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Intern in Diocesan Office: “Faith Should Change Your Life”
“Absolutely life changing” is the way Sarah Eby, summer intern for the Diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, describes her recent experience in Rome. Earlier this year Eby, a senior at Belmont Abbey College, completed a three-month International Leadership Semester in the Eternal City. The recently instituted program, whose tag line is “Intensify Your Life!”, is sponsored by the Legionaries of Christ. It brings college students to Rome for leadership coaching, roundtable discussions, public speaking workshops, ministry opportunities, retreats and spiritual direction.
“It was much more of a spiritual experience than just an academic one,” Eby says. “I came out of that program so proud to know the Truth, and eager to bring that Truth to other young people.” Eby is majoring in Theology at Belmont, and for two summers has interned at the Diocese with a focus on Youth and Young Adult ministry. A native of Pittsburgh, she came to Raleigh with her family at the beginning of high school, and found a vibrant youth program in her new Diocese. Today the license plate on her car reads “SERCH 141,” a reference to a weekend youth retreat she still sees as a turning point in her faith journey.
At Belmont, missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) conduct a wealth of social, spiritual and service activities for students. They emphasize meeting young men and women “where they are.” Even on a Catholic campus, many of the youth are swayed by secular values. Eby endorses the FOCUS approach. “But you can’t stay where they are,” she explains. “Jesus met the fisherman in their workplace, but He called them to leave that place behind and follow Him.”
In her work with youth and young adults, Eby’s goal is to help them “own their faith and to be authentically Catholic and to help them understand what they say they believe. Our faith and our relationship with God supports our entire life. It’s not the section of carrots next to the meatloaf and potatoes, it’s the plate on which everything else rests.” She acknowledges that this can be a difficult task. “Owning all of your faith is so hard in today’s society,” she says. “And it has to start with the youth minister. If he or she doesn’t understand the need for this ministry to be truly life-changing, then they can’t offer what youth need to be fully fed.”
One part of successful outreach to young adults is a willingness in parishes to utilize their enthusiasm by offering opportunities for involvement, Eby says. When college students come home for the summer, many are eager to reconnect with their friends from youth ministry days and to continue to be a part of that ministry in their home parish, perhaps as mentors and models.
Looking at her own future, Eby sees numerous possibilities – graduate study, full-time ministry, missionary work – but she has complete confidence in God’s plan for her. “No matter where a person is tomorrow,” she says, “if they have a good foundation in Christ-centered leadership, then their relationship with God will underlie everything they do.”