By Maggie Gehlsen
CORALVILLE — Can we love? That was the main question at this year’s diocesan high school youth rally. On Oct. 23, hundreds of high school students across the diocese filed into the Coralville Marriott Conference Center all having one thing in common: their faith.
The day started with music provided by Leap of Faith Ministries, leading into a skit by the Diocesan Youth Ministry Committee (DYMC). The skit presented the idea of how high school students can be good Samaritans to one another. The ending question asked: Can you love?
This thought lingered while keynote speaker Mike Patin was introduced. Mike began his presentation with many activities involving movement to get the kids going. He then spoke about how many kids now think it’s socially unacceptable to believe in God, and identified ways to improve on our faith as Catholic teens.
Later, teens transitioned to morning breakouts, had lunch, and returned to hear Mike speak. This time, he addressed another way to think about how we are approaching our faith: the “PLUS” acronym. PLUS stands for pray, look, unify and serve: four ways we can stay in touch with our religion, along with bringing out the best in ourselves.
To conclude the day, Bishop Martin Amos presided at Mass, and shortly afterward everyone headed home. Not only was it a fun, busy day, but everyone left being able to say their faith was improved in some way, shape or form. As in years past, the high school youth rally was a complete success.
(Maggie Gehlsen is a junior at DeWitt Central High School and a member of St. Joseph Parish in DeWitt.)
