Venus and Mars see themselves through God's loving eyes

Archdiocese youth rally invites boys and girls to take off culture's blinkers

- WCR photo by Glen Argan Catholic youth get in the groove at archdiocese's youth rally.

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor
Edmonton

Venus and Mars. The goddess of love and fertility and the god of war.

So it was at the annual archdiocesan Catholic Youth Rally when the senior high school boys went one way and the girls another.

Over in the boys room, facilitator Jason Byer started off his session with a trailer from the movie The Dark Knight. The trailer had it all — explosions, fast motorcycles, fires, guns, car crashes, and more explosions and fires.

“We love superhero movies. We love movies about these guys who do incredible things,” Byer told the 45 boys in the room.

Grace Parillas led the girls session by training the girls to respond with a loud but mellow “Ahhh! whenever she said, “Our first calling is to love.”

Then she tries to persuade them that beauty is more than skin deep.

Projecting a cover of Cosmo magazine on a screen with the headline, “50 ways to get sexy hair,” Parillas noted that sometimes she has frizzy hair.

“Bad hair day or not, we are simply beautiful and God loves us.”

Parillas asked the 140 girls in attendance how many spend 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes getting themselves ready for school in the morning. For each interval, hands shot up.

She urged the girls not to dress immodestly. “I’ll tell you right now — the boys’ eyes are not closed. Be careful. Embrace the beauty but realize the world has eyes.”

Altogether about 350 junior and senior high school students from across the archdiocese attended the Oct. 18 rally at Archbishop O’Leary High School.

One was Claire Jones, a Grade 9 student in Hinton.

“It’s a lot of fun and a great way to meet youth who believe the same as you do,” Claire said in an interview.

She gave high praise to keynote speaker Doug Tooke of Helena, Mont. “He gets his message across in a non-boring way.”

Slay Goliath

In one presentation, Tooke gave a frenetic portrayal of the story of David and Goliath. He noted that David in the story was the same age as junior high students. “There’s people in this room who are scared to face their Goliaths.”

Some are lonely; others have 100 friends, but don’t know who they really are; others are glued to the computer.

Conquering those Goliaths is not a one-time thing, Tooke said. “Every single day, Goliaths come into your life. Every day you have to muster up the courage to face them. If you asked God to help you, did you say, ‘Please reveal to me my sling so that I can conquer (Goliath)’?”

Back in the boys room, Byer talked about “the superheros” Jesus chose to save the world. Many would pick “the strongest people, the coolest people.”

“But who did Jesus pick? Were they ordinary? No, they were sub-ordinary.”

“Jesus does not choose by our standards,” he continued. “God has a mission in life that only you are able to do. God has chosen you.”

Yet, “We don’t believe we have what it takes.” We make up all sorts of excuses – “I’m only one guy”; “No one would listen to me”; “I’m not a natural leader”; “I’m too sinful; I cannot control my own passions.”

“We feel like we are such wrecks. ‘How could God possibly use me?’” Byer said. “God has chosen thousands of people to do things and most of them have been screwups.”

He challenged the boys to consider the priesthood as a way of doing God’s work. “God is calling some of you boys to be priests. But no matter what God is calling you, he is calling you to lay down your life for God.”

Over with the girls, Parillas compiled a list of what makes a woman beautiful, a list she made up by consulting “real life guys.”

A beautiful woman, she says, is one who smiles, is confident, has faith, has a positive attitude, values her self-worth.

“What you get here is more important than what you get from the Clear and Clean ad or from other ads,” she says.

“As a woman in our world today, it’s easy to forget who you are. We are created for a higher purpose.”

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