Attendees of the inaugural North American Leaders Summit gather for a group photo at the Comfort Inn, Surrey on Sunday, October 20, 2013. Members from throughout Canada and the United States were present from Friday, October 18 through to Sunday. (Photo: Jesse Roca)
If events like the Household Leaders Training (HLT) and Regional Leaders Conference (RLC) are meant to build us up as leaders then the CFC-Youth North American Leaders Summit (NALS) was meant to build us up as dreamers. It was meant to build us up as missionaries.
I’ve been to HLTs and RLCs before; while they informed us and built us up interiorly, NALS broadened that scope. If we spoke of the different types of Household leaders at an HLT, NALS spoke of a generation of leaders. We were no longer called by our service roles but empowered as a generation that is 1) grateful for those who came before, and 2) passionate, exemplary, and humble in tending our flocks. If we spoke thematically at RLCs, being filled to the brim or chosen, then we spoke of the eternal Glory of God and manifesting His spirit to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish our anointing.
The theme for the inaugural NALS was Deo Gloria: “Glory to God”. Growing up, this was Gloria in excelsis Deo (“Glory to God on high”) in the Christmas hymn “Angels We Have Heard On High”. It’s fitting that the God of all ages is vividly present now, the King of Glory, just as he was in our childhoods, the Lowly Infant.
At NALS, two words stood out to me: “direction” and “mission”.
Three CFC coordinators of CFC-Youth presented the state of the ministry and 5-year direction plan. Kuyas Lawrence Quintero, George Fournier, and Chito Barrios all came in from their respective service homes: the Philippines; Alberta, Canada; and California, USA.
They didn’t simply present mandates or or foundations for the ministry. They presented a new North America to live in, deeper lives to live, and enriched dreams to strive for. In five years we can aspire to see CFC-Youth founded on strong ministry principles with “life-giving pastoral formation, structure, programs, advocacies, mission tools, and culture.” Even greater is our call to live out dynamic Catholicism with CFC-Youth a “creative resource to other communities.” But what was most inspiring, and directing, is the thrust of proactive and relevant evangelization: to be relevant to society, to empower through family missions, and to evangelize in new territories.
One of the biggest dreams in this five-year plan is to “Go for Gold on the Silver”: to establish CFC-Youth in 50 countries by our silver anniversary. Here was a strong sense of direction towards mission. We are still missing Mexico and the other 20 North American countries. How beautiful will it be to see CFC-Youth from across the continent lifting their hands high in worship and kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament in the Mass at the next NALS?
It has been a week since NALS and I still cannot shake that desire for missionary evangelization. If not directly through me, then in my brothers and sisters. I’ve made friends with eastern Canadians as well as with Americans on both coasts and that deep yearning transcends our regional boundaries. I know that God’s glory is ever present but it seemed to radiate more abundantly this weekend in every new friend we made, the old friendships we rekindled, every song prayed in worship, each moment spent to dream for the ministry, and every brother and sister committing to serve in love and dream in unceasing faithfulness.
We are Catholic. We are CFC-Youth. We are living out God’s love.
We are the New Evangelization. We are Missionaries.
Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Noël Chabanel, Antoine Daniel, Charles Garnier, René Goupil, Isaac Jogues, Jean de Lalande, and Gabriel Lalemant; pray for us.
John Ray Catingub, CFC-Youth Pacific Region
