When Professional Development gets Personal

I'm spending the week at Notre Dame, attending the Young Adult Ministry Symposium, "Stewards of the Treasures of our Faith." It's a gathering of campus ministers, vocation directors, and others who work in young adult ministry, discussing how to connect young adults to liturgy, prayer, vocation and service. I can't even remember how I first came to know about it -- it was sometime after LA Congress -- but I remember thinking, This is what Lalanne is about.

So why am I passionate about young adult ministry? Because I'm a young adult. Because it makes me sad that I worked so hard to come into the Catholic Church -- I'm Catholic and I love being Catholic -- yet sometimes I wonder if there is a place in this Church for me. I've been fortunate to, more or less, find ways to feed my soul. It's not perfect, and I often find myself hungering for more, but... I'm still being nourished. What if, though, I hadn't been so determined in my faith? Then what? I have certainly had the experience of feeling unwanted, unimportant, unwelcome...what if that had been my only experience?

Sometimes I wonder why I bothered to become Catholic. The scandal and the hurt within the Church is sometimes so overwhelming that I think, This? I went through all of that for this? Clearly, the Church is challenged and broken. It's a confusing, heartbreaking, unfathomable time. I struggle to make sense of the terrible, criminal things that have transpired, while still clinging to faith that God is in here somewhere. God must be. But where?

I came to Notre Dame thinking I'd learn a few things about bridging from campus ministry to parish ministry, and how to help other young adults make that transition. I thought I'd get some pointers on connecting to liturgy and prayer, which would help me in developing the faith sharing and prayer resources that I share with the teachers. I thought I'd be able to network with other people committed to working with young adults. What I didn't expect is to have my own journey, my own young adult faith, my own struggles with the Church, my own experience with the sacred challenged and affirmed, my questions asked and answered.

I hope to be able to share more as I reflect and process the images and challenges that have been shared, but something from tonight's "spiritual renewal" seems to summarily gather some of my thoughts.

There are cracks in everything. That's how the light gets through.

There are, indeed, cracks in everything. Even in the Church. Let the Light shine.

The Misadventures of Being Me

Coming to you live from the University of Notre Dame, where I am attending Stewards of the Faith, a young adult ministry symposium. There are about 250 people here from across the US and Canada, mostly campus ministers and Vocation directors. I'd only met a handful of these people prior to today.

At dinner, some women invited me to join them at their table -- a Maryknoll sister, two School Sisters of Notre Dame, and another, whose order I never did hear -- all Vocation Directors. (NO. None of them asked me if I ever considered becoming a sister. Women know to look for rings.) A few minutes into the conversation, one of the sisters told me I looked familiar, but she couldn't figure out where she would've met me.

"Actually, I get that a lot," I explain. "I think I must just have a familiar face."

"Nooo..." she responds. "I'm sure I've met you before."

We exchange the names of various conferences, workshops, parishes -- any place we might've both been. Unable to make the connection, the conversation moves to other topics.

Several minutes later, she exclaims, "I know! You were at NCYC!"

I had, indeed, been at NCYC, and I won a prize from the School Sisters of Notre Dame booth. From there, we realized that she lives with another SSND whom I know. But how on earth could she remember me out of 22,000 people?

"You were the one with the neck brace."

Awesome.