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October 4, 2005
Challenging Young Adults to One
Year of Full-time
The
Bishops of Florida challenge young Catholic adults ages 22 to 26 to one
year of full-time service and faith formation. We highly recommend that
you consider the Catholic Volunteers in Florida (www.cvif.org)
or another similar Catholic volunteer organization (www.cnvs.org).
As we said in our national pastoral plan, Sons and Daughters of the
Light, "We know that your talents, and those of other young adults,
can enrich the Church and can be a sign of God's presence in society."
A Catholic volunteer program is a
logical next step into Catholic adulthood after the sacrament of
Confirmation. We encourage young adults to apply as they are completing
college, before they encounter the experience of starting a career,
entering a religious vocation or starting a family. The Catholic
Volunteers in Florida will challenge you to faithfully serve the poor and
marginalized and reflect on your purpose in life. Through a year of
service and faith formation you will live the Gospel, serve others and
build your relationship with God. Following the call to prayer and
service is following the life and message of Jesus Christ and promises to
be a rewarding way to begin your adult life.
Prayer takes as many forms as there are
individuals. We each have a unique relationship with God, yet every
strong relationship requires time. We must give time to God each day.
Throughout scripture we find Jesus spending time with his Father. Before
beginning his public ministry Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert
to pray for forty days (Mark 1:12). And later throughout his public
service, after many healings, we find Jesus rising before dawn to go to a
deserted place to pray (Mark 1:35). In so doing Jesus shows us the
importance of making time to pray to his Father. In our increasingly busy
lives, when and where we find time each day to spend with our God becomes
more and more important. We are called to build our relationship with
God. At the heart of the Gospel message is Jesus’ call for us to love one another (John 13:31). Jesus challenges us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit and care for the sick and prisoners (Matthew 25:35-38). Throughout the Gospel we have many examples of Jesus serving people who are poor, marginalized, sick, and outcast. Jesus is constantly calling us out of relationship to things and into relationship with others. A temptation of modern life is to live solely within a homogenous community, and not build deep relationships with people different than us. Jesus challenges us to a broad fellowship with others, even those with whom we feel uncomfortable. Become who you are – Prayer and Service
We are called to explore and deepen our
relationship with God and with others, and thereby better understand
ourselves. In so doing, we enliven the Church and as part of the body of
Christ, help to create the Kingdom of God. We invite our Catholic adults ages 22-26 to give serious consideration to spending their first year after college in service and faith formation as a Catholic volunteer. "The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your ideals, in order to make the Gospel of life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people's hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love.” (Pope John Paul II) In prayer and service with Christ,
The Florida Catholic Conference
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