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HOMER GLEN, Ill. — Parish activities are always more than just an activity. They are venues where the Holy Spirit acts in ways that are unique to each event, and where personal and communal formation happen.
On the heels of the two-day inaugural regional pilgrimage at St. Mary Parish in Whiting, Indiana, Oct. 6-7, the ByzanTEENS and pre-ByzanTEENS of Annunciation Parish planned a hiking trip Oct. 8, with Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, of Parma at Starved Rock State Park near Oglesby, Illinois, where Bishop Lach’s grandfather was born.
The evening before the hike, Bishop Lach sent greetings and regrets to the youth. Having recently returned from the intense Horizons pilgrimage to Europe and completed the pilgrimage weekend in Whiting, the bishop was feeling too under the weather to make it through a nearly three-mile hike.
He expressed his regrets personally to the young people over a speaker phone and gave them his blessing, and the hike went on as scheduled.
During the hike, the young people learned about teamwork, facing personal challenges and how to experience life and God in the silence and beauty of a cellphone-less natural setting.
The hike also helped to strengthen the young Byzantine Catholic community in the eparchy’s Midwest region, as teens and pre-teens from the Byzantine Catholic outreach in Iowa City joined those from Annunciation Parish.
The event concluded at Annunciation church, where everyone chanted Psalm 103 in praise of God’s creation.
Also in October, the parish youth coordinator and ByzanTEENS of Annunciation Parish planned a surprise visit to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago for their pastor, Father Thomas J. Loya, who had never visited the zoo before.
The teens just told Father Loya to keep his schedule open for a Sunday afternoon, after Divine Liturgy.
The youth did a great job keeping the secret. Father Loya never had a clue except when, on route to the zoo in the parish van, the teens handed Father Loya a box of one of his favorite cookies as a hint — animal crackers.
Caption: Some teens and pre-teens from Annunciation Parish and the Byzantine Catholic outreach in Iowa City pose for a photo while on their nearly three-mile hike in Starved Rock State Park in Illinois Oct. 8. (Photo: Father Thomas J. Loya)
As published in Horizons, Dec. 2, 2018.
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