Father Jesse L. Bolger: Youths provide hope

I’m working on a story for the March 17 edition of The Catholic Review on Adore-a-thon, an event held at Church of the Crucifixion in Glen Burnie this past weekend. I also will have a video in the coming days on the event here at Matt Palmer’s blog.

But, I wanted to share some of Father Bolger’s thoughts here. He’s associate pastor for that parish and two others in Glen Burnie. These were kids who willingly chose to participate in an all-night vocations activity on a Friday.

He looked around the room at the March 11 Adore-a-thon and said, “They don’t carry the same sadness that you see in a lot of the faces of young people. They’re not lost. They know who they are.”

He said the young people in the room can be inspiration for others.

“I encourage them to, in their school or on their sports teams, to be that leaven, that salt, that light of the world. Witness by the way you live your life. I see these young people as courageous. They don’t just keep it here because it’s a message of hope, while at the same time a message of contradiction. They like being part of that. It’s exciting.”

Father Bolger added: “Our young people love the Mass. They’re not trying to re-invent it. They’re seeing we can have different types of music. Our life as Catholics is rooted in the Mass. I hope they find joy and a true peace in doing God’s will. For some, that’s priestly or religious life, for others it’s marriage. I hope they remember our witness and we plant a seed that Christ causes to grow one day and to flourish into priestly and religious vocations.”