"Purgatory,"
"Sola Scriptura,"
"The Rich Gift of Love: Good Families and Dysfunctional Families," and
"When They Say... You Say...: Pro-Life Apologetics."

The clergy present were from the Dominicans, the Fathers of Mercy, and two diocesan priests, Fr. Whelan and Fr. Bromwich. The religious sisters were from the Sisters of Life, the "Nashville Dominicans," the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker, and the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They all inspired so much zeal and love in the youth.

The latter order, the Oblate Sisters have an amazing charism that I'd never heard of. They are "a group of women who strive to attain union with God by offering their lives for the diocesan priesthood. The Sisters are called first of all to pray for priestly holiness and to offer the joys and sorrows of their lives for the good of priests. Ministerially the sisters care for retired and convalescent priests and collaborate with priests in parish ministry." They exist in the U.S. in the diocese of Youngstown, OH. I would certainly want them in my parish as a priest!

My final thought is on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. The director of the U.S. "wing" of his cause, Christine Wohar, gave an excellent, dynamic presentation on the life of this young adult saint. I have a devotion to him through my involvement with the Frassati Society in Carmel, IN. They, second to probably the Young Adult Ministry office of the Archdiocese of Chicago, have one of the best young adult ministries in the country. Please pray with me the Prayer for the Canonization of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925):

O merciful God, Who through the perils of the world deigned to preserve by Thy grace Thy servant Pier Giorgio Frassati pure of heart and ardent of charity, listen, we ask Thee, to our prayers, and, if it is in Thy designs that he be glorified by the Church, show us Thy will, granting us the graces we ask of Thee through his intercession, by the merits of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

"Verso l'alto" -- To the top!