Students learn to share faith

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
A national conference’s focus on evangelization enlightened and inspired local students, clergy and a seminarian.
Ricardo Reyes, who became a Catholic in 2018 at Our Lady of Providence Parish in Worcester, said he learned about developing his own faith and the importance of evangelizing – through prayer, fasting, friendship and allowing the Holy Spirit to be the primary agent of evangelization.
Knowing that everyone will go to either heaven or hell serves as a call to action “to bring people to their faith,” he said.
A freshman at St. Joseph College in Maine, Mr. Reyes joined a group from Assumption College and more than 8,500 other people at the Student Leadership Summit, sponsored by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, held in Phoenix from Dec. 30-Jan. 3.
Kieran Reilly, a freshman at the College of the Holy Cross and a member of St. Paul Cathedral Parish, said he considered himself a pretty good Catholic going into SLS.
The conference, which he thought wouldn’t offer anything really substantial, “definitely woke me up to what I need to do to stay on track in my faith,” he said. “I need to receive the sacraments, but also I need to go out and spread my faith. … I guess I knew deep down that was part of the faith.” But at the conference he was struck by how integral evangelization - spreading the faith - is to the faith.
The Denver-based
FOCUS, which sends hundreds of missionaries to numerous campuses to share the Gospel and equip students for evangelization, holds these conferences every other year.
The Student Leadership Summit is to train leaders in discipleship and prayer, teaching them “the essentials of evangelization,” and having them teach these essentials to their peers, says the website www.focus.org.
In alternate years, FOCUS holds SEEK conferences, which encourage all college students to learn about the faith, share friendship and experience Christ’s presence through his Church, the website explains.
“I think this year … was a call to action,” with speakers urging attendees to have a relationship with God themselves, but also to bring God to others, said Assumption College junior Adi Nathan. He said that when he attended SEEK last year, the focus was on encountering God in one’s own life.
“I hope to spread the joy that I gained from the faith with those who have either fallen away or have yet to encounter the grace of God,” he says now.
“Going to the conference last year was part of our discernment process” to consider whether Assumption should enter a partnership with FOCUS, said Deacon Paul F. X. Covino, the college’s director of campus ministry.
In August, Assumption welcomed four FOCUS missionaries, who, as part of their ministry, recruited students to attend SLS, he said. Assumption’s group at the conference included him, two Assumptionist priests, the FOCUS missionaries and about 17 students, he said. (A story about FOCUS on the Assumption campus can be found online at catholicfreepress.org/news/focus-on-campus-at-assumption)
“What working with
FOCUS constantly reminds me of – and this was no exception – the importance of one-on-one evangelization,” he said.
Holy Cross does not have FOCUS missionaries, but one of its graduates – Gregory Giangiordano – is a FOCUS missionary at MIT, said Jesuit Father John Gavin, associate professor in Holy Cross’ religious studies department and moderator of the Society of Saints Peter and Paul. He said he and six students from the Society went to SLS, where they saw Mr. Giangiordano, a former Society member.
Father Gavin said he and the students returned from the conference “on fire to bring Christ … here at Holy Cross and wherever else the students come from.” The Society, which he and some students formed eight years ago, has always had a focus on evangelization, but the conference gave members new ideas, he said.
“The way that I received the faith is not the norm anymore,” observed Derek Mobilio, a seminarian for the Worcester Diocese who said he was brought up in a strong family and Catholic schools. “I believe it’s true that … absorbing the faith doesn’t happen anymore. … A conference like this reminds us we have to see ourselves as missionaries. … Every Christian is a missionary.”
He said he went to the conference because he wanted to be with, learn about and minister to college students.
In Worcester, with its numerous colleges, there’s “a real opportunity with each incoming class to evangelize anew,” he said. “They are literally right in our backyard….  They’re in the coffee shops … the stores.” Though most couldn’t say so, they’re seeking God.
But at the conference he saw college students who are more aware of God.
“I loved watching them during adoration,” he said. “That always proves to me it’s really about Christ.” Long lines for confession showed “they have a relationship with him and they want to nourish that relationship in the sacraments.”
He also appreciated the opportunity the conference provided “to grow in fraternity” with other seminarians. The best conference talk he heard for seminarians was the Sisters of Life explaining spiritual fatherhood and “what a woman in crisis needs from a priest.”
Father Gavin marveled at the opportunity to be with “300 other priests and … over a dozen bishops” and that “the papal nuncio (Archbishop Christophe Pierre) was there.” And speakers gave him new ideas for his ministry, he said.
“As a spiritual experience it was deeply enriching” hearing confessions, celebrating sacraments and praying with “faithful, dedicated college students from around the county,” he said.