Young Voices

I adore a good love story. Some of my favorite ones are origin stories: how boy meets girl. Or girl meets girl. Or girl meets God. This is a story of the latter.

I have a friend who became Catholic during our college years together after a childhood absent of any religious upbringing. I recall asking her what led her to choose Catholicism.

Speaking honestly, she said she found herself crying while attending her first mass, joined RCIA to learn more and never looked back.

Young Voices: A retreat in California brought out the best in its young adult attendees. How can that translate to the church of today?

It has always been difficult, at least for me, to imagine Advent as a season of penitence. In our tradition, the days leading up to Christmas are second only to the days leading up to Easter as an opportunity to practice abstinence, consider our sins and prepare the way of the Lord. Where do the candy, the tree trimming, the lessons and carols, the teas and the sleigh rides fit into all of that?