Reaching the Young

On a visit to England I attended a Mass where the children from the church schools also attended, perhaps 100+.

Apparently they were seldom seen as only a handful of their parents came to Mass and an even smaller number had their kids in the sacramental program.  

I found myself praying that God would reveal Himself to them and then remembered a couple of encouraging stories I had heard. Both are from talks by Fr Blount, an American charismatic priest and exorcist. The first was about when he spoke with elementary school children about praying for healing. He had them pray over each other and then instructed them to pray over their parents when they went home. One boy as they finished, ran home to pray over his grandmother who was on her death bed. He asked her permission and she agreed, he laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her. She leaped up from the bed, completely healed and headed off to church for thanksgiving. I am sure no one will forget that lesson ! 

Another was a retreat day Fr. Blount had for teenage boys. They had exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and he prayed that Jesus would do something a bit special for the boys during adoration to enhance the day. What followed was that from the host, the face of Jesus appeared. And It stayed. Everyone saw It and as they remained in adoration for several hours, some weeping and being transformed others greatly strengthened. 

We do live in dark days and in many ways its seems that the odds are against any great breakthrough or success in winning souls for God; information about God is not really enough; we need an encounter with the living God to catalyse a life of faith and an on-going life in Him.