Pope warns against becoming a ‘sedentary’ church after synod’s close

Friday, Oct. 18, 2024

OGDEN —More than 100 middle school-aged youth from across the diocese gathered for a day of faith-filled activities led by Equipping the Saints, an evangelical ministry, on Oct. 12 at Holy Family Parish in Ogden.

During the event, called “Holy Fire Utah,” youth ages 12 to 15 spent the day singing, dancing, praying and participating in games and discussion groups along with hearing from speakers who urged them to turn their lives over to Christ. They also enjoyed performances by the Scalley Brothers, a young duo who have been sharing their faith through music throughout the country for the past 10 years.

Despite many changes in the world, 85 percent of American youth believe in God, according to Pew Research surveys in 1975 and 2022, said Robert Feduccia, vice president of Equipping the Saints, who led the event and spent much of the day with the teens and preteens. That percentage was exactly the same in both surveys, he said. He then invited the youth to give themselves and those around them permission to experience God in a new way that day.

“There’s a movement of middle schoolers who are standing up and saying, ‘I am a believer, and I want to know God better,’” Feduccia said. “All over the country, this is happening, and you’re invited into that today. God knows who you are and invites you into a relationship with him. It is the most radical idea that we have to deal with. It’s the most important thing that we’ll ever have to address and deal with.”

Noelle Garcia, a nationally-known speaker and musician, gave keynote addresses in the morning and afternoon.

Garcia recounted several personal experiences that showed her how much God loves her and how much he loves his children.

“If you’ve been betrayed – he was betrayed,” she said. “If you’ve been lied about – he was lied about.  If you’ve been made fun of and humiliated and abused, beaten down, felt alone – he went through all of those things, and he did it out of love. He did it to take on all of our pain, take it to the cross.”

“Jesus takes that pain, the pain that you feel as a middle-schooler, as you’re trying to navigate life and you’re trying to make friends and figure out where you fit in and what’s God’s plan for your life,” she added. “God takes that pain on himself, and he knows your pain. He knows what you’re going through. He cares about it. He sees you, and he rescues you.”

In her afternoon presentation, Garcia recounted an experience where she and her husband were in a plane that had to make an emergency landing. As the passengers and crew prepared for what might have been their deaths, she, along with many others, prayed; Garcia especially prayed for her two small children at home, she said.

“Then all of a sudden I felt this peace,” she said. “It does not make any sense; we’re about to make an emergency landing. And I heard the words, ‘You would die for your children, but I already did,’ and I just said, ‘Peace. OK, God, you’re going to take care of them. You’re going to take care of us. Whatever happens, I trust you.’”

She also spoke of her husband’s father, who found faith at the end of his life, transforming into a peaceful and joyful person.

“His dad was different, and it wasn’t because he earned his way into heaven, or he worked really hard or whatever, it was because he finally opened his heart and God spilled completely so much in the way that it overflowed into love and peace and joy to everything around him,” she said. 

In the afternoon, Feduccia shared with participants the significance of the Eucharist and the practice of Adoration. Adoration is a way to prolong the experience of Communion, he said.  “Adoration gives us some time to linger in that moment. Then it’s also to make us to long to receive him; so we linger in that moment and we long to go back to it.”

 Garcia then invited the youth to come unto Christ and renew their baptismal promises.

“You will look back on this day and remember that this was the day, in Ogden, Utah that you gave your life to the Lord,” she told them.

Following Garcia’s presentation, the youth spent some reflective time in Adoration. At the end of the day, Fr. Joseph Minuth, administrator of Holy Family Parish, celebrated a Mass with the participants.

Among those attending the event was Haiden Gaskill, 11, a St. James the Greater parishioner, who traveled to the event from Vernal with a group of youth from his parish. He signed up for Holy Fire after his grandmother read about the event in this newspaper, he said.

“It was really good,” he said of the experience. “Just getting to be with all the people and getting to see, getting to talk, getting to be able to talk to people about God and stuff. Also, it’s strange to have this many Catholics here.”

Seth Painter, 16, a St. John the Baptist parishioner, was one of several high school students who volunteered his time to help with the youth rally that day.

“I like to be able to volunteer and help out with these kinds of things,” Painter said. “I feel it’s something that’s worthwhile to do. Helping out can help kids expand their belief and faith in God and their religion.”