Ep. 7 - Young Church

In this episode, Emily and I are back to recording together and blessed to recap our meeting as a Diocesan Youth Advisory Council with the Bishop and share some of the profound takeaways from the day with you!

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Transcript

Michael 0:16

Welcome to Blazing Hearts Podcast, where we talk about faith and living your life to the fullest. I'm Michael.

Emily 0:21

And I'm Emily.

Michael 0:22

So today we are two days removed from our presentations to the bishop. As some of you may know, Emily and I are both on the Cleveland Diocese Youth Advisory Council. And as a part of that, we are blessed to be able to start a project, which for us was this podcast, and to be able at the end of our term to present these projects to the bishop and kind of have a dialogue to with him. So today we're just going to be kind of talking about our takeaways from that and kind of seeing, you know, where we saw God and what advice the bishop may have had for us that we can share with you guys. I think one of the coolest parts of the night was just hearing everyone's projects. Because we had so there were 25 people in the council, and there were so many different perspectives and ways that people took this project that it was really interesting to get to see all of them.

Emily 1:19

Yeah, it was really cool because we like knew of some of the projects just based off of like our like close friends that like we talked to or like for me, like Kyle Higo Smith. So I talked to him a lot. Like I knew his project, but I don't know. It was so cool to see like how Michael said like where each person took their like idea and like went with it because there was like so many different ideas. Like there was I think he did a thing at her school to kind of save like food and give it to homeless people or just people in need of food, so like the food didn't go to waste. And then like there was girls that started like prayer groups or rosary groups or like other things, and then like we did a podcast, and our friend Andrew did like a photography like church tour thing. So it was just like really cool to see all the different ones, and there was like a few that really stood out to us.

Michael 2:09

The service ones, especially Kyle, like Emily said, was working on serving the homeless of Cleveland and the less fortunate, and Emily was focused on kind of donating food. I think what stood out from their presentation the most was their takeaway and the advice that like one person can give a lot of hope. And I think that can be so difficult to understand because you know, for us, like we're teenagers, there's a thought that, like, okay, we might not make much of a difference. But hearing their testimony, their projects was really cool, and it kind of reminded me of a quote by Pope Leo during his address to NCYC. And it's a common thing that I've heard, but it was really cool to hear it from the Pope. And it was, you are not only the future of the church, you are the present, your voices, your ideas, your faith matter right now, and the church needs you, the church needs what you've been given to share with all of us. End quote. And I think that was really powerful and striking to see over the course of these presentations.

Emily 3:13

Yeah, I agree. Another thing, like another presentation that like stood out to us was Eric and Xavier's presentation. Xavier did like a men's group, and Eric did like a men's group as well, but like with sports.

Michael 3:26

So just yeah, so Eric, so Eric did this group for kids in his neighborhood for like a faith and a basketball idea to kind of bring fellowship. And he one of his big takeaways, both their takeaways, was to meet people where they're at. And I think that can be something that's so critical in the church today, especially in evangelization.

Emily 3:50

Something the bishop like touched on, like on that point, was on the road to Emmaus, like Jesus walked with the people that were walking away from Jerusalem, so like the wrong way, and he walked with them until he like I guess loved them enough.

Michael 4:04

And he revealed himself.

Emily 4:06

Yeah. And then then he turned them around and it's important to just meet people where they are and go down the path with them because like those people are important, and like, yes, we want to bring them back to the Lord and back to his love, but we want to do that like through love and through his love, not just be like, oh, like this is the right way and you should do this type of thing. More of like a I care about you and I love you, and like you know that, and so I want you to come back to the church because I want you to know his love.

Michael 4:34

Exactly. And I mean, it's just it's kind of similar to the idea of like, think about if a random stranger comes to you on the street and says, Hey, you shouldn't be doing that, you might not listen to him as much as like your best friend. So I think meeting people where they're at starts, like you said, with love. Yeah, so that was something that was really important, and I think that was another thing. So after the presentations were over, Bishop Millessek was able to kind of have this like open mic, open discussion with the members of the council. And I think that was a really cool way he kind of shared some advice, and I think one of those big pieces of advice was to just tell your story, to share your faith experience because it makes it a lot more relatable.

Emily 5:19

Yeah, and especially like like the Lord put us on earth like with a specific like plan for us and like our story, like my story is different than Michael's, and my story is only gonna be like my story. Like no one else is ever gonna have my same story in my same life. But the Lord is gonna use that in like a lot of different ways because something like an experience in my life could connect to someone else, maybe better than an experience in Michael's life, or like vice versa. But it's just like important to talk about it and like spread like what the Lord has done in your life because some people are very like, I need a tangible thing. Like, I'm not gonna believe in the Lord because I can't see him, or like I don't believe because this hasn't happened, or like blah blah blah things like that. But through our witness and our testimony, we can like show them like one, the Lord's love in our life, two, his like joyfulness that we can have when we're like with him and we love him, we spend time with him, and then three, what he can do in our life, and then what he can do in their life, because he's a god of generosity and he wants to do things in our lives, but we need to let him and we need to like want him to do things in our lives for him to do those things.

Michael 6:30

Absolutely, and I think for those listening, you may have seen that throughout the podcast. Like, we may have had some episodes that really resonated with you, or like one of mine or one of Emily's stories really resonated with you, and some maybe just you didn't like or you didn't get, and that's okay, but it is important to tell your story because that's how we build up the church is by sharing our faith and telling your story. So I think that was just one of like the big points that the bishop made is don't be ashamed to tell your story and to share your faith boldly. One of the other things that the bishop touched on was you know, there's both this trend in a more secular direction of the world, as well as this small trend recently of this kind of uptick in religion, especially among our generations or our generation. So while the world as a whole might be, you know, kind of growing a little more secular, the church is also experiencing this revival. One of the statistics that is cited for that was the Diocese of Cleveland's OCIA program has a thousand and twenty-nine new people, and that's kind of a constant all over the country, is just so many new people are joining the church this year. So we had a really good and fruitful discussion about what draws people to the church as well as what may drive them away.

Emily 8:05

Some of the things that people said, because we like went around and everyone like could answer was that people in our generation don't like rules. Not that it's just our generation, but a lot of people don't like rules, and yeah.

Michael 8:19

Yeah, and I think it can be it can definitely be difficult because church teaching and some rules can be looked at as unfair or difficult. But it is also important to have those. I mean, the bishop gave an example of all right, let's go play baseball. Rules, uh we'll figure those out. Yeah, but it's just like the church offers these directions as exactly that directions to live this like fruitful and holy life. And yeah, you know, that can be looked at as a bit constricting at times, but it also can be it can be really fulfilling, and I think that's kind of what we saw through these presentations is nobody got up there and was like, oh my gosh, my project was horrible, nobody wanted to come to this, and it wasn't fruitful at all. We saw a lot of good fruit in the church, and that started with us, so I think that was just something that was really interesting to me. Is you know, rules can be constricting, but they're also in place to kind of lead us to a more holy and more fulfilling life.

Emily 9:35

Like kind of like rules can set you free type of thing. Like, I don't know, it's like when your parent, like when you're younger, they're like, Don't touch the stove, like the hot stove that's on because you're gonna get burned. It's like the same thing, but like the Lord and us, because he wants us to like live the best life that we can.

Michael 9:53

But yeah, yeah, exactly. I think one of the other interesting things, I never got a chance to say it, but I was thinking it is a lot of people have these, you know, maybe misconceptions or like a surface level understanding of what the church is. Like, you know, church is a place where mass, you go for an hour every Sunday, and that's kind of it. There's you pray you can pray, you can pray before bed. But I think there's this deeper sense of what the church can be. Um, that was shown through all these projects. Is the church can be a wonderful source of community and you know, fulfillment. There's from what I heard, like there's so many different opportunities and prayers, prayer services, like throughout the week that aren't just like your one hour of mass on Sunday. And I think that was really cool and something that I love so much about the church, and that's important to share is like you know, the church isn't just all right, we're all just gonna sit in the fuse and be bored for an hour, which I hope that you aren't, but it can happen. So, yeah, I think that was just one of the really interesting thoughts that I had about the night.

Emily 11:07

Yeah, and like going along with that, like Bishop he refers to us as the young church, and I feel like that is like such a beautiful thing because as the young church and like my well perspective of the church is like like at my church, we have life team, which is our youth group, and we hold night prayer every Tuesday, and it's not like a boring thing. Like my friends come to night prayer and they're like so excited to be there, and we're gonna play Death Ball for an hour, or like ultimate frisbee, but it's very like alive and like growing in like how Michael was saying, like, there's like a new spark, like the Lord is like lighting a fire in us, and I feel like that's what like the presentation showed.

Michael 11:53

Yeah, I think some of the other really interesting things that we also touched on were the I mean, obviously, there's these like negative things to the church, things that might drive people away, but there's also these things about the church that must be drawing people in because you don't, especially in our generation, there's a lot of skepticism, there's a lot of distrust in institutions, especially after COVID. So there must be something good about the church. And we had a lot of discussion on that is like what actually brings people to the church then. If we can think of these reasons why they might not go, but we can we also need to know why people are going, because there are people going. So I think one of the big parts about that was kind of this idea of the stability in the tradition that the church brings, because it's really cool to think about is just like how far back the church can go.

Emily 12:45

Yeah, I agree. It was just one of our friends was like, What do people want to know? And they want to know like who they are, who made them, and what they were made for, I think was what you said.

Michael 12:55

These deeper questions that are like what is my purpose like asks themselves, yeah.

Emily 13:02

And she was like, It's just people want to be seen, known, and loved. Which is like it's so true. But like in our church, like it gives us such a not simple, but like simple for lack of a better word or explanation. Like a way of that, like the Lord sees us and he knows us and he loves us, like it gives an answer to those questions in a loving way, in a secure and truthful way that ultimately brings you more joy and more fulfillment and more holiness in life rather than causing you to question things or like have no direction, no purpose, no nothing like that.

Michael 13:44

Yeah, and I think you know, we can go and try to find that in the you know the world today, but there's something about the church's teaching of you know, we have this desire, innate desire to be seen, known, and loved. And what the church teaches is that you are seen, you are known, and you are just loved. There's no conditions on that love, and I think that can be a really powerful message.

Emily 14:10

Yeah, I agree. Another thing Bishop was talking about was our friends who are like Protestant or non-denominational, like things like that, like what, like how they are in relation to the church. And I couldn't help but think of my friend Avery, number one heretic. He calls himself that too. It's okay. I have a very strong admiration for Avery because although he doesn't believe everything the same as I do, he is very, very, very open-minded and open-hearted to one, what the Lord wants to do in his life. So, like he said to me many times before, like, if the Lord wants me to be Catholic, I'll become Catholic. But like right now, I don't feel like that's what the Lord wants. So, you know, but he doesn't just like hear what people say, he does his own research. He is very curious and he wants to know because he wants to understand, not just because he's like, No, I don't care. Like, I believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe, and that's fine. Like, he wants to know so that he informs his opinion like so strongly.

Michael 15:09

And I know Avery well, and he is an amazing person. I think one of the other kind of final, really interesting points that was brought up a lot. It was in the last group that it was really brought to the forefront, but just the church's teachings on the Eucharist, because we teach that the Eucharist is this the Eucharist, oh my gosh, is the source and summon of our faith. And I think there was kind of this like surprising reverence, maybe not surprising, but like this realization among the members of the council that like this is what gives us our strength in our faith. And I think that's something that I kind of just want to encourage those of you who are listening, is to just explore your faith and empower it through the Eucharist. I think that's one of the big takeaways from that is how strong the Eucharist can be.

Emily 16:02

Yeah. Because like that is our Lord, like that's Jesus right there. Like, I know it looks like bread, but it's not, and it's it's so powerful.

Michael 16:12

Yeah, and I definitely think we're gonna do another episode on that. Uh coming up orderly. But I think one of the one of the main takeaways from the night was to just you guys, the 25 of us, and those of you who are listening, are the church. The church isn't the old grandma in the back. She's part of the church, but that's not the only people in the church. And I think it was just this call to be like, you can make a difference, you can cause hope. So go do that. Go share your story, go meet people where they're at in order to deepen your faith. So that's gonna do it for this episode of Blazing Hearts. You can follow us wherever you get your pods, and have a blessed day.