Youth Speak News

I desire it. I fear it. I use it. I misuse it. I love it. I neglect it. I change it. I am changed by it. What is it? Prayer: the lifting of the created creature’s mind and heart to its Creator.

Faith. Recently, I have been puzzled with this five-letter phenomenon. This tiny word is loaded with huge potential. Faith is belief, a leap, a trust in a force beyond ourselves. Mother Angelica, an American Roman Catholic nun, said “Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air and a queasy feeling in the stomach.”

During times of hardship, our faith is challenged. We look towards God, others and even ourselves to find comfort in our pain. That is why I initially thought there was a profound difference between faith in God, others and ourselves.

{mosimage}St. Marcellinus Secondary School quarterback Brandon Bridge is living his dream. The 17-year-old Mississauga athlete was selected and contacted several weeks ago as one of 45 junior players from four continents to play on the World Football Team for the annual “Team USA vs. The World” football game Jan. 30 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Bridge has led his school team, the St. Marcellinus Spirit, to back-to-back senior high school championships. He played for Team Canada in an event in Canton Ohio last July and suspects he was selected for the World Football Team because of that exposure.

{mosimage}HAMILTON, Ont. - In her career as an athlete and educator, Cecelia Carter-Smith has discovered a Catholic spirit of sports.

And in the overlapping worlds of sports and school, this Catholic spirit exists in the quality of relationships built. These are the foundation not only to success, she says, but also personal growth.

“Winning is not as important as respect and dialogue,” said Carter-Smith. “If you have the desire, mentors and supportive people, then you can really flourish.”

The monthly e-mail I share with a group of Catholic friends was sent recently following a disturbing personal situation where I was reminded of the sickness of impurity, even in our circle of faith.

Just a few days prior, at a Catholic function, I was made very uncomfortable by a married man’s questionable behaviour towards me. Though many might have trivialized the incident, I felt objectified in a setting where I expected safety and protection.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - On Jan. 10, Ottawa youth came together to honour cultural diversity among Catholics at the annual Homelands Mass celebrated at the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica.

Catholics from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds participated in the Mass, including Chinese, Italian, Korean, Hungarian, Polish and Vietnamese. All participants in the Mass wore clothing representing their community. Following the Mass, a representative from each  community had the opportunity to speak with the bishop about their concerns. There was also a reception featuring foods from around the world.

With a new year upon us, many of us find ourselves seeking new methods for self-improvement. Often we make resolutions to either end our bad habits or pick up better ones.

Yet by late January, most of us have either given up on our resolutions or simply forgotten about them altogether.

{mosimage}WINNIPEG - Catholic Christian Outreach is now looking to focus on better preparing its graduates as Christian leaders as they step out of their university communities.

“We do not want our graduates dependent on CCO,” said Andre Regnier, co-founder of CCO, the Canadian university movement focused on evangelization and formation of students. “Our number one priority is to send them forth.”

I find the circumstances of my birth quite interesting in light of public efforts to pass Bill C-384. When I was born 15 weeks prematurely I weighed less than two pounds. I also had underdeveloped lungs and experienced extreme pain. To ease the pain, my doctors gave me morphine which I had a bad reaction to. I stopped breathing and my condition became critical. The doctors said I wouldn’t survive. If I did I would have a disability.

Fortunately, while I did acquire cerebral palsy, I did not die. I was nursed back to health by dedicated doctors and nurses.

My generation has grown up with confidence as something of a buzzword. Especially for young women, self-confidence — or a lack thereof — is a constant issue, something that we are always told needs building up. We are taught that post-modernity is characterized by our uncertainty and our lack of confidence in ourselves and our environment.

Is there really a way to fix this? Our favourite scapegoats, mass media, entertain and inform us daily. While we may decry its influence over us, media consumption is a hard habit to shake. In our secular world, having confidence is indeed a challenge — except for believers.