Restored: Can Millennials Revive Spiritual Healing?
Meet some of the young people lighting up the Church
Man plans, God laughs. Young people have left religion, media shouts. But “on fire’’ Millennials are busy restoring the Church.
The Most Reverent Catholic Masses in the nation?
St. Patrick Catholic Church in little Brighton, Michigan, recently joined a national ranking of parishes nationwide offering the most reverent Catholic Masses. Old traditions are being revived, restored and resurrected.
A thousand miles to be healed?
Catholic laypeople, clergy and religious are traveling 1,000 miles or more for the Encounter Minististries school and regular conferences and events.
“We flew here from Columbia, South Carolina,’’ Father Michael Okere said. “One of my parishioners was very sick — nothing else worked.’’
People are being healed — or comforted. Restored, a physical healing ministry of St. Pat parishioners trained through Encounter Ministries, meets each Sunday with trained prayer teams.
Three basic steps:
- People gather in prayer, starting a healing service with a homily about the Biblical underpinnings of healing, miracles, signs and wonders.
- The faithful pray, unbinding lingering anger and resentment, forgiving people they haven’t forgiven, opening their hearts to God’s love and power.
- They call on the Holy Spirit — “Come Holy Spirit. Come now.’’ Inevitably, people are healed. Not all certainly. But many.
“More Lord,’’ they pray. “More Lord.’’
“Jesus accompanies His words with many ‘mighty works and wonders and signs,’ which manifest that the Kingdom is present in Him and attest that He was the promised Messiah,’’ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 547.
Millennials demand authenticity, reality and results
Like St. John explaining the churches of his time in Revelation 3, millennials reject authority figures that are “lukewarm… neither hot nor cold… I will spew you out of my mouth.’’
For decades, “there hasn’t been a clear explanation of what we believe as Catholics,’’ Father Joe Campbell, the youngest priest in the Lansing Diocese since he arrived in 2017 argues. All ages are listening.
“If our life looks no different than the secular people of the world, then I would say that we have not truly come to an encounter with Jesus,’’ Campbell says. “We have not come to that decisive moment where He comes down like a mountain in the river of life and forces us to respond.’’
Meaning: The original Hebrew root of “Be Still’’ means “Let it Go’’
“Be Still and Know that I am Your God,’’ (Psalm 46) isn’t a call to silence, to shut up, pray, pay and obey.
Rather, “be still’’ means to “let go’’ of your fears and anxieties — to let go of worry and let God take over.
Millennials long for meaning and purpose. After years of a “light version of Christianity,’’ where people took some elements while ignoring others, many demand something more authentic, “the fullness of the Christian life.’’
“I went to a conference last year for ministering to millennials,’’ Campbell recalled. “It was kind of funny because I am a millennial, but I still went and I wanted to learn whatever I could.
“One thing struck me … Young people today, millennials, they are very sensitive to authenticity when it comes to religious practice. You could say their authenticity sensors are very strong.’’
It’s “very obvious’’ to young people “if someone is just sort of going through the motions, claiming to be Christian but not living it out fully,’’ Campbell adds. If people aren’t “really accepting Jesus,’’ it’s “a complete turn-off.”
Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him?’’ (Mark 6:1–16).
Love leads to joy, which leads to peace and patience…
Father Mathias Thelen, pastor of St. Patrick and president of Encounter Ministries, preaches:
“Jesus told me ‘I am the light of the world’ and I think it’s sometimes easy for us to become passive… As if it’s not our responsibility to do something about it.’’
The world tells us to blame someone else, he adds, to blame and shame people in other ideological camps:
“There’s this sense that it’s always out there, that we feel this powerlessness but Jesus Himself is very, very clear here. He says YOU are the light of the world. You are that light. Every single Christian is to be light to the world. None of us has an option.
“What is this light we’re supposed to bring?’’ Thelen asks. “The light is Jesus. We are Jesus. We are to be Jesus to the World.’’
Does that mean we need to always be speaking about Jesus?
“No,’’ Thelen says. “But who is Jesus? He is truth. He is mercy. he is justice. He is joy. He is life. He is love. Where there is error, we are to bring truth. We are to fight for truth.
“Where there is injustice, we’re supposed to bring justice. Where there is brokenness and guilt, we’re supposed to bring mercy and forgiveness, we’re supposed to restore. Where there is hatred, we’re supposed to bring love. We’re supposed to be light to everyone.’’
Thelen: “We’re not imposing anything on anyone — we’re proposing.’’
“If you’re light, you’re light everywhere,’’ Thelen reminds us.
Calling for a “mindset shift,” he said “We need to learn to be wise enough to realize that there are some people in our culture that do not want us to shine…
“Every situation, every workplace, you are to be light… If we remember who we are, we are the light, then every circumstance in which we see the darkness of evil, we have the power to bring light into that situation.”
