Spencer youth attend liturgical leadership program

By KARA KOCZUR, Globe staff reporter
July 10, 2008

SPENCER - Four youth from Sacred Heart Church in Spencer attended the "One Bread, One Cup" Liturgical Leadership Conference June 16-20 at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana.

Katelynn McDermott, Andrew Upah, Abby Bedore and Rhett Kenyon were joined by their director of religious education, Gwen Kardell, as well as their pastor, Father Brent Lingle.

"One Bread, One Cup" is a program that trains youth in various liturgical ministries, such as lector, server, Eucharistic minister and music ministry. The purpose is that the youth will be able to return home and perform these ministries in their own parishes. There are three sessions held each summer, with youth attending from across the country.

Father Lingle said he was encouraged by Father Anthony Vinson, OSB, formerly from the Diocese of Sioux City and director of the program, to bring a group to the conference.

"It's a great program - training these kids to be leaders," said Father Lingle, who spent four years of seminary at St. Meinrad. "That's exactly what we need to do."

The youth gathered each day in a large group to receive catechesis on the Eucharist, sacraments and the Mass, he added.

"It provided a good in-depth understanding of what the Mass is, of what the sacrament of the Eucharist is [and] the sacrament of reconciliation," Father Lingle said.

In the afternoon the teens got into smaller groups where they were trained in a specific liturgical ministry.

Upah, 16, learned how to be a Eucharistic minister. Not only did he receive further catechesis on the Eucharist, but was also taught what to do if a host was dropped or Precious Blood was spilled, he said. Upah learned that distributing communion to the people is more than just saying "The Body of Christ" and "The Blood of Christ."

"It's not just the bread and wine," he said. "It's actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ that you're giving to the people, so to actually be able to do that you have to make sure you're dressed appropriately and make sure you're a good example."

McDermott, 16, participated in the "Prayer in the Life of the Body of Christ" track. There she learned different forms of prayer, had the Mass parts broken down and practiced lectio divina.

"We learned how to write our own prayers and all the different types of things to do," she said. "We got more in-depth with the rosary, adoration, reconciliation and things like that."

Now that they're back in Spencer and have gone through the training, the next step is to see how the youth can apply it to parish life at Sacred Heart.

"My hope is that I'll see a lot more involvement from our high school students in that they themselves will be the leaders of it," Father Lingle said. "It won't be adults doing things for them, they'll be doing things for each other."

One of the ideas they came up with while at the conference, Father Lingle said, was to get a group together to go to morning Mass before school once a week and pray the Liturgy of the Hours. He said they had a whole bunch of brainstorming ideas.

"What we are thinking we're going to do is set up a teaching and reflection group," said Upah, who also plans to become a Eucharistic minister for his parish once he is confirmed. "That's when you bring people together and you talk about what's going on in your lives or just different parts from the Bible and what they mean to you."

McDermott likened "One Bread, One Cup" to a retreat and said that meeting other Catholic youth from places like Washington, D.C., Georgia, Ohio and Indiana, helped strengthen her relationship with God. She has also found that the knowledge she gained at the conference has helped her back home in her pew in Spencer.

"I pay attention a lot better at Mass now," she said, "and it helps me to really understand what's going on and know why we do all the things we do, what the symbolism and meaning is behind all of [it]."