SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson. I'm Jay Agnish, Communications Director for the Diocese and editor of the Beacon Newspaper. With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop, how you doing? I'm good, Jay. Good morning. How are you? I'm doing good. Thanks. So so what's been going on? There's a ton going on. We got ordinations and Eucharistic.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Beautiful meetings and preparing for Pentecost now. We're just a few days away from the great feast uh Saturday night. We'll have the vigil and Sunday the feast day. Um so we're thankful for that. It's a great time of prayer and it's a wonderful time in the church as well and even in society in terms of things that are happening. But um uh certainly uh this past Saturday, a high great highlight for the diocese. We have two new new transitional deacons, uh Deacon Joe DeMarzo, Joseph DeMarzo, and Deacon Sebastian Munoz. I was privileged to ordain them to the transitional diaconate. Um little plug for the Beacon newspaper. You'll you'll if you get a chance to look at my column, I speak a little bit about that experience, and also then that we're looking forward to ordaining um ten men to the permanent diaconate uh in two weeks now, I think two weeks from Saturday. And God willing, then at the end of June the 10th. And at the end of June, uh two new priests, God willing, um on the uh Diocean feast day, John the Baptist, the birth of John the Baptist, uh which is a Saturday this year, June 24th. So uh yeah, a lot of wonderful, wonderful things happening at this time of year.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, for sure. So I want to introduce our our guest today. Super, super stoked to welcome Father Augustino Torres. He's a priest with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, based in the Bronx. And on June 11th, he and Bishop Kevin are speaking at an event at Corpus Christi Parish in Chatham entitled An Evening of Eucharistic Revival. So welcome, Father Father Augustino. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much, Jay. Thank you, Bishops. Great, great to be here with you guys. Okay, we can't wait to start our conversation. I was gonna ask if the bishop could open us up in prayer. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Let us place ourselves in God's presence, name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and we shall be recreated, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in that same spirit to be truly wise, and always rejoice in your consolation through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Lady Seed of Wisdom, Mother of the Church, pray for us. Saint Francis, pray for us. Saint Bede the Venerable, pray for us. Saint Maria Magdalena de la Pasa, pray for us, and Saint Gregory the Seventh, Pope Gregory the Seventh, pray for us. And all holy men and women, pray for us. Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And happy birthday to my nephew, Brendan Shanahan, who uh I texted him this morning and was after all these years, I think it's 22 now, and uh May 25th, we have these three saints, uh uh uh an eclectic group, Bede the Venerable, um, Gregory the Seventh, Hildebrand, and Maria Magdalene del Paza del Pazzi. Um great story. Um uh Franciscan Media, the I love their website, Catholic Saint of the Day. So anybody looking for to find out more about those saints, it's uh a triple header today on May 25th.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

So and great for homily helpers.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

There we go. There is that's right, that's right, yes. So for the let me let me do the longer introduction to Father Augustino. Uh Father Augustino, he's the founder of Corazon Poro. I'm sorry if I'm saying that incorrectly, and Latinos por la vida, which are organizations dedicated to awakening and accompanying young leaders in areas of great need. He's an internationally renowned public speaker who hosts several television shows on EWTN in English and Spanish. Father Augustino speaks to over 25,000 youth and young adults in person each year and millions more through media. He's got a really big following on Instagram. Uh and pertinent to our conversation today, Father Augustino is involved with the USCCB's National Eucharistic Revival, which we're going to be talking about. He is the co-host of the podcast Revive, which is the official podcast of the USCCB's National Eucharistic Revival. Salonji Rodriguez, whom we had on episode eight of this podcast a couple weeks ago, is his co-host. And here in the Diocese of Patterson, Father Augustino is the campus ministry chaplain at William Patterson University in Wayne. And he's sporting a sweatshirt to prove it if you're watching us on YouTube. So welcome, welcome again. And uh gonna ask the bishop to let us know uh why you invited Father Augustino here and and what we're hoping to talk about today.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

A couple of thank you to start, first of all, for being here, for giving us the time and uh uh very busy schedule that I know that you have uh on many levels. And uh want to say is in the introduction, thank you for uh recommending Salange to us. Uh she was on the podcast a few weeks ago and she's doing great work here in the diocese as she does um with so many in the um uh effort to promote the respect for the dignity and value of human life from the moment of conception and and to w literally, literally walk with moms in need um and um uh in the English speaking and Spanish speaking community. And so Salange's been uh a great addition, uh but uh that was thanks to a phone call uh that I made to Father Augustino. So thanks for the recommendation uh of Salange. Uh really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Well, praise God. Uh I maybe if I could use an analogy, wouldn't it be great to like be the patron saint of like scouts, scouting talent for the church? You know, I I meet so many people, uh, and there's such amazing people who want to love and and serve the church, and so I'm happy to be a connector.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Thanks. Thanks again. This could be a very long podcast again, as I've said other times, maybe we need a part two down the line. But uh for the moment, I I just before we get to some of the current things, uh just to go back a little bit and um as a having served time as a vocation director, I think hearing vocation stories is always a good thing. Each each uh call to uh serve the Lord, uh particularly maybe in priesthood and religious life, has that um uh personal uh touch and uh history. So I'd like Father Augustino for you to share a little bit with us about that. But then also uh you're a uh a member of the um Franciscan Friars of Renewal, if I'm saying that correctly. And I just want to mention uh and maybe you can give us a little of that history because in the church it might be what we could call more recent history, uh the founding of the community. I know you're gonna be together uh starting this weekend in a chapter coming up in the um between Pentecost and Corpus Christi, I think. And so um, but just to look back in my own um time in the seminary and discernment, um uh meeting this priest um with a long gray beard and a gray habit named Father Benedict Grichel. Um wow, and going to Trinity Retreat House um in Larchmont and uh listening to Father Benedict on EWTN and and in so many different uh seeing him at um uh masses and and and rallies on behalf of life and and and then hearing along the way that he kind of founded this little group that wanted to live a little more fully the the the Franciscan um capuchin, right? I think he's as the capuchin' originally. Right. Um so a little maybe of your own story and and and a little bit of a brief history of the the Fries of Renewal.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Sure thing. Um so you'll be happy to know it has a lot to do with New Jersey. So I'm I grew up in South Texas, uh, and I got some scholarships to Seton Hall of all places, uh, that wasn't on my radar. But I I I had my conversion through World Youth Day. I went to World Youth Day in Denver. Um and I was like We were together 15, 16 or something like that. I forget how old I was exactly, but like it it opened my eyes, and that kind of like began to lead me through prayer to ask what God wanted me to do with my life. And I had no inkling, no thought, it did not even enter into my imagination that that God could possibly ask someone like me to be a priest, but it kind of like it slowly grew. I I get to college and it was actually I was I was public school all my life until until Seton Hall. And um, and just to have mass on campus, have crucifixes, I was delighted. I could take theology classes, and I began to really grow in my faith. And uh, and somebody invited me to a talk in Carney, and I said, Hey, I'm gonna go to this tark, I'll talk over here. I'm like, uh, okay, I'm not doing anything. And it was Father Benedict. I did not know his name. Um, you know, even though I was trying to do the right thing, and there was still I was not compl I was not completely like in uh you know uh uh initiated into all the Catholic things. So like I just knew that there was a Catholic channel, and um, and this guy would come out on the channel sometimes. So I called my mom up, hey, that guy that's on the TV with the nun. Father Benedict. Yeah, I I and I still remember his talk to this day. This was in 1995. And uh I still remember he was giving a talk on confession, and I was completely like, you know, just like captured by this man. I saw him a little bit later on at the pro-life march uh with his with his beret and his uh his group of these these grisly looking friars, you know, and I was from South Texas, right? And I was scandalized that they didn't have like socks on. I was just like, yo, it's cold in here. It was like maybe like you know, 50 degrees or something. But for someone from South Texas, it was I was I was just it left an impression. Didn't think much that much of it. And I I went through college, my senior year of college, uh, I was just kind of like, you know, searching for more. And I would do some retreats, and everywhere uh I do retreats, I'd run into these friars. And um, and uh so finally, you know, just just through prayer and like a lot of other people, you know, just like you know, encouraging me, I went and I visited the friars. And uh and I think it's important to say that you know, um trying to live your faith in college is hard. Uh and and uh I struggled, but through those struggles, I began to learn how to pray in a in a more intentional way. And uh because of that, like I knew I needed some things. Like I began to to pray uh Eucharistic holy hour. And I just knew I need this. And so I like a couple of things like through those struggles um to live your faith in college, like I knew that I needed to kind of like just surround myself with that type of prayer. And when I visited the friars, it was it was all there. And I was just like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. Uh the the charism of work with the poor and evangelization, like you know, I I felt like this was something that that was created for me.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Where were the friars at that time where you went to Washington?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

In Harlem, um, in uh 142nd between Broadway and Amsterdam, uh when when it was when it was uh that was that would have been '98. And um, and it was definitely still uh it was it was still Harlem. And um it was gentrification hadn't come yet. Right. They don't they that guy gentter gentter, whoever, they had never heard of him. Uh, you know, it was it was uh tough. Yeah, it was tough. Uh tough neighborhood. Uh New York in general has kind of cleaned up a lot, you know, since since then. But um, but it was tough. There's still some tough neighborhoods, actually. But uh anyway, uh so I visited and I knew I needed to kind of like, you know, take some time and work on things. And that's when uh I was invited to to drive around Father Benedict for a year. Is that and live at Saint Saint uh live at a Holy Trinity retreat. And I I'm convinced that that that time with Father Benedict really enriched my life, helped me heal, helped me understand more. And um, and uh so it was I'm I can't tell my vocation story without telling the story of so many other people who have helped me along the way, uh, through prayer, through support, through, through just, you know, being encouraging. Um and it's it's a mysterious thing, right? You know, to respond to God's will and and to try to follow it sincerely, uh and to kind of like, you know, dig down through the layers of motivation to get to you know saying yes for love, um, uh saying yes out of love. And so I and actually what I've learned is that that's something that it's every day, no matter how long you've been at it, it's it's a daily saying yes for love. And there's good days, there's bad days, there's difficult days, and there's days of great beauty. And so these are the days that that we just continue to say yes, and it carries us through. And this and um, and uh I eventually joined the friars, uh, went down to Central America for a little bit, but was basically stationed in the Bronx until I got stationed here in Patterson, and here we are. And uh seminary? Seminary I went to St. Joseph's and done one.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

And what year were you ordained? I was ordained in 2008. 2008, great. And uh so um friars, uh how many were they in the in the original group? Original group were eight. Right, around early nineties? Eighty-seven. Oh, eighty-seven, okay. Cardinal O'Connor, I think, of New York was a big uh he and Father Benedict were crossing. Correct. Um then uh so now the friars are in a number of countries, a number of places here in the United States and other countries throughout the world. But I guess the one thing in common in terms of the places that they serve is they're in poor neighborhoods, tough uh economically challenged uh the friars I don't think serve in uh um any uh high-income uh zip codes, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:46

No, it's what it's an intentional thing about us uh you know living in areas noted for poverty, uh, because you know it's one thing to serve, it's another thing to kind of live with and and and share the burdens that are people there. Uh but there's also spiritual poverty, right? And so uh we have uh no qualms about going wherever we're called to to preach the gospel, but to live, we want to live in those areas.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And so uh one of the beauties of our diocese here in Patterson, as I've said when I was uh got that phone call and um was gonna be assigned here is the bishop. Somebody said to me early on that um the three counties, Passaic, Morris, and Sussex, that Passaic is urban, Morris is suburban, and Sussex is rural. And there's certainly some truth to that. There's mixed this uh variety within the the three counties, but uh we get our name as a diocese from the city of Patterson, and um the friars uh came to Patterson because of some of those challenges that are still there. And and and how long have you been with the group that's uh um where in exactly in the city of Patterson um of our parishes?

SPEAKER_02 14:49

We're right behind our Lady of Lord's parish, uh right off of River Street, um in in the in the heart of Patterson. Right. And how many years has the friars been there? Uh it's gonna be 13, going on 13 years that we've been there.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And you've been there for most of that time? For for the entirety of the time. Right. Uh and was it through Bishop Saratelli that the invitation came to serve as um um chaplain at William Patterson? Correct.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Bishop Saratelli, a good friend of our community, uh from uh, you know, has some of his ties in Newark, and uh he opened the doors for us. And uh and at the time the the convent, the old convent at Lourdes was was not being used, and we uh have been there ever since.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Right. And uh a lot of food distribution and um spiritual care as well, uh counseling, um being part of that community and neighborhood, right? It was uh day by day.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Absolutely. We have a weekly food handout and uh we have also like a ministry of hospitality to our neighbors. We have a cafe uh and uh people come in. Um there's a lot of people who don't come out of their houses that much, they come in for that. There's a lot of homeless. There's there's a lot of of our brothers and sisters who struggle with uh with addictions, and we offer hospitality and also some resources for them to to take the next step in their lives.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

And so we want to move to the National Eucharistic Revival, but just one other piece before that. Uh how are things at William Patterson? What's it like uh being in campus ministry there? I've I visited for Mass a few times. Principese Chapel, right? Beautiful chapel there on campus. Principle's Chapel at Willie P.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Uh it's been a blessing.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Willie P.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

The uh as as you know, Bishop, the the diocese has has asked us to to kind of uh offer ministry to the students at the campus, but also offer some place for the young adults in the region to to have have a place. And so uh after COVID, not gonna lie, it was tough to start everything back up again from literally zero. And uh we had uh one of our we had a graduation mass last Sunday, and it was just so beautiful to see the chapel filled with people, just like an awesome, kind of like a culture of welcome, uh, you know, there which always includes food, of course. Uh always always a great way to get the college kids in is is to to offer food, and so we we find ways to to make it happen. Usually an international buffet, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Uh a little bit of everything, right? A little bit of everything. So wait, wait, is that how we're gonna solve the problem of getting the youth to back to the to the church too? Or I mean are we on to something here?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Jesus fed the 5,000, I'm just saying, right? You know, like in the same chapter, he's talked about the Eucharist. So maybe maybe we're onto something. But uh it's going well and uh it's growing. Uh we we we have big dreams and we want to continue to see it grow and uh and we hope to see that trajectory continue.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Thank you for that. Uh um again, I've had also the chance to visit with the friars uh a few times and celebrate Mass together, and so I'm always happy to do it. And just knowing that you guys are there um with the neighboring parishes and pastors uh in the city of Patterson and also the presence to um um the students, but I'm sure the the faculty as well, and as you said, that uh young adult community in that geographical part of the diocese uh um in Wayne and um so so thank you for that. So um the National Eucharistic Revival. Uh we are finishing our first year of three uh three-year plan for National Eucharistic Revival here in Patterson. We started maybe six months early because we had a year of the Eucharist for the calendar year of 2022. Uh a lot of that goes back to has been said a number of times, the the Pew survey that has been questioned some to some degree. Uh Bishop Barron was talking about the National Eucharistic Revival on his podcast this past Monday. And he's certainly one of the um, I think, first movers in terms of saying, wow, this survey said only 30% of Catholics say they believe what we believe about the real presence of Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. So what are we going to do when a group of bishops came together? And now Bishop Cousins as head of that committee has really uh put together a great plan. It's been nice for me as uh after my first two uh USCCB meetings that were virtual, now to have had been at a few of the um national meetings, and we'll have one in in the middle of June. And there's certainly uh a momentum that seems to be building. And one of the things when they started was they looked for um some preachers who could go out and filled with the Holy Spirit on fire and uh and and invite people to consider again or or reflect or appreciate better what we believe about um Jesus and and the gift that he gives us of himself in the Eucharist, uh bread of life, cup of salvation. And uh you're one of those, you've been named as one of those preachers. How has that been experienced been? I guess it's over a bit the past year, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Over the past year, yeah. So we they started us out by bringing us all together uh for a retreat. And uh it was a retreat given by by a number of bishops and a number of uh uh well-known speakers. Uh uh Father Mike Schmidt was a speaker there, and Dr. Timothy O'Malley from Notre Dame, just uh an incredible. I you gotta be honest, like when they told us we're coming for a retreat, I was like, okay, you could bring a whole bunch of preachers to tell us how to preach on the Eucharist. I was a little skeptical, admittedly, but it was absolutely wonderful. And to have like a shared vision of of how this this time of Eucharistic revival was going to be carried out, you know, needed to start with prayer. Um for myself, uh, I've I've been quite busy. Uh thanks be to God. I'm I'm I'm fluent, very fluent in English and Spanish, and so there is no shortage of of events that are in either language. And so um, and I and I have a slate filled with other Eucharistic revival events.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

And in the group of preachers, I guess there's probably a lot more that are uh yes, obviously fluent in English, but not as many that would be uh fluent in Spanish.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

I was I was surprised that most everyone, I I think almost everyone was fluent in Spanish. Great, great. Uh that maybe some different levels. Um, but uh it was it was uh uh interesting mix. You know, it was almost like one of those jokes. It was like a Jesuit, a Dominican, and a Franciscan go on retreat together, you know, because that's what it was. But there was there was definitely a shared heart, and um this was something that was just so beautiful. Uh but uh but I think maybe um people see the list and like they they might have you know seen me on a video or something that uh you saw or or on the podcast. So my name gets gets thrown out there a little bit. That said, I'm I'm very happy to say that I think I've kind of you know reached my my capacity for Eucharistic revival events for the next year, hand-to-hand. So uh but uh but happy to preach every new. Um thanks be to God. It's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

So what what is the core of of the message that you're bringing or or discussing? Or you if you could maybe give us a sneak peek about the June June 11th event at Corpus Christi here in the diocese at Chatham?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Sure thing. I mean the good news is is that uh the doctrine of the Eucharist is the doctrine of the Eucharist. And it's it's really uh reading the group uh or the setting to know how to package that. So if it's at a a youth gathering for a diocese, it would be a different way of of presenting the Eucharist and different examples and you know like trying to like bring them in. If it's uh like what we're gonna be having um here in in in Chatham on June 11th, uh, you know, in the context of prayer. And the kind of it's a little bit more kind of like old school traditional preaching, you know, pulpit preaching, uh, which is still uh an amazing uh uh forum for uh it still moves hearts, you know, people say, well, this technology and stuff like that is what's the deal with preaching? Trust me, it still works. Um but uh the the the long and short of it is is like you know we we I talk about what God has done and how this truth is not so it's not merely rational but also relational that the Eucharist is really about a relationship like God's relationship with us. God, how I have earnestly yearned to have this supper with you, you know, and depending on the translation these are words of Jesus to us. And so I you know I did a whole bunch of research early on you know got all my my my my best friends John Paul II Benedict Pope Francis you know I love these guys you know like uh and so I and I put it together in in um in a series of notes that I kind of like it's like a toolbox right I was like what am I what do I need for this oh this one needs a screwdriver this one needs a sledgehammer you know so um but I I go through some of the the well I'll tell you I talk about food oh yeah right how like let me tell you this diocese has the best tacos in the Northeast oh yeah you go to Passaic let me tell you it's the best and like uh I I find what food excites people and people get into it food excites us and how much more so if we're giving we're being given food by God let's talk about this with this excitement and then and then I go into to transubstantiation and to into uh you know mentioning some of the the the the witnesses of the Eucharist the people who literally laid their lives down people who who who extended themselves to bring the Eucharist and um and there's some amazing things happening uh very carefully sometimes not all the time but sometimes if I I feel it's needed I might mention some of the recent Eucharistic miracles which are just mind blowing because now we have all this forensic scientific you know uh tools and blessed Carlo Acudis who's uh been a become a great apostle for uh eucharistic miracles and and uh and and the the the beauty and gift of the Eucharist in our lives that you can appreciate at a very young age as he did right it's amazing that a blessed of the church created a website you can go on to it right now that's right yes it's it's it's it's amazing and so that's that's a good point bishop uh kevin because it's connecting people to where they are to to the truth that's that's always there truth truth is truth has a resonance to it it's like it's like light you know we're drawn to it but sometimes you need to kind of like you know help people to see or remove the curtains so that they're so the light's able to come in and that's really what it is.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

These days leading to Pentecost uh as we you know go back again and again to asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and but also trying to see how the Spirit might uh be moving us in the midst of all of our challenges and the challenges we face as a society and culture right now. Something the CDC recently spoke about um you know uh the uh the challenges to to health for young people that are on screens and on social media and isolation and the combination of the pandemic and screen time uh so uh I I we haven't checked I don't think our demographics yes in terms of our audience and the age group but it we I hope there are some youth and young adults who are watching but maybe some of their parents and grandparents or um or or catechists or or priests um maybe to invite our are uh to consider our that our youth and young people might respond to this invitation for um june 11th at Corpus Christi in Chatham this night of Eucharistic revival because um and maybe this can be an opportunity also fell Augustina for you to say a word about um your work in Corto Son Puro because um the the the challenges that are facing our our our our teenagers and and and youth and young adult um are are so daunting I think but it's the Eucharist that uh can strengthen us and um the Carlo blessed Carlos an example of and we see it all over in parishes the young people that really do connect with Jesus and and and find healing in in in in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of reconciliation and uh and how that there's such a need for healing again it's a long question but uh um maybe just some connection between what our youth are facing maybe some of you work with Corazon Puro and how drawing us to the Eucharist can can can help our young people maybe in a particular way.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah it's uh it's it's something something is different about working with youth now uh whether it's the the pandemic or the isolation or the technology whatever whatever it is uh it is different and their their modes of receiving information is different um and uh and I think some of the tr the the normal ways of doing things we need to we need to rethink it we need to look at it again but one thing I have seen it's the youth are not closed off as it might sometimes seem to us there is uh an incredible opportunity today for the church to um to woo the hearts of our young people and this is gonna challenge us who are you know the the leaders in the church to love in a particular way and to listen in a more intentional way. And it what I'm saying is it's gonna require something more from us and parents as well. You know I was speaking to a parent and he was saying like I saw what was happening I said no this isn't good we're gonna go out to a park we're gonna he became intentional as a father to to kind of like head this off at the past so to speak and I think as a church we need to become more intentional in this and that's what I'm seeing in the ministry.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Pope Francis uh going back again and again to that word accompaniment right or encounter that um you know it's not just we're teaching our young people this is what the the catechism says which is we have to do but the way in which in which we do it excuse me um that uh there's there is something that we have to be attentive to that how could we let our young people know that we we care and and and find that way of opening a conversation or or some manner and and that might mean just patiently kind of um being there with them at times uh uh but as you say that we've have to be looking at the ways ways in which we share the message right absolutely uh we uh Corazon puro as you mentioned bishop is uh is an initiative that that we started when I was stationed in the Bronx because uh it there in our neighborhood in the Bronx there were no marriages like you know well I'm sure there were some but uh statistically speaking 73% of the young people were in in single parent homes and uh and so the question came up like what what do we do you know like as as marriage goes as society goes so marriage goes as John Paul II said.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

And so it was kind of like how do we help these young people who have very little infrastructure be able to enter into their vocation in a flourishing way. And we developed like you know a whole way of you know bringing bringing them along and you know having them experience how it how the Eucharist is the center and allow that to be the center of eventually of their marriage. What I found out is a lot of people also wanted to become you know religious and for a while uh at least up up until last year that we had two vocations every year entering into religious life or seminary um and women women entering religious life right women entering religious life and uh and some men more women than than men and and praise God you know uh uh one of one of our members is gonna be um one of our former members is gonna be taking vows with the Salesian sisters here in the diocese in in August we'll we'll keep we'll keep all these these vocations in prayer but but um it's like to to be intentional about that had a great response I think now it's it's it is okay to look at what you're doing to retool to reassess maybe even take a step back and say okay what are we doing that's working what do we need to uh rethink and then and then let's let's move ahead uh in catechetical programs people are are are uh struggling to kind of like connect to the young people and this is important because uh some statistics are saying that the young people are making decisions about whether to stay in the church at earlier ages at 12 13 14 that's when they're in our cat catechetical programs and our confirmation so I think there's this is a great opportunity right now for the church but but we have to pray we have to think discern listen to the wisdom of the world who knows how to reach people but then but then reach them with the truth of the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

And again I hope and trust that it's the movement of the spirit as we were meeting with some Dahasan leaders and thinking about okay what we're finishing the first year national eucharistic revival what's the next uh certainly we want to let people know and we've shared it with our our our pastors and uh parish leaders that the National Eucharistic revival excuse me national eucharistic congress will be coming up in July of 2024. We'll get back to that on another con uh podcast but they're talking 80 uh 80,000 hundred thousand Catholics coming together around the Eucharist uh uh from all over the country uh in July of 2024 but in June of uh 2023 two weeks from Sunday so this Sunday Pentecost following Sunday uh feast of the Holy Trinity June 11th uh the feast of Corpus Christi what can we do as a diocese to uh kind of remind everybody that we're in this you so we said well we have a parish named Corpus Christi maybe we could go there and one of the priests on the committee father Michael Schwartz who's done a lot with with and will be doing a lot with our efforts and the pastor of Corpus Christi Father Kevin Corcoran said sure you can come and we've had in the past Bishop Saratelli did I I did a couple of years ago a gathering for children who just made their first communion to come together from out the throughout the diocese and so it's actually going to be a doubleheader on Corpus Christi at Corpus Christi uh at three o'clock in the afternoon uh the gathering of young people and as you say we want to reach the young right from the the start and uh especially now so um through um catechetical leaders in uh Father Joaneda Garcia um at our catechetical office um those invitations have gone out and there's I think a great response already but then um in the evening everyone and anyone please uh all ages uh come here Father Agostino and hear some great music and be united um in in in our prayer uh as the body of Christ uh in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Uh I I I hope and pray that we're gonna get a great response to the to the evening uh and maybe in a special way some of our youth and young adults but but Father Augustino again thank you for your availability Jay I don't know if you had a note you'll be there as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Looking forward to it looking at what can you give us a sneak peek about what we're gonna be talking about?

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Maybe the Eucharist I think I might wait till Father Augustino gives his talk and then just uh uh add a few thoughts but um but yes the um Father Augustino's gonna be the main speaker I'll be happy to share a few words but uh that we're gonna be together in prayer and with the music lifting our hearts and Father Augustino surely inspiring us uh the you know we shared that experience of of 1993 with show say St. Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in um in in Denver Colorado um that was one of my first experiences of uh the Mass as the mystical body of Christ a million people gathered and how the Eucharist unites us as the church and we miss it sometimes we don't take it for granted we don't appreciate whatever how people think it's boring i okay whatever it is but we gotta there's something there that if we have that faith and can respond to an invitation then um the Lord can do amazing things and uh I'm I'm hoping that this June 11th uh it's gonna be uh on the Feast of Corpus Christi a a great blessing for our diocese.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Well good I I guess why don't we leave it at that uh just get us out of here so um thank you for spending time with us uh join us again for the next episode of Beyond the Beacon please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening if you're watching this episode on Bishop Kevin Sweeney's YouTube channel be sure to like the episode follow the channel and ring the bell for notifications. Email questions and podcast topic ideas for the bishop to beyond at patternsdiocese.org.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Thank you for listening to Beyond the Beacon thanks everybody thank you Father Agostino God bless you thank you