Unemployed, Broke and Single (but Unlimited)

By Paddie Denton

Now, I know not everyone leaving University will like (nor choose) these options, you also may not even be leaving University, but for one reason or another these options are still sometimes a harsh reality. I am also aware that the title is probably the worst bio ever for a dating site, but will roll with it and be glad that this isn’t match.com. It can be quite easy for me to feel lost in a sea of happy couples, with their annoying ‘we are soooo in love’ happy faces (not bitter). Or dwell in the feeling of being mugged off by your mate with the flash new phone or car with cruise control, while your car is held together more by its rust than actual welding (nope not envious). Or focus on the person from your Tuesday 9 am lecture who always turned up hung-over that has some how landed the job in the actual subject you just spent 3 years studying! (nope not frustrated, not at all).

Okay, so maybe I am a bit bitter with the cards God has dealt me right now. And I hope it's not just me who, despite how much I love them, is jealous of my friends and others around me. Jealous of how much more they have ‘their life together’ than I do, or how much more convicted they are in their vocation, or how straight their path may seem. Maybe it's not quite these words for you, but you get my point, this is my prayer right now. And then, the amazing life events of your friends, which bring so much joy, can be tough. Going to the weddings of people the same age as you, or seeing your friend as a seminarian, or as a novice, thriving. And those of you leaving Uni for the first time it gets worse, as suddenly people younger than you have their life sorted, buying houses, getting engaged, having children, saving lives, going skydiving (I have cool friends), are all bittersweet.

Last weekend, myself and some others from Youth 2000 joined many other groups at Brightlights: Unlimited @ Alton Castle. Now, Brightlights is a mix of Jesus, theatre, music, and friendship, within the grounds of a castle (it ticks a lot of boxes). We were all looking forward to having a bit of fun and light relief. The weekend had a theme of 'unlimited', living life to its fullest through Christ, being everything God intended you to be, living life to its limitless possibilities. As you can imagine, this was not the message I could hear very easily, or wanted to hear, not when I was feeling like I'm no longer achieving much in life. But praise God for confession and the blessed sacrament. That weekend, and more importantly the sacraments, gave me a chance to get out of my head, and actually reflect on where I am and who I am, in the presence of God where the lies of the devil are drowned out. And there I was reminded a simple lesson of vocation and purpose I had forgotten. I remembered through His grace that vocation is living out three simple things: Baptism, Work and Life.

Life

So maybe you're not married. Not joined your favourite religious order. Not gone off to the seminary. Maybe you're very single and no closer on going down any of these paths (raising my hand for this option). But that’s okay. Yeah maybe at times it's lonely. Maybe there are moments where all you want is to ring some one up and lay out all your pains of the day, (had my fair share of these moments recently), but we have friends, families, pets (and they don’t talk back and try to offer advice which wins them bonus points). Being single is a vocation in itself, our service to God can be turned in entirety to it's Church and its people, wherever the Spirit leads us.

Work

So maybe you want to serve God in your work very directly, maybe God is calling you to work for his Church. But maybe that is one day. Maybe God wants you to work in an office, being an example of truth and joy to your work mates. Maybe God wants you to be unemployed, giving your time to pray, explore your creativity, volunteer and give your time. Maybe you didn’t get that job you really wanted because God has something greater for you, waiting. What am I saying is there is no maybe about it, there is something amazing waiting for you, not by our timing but by his. So be patient and listen to the spirit.

Baptism 

Basically none of the above matters. Well, it does, but not outside of the context of your baptised self (and if you are not baptised get on with it). When we are baptised we a baptised Priest, Prophet and King. We are washed and sanctified. As baptised priests, we are called to grow in holiness through prayer and communion with God, and then go out and spread that holiness in our communities, families and friendships.

So, here is the true reality: yes the cards you have right now may not be the cards you thought you would have (or wanted) by this point, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the answer to three questions. Are you striving to greater holiness? Are you sharing the truth? Are you bold and proud to be a loved child of God? For if you answer yes to all three of these then it doesn’t matter that there is no ring on your finger, that your job isn’t what you worked so hard for 3 years for, or that you don’t know if you're called to be a husband or priest, wife or sister, because you are already unlimited. Strive for it, strive for your future vocation, but be content with where you are now, as that’s were God intends you to be.

Holiness doesn’t wait for tomorrow, it could of started yesterday, so let's all embrace it today.

10 Things You Need To Know About 2017’s Best Summer Prayer Festival

By John Withers

With summer now well underway, and our annual prayer festival fast approaching, we wanted to write up our personal invitation to Youth 2000 Walsingham to you! And this year we are going bigger than ever, so here are just a few things you need to know about what we have in store for you!

1.    Theme

Each year, we as a team pray through the scriptures to decide upon a theme for the festival. This year our theme is Inheritance.The theme of our festival is also our mission, to show other young people that God exists. He’s our Father who loves each one of us and, through his Son, he adopts us as his children so that we can share in the eternal inheritance of Jesus. This is an inheritance that cannot be spoiled or fade away because it is kept for us in heaven. Questions about our worth, purpose and identity, that the world can’t answer, find their answer in this promise. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. - 1 Peter 1:3-4

2.    Café

Mind blown after the latest great talk? Fancy a coffee? A snooze? A chat? A DMC? Or a bit of late night open mic? Welcome to the long awaited café! A great place to meet old friends and new and ask those questions that are sparking away.

3.    Speakers

Guiding us through the retreat that is at the heart of this festival, we’ve got an awesome line up of international and UK speakers that we’ll be announcing over the next few weeks. We’re buzzing to announce that our first speaker is Fr Bernard Murphy, a former head of the Fransiscan Friars of the Renewal. He’s coming over from Limerick, Ireland, to share his testimony and wisdom on life with Jesus, and also his legendary banter.

4.    Creative Space

You’re not Picasso. You’re not Leonardo. You’re you.  In the words of St. Catherine of Sienna;

“Be who God made you to be and you will set the world on fire.” 

Master or apprentice, uncover your creativity as we explore themes of love, freedom, beauty and identity, through painting, sculpting, iconography and calligraphy.

5.    Encounter

GPRS. No signal. You’ll get a lot of that at this festival, but that’s not a bad thing. Instead you will be face to face with each other. Heart to heart with Jesus. This is where you belong. God loves first, this is our hope and it moves our hearts to respond in love. From the big top where we pour our hearts out to Him in 24/7 worship, to the café filled with conversation, this festival, in the words of Blessed John Henry Newman, is all about heart speaking to heart.

6.    Y2K Olympics

Bringing back an old classic, the Y2K Olympics sees 1,500 young people in teams competing for a place in the history books. Assault courses, races, dramas, mental challenges, tug of wars and much more! This will be a safe training ground for living the Christian virtues... May the best team win! (It’s the taking part that counts).

7.    Volunteer

Volunteering is one of the best ways you can squeeze as much juice as possible out of this festival. You’ll not only help build a festival, but you’ll build real friendships with those you serve alongside. There’s nothing more exhilarating than using your gifts and talents to help make this incredible mission come to life. Hop over to our festival team page (http://www.youth2000.org/team-1) to volunteer in one of these areas: Catering, Stewarding, Welcome or Children’s Ministry. 

8.    Families

We love our families! Our family field just keeps on growing and this year we’re improving our children’s ministry and introducing parent sessions. We want to raise up our youngest generation in the Gospel and support our wonderful parents who give so wholeheartedly through their vocation. 

If you’ve got a heart to for children’s ministry then get in touch here: http://www.youth2000.org/team-1

9.    The Big “Small Groups”

This year, the festival gets bigger, and that includes our small groups! Girls, grab yourselves a coffee in the café, as the guys set up camp in the refectory for our Big “Small Groups”. Let’s get to the heart of how we can be authentic men and women of God in 2017.

And lastly...

10.  Water fight… who said that… 

Come along to Inheritance Aug 24th-28th! More info on where, when, and how you can help, all found here: http://www.youth2000.org/ 

Love your Enemy: Praying after London and Manchester

By Kirsten Brown

On the eve of Pentecost a few of my friends opened their home for a 12-hour praise and prayer vigil. As I sat on the sofa outside with two of my closest friends, looking across at the wider group, the peace and stillness of the night draped around us. It was almost 11pm - the time we had planned to pray for eccumenism and peace - when another friend came over and whispered that there had been an attack on London Bridge. To be honest my initial response was delayed surprise - the type that comes from receiving news you had expected but still felt the insurmountable weight of. As it was announced to the wider group I was completely distracted, frantically contacting family members in the area. I could see in the faces of those around me a spiraling sense of apprehension - it was not only London Bridge on our minds, but Manchester and Westminster too. Those few minutes were a horrifying interruption of reality. Yet, it so happened that on a night of such incomprehensible violence God had also brought together a community seeking reconciliation and hope. In that spirit, as our human hearts failed to understand, we prayed.

A few weeks on I think many of us are still holding these events in our hearts. As the dust

settles we begin asking “where does this come from?” and “where are we going?” Rather than drawing philosophical conclusions or to trying determine causes, I want simply to reflect on how our Catholic faith calls us to a deeper response of courage, faithfulness and prayer, in the face of violence and fear. It is not that we spiritualise these attacks, but we remember that within these evil acts God is present; he is stitching peace and goodness into our world.

We need courage to continue living freely. ​When our security services and politicians call for a ‘return to normal life’ I think that this is both physical and psychological. We continue to go to work or study; to use public transport; to walk in the street; enjoy our social lives. More than this, however, is mental freedom - we choose to not be so overwhelmed by fear that we are too distracted or anxious to be present. Of course we worry, but we don’t let this eclipse the fact that we are created to live freely in God’s love; to live in this world with all its abundant goodness as well as its deep brokenness, free from the fear of death and violence.

'God did not give us a ​spirit​ of timidity, but the ​Spirit​ of power and love and self-control.'

2 Timothy 1:7

​A question I’ve found myself asking more and more is how do I truly feel about what is happening in our country? If I’m honest, I’m not always consistent in my answer - and I don’t think I’m alone in this. These acts intend to whip up hatred, anger, fear and division. I think that many of us really try hard not to give into these sentiments but it is really important that we are honest with how these acts impact our convictions, our political views, our stereotypes, our prejudices. What is in your heart is known to yourself and God, but a hardened heart gives root to bitterness and mistrust. We have the right to protest political grievances and a duty to pursue social justice, but we do so seeking peace not punishment, in the knowledge that true justice is from God.

'We Christians are meant to invade the world so as to transform it from the inside.

How? Through the power of the cross, by doing what Jesus did, taking upon ourselves the

dysfunction of the world; doing the hard work of forgiving love.' 

Bishop Robert Barron

Pray for those who would harm us. ​A while ago I had a conversation with a friend about

praying for terrorists - quite understandably he was incredulous and angry because it seemed as if forgiveness equated with being ‘let off’. Yet our faith teaches us that, though difficult, it is our duty to pray for them. Jesus himself gives us the perfect prayer on the cross when he cries: “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing”. ​Prayer is not a last resort but an act of total reliance and faith in God. It helps us to remember that they belong to God as we do, that when we say ‘Jesus died for our sins’ that ‘our’ includes them, they too are the lost sheep; they too are infinitely loved by God. There is much that divides us, but this is what we have in common and it can be hard to accept. Yet Christ says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” - ​prayer, then, is how we cultivate love. It is how we bring healing, peace and reject the hatred of the evil one to take root. Since we have known the deep love and joy of living in Christ, how far must those who wish us harm be from him, and why would we not will for them to return to him?

Be a sign of hope in our wider community. ​Last summer I read “Long Walk to Freedom” by

Nelson Mandela. He was a man not unfamiliar with suffering, social division and violence. One of his most famous quotes is this:

'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.'

I cannot think of a more perfect or fitting call than this: to Love one another back to life. These threats are ‘national’ and ‘international’ but they start at the level of the individual and then our communities. How can you be a sign of hope and unity in your local community? I’m not saying that we all need to stop our lives and become political activists, but we do need to play our part in healing divisions in small, humble ways. Whether it is being more informed on what other faiths really believe, joining in interfaith dialogue or perhaps learning more about current politics. It is not by chance that we find ourselves living the the time that we do - God does not call us to be ‘of’ this world but ‘in’ it and to fill it with love.

The Return: The Scotland Retreat

By Amy Cooper

Last weekend I was blessed enough to attend Youth 2000’s retreat, ‘The Return’, at Craig Lodge in Dalmally. Not only was it my first Youth 2000 event, it was also the first time in over 15 years that Youth 2000 had held one of their retreats in Scotland. However, as amazing as that was, at the start of the weekend I felt a bit out of place. There were so many more people there than there had been at previous retreats I’d attended and I just felt a bit unsure about myself. It’s safe to say that that all changed pretty quickly.

The retreat was themed around the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) but rather than focusing on the son, it focused on the father and it really allowed me to see my relationship with God in a different light. Although the son had wasted all of the money his father had given him and felt like he’d totally disgraced him, when he returned home his father was completely overwhelmed with nothing but joy and compassion – ‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ (Luke 15:24). The same can be said for our relationships with God; no matter what we do or where we wander, He will always be delighted to have us as His children. Nothing we could ever do will stop the Lord from loving us or wanting us to live our lives with Him. It’s as simple as that.

The entirety of the weekend was centred on this idea and I very quickly found my feet and began to thoroughly enjoy myself. Our first talk ‘Who do you say that I am?’ really allowed me to consider both who I say that God is and who He says that I am, rather than who I say that I am. This is such an important part of our faith and I’m learning to appreciate more and more that God’s plan for me is far greater than anything that I could dream up for myself. The other three talks focused on prayer, confession and our call to holiness, all of which I was really able to connect with, especially as someone who has overcome personal struggles in these areas. It’s a pretty nice feeling when we realise that we aren’t alone in our faith journeys and that many of us will be able to help others face battles that we’ve already won.

On the Saturday evening we had a reconciliation and healing service, which was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been a part of. What made it even more special was the fact that it was held on the Vigil of Pentecost and it’s safe to say that the Holy Spirit was well and truly with us during the evening! As soon as the priest came to me with the Blessed Sacrament and I prayed while holding his stole, I felt as if a physical weight had been lifted off of my shoulders – it was a very emotional time for me. All of my worries were gone and I was able to praise and worship the Lord without any self-consciousness for the first time… well… ever, really. It was such a liberating and freeing night and one I’m so thankful that I got to experience.

The retreat really allowed me to take a step back and look at my relationship with God from a fresh angle. The sheer joy I felt while being encompassed by His love and grace is something I’ll never be able to fully explain and I’m so glad I got to share the weekend with so many other wonderful Catholics from all over the UK (and Europe!). I built on existing friendships, made new ones and truly felt like I belonged. There with my Father, Mother and all of my brothers and sisters, I felt completely at home. I really did.

I’m so glad that I was able to be part of such a holy and joyful celebration of the birth of the Church. The weekend was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before and although the end of retreats usually leave me with a bit of a ‘spiritual low’, this time I haven’t felt that as much and I know that that’s because the Holy Spirit completely filled my heart and soul during the two days. I also now fully realise that no matter what happens in my life, the Lord will always be there to work through it with me and that if I ever do wonder away from Him, He will be waiting with open arms to bring me back home.

Why is Porn essentially wrong?

By Isaac Withers

This all has to start with the day I was watching News Round with my brothers. If you're not somehow familiar with News Round, it was the CBBC's news for kids and as a kid, you endured it as the boring bit of programming in between the good stuff. To demonstrate how not news this kids news was, this particular day they were covering the hard hitting stuff of Brittney Spears's new song (#fakenews). They spent maybe 10 seconds on it, and then moved on. My thirteen year old mind however, did not move on. I'd seen something. I remember firing up the Windows XP and finding that music video on YouTube. I could tell you the name of  the song, and I remember the scenes and how sexual it was. I returned to that music video a few times, and this developed into me looking for similar things privately online. Quickly, this led me to porn. From the beginning, my young mind knew that porn was wrong, but I couldn't have told you specifically why. Maybe I just knew it was the last thing that my family would want for me to be viewing.

This developed into a habit in my teenage years, and when I arrived at university the combination of endless free time, complete freedom and less and less control around porn could get pretty diabolical. As my faith and my intellect became adult, my self control around porn was getting worse. There were good weeks and bad months, almost always the bad days outweighed the good and it depressed me. There were plenty of times I thought, 'if I could press a button and get rid of this, I would', but I couldn't.

If you're reading this and you're a young person, you already know that very little of my story is unique. Extensive research carried out by neuroscientists states that among millennials 63% of men and 21% of women say they view pornography at least several times a week. A study carried out by CyberPsychology and Behavior showed that 93% of men and 62% of women have viewed porn before the age of 18. Both statistically and culturally, it seems that porn is the norm.

And yet, for something so huge in our culture, it can seem like this activity is underground, and that there isn't a real conversation going on about it. I'll always remember one of the few conversations I had about it in my kitchen at the beginning of uni. My friends were joking about porn, and I just chipped in at the end of the joke, that for something that should be satisfying, you never leave it feeling better, the feeling is usually, 'oh... well, I could have used that time a lot better…'. We all agreed that it was a waste of time and that we definitely were not our best selves when we were watching it. It wasn't a moral argument at all, it was just true, and we all shrugged for a moment and kept talking.

Recently, I've been reading this phenomenal book by Matt Fradd called, 'The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality Behind the Fantasy of Pornography', and in it, he nails down this feeling of dissatisfaction.

'Porn promises freedom, but it enslaves us. 
It promises excitement, but it ends up boring us. 
It promises "adult" entertainment, yet it makes us increasingly juvenile. 
It promises intimacy, but leads to isolation.'

So why is porn so unsatisfying? Knowing why it's wrong in its very essence is important. Fradd's got a ton of good YouTube content too, and in one video (The Essential Reason Porn is Wrong by Matt Fradd), he gets into the details.

'If the problem is that it's misogynistic, then let's see to it that the industry begins to create non-misogynistic (if that's possible) porn. If the problem is that young people are exposed to it then let's see to it that they're not. But again, if we could fix all of these consequences of pornography, I think we'd still say there's something about pornography... there's something about it that's intrinsically disordered.'

So even though all of that is true, none of it is the heart of the matter. Why is it essentially wrong? He goes on to give this answer:

‘The problem with pornography isn’t that it shows too much, 
it’s that it shows far too little of the human person. 
That it reduces a person with all of his or her complexity and mystery and individuality and
sort of just flattens them into a sort of two dimensional, lowest common denominator thing 
that I consume instead of a person to be loved.’

I think he’s right. Porn lies at the heart of the conflict between love and use. This is why I had always felt it was wrong. People are obviously more than objects, and in the world of porn, that's all they can be to us.

It was this conflict between what I knew I could be and what I was stuck in, that started to make me hate porn. My bar for a good day, became a day without porn, which is a dishearteningly low bar. But I'm happy to be able to write that this all changed.

Like every good student, I left me dissertation to the Easter break and spent a whole month doing one thing: going to the library and working. Everything else in my life closed down or took a back seat: family, societies, friends etc. Accept, of course, for porn. That was still very much there, and I became acutely aware of how much of a backdrop it had become to my faith, my relationships, my friendships, my dreams and my duties. In short, I had never known adult life without it and it had reached a stage that felt undeniably like addiction. As Terry Crew's, outspoken former NFL star and actor once said, 'If day turns into night and you are still watching [porn], you probably got a problem,'. I knew I had been in this stage for years.

In terms of my faith, porn had eroded my prayer life down to nothing. I had stopped going to confession, because I was living an apathy that made me unsure whether I was really sorry about it anymore, which meant that I was also out of communion with the Church. It was in this month that I saw clearer than ever the two halves of myself tearing at each other. So I started to pray again. For my friends, for strength, and for Jesus to become closer to the experience of my life.

The way out, for me, was outrageously Catholic. One night I was praying the rosary before sleeping and as usual I didn’t finish it, so tied it around my wrist so that I’d finish it in the morning. The next day I felt the first urge to turn to porn, and realised that I still had this rosary tied around my wrist. This naturally, made it impossible for me to continue down the path of porn. I’d have to take it off, or leave it on.

Now I know that sounds kind of funny, but it was way more than some kind of weird chastity belt thing for me. The rosary reminds me of my family, of praying together, of the times I've seen prayer change the people and situations around me. Essentially, it stands for my best self, the self I would choose to be. And so, I left it on, and it’s on me as I write this. Like nothing else it has been a total mental block down the addictive route of porn, and a visual encouragement to pray whenever I see it. I can’t tell you what that feels like. Knowing life without porn has been profound. It’s like I have my time, my creative energy and my sense of real joy back. The last month has been a month of good days, a day at a time.

Now, that’s obviously not going to work for everybody, but if you’re reading this and it’s a struggle you’re facing, there’s a few things you can do. Start to recognise the situations that lead you to porn, and just divorce tech from your bed. Read up on it, I can’t suggest you read Matt Fradd’s book enough! You can get software that helps with this (Covenant Eyes is the go to), but I think my biggest suggestion would be talk about with friends about it. I've got about four guys who I have this ongoing conversation about porn with and it does me unending good.

What’s really heartening, is that more and more people are coming out as anti-porn, from Terry Crews to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and from Rashida Jones to Russel Brand. Fight the New Drug is a non-religious movement of people against porn that you should definitely check out. There is already a cultural rebellion taking place, that essentially wants to fight to reclaim the dignity of the human person, and it’s a conversation well worth having.

There were plenty of times where I had basically given up on the idea of life beyond porn, but it's completely possible, day by day. This is a struggle that our parents generation just didn't have, and I really believe that it's an opportunity for our generation to stand for authentic love and virtue more than any before us.