The Work of the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults
Summary of today’s show: The Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults is entering a busy time in the Archdiocese of Boston and Fr. Mat Williams and Scot Landry discuss their big initiatives, including this past weekend’s Eucharistic Congress that came at a particularly appropriate time after last week’s Marathon bombings; the upcoming World Youth in Rio in July that is shaping up to be a massive and inspirational event; and the annual Awards Banquet that honors those around the archdiocese, youth, young adults, and parish leaders, who witness to Christ in their lives through youth and young adult ministry experiences. Also, the Spring fund drive for WQOM has started this week. To support the work of WQOM and The Station of the Cross, which brings Catholic programming like The Good Catholic Life to the Boston area, please be as generous as your means permit with your gift or pledge.
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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams
Today’s topics: The Work of the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults
1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed Fr. Matt Williams to the show and they discussed last weekend’s Eucharistic Congress for Young Adults and College Students. He said it was a beautiful opportunity to gather in prayer following the marathon bombings last Monday. Scot noted that Friday night’s events didn’t go off as planned because of the city’s lockdown. He said Msgr. James Moroney had been scheduled to speak, but they had to cancel it. On Saturday, usually they’d be doing service projects from noon to four. One of the goals of the congress is to show the link between worship in the Mass and serving our neighbor, but because they weren’t able to use Friday to sign up attendees for the projects they had to forgo them. So they started at 5pm at St. Leonard’s with Cardinal Seán and the speaker on Saturday night was Susan Conroy, who we’ve had on the show recently talking about the life of Mother Teresa.
Fr. Matt also talked about Cardinal Seán’s keynote, in which he reflected on his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but also how he related it to the events of the past week in Boston. He also noted how during the Eucharistic procession through the North End’s streets was so impactful that people who were just passing by joined them in the walk.
Break for Fund Drive Appeal. To support the work of WQOM and The Station of the Cross, which brings Catholic programming like The Good Catholic Life to the Boston area, please be as generous as your means permit with your gift or pledge.
2nd segment: Scot and Fr. Matt discussed the upcoming World Youth Day in Rio. Scot said a few months ago, there were two million expected to go, but that was before the first Latin American Pope was elected and it’s going to be much bigger. Fr. Matt said his office is organizing the archdiocesan trip and now more than 3 million young people are expected to descend upon World Youth Day this summer.
Fr. Matt has been to five World Youth Days before and Scot said he went to World Youth Day in Denver in 1993. Fr. Matt said he keeps going back each time because it creates the perfect environment to inspire and evangelize young people to greatness in Christ. Many seminarians have a World Youth Day experience as part of their resume.
He said there are many reason it inspires young people, but most of all they see others who are living it. These witnesses are seeking to become the people God created them to be and this is inspiring to the young people. They are priests and lay leaders in their own groups and from around the world. It’s also the Holy Father, in this case, Pope Francis, who young people respond to. These men speak truth and call them to greatness.
Fr. Matt said they could squeeze a few more in for the trip in late July.
Break for Fund Drive Appeal. To support the work of WQOM and The Station of the Cross, which brings Catholic programming like The Good Catholic Life to the Boston area, please be as generous as your means permit with your gift or pledge.
3rd segment: Scot and Fr. Matt discussed the annual awards banquet for youth and youth leaders throughout the Archdiocese of Boston. Next Tuesday evening, they will be at Lombardo’s in Randolph. He believes it started as an annual CYO sports awards banquet many years ago and it has expanded greatly over the years.
Scot said what really touches him is when he hears someone talk about how they wouldn’t even be practicing their faith if not for one of these people who are nominated for recognition. Fr. Matt said in many parishes there are people who seek to make a gift of themselves, and the faith wouldn’t be transmitted forward if not for them. He said they recently honored one man who had been a catechist for more than 50 years. Scot said we’re all the face of the Church when we’re giving back to God. For many people, we may be the only Catholic they know who goes to church and everyone time we make a gift of love, we are the positive face of the Church.
Fr. Matt said today at Mass Fr. Mark O’Connell talked about how the apostles went from the Upper Room out to proclaim the Good News even into Gentile areas, which would have been unheard of among Jews of that period. He related the story of a man who was extremely involved in the life of the parish, yet at work the people know nothing about that. We should always be sharing the gift of our faith and asking people to join us. We may be the only Gospel that someone reads in their life.
Break for Fund Drive Appeal. To support the work of WQOM and The Station of the Cross, which brings Catholic programming like The Good Catholic Life to the Boston area, please be as generous as your means permit with your gift or pledge.
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