Love Anyway

by Michael Havercamp, director of Young Life Catholic Relations

Luke Ebener directs youth ministry at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and leads WyldLife.

Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa) had a poem hung on the wall at Shishu Bhavan, her home for children in Calcutta. This poem is often referred to as the “Love Anyway” or “Do It Anyway” poem and is almost universally attributed to the Albanian nun whose calling to “the poorest of the poor” inspired the whole world. The poem was actually written by Kent Keith in 1968 when he was a sophomore at Harvard College, and the poem won worldwide acclaim only after it was discovered in 1997 after the death of Mother Teresa.

A couple weeks ago I couldn’t help but notice a similar poem scribbled on the wall of our parish youth minister who is also a Young Life leader. Luke Ebener is the director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Davenport, Iowa, where he also serves as a WyldLife leader. Luke’s poem was enough to stop me in my tracks and encourage my spirit at a time when I really needed it. Borrowing from the scope and meter of the “Love Anyway” poem, Luke wrote:

Kids will make mistakes, disappoint you, break the rules, and take advantage of you. 

Love them anyway.

Kids will not return your phone calls and text messages and may laugh at your awkward attempts to connect with them. 

Pursue them anyway.

Kids will not accept your invitations. 

Invite them anyway.

Kids will avoid your questions and talk about anything but the topic at hand. 

Ask questions anyway.

Kids will think you are "too holy" or talk about Jesus too much. 

Be holy anyway.

Kids may not respond to all of the creative ways you try to articulate the Gospel. 

Be creative in communicating the Gospel anyway.

Kids will talk over you, not listen, be distracted, and not believe what you say. 

Speak truth anyway.

The seeds you plant in these kids today you may never see grow. 

Plant seeds anyway.

In the end, God isn’t going to ask you how these teens responded, how far they got while you were their leader, or how cool the kids think you are. He’s going to ask you if you loved them like He loves you. And did you witness the Good News of the Gospel?

Keep loving those teens. Keep fighting the good fight. The Spirit is alive in you.

Luke’s words speak to us all as we love kids, share the Gospel, and keep fighting the good fight. Even when our best efforts seem to come to naught, we keep working, believing in the resurrecting power of Jesus.

His words serve as a reminder to me in Catholic Relations. Even though what takes us years to build could experience roadblocks and setbacks, we need to build anyway. Even though the healed and reconciled hearts we foster today could tomorrow be wounded once again by small-mindedness and division, we need to heal and reconcile anyway. Even if the global call to a “new evangelization” could be mired in a mentality that says, “We’ve always done it this way,” we need to evangelize anyway. Because in the end, we trust that “no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37). Yes, Jesus has promised us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

Young Life: A Tool to Revitalize Youth Ministry

by Deacon Nathan Gunn, Coordinator of Catholic Relations, Northeast Atlantic

As we begin 2020, I’m encouraged by what I’m witnessing here in the Eastern United States. Young Life is invigorating the work of Catholic youth ministers as they share the Good News with teenagers, and Catholic teenagers are using Young Life as a tool to evangelize their peers. This movement isn’t widespread yet; it’s just beginning in New Hampshire. The picture of the mustard seed comes to mind. Jesus said, “Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree…” (Matthew 13:32). In November, a group of Catholic priests, directors of religious education, and youth ministers from the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., gathered with Young Life staff members to discuss what it would look like to do ministry together (see photo above). At this meeting two youth ministry workers from St. Michael Parish shared how they are serving the kids of their parish while they do outreach in the community as Young Life volunteers. They shared stories about teenagers’ lives being changed as they use Young Life methods, and they talked about what it’s like to take Catholic kids to Young Life camp. “All of the people on staff, program team, and the work crew were incredibly welcoming and humble. They truly represented Jesus. We felt wanted and loved,” said Sammie Moore, who leads middle school students at St. Michael and has taken her kids to a Young Life camp. “Wyldlife camp has given me the opportunity as a youth minister to connect with some of my youth in a way that I was previously not able to.” The Catholic students and leaders at St. Michael have found that they can use Young Life’s outreach Club meetings for high school students and the WyldLife meetings for middle school students as venues to evangelize and share their personal faith. During the meeting in Manchester, the group talked about a paradigm of evangelization or “encounter” in middle school and how that could be followed by an opportunity for discipleship and formation through the high school years. Lisa Zolkos, who works for the diocese’s Catholic Schools Office, shared that she is a former Young Life kid who had a great experience with both her Catholic parish and Young Life as she grew up in Tampa, Fla. Since the meeting in November, there have been conversations about how Young Life could be used in Catholic schools throughout New Hampshire to bring the “New Evangelization” to bear in those critical venues. The November meeting was organized by Bishop Peter Libasci and Kelly Goudreau, the diocesan director of parish faith formation. Under Bishop Libasci’s direction, the Diocese of Manchester has adopted a “restored order” around the sacrament of confirmation. And as the diocese moves forward under that direction, people are enthusiastic about how Young Life can play a critical role in revitalizing youth ministry across the state. What could happen to young people across New Hampshire if parishes and Young Life worked together to ensure that “every kid” had the opportunity to at least hear that Jesus made them, knows them, and loves them? Can we even imagine a “tree” that could come from New Hampshire and bless us all?