{"id":758,"date":"2019-01-15T23:08:57","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T23:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/?p=758"},"modified":"2019-02-18T23:17:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T23:17:39","slug":"young-catholics-hungry-for-god-at-summer-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/young-catholics-hungry-for-god-at-summer-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Catholics \u2018hungry\u2019 for God at Summer School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the crisis the Catholic Church is currently going through, young Catholics are still showing an enormous hunger for God and a love for their faith, says Fr Ken Barker mgl, founder of the Missionaries of God\u2019s Love.<\/p>\n

Fr Barker spoke to The Catholic Weekly following a week-long evangelisation Summer School for young Catholics run by the Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community.<\/p>\n

Over 200 young people attended the School from 6 to 13 January at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst. It was one of the largest attendances at the annual event.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when the Church is in crisis, you\u2019d think that young people might be just sort of staying away,\u201d said Fr Barker, Director of the Summer School.<\/p>\n

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Fr Ken Barker is director of the annual Evangelisation Summer School and founder of the Missionaries of God\u2019s Love. PHOTO: Katherine Ng<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s amazing is the young people are showing such openness and eagerness and such a hunger for God. They don\u2019t seem to be phased by the fact the Church is going through this big crisis at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go by what the media has been saying well we wouldn\u2019t have any young people there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it seems as if the Holy Spirit is showing his hand at a time when it seemed maybe the game was up. The Spirit moves again in a fresh and new way in the Church, because it\u2019s His Church.<\/p>\n

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One of the young presenters at the Summer School which attracted over 200 participants. PHOTO: Katherine Ng<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The week consisted of lectures and seminars\u2014focused on formation and evangelisation\u2014as well as praise and worship sessions, daily Mass and Eucharist Adoration and opportunities to share and receive mentoring.<\/p>\n

The School is held in several locations around Australia each year and always draws large numbers of young people.<\/p>\n

Fr Barker said he was particularly struck this year by the desire the young people showed to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. Tuesday night was \u201cReconciliation Night\u201d and ten priests were flat-out for the entire evening hearing confessions, he said.<\/p>\n

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The Summer School provides opportunities to engage in praise and worship as well as formation in the faith. PHOTO: Katherine Ng<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe had priests come in but we couldn\u2019t get through them all because there were so many young people, so we were hearing confessions every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people love to come and just open the door up and just pour out their hearts\u2026 It gives them an opportunity to bare their soul in terms of things they may have fallen into.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme for this year\u2019s Summer School was \u201cYes Lord, your will be done,\u201d referring to Mary\u2019s acceptance of God\u2019s will at the Annunciation. The theme ties in with that of World Youth Day in Panama.<\/p>\n

Eighteen year-old Mirella Cassis from St Declan\u2019s Parish in Penshurst said the Summer School was a unique opportunity to receive formation in her faith.<\/p>\n

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Eucharistic Adoration is a daily feature of the Summer School. PHOTO: Katherine Ng<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe week was dedicated to connecting with God through very personal and beautiful encounters with the Holy Spirit and really embracing the fact that in our human brokenness, God wants to love us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to be perfect in order for Him to work in our lives. The night sessions that included praise and worship music and prayer teams were the highlights of my week as they allowed me to receive God\u2019s love and grace in new and profound ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who attend Summer School are extremely supportive and encouraging and are definitely a testament to my growth in faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the crisis the Catholic Church is currently going through, young Catholics are still showing an enormous hunger for God and a love for their faith, says Fr Ken Barker mgl, founder of the Missionaries … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dojcommunity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}