How to Catholic: The Effect of Wonder

Editors note: This is the very first post of John's new column "How to Catholic". A few times a month, John will be answering the simple and not-so-simple questions his youth group at St. Vincent DePaul asks him.

Welcome everyone to the teenager's brain. Let's be honest, the thought of that can be a little frightening, but I think we can learn a thing or two. As a youth minister at a Catholic church, you could imagine I have heard quite a wide range of things coming out of teenager's brains. Good things, bad things, weird things, awkward things.

If there is one thing that I learned, though, from the teenager's brain is that we should always be wondering.

When they have the courage to, teenagers ask the best questions. They are at the point in their lives when they are asking some of the most basic, yet most genuine questions. This is when they are really starting to look for purpose and meaning to the world. Sometimes, we young adults forget to ask the basic questions! We try to go in too deep too quickly. In that, we may lose sight of the things that matter the most.

At a Catholic church with all of its depth and richness and the Western culture going almost completely against it, you could imagine that I am getting all the best questions. With that, this column was born. There are many purposes why I am bringing this to you.

1. To see the questions that the next generation is asking.

2. To learn a little more about our Catholic faith and how it applies to our lives.

3. To remind ourselves to not lose this sense of wonder. This sense of wonder opens our eyes to the beauty in front of us. This sense of wonder opens our minds to greater understanding of life. This sense of wonder opens our souls to fulfillment in God.

“What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.” ― G.K. Chesterton
 

John Boyle is a Youth Minister and Religion Teacher at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Brooklyn Park, MN. He found his calling to Youth Ministry while studying at the University of Minnesota and made his way to graduate from the University of St. Thomas. Not only does he love answering questions about faith, but also enjoys talking about sports (especially soccer), cooking, and worship music. You can also hear him talk about these and much more on the podcast Dudes That Babel. Currently, he calls the parish Our Lady of Grace his home.