Diocesan Youth Day encourages restless hearts to rest in God

It’s tough to be a teen, speaker Braden Johnson told the roughly 75 middle schoolers and high schoolers gathered on April 5 for Diocesan Youth Day. Lots of heads nodded in agreement, some visibly pleased that their personal journeys had been affirmed out loud. 
The tweens and teens had settled into the theater at Immaculata High School, host for the day, after a raucous set of ice breaker games led by BOLD youth ministers from the tri-parish youth ministry of Blessed Sacrament, St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Immaculate Conception parishes. 

Johnson, a 25-year old speaker from Kansas who has addressed many similar groups throughout the country, related to the attendees in terms they understood. “We spend a lot of time and energy to get more ‘likes’,” he said, referring to the hours spent creating social media personas. “Why do we want more likes? What is it we really want?” 

He told the story of a back-up quarterback at a California high school who kept grinding it out, becoming the back-up quarterback on his college team and ultimately the 199th overall draft pick in the 2000 NFL draft – Tom Brady. Interviewed on “60 Minutes,” Brady would later question why with three Super Bowl rings he continued to yearn for something more, Johnson said. 

“Maybe it’s not about us trying to prove ourselves,” Johnson told the teens after recounting stories of his own disappointments. “Maybe it’s about us bringing everything to Jesus. That’s where we can find amazing fulfillment and peace.” 

Jay Donofrio, diocesan youth minister and organizer of this year’s youth day, closed that session with his own advice to the group. “If this resonated with you, it’s probably because we can relate it to our own struggles,” he said. “We still go to bed with a million thoughts, and we can’t go to sleep. Put it in Jesus Christ.” Throughout the day, the attendees were reminded of the words of St. Augustine, who in his Confessions, said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

When the group then broke for lunch, the teens acknowledged what they had taken away from the talk. Lexi, a freshman basketball player at Immaculata, said she felt that lack of fulfillment often. “When I have a great game, it’s the highest of highs, but it lasts two days and then you forget it,” she said, continuing, “but when I have my worst game, the pain in my chest lasts for a month and it destroys my confidence.”

At a neighboring table, Pawel, Ephraem and Ruben agreed they were moved by Johnson’s comments. “It’s hard to explain,” Pawel said. “It moved me. We do a lot of stuff that we think will make us happy but it doesn’t lead to fulfillment.”

If the speaker, the games, the opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Adoration and Mass offered by Fathers Jay Alquiros and Tim Eck had an impact, it was just what Donofrio, new to his role in the past year, had been hoping for. His team and volunteers who had planned the day were “hoping God pours his graces on every heart, and awakens the heart of everyone present,” he said. 

That hope was echoed by parish youth ministry leaders who had accompanied their groups to the event. Deacon Jose Diaz of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Perth Amboy, who runs the youth ministry there with his wife, Alitza, welcome up to 40 teens every week to their group meetings. At the diocesan day, Deacon Diaz said, “We are hoping their hearts are set on fire, that they come to know they are not alone.” 

As the day drew to a close, Bishop James F. Checchio stopped by. He got a positive response to his question, “Did you have a good experience?” But he got an even stronger response when he asked, “Did you meet Christ?” He noted that Pope Francis had declared this year as a Jubilee of Hope. “Pope Francis thinks we need more hope in our world – do you think he’s right?” he asked. The answer was an enthusiastic “YES!”