by Matthew Perez, Formation Candidate
During September 2016, many guests came to stay at the Formation House in Chicago. One frequent topic of discussion was how should the Missionaries of the Precious Blood reach out to the youth, the Church? During these casual discussions, we talked about what speaks to young people today.
First, I think what speaks to youth is the constant outreach by religious communities and diocesan seminaries across the world, who strive to embrace them with patience and understanding. Youth of today are faced with busy scholastic and extracurricular activities. This can cause distractions in their lives, keeping them from embracing a life of faith. Distractions can be modern technology, perceptions based on books and movies, the influence of nonbelievers, and a society that idolizes sporting events and makes this a priority in their lives.
In my experience in youth ministry, I recognize young people’ s desire to belong to something meaningful, something that inspires each of them to be a whole person. As a faith community, we must take an active role in the lives of our youth. One of the many ways that we can do this was summed up best by Fr. Keith Branson, c. pp. s., during the 2016 provincial assembly of the Kansas City Province. Fr. Branson said that as a religious community, we need to be who we say we are. I took this to mean that we need to be a community of brotherhood in the bond of charity. One of the things that attracted me to the Precious Blood Community was a sense of belonging to a brotherhood, a family of believers.
Secondly, we must strive to live out the charisms of our Community by being people whose lives renew the Gospel message. By being good preachers of the Word, we can constantly reach out to the faithful, reconciling their lives with God and others. We do this also by being healers of the broken-hearted, a light for the hopeless, and a means of support for the marginalized.
We need to ask ourselves, how will youth identify us as Missionaries of the Precious Blood? Most importantly, it will be through our actions in social justice issues, the way we live our lives, and through the depth of our spirituality. However, we must also look at how we are identified as a community in the way that we dress or what we wear. In my experience, youth are looking to belong to something that they can identify with, something that represents a
6 • The New Wine Press • February 2017
Formation
Opening Doors to Our Youth
spiritual wholeness. Though the cassock and the mission cross may do that, we must take into consideration that others may have a different view. To accommodate all the Community members, we should consider having
Candidate Matt Perez
polo shirts, sweaters and dress shirts that can be easily identify us as c. pp. s. members or candidates. We have done a wonderful job in this area with the Companions; however, when it comes to candidates and professed members, we don’ t have anything uniform that can easily identify us as Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Through my experience in youth ministry, I have seen how important this is for our young people.
It was also mentioned during these conversations that there may be a separation from community members and current candidates in formation, as well as the youth. There may be a difference of opinion in regards to past and present expectations of formation, but we must not be afraid to embrace the young people of today. Fear can keep us from expressing the beauty of living the missionary life.
Young people of today need to have a voice in the Church. Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, o. p., said it best at an assembly I attended at ctu. He said that the religious communities that are thriving with vocations are those that are allowing the youth to do it their way. That may sound alarming for our men of honor who have served the Church for many years; however, we must not be alarmed, we can challenge ourselves to be a solution to embracing the youth. We can open our minds to change, we can embrace it. Can we open ourselves up and welcome their thoughts, release our fears, and embrace our prayerful, spiritual life that allows the light of Christ to shine through us? We can begin by taking the step to show an active