By David Kilby | Correspondent

As the Bible teaches, God wants to connect with youth as with all people, and by the signs of the 2014 Diocesan Youth Celebration March 30 in Monsignor Donovan High School, Toms River, the youth want to connect with God also.

“Connected” was the theme of this year’s celebration, sponsored by the diocesan Department of Youth, Marriage and Family Life, which brought together over 500 teens and youth ministers from all corners of the Diocese and everywhere in between. The day included a Mass celebrated by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., keynote speakers and opportunities for the gathering to participate in Eucharistic adoration, prayer experiences and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

How to Connect

In his morning presentation, keynote speaker Scott Anthony, who currently serves as director of youth and young adult ministries for St. Joseph and St. Patrick Parishes, York, Pa., turned on some music, and told the youth “If you like the song, you’re gonna start cheering. If you hate the song you’re gonna start booing.”

The teens identified most of the songs after hearing just a few notes. Some of them cheered for all of the songs, and almost all of them cheered for some – which were predominantly pop and classic rock music.

The song “Strangers in the Night” by Journey was apparently most popular among the crowd. In fact, the teens cheered so loud when it came on that Anthony let them start singing it together.

“We have such an instinctual desire and need to be connected,” he then said to the youth, explaining how some of them were connected through the songs they liked, or didn’t like. “I think God actually made us that way. You and I were not created to be alone. It’s amazing the lengths we go to in order to be connected.”

Anthony, 43, is from York, Pa. and has eight children. He has been a youth minister for 19 years and travels around the country helping and hosting youth conferences, especially the popular Fan the Fire Youth Rallies. He said people are so focused on fitting in sometimes that they lose sight of who they really are. Then he told the youth how they were not made to live in isolation but in community.

“Eighty to 90 percent of you, by the time you’re 23, will not be Catholic, won’t go to church, won’t practice your faith anymore,” he said to the crowd. “I don’t think the vast majority of (that 80 to 90 percent) were seeking to lose their faith.”

He explained a lot of these college-age youth get stuck in a dorm with people they don’t know, and they want to be connected. “You meet other people who are also desperate to connect. We’re afraid of being lonely, afraid of not being loved. Then you start hanging out with others and say ‘These are good people and they don’t go to Mass.’

“I think they just quietly drift away because they just want to be connected,” he added. “There’s strength when we’re in community. Maybe you’re the only person that believes sexuality is precious ... or that abortion is wrong. It’s important that we go to events like this. When you’re connected you’re empowered.”

He then read the prayer Jesus prayed to God the Father shortly before being crucified, when Jesus said “’Father, I pray for hem ... so that they may be one just as you and I are one.’”

 “No matter where we’re from ... there’s one thing that can connect us ... the Cross of Jesus Christ. The reason we can be one is because of the grace he merited on that Cross.”

He then invited the teens to write a prayer about being open to God’s grace.

Building Community

“I think he’s able to connect with the youth really good,” said Deacon Robert Johnson, youth minister of St. Agnes youth group, Atlantic Highlands, speaking of Anthony’s talk. “I think he gives a nice avenue for the youth to understand their faith better.”

The youth had many chances to experience their faith in a deep way, bond with one another, and take in some rare opportunities – like taking a photo with a cutout of Pope Francis in the back of the gym.

This year’s DYC was the first one in which eighth-graders were invited. Rudy Gomez, diocesan coordinator of youth ministry, said the Diocese invited them to help try and build a bridge between middle school and high school youth ministries, which in turn helped build upon the “Connected” theme of the celebration.

He said religious education is a good foundation for middle school youth. From that foundation and through experiencing the DYC, the eighth-graders could see how they can live the faith in high school, in the world and outside the classroom.

Gomez also said Sibling Rivalry, Ken Perry and others from around the Diocese were able to come together “to make a rocking band” for the DYC this year.

Joseph Tun, youth minister in St. Aloysius Parish, Jackson, said he brought his group so they could experience faith as a teenager. “It also makes the point that they’re not alone. They get to witness hundreds of other teenagers out there who aren’t just Christian but Catholic.”

“More and more people are staying local,” said Jay Keesler, the new youth minister in St. Joan of Arc, Marlton. He said events like the DYC are important because it gives young people the chance to form bonds that will make it easier to practice the faith when they’re on campus together later on.

The bond they formed with Jesus was also central to the day, especially as the youth spent an hour in Eucharistic Adoration while also having the chance to go to Confession.

Shortly before Mass with Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., Gomez distributed the St. Timothy Award to youths who have demonstrated outstanding youth leadership in a parish or high school.

Deanna Sass, director of the diocesan Department of Multicultural Ministry, then spread the news about Kujenga, a multicultural experience for teens that also teaches them leadership skills. The day-long retreat sponsored by the Diocese is held in January. Some of the teens who attended this year got up onto the stage in the gym to share their experience. They sang a song they learned at the retreat that incorporated different languages, and shared how the experience taught them how to work together.

Throughout the day, teens also had opportunities to learn more about the faith through engaging workshops.