Beyond The Beacon
Join Bishop Kevin Sweeney and Communications Director Jai Agnish of the Diocese of Paterson, N.J., as they discuss current events and topics relevant to the local Church in Paterson and the global Catholic Church. Bishop Sweeney answers questions from listeners, interviews guests, and shares reflections and insights helpful for all striving to live a life of faith, hope, and love.
Beyond The Beacon
What it's like to be young and Catholic now
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Three young adults share their experience of being Catholic in today's culture. Bishop Kevin Sweeney and Jai Agnish interview Michael Inguanti, David Martinez, and Matt Pana of the New Jersey chapter of Young Catholic Professionals. The organization offers a way for young workers in their 20s and 30s to go deeper into faith, life, and work. Its members seek authentic friendships, a richer sense of purpose, and personal and professional excellence.
"Above all, we’re here to help inspire modern-day saints," YCP's mission statement states.
Michael is president of YCP NJ; David is Director of Marketing of YCP NJ; and Matt is Director of Evangelization of YCP NJ.
SHOW NOTES:
Learn more about Young Catholic Professionals and how to get involved by visiting the website. Click here for the New Jersey chapter. Follow ycpnorthjersey on Instagram.
Learn how to get involved in this year's Jubilee Year of Hope.
Learn more about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and "Welcome Home to Healing."
Thanks for joining us! Please like and subscribe!
Email questions and topic ideas to Bishop Kevin at beyond@patersondiocese.org.
Produced by Jai Agnish and Bishop Kevin Sweeney for the Diocese of Paterson. Engineered, edited, and theme song by Jai Agnish. Illustrations by Dennis Dalelio. Special thanks to Sister Theresa Lee, F.M.A.
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Every three years, each Diocese in the USA has the graced opportunity to make a scheduled pilgrimage as one Diocesan family with their Bishop to the National Shrine in the nation's capital. 2026 is once again "our year!" Please note the two-day and one-day options: Oct. 16, Friday, and Oct. 17, Saturday. Visit the Diocese of Paterson website here to learn more!
On Coffee with Kupke, we have a cup of coffee and sit down with diocesan archivist, Monsignor Raymond Kupke Ph.D., to delve into the history of Catholicism in the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. Hosted by Father Paul Manning and Msgr. Kupke. Listen to Coffee with Kupke wherever you get your podcasts, or watch it on the St. Paul Inside the Walls YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@stpaulinsidethewalls.
Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey. Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love. I'm Jay Agnish, and with me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop Kevin, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, Jay. How are you? I'm doing just fine. Thanks. What uh what's new?
SPEAKER_01Uh a lot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think uh uh I caught you watching hockey, I heard last night. Yeah, the uh the Four Nations.
SPEAKER_01Um right. Um I was during the commercials of the Nick game. Uh uh.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I see, I see.
SPEAKER_01Um, but it was you know, this is a strange time of year for sports. Yeah. And I think the NHL and NBA had their all-star break at this if the same time. And uh well I know the NBA the yeah. Their season's definitely coming. The the All-Star game was a a mess, I think, this year. And um uh so they it's like a week without basketball, which is um but spring training has begun. The first spring training I think game is today, as a matter of fact, for the Yankees. And uh the Knicks are back, and um um we're getting towards conference tournaments and the uh NCAA tournament, and as uh St. John's fan and alum, it's uh a very optimistic year finally.
SPEAKER_04Oh you but you didn't mention Seton Hall, right?
SPEAKER_01Uh as a member of the Board of Regents, Seton Hall, uh I'm uh rooting for them as well. Okay, as long as they're not playing St. As long as they're not playing St. John's. So uh but uh looking forward to uh speaking with our guests today, the young Catholic professionals, and um uh uh good time of year. So warming up too, please go on.
SPEAKER_05Yes, please. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so we um yeah, we're gonna be talking with some members of the Young Catholic Professionals of New Jersey um today. And uh why don't I uh introduce who we who we have here? So we have uh David Martinez, who is the director of uh marketing for the YCP New Jersey, and then Michael, who is the the president of the YCP New Jersey. Thank you. Thank you both for being being on. Did I did I mess your name up? No. No, okay. You didn't even try with my last name, so what's your last name? Oh, I didn't know.
SPEAKER_03Inguante. Inguanti.
SPEAKER_01What's the background? It's Sicilian. Oh wow, Martinez.
SPEAKER_00Martinez. Que bueno. Uh Puertorriqueño Guatemanteco. Okay, Maritierra. Maritierra. Oh, Mary. Surf and turf, because my dad is from an island and my mom is from Central America. I love Serpenturf.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. Uh well, welcome. Bienvenido.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yes, thank you. All right, well, on that note, do you want to say a prayer continuing the Jubilee year?
SPEAKER_01So we have our Jubilee prayer and uh hard to believe. Um next Wednesday is the 26th, and the following Wednesday is uh March 5th, which is asked Wednesday, so we're uh inside two weeks, we'll be beginning the season of Lent. So hopefully everybody is preparing for what they might do and how we might grow closer to um to the Lord in in in prayer during Lent. So just have that in mind. But it's in this beautiful Jubilee year, and we're praying for the health of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, right? Um recent days uh concerned with his pneumonia. Um hopefully some a little bit good news the last couple of days. So we pray for his health and um we'll uh pray with the church and for the church as we pray the Jubilee prayer. We'll place ourselves in the in the God's presence, name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Together we pray the Jubilee prayer. Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your Son Jesus Christ, our Brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit reawaken us to the blessed hope for the coming of your kingdom. May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the deeds of the gospel. May those deeds transform from within both humanity and the utmost in the joy expectation of a new heaven and a new earth. When with the powers of evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally. May the great of the Jubilee reawaken us, pilgrims of hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven, may attain spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you, our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise forever and ever. Amen. Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Saint Peter Damien, pray for us.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so Michael, why don't you tell us a little bit about the your organization and how you got involved?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Uh the Young Catholic Professionals is a national organization. Uh it was it's headquartered in Dallas, uh, founded in 2010, and uh has many chapters across the United States. Um I believe that ours was the 33rd chapter, if I'm not mistaken. Uh and now I believe that we're we're approaching 40, if not.
SPEAKER_04I said 48 I counted on the website absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Okay, approaching 50. Um we are seeing tremendous growth. And I really think that um it's because of the mission of YCP, which is uh to um I I think it's three parts. Uh it's it's uh Catholic uh fellowship, networking, and mentorship. And uh it really um it's it's mobilized uh young people in the United States uh um uh who are Catholic and want to share their faith and also want to explore the intersection of uh faith life and work life. And so we help them do that through the events that we put on with David and the help of my other uh the leaders on my leadership team. And uh the other part of your question, how did I become uh engaged with with the chapter uh is very much a story of divine providence. That's the only way that I can kind of characterize it. So, you know, the the brief story uh is that I was feeling like I needed more. Uh I needed I needed God in my life. And uh I it was just before Lent. It was actually the day before Ash Wednesdays, yeah, Mardi Gras of of 2023, it would have been. And I felt as though there were a lot of distractions and a lot of noise in my life. And so I I brought it to my prayer and I decided that I was going to join the Exodus 90, uh, which is a group for young men that has several um uh uh charisms, um, you know, fellowship and and uh one one such intense spirituality, right?
SPEAKER_01Intense spirituality.
SPEAKER_03And one such uh exercise that they they they recommend is an hour in front of the blessed sacrament. So I went to uh one of the the churches that have uh perpetual adoration of the blessed sacrament, which was in Ridgewood, New Jersey. So in my journey to to go find Jesus Christ uh uh in the and and and the adoration of the blessed sacrament, uh there was a young adult group there called Inspire. And it was the leaders of that young adult group, several of them, who had been engaged with and had been working ongoing to begin the uh chapter of the young Catholic uh professionals of New Jersey. And so it was it was very much a tap on the shoulder and um asking me, you know, would I like to to well first it was just go would you would you like to go to our happy hour after this? And absolutely, yes I would. And uh and and then it was there at that happy hour that I was able to learn more about what they were doing, more about the organization, and the need for uh volunteer leaders to help steward uh this this chapter and help it thrive.
SPEAKER_01And so it was just that was Mardi Gras of um 2023. Yeah, absolutely around that time. The North Jersey chapter had just begun shortly before that, was that right? Um because the North Jersey.
SPEAKER_00I believe so. We've only been for about two years. It's right. We're going on Yeah, we're in our second year of operation. That's right. That's right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um and David, right? Uh so when did you first hear about young Catholic professionals and how did you s get involved?
SPEAKER_00So I was uh affiliated with this um young adult movement, um, which is called Corazon Puro. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, so with Father Agostinos, I I worked at them a lot. I was actually part of their editing team for their program that they're working on that's hopefully launching this month. Um but I first went to the like the first ever event that they actually had, and we had a table there. That was like the first time I actually ever went to a YCP event.
SPEAKER_01Corazon Puro had a table at a YCP event.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yes, yes, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really beautiful. And then um, but I hadn't like it I didn't feel the call to like to try to be part of the team. I was really in that time trying to still grow my skills, dedicate my time to the program I was working on with Corazon Puro. And then it's not until this last summer where I very simply just like came up to Michael and I was like, hey, like, can I, you know, like do you guys need help with like your graphic design or like your Instagram stuff? He's like, actually, we we just have our marketing person who actually needs to kind of take a step back. We'd love to have you, and that's kind of how it happened.
SPEAKER_01And uh you've been working uh with the group in in marketing and publicity sin in uh since then?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I've been doing the all of the social media stuff, including um like Instagram reels, all that kind of stuff, as well as Matt, who you're gonna meet as well. He also helps out it too and helps me create some stuff.
SPEAKER_01You haven't met Cecile, who works for us in the diocese in social media, have you? Maybe.
SPEAKER_04I'm remembering, yeah. We actually have met at a Corazon Putin. Oh yeah. I was gonna say because you eventually strike me familiar. Yep, yeah. Yes. That's funny.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Blessed begun. Um and then Michael, you became president, is that right?
SPEAKER_03Yes, I became president. I began uh with the chapter as the director of outreach. So I own the relationships between our chapter and uh parishes as well as Catholic-owned businesses. And I felt found that to be very rewarding. And then there was an opportunity to um to step up and and lead the chapter, and so I've I've done that for the past seven or eight months.
SPEAKER_01And how many members in the uh North Jersey chapter do you know?
SPEAKER_03We have uh really great attendance at our meetings. Uh the way that our membership works is that it's going to be a subset of the total um the total that that attend our events. Um so we have we we're seeing growing numbers and it's hovering around uh the I I believe it's around the 200 mark for for members now. And and Matt's giving me the high signs.
SPEAKER_01Um 100 a year, that's pretty good. Right, right. Absolutely. So um I was on the website a little bit earlier, and uh there's um in addition, I think, to the three things that you mentioned, Michael, uh something that stood out to me. Um uh the the consciousness or uh awareness of uh the call to holiness that God is calling us to be saints, right? Uh and it sounds like that's a big part of um uh uh the the the young Catholic professionals uh organization, right? And community, maybe even better word than organization for uh but maybe to say a word about your own um faith development, and each of you can say a word. Uh were you raised Catholic? Were you always active in in your parish in in the faith? Uh this um and how has um uh being part of young Catholic professionals helped you in your own uh faith development? Maybe David, uh were you uh uh uh Catholic family, uh was it always part of your life, or is the um have you come back, or what w how has the call to holiness or faith been a part of your own life and journey, and and how has um young Catholic professionals helped in that journey?
SPEAKER_00Of course. So um I was born in a Catholic family, my my parents are Catholic, uh my my brothers and sisters, so we we went to Mass, you know, we would do all our sacraments and stuff like that. But I think um it's not until I became I turned 16 I actually did a consecration to Jesus through Mary from the Method of St. Louis de Montfort. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's very beautiful. I have I have our lady right here. She's been instrumental for me in my growth, and it's been from that to like me, you know, discerning the religious life to then you know discerning out and then growing and finding my calling in um creative arts and like inspiring love and um and joy and God's love in that um has been part of that.
SPEAKER_01And you care for animals as well, right? Yes, yes, yeah. Uh veterinary hospital?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. So I'm managing right now a veterinary hospital in uh the town right next to mine um during the day. And um yeah, it's very beautiful to see God's creation and in all things and also in pets. That's great.
SPEAKER_03Excellent. And uh I just wanted to take a step back and just uh double down on what you you said, Bishop, which is that regardless of you know whether it's uh uh family life or religious life, um we're all called to be saints. That's right. And so I think that's that's central to to the mission of YCP. Um and in terms of you know my my faith and and development, um I was I was born uh Catholic and and and raised in a in a Catholic family where you know grace before meals and the rosary was uh a a way that you know our our family gathered together and made and and made it was very much uh at the center of of my life growing up and mass every Sunday, and it's and it's part of what sort of led me through the the big decisions in my life in terms of where I wanted to go to school, which was Villanova University, um what I wanted to study, um, and then ultimately, you know, I feel like uh through my my work life, uh you know, the the the jobs that I've had, the you know, good jobs, maybe not so good jobs, right? Learning opportunities. Absolutely, absolutely. Everything, everything was happening for a reason, even though I may have not been able to see the reason in the moment. And you use that word was part of a it was part of a bigger plan.
SPEAKER_01Providence, right? God gives us if we're open and uh and providentially led you to young Catholic professionals and uh uh uh the choice of Villanova. Um did you find uh your faith strengthened there, challenged there uh in the college experience? Strengthened for sure.
SPEAKER_03The community at Villanova. The Augustinians is one of the best. And Augustinians, just to uh absolutely, I mean, s see what you believe and become what you see really just lifted my spirit through those four years. You know, not and it wasn't always easy, uh a lot of difficult classes, but uh the community at Villanova is very strong and I'm very proud to be part of it.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. So if someone's interested in learning more about the organization, or what or what's your next event coming up? Maybe you want to plug it, or or just how like what what's kind of like the regular events that that happen?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. We have several events that we run uh at the the YCP uh chapter of New Jersey. Um there are speaker events, there are uh panel events where we have multiple speakers come, um, and we also have um networking events, um, and that's the one that we have coming up uh on uh February 27th, which is a Thursday. We're going to be at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Morristown, New Jersey. Uh, and that's going to be a night of fellowship and networking uh amongst you know peers who have the same faith as you. And um in March, we are going to be having our Lenten retreat. Um and I'm going to hold off on sharing all the details of that because that is being spearheaded uh by Matt Panna, our director of evangelization.
SPEAKER_01So we'll hear about that in the next segment. Excellent. Excellent. And uh maybe to say a word, someone that might be uh a young adult out there who might be uh thinking about or looking for uh a community or getting involved, what would you say to someone about uh joining young Catholic professionals?
SPEAKER_00David? Oh, of course. Um I'd say in the dryness of the world, if you're seeking joy, genuine joy, genuine friendship, genuine fellowship with others who want to grow genuinely in their lives, socially, especially professionally with YCP, and also in your faith, then this is an excellent community to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01Uh and women and men, obviously, uh is there is it more one or the other? Is it 50-50 or in terms of We actually have a really good split.
SPEAKER_00It's 50-50. In our populations, it's also like age range, like profession, younger professionals, like early 20s to like late 30s. Right, right.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you both. I think we're gonna do a a switch in segment, and Michael's gonna stay with us and uh Matt's gonna come in in David's spot. But David, thank you very much for being with us and for what you're doing. God bless you.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. Thanks, David. Okay, so we welcome Matt Panna, who's the director of evangelization for YCP New Jersey. Welcome, Matt.
SPEAKER_01Cheers. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for being here. Uh so Matouchin, right? Uh Metouchin. Right, right, our neighbors to the south. Uh so uh, how did you first hear about young Catholic professionals, how long you've been involved, uh, and maybe your current role?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I went to one of the earlier YCP events in Dallas. I have family that lives in like the Plano Frisco and northern Dallas suburbs.
SPEAKER_01Did you travel to Texas just for a YCP event? Oh no, so you know I wish, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I should have, the events were so high quality, very top-notch, like just really good cultivated speakers, uh cultivated community, and this Dallas in general has like a very vibrant Catholic community.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes, the University of Dallas. Yeah, UD, especially.
SPEAKER_02All the, I think the majority of the YCP founders were mostly UD grads. Right, that makes sense. So my brother uh moved out there, and I was just kind of trying to like figure out what the young adult situation was in Dallas, and I said, oh, YCP, cool, I'll check this out. And they were, they were just so, it was just so streamlined, so like proper and clean in terms of the production and the speakers that they chose, the community. Uh, that tried to work on bringing something here around the COVID time. And obviously, with that, you know, the things were delayed and things were changed. But I met uh uh Jess and Christine, the From Millie sisters being inspired.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02We did a lot of my company personally, and a lot of those, like we had a magician of happy hours. We tried different things on Zoom. Didn't really work. But I'm glad we're doing things in person at WCP, especially. So praise God. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But go ahead. Uh so you Texas was your introduction, and then from there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then we we linked up with the the inspired Dominal group in northern New Jersey, uh, that Michael was mentioning earlier, and they were spearheading just starting the chapter as I was trying to put some feelers out down to Matucheon, and then we figured, you know, I'm trying to find people in Matuncheon, they're trying to find people in Newark. Let's try to bring all the dioceses in the U.S. Patterson's in the middle. Yeah, the smack in the middle, the Oreo cookie of the diocese is here. Uh so it worked out that we have all three of the major Catholic dioceses in the North Jersey area, and then one of our junior board members was able to get us a connection at the Eparchy of Passaic for the Byzantine Right. Yeah, exactly. So we have uh pretty much the entire northern part of New Jersey covered.
SPEAKER_01And uh I saw you uh you were interviewed by um Catholic Faith Network, right? Yeah, a while back, yes. Maybe a year ago, I think it was Jesus. Just about a year shared the video you shared.
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Uh and uh again, as I spoke with Michael and and uh David, uh the uh you had mentioned there about um the call to holiness and and and the call to be saints, right? That's been part of your own experience in young Catholic professionals?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell, I'd say so, yeah. So when it comes to like being a Catholic in a secular workplace, I've I've worked nine to five jobs most of my life. There isn't much of a faith presence there when you're in these secular positions, in these secular worlds. So to bring a little bit of your faith in, whether it's living a life of dignity and virtue, uh, or even just not even gossiping at the office or something. Little things like that really mean a lot. And one thing that I think the last conference they spoke about was having little pieces of your faith in the workplace. So I have um a little kind of Mary enshrine at my desk now, with a little bit of like Guadalupe and Lourdes and Fanamo, just little bits and bobs here and there of the faith to really kind of show that I am a Catholic in the workplace. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it seems like the growth of young Catholic professionals is a sign that young adults are looking for community, for uh values, for um uh something other than maybe what the world and culture are offering at the moment. Would you say that's the case?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the state of New Jersey is very hungry for a Catholic young adult community, and we mentioned Goldon Zamburo, with uh David and some other groups and organizations, but everything was very spread out or just very separate. And I think YCP does bridge the gap in the past. And you've had all the groups.
SPEAKER_01I believe some connection with um our evangelization center at St. Paul's Inside the Walls in Madison. Yeah, every one of our groups. Brian Hansberger and uh the uh young adult community there. Um that's all right. Uh so um I'll pass it to Michael. Uh uh just to go back to the next event that you were describing um uh in the end of February, I think, in Morristown. Uh in addition to the other things you mentioned, there's a what is it a Mardi Gras? You you had mentioned Mardi Gras was important. It was after in Mardi Gras two years ago, right? So see how the Lord could try two years ago.
SPEAKER_03It it certainly uh is an important holiday to me, I guess in the in the in the larger picture. Uh that said it was uh more or less uh a coincidence that you know we wanted to uh take advantage of, you know, the timing being what it is. Um you know the leadership team is is uh made up of you know volunteers, 100% volunteers, um and uh we we put on uh great events, uh an event every single month, um, as I mentioned before, whether that's a networking event or a speaker event um or some type of panel that's that's speaking to us about the intersection of faith, life, and uh uh and and and uh work life. And I also just wanted to um uh mention that uh I think there's really a pent-up demand for uh gathering in person. Oh, yeah, right. Especially coming out of the pandemic. Um that's another reason why I think that we're seeing the growth and the and the hunger for um uh and and not just gathering um, you know, as as peers, but really uh gathering as brothers and sisters in faith.
SPEAKER_01And and who would you who would you say are some of the um maybe influencers or um maybe better resources um in terms of uh so um I'm a fan of uh Jesuitical, uh, you know, I don't know if you're familiar with that podcast. Uh Catholic young adults basically having conversations about their faith and living the faith. Um uh I know the Halo app is growing in terms of uh resource. Um uh yourselves or or within the the community, um some other speakers or or or online resources or other um uh Catholic um uh um communities that that that maybe are speaking to young adults at this time? Sure.
SPEAKER_03Well one that comes to mind for me is Matt Frad and uh Pine Speaker Oil. Oh yes, right. Um, very popular uh uh podcast, one that I listen to quite frequently. Um and and Matt, any any of the kinds of things.
SPEAKER_02I thought you mentioned Exodus 90, so I've been doing Exodus 90 myself with my men's group, and it's been changing the game. So when you mention Exodus 90, it's like it's it's great that they have the happy hour built into the program where you have to do the happy hour every day. Do we do it every day? Not not every day, depending on your schedule, but it's just great to have that aspect. And that kind of brought Michael into the fold, and that kind of brings me to at least my role as as DOE, as director of evangelization, to really like really find myself in the presence of God to really serve the community.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Wanna just give a shout out for your Refiners Fire. I was checking out your social media, and it's sort sort of a podcast as a you you describe it as a virtual monthly interview series where seasoned Catholic executives share professional spiritual wisdom in 30-minute live sessions, and you've had some pretty interesting guests on there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's hosted by the National Office out in Dallas. So the national um organ team actually leads that monthly series. They've been doing it, I think, probably since COVID or right before COVID, where they've been doing it online. So when I was like like on lockdown, I was working from home for a year or two, I watched those pretty regularly because they were consistent every month. They had really great Catholic leaders, not just in like the church world, which is always very beautiful and great, but they had like CFO, CFOs, CMOs, chief executive officers, nonprofit leaders. It was like a lot of people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was a YouTube series they have.
SPEAKER_03Thanks, Jay, for pointing that out. I think you would have gotten the message from Peter Bloom.
SPEAKER_01We were doing good work.
SPEAKER_05That's the one thing. No, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh what's your experience been, Matt, in terms of um uh evangelization and um the efforts you're making, the response um uh the church is called to evangelize, uh um and and evangelizing maybe with in our within our young adult community is uh particular need. How's how's how's the experience been for you?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell It's been very rewarding in the sense of you get to really see the the whole like beautiful world of the Catholic Church within the City of New Jersey, and there's like beautiful charisms and ministries. You got the traditional, you got the charismatic, you got like young adults in their 20s, young adults in their thirties. So one thing that's really I love about my role personally, and I'm a little I might be a little bit biased, is my role works directly with religious and priests. So I get to really hang out with priests and religious all day and have them involved with the community. So we have two priest chaplains and two sister chaplains that help us out. We have all our bases covered, which is awesome. Right. Uh we have a big retreat coming up on March 29th, our Lenten, our second Lenten retreat, which is gonna be a lot of fun at Corpus Christi out in Chatham Township. That's gonna be like a beautiful experience for that.
SPEAKER_01Father Kevin Corcoran, the pastor, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Father Kevin, yeah, he helped out last time.
SPEAKER_01Uh we had um uh our last episode was on uh we had a Jubilee for um consecrated religious life uh in early February. And we had two um two religious priests, uh Franciscans, a CFR, and uh OFM and um a sister of Christian charity, right? Yeah. Um and I had just come back from retreat and uh we were talking about um the w what a retreat experience can be and how it can impact us and help us on our faith journey. So maybe um Matt, you can tell us a little bit about the plans and and Michael, uh maybe if you had your own experience of um, you know, uh how it's why you would recommend someone to go on a retreat, especially if they've never been on one before.
unknownAbsolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, what's great with the YCP retreats, it's kind of geared toward like the millennial Gen Z demographic. So they're half-day retreats, they're only nine to twelve. Okay. So it's very low commitment for this generation. Uh so it's really quick. You have a breakfast, a talk, and then you have adoration, confession, mass, and you're out of there. So for a lot of those, I would say maybe laps Catholics or busy Catholics, so one thing with YCP that's really great is they really target like the the nuns, the N-O-N E S's, like the ones that aren't really active in their faith, those lap laps um Christmas Easter Catholics. So if you want to invite a friend who's not really into their faith, like come to a YCP St. Joseph retreat. They're only like four hours, nine to twelve, you're out by lunch, you're good to go. That's a good way to like bring people in without the big crazy commitment.
SPEAKER_04Are you seeing uh an impact? Are you uh any uh like anecdotal uh examples of folks that have come and and you've s maybe spoken to after who have maybe renewed their faith or or started going to church again?
SPEAKER_03I was actually just about to speak to that, which is um you know the last retreat that we had, which was an Advent retreat, um many members of uh the chapter came up to me afterward and said this is exactly what I needed. Um in particular they they mentioned that you know so many times Advent comes and it goes and we get uh or they personally felt like swept up in the holidays uh without really um engaging with their faith and and the very personal relationship with Jesus Christ that they have. And the the uh retreat is a good way to um to take a step back and to to realize what is important is that personal relationship with Jesus Christ and and uh the speakers that we have um in particular uh at our last retreat it was Father Glenn Sedano um who spoke to us very passionately about uh about kind of the the mission that we had in front of us. Um it I know that it was for myself and for all the members uh that came to that retreat, it was very meaningful. Yeah. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01Uh and what's the date again for the retreat? March twenty ninth. March twenty nine. So that's gonna be the corpus Christie. It's a Saturday, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And what's really great is a little anecdote for for Mayan too. We had the first Linton retreat almost around this time last year, uh, and it snowed pretty heavily that day, and we're like, oh, we may have to cancel the retreat, people not may not show up. And we had out of 70 people registered, 50 people came through. So it was like nice to see, even though it snowed. It was pretty it was like the snow of uh 2024 last winter, and people still came from everywhere from the Jersey Shore all the way up to uh northern New York. Absolutely. Yeah, very well attended.
SPEAKER_01Um so um they can if somebody's interested in going on the retreat, they can go on the website. Is that it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're gonna push it on social media, I believe, right, David? So we'll put push it on there. And there's uh we have our own registration website we push to every event, so you can register online for that as well.
SPEAKER_03Can you keep me honest here? We don't charge for the retreat.
SPEAKER_02I think we'll I think we are for we'll cut this part out. I think we are. Well, that's a Christine call. She couldn't make it today. That's a Christine. I thought that we had kept it open. I think it might be, but I'm not sure. Oh good. That's a Christine call. But it will be the appreciation.
SPEAKER_01We've got plenty of time between now of March 29th, right? To look it up and to register. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, praise God.
SPEAKER_01Um well um uh the Jubilee year as uh we look forward to it. Uh you know, I think um uh you might be familiar with Carl Carlo Acudis, who's gonna be canonized, I think, on um on um uh Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after, and I forget the date, but the I believe it's at the Jubilee for Young Adults that uh Pier Giorgio Fersati is um uh who uh connect connected with uh I believe with communion of liberation, uh, but a great example uh for young adults and a a lay. Um he was um uh uh very social and but had a great uh devotion to the Eucharist. So um he certainly is a great example for um and uh I saw something on a um uh I think it was Catholic News Agency. Um there's about six or seven young adults on the road uh to canonization. Have you heard of uh Sister Claire Crockett? No, I haven't. We gotta I've been pushing it um all or nothing on YouTube. Um uh an hour and twenty minutes, the story of a young girl growing up in Derry in Ireland. Um she goes on a retreat, has an experience of faith, reverencing the cross, discerns a vocation. She's good has an opportunity to be a movie star. She was um on the Irish version of Nickelodeon as a as a as a young teenager. Um but um she ends up responding to the call, going, discerning, entering the community. She served in Florida for a time, and then she was serving in Ecuador and um was sadly killed in an earthquake in I think 2016 at 33 years old. But joy, like uh you uh so all or nothing, um, and maybe uh you can share it with some of the uh and they they just opened her cause uh the end of January. Um so uh Sister Claire Crockett. Um particular saints that uh uh have been an inspiration to you or um uh that you might recommend to others uh in terms of that call to holiness and St.
SPEAKER_03Joseph the Worker. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because everybody's working, right? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. For me personally, uh it's um uh uh I'm so sorry. St. Maximilian Colby.
SPEAKER_01Are you a fan of the Hallowap?
SPEAKER_03I am a fan of Mr.
SPEAKER_01Have you listened to uh Maximilian Colby Saint in seven days? Oh my goodness. The one in Maximilian Colby, I learned things about him. You um I'm so glad you brought it up because um uh Haloap, Saint in seven days, St. Maximilian Colby. I would listen to the people. Yeah. And Matt?
SPEAKER_02Uh St. Francis of the C C. Oh yeah, yeah. That was my confirmation scene. I remember I was in confirmation, and the nuns were like, pick a saint, they put a bunch of saint cards out there, and I picked one with animals, and I love animals. Oh, yeah, there you go. And it's funny because uh I'm I live in Matucha, which is St. Francis Cathedral. Oh, right. My brother, uh his parish of St. Francis out in Frisco. So St. Francis kind of followed up. That's true, yeah, that's right. So it all comes together. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Maximilian Cobe is also Franciscan, right? Correct. Oh wow, there we go. Well, Franciscan.
SPEAKER_01Um, missionary of Immaculate, uh I think a Marian community named for sure. Yeah, definitely Marion, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, what are we missing? What uh what else before we wind down the episode?
SPEAKER_03No, I think just in closing, uh I would just humbly ask uh all of the listeners to pray for me and pray for my leadership team uh as we as we pray for all of you. And um we we encourage you to uh if you're in the northern New Jersey area um or even a little bit further to to join us for our events coming up and we'd be very happy to see you there. Yeah, looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_02And I would say uh we're really trying to engage a lot of the Eastern Rites. So as mentioned, we we got uh some approval to work with a Byzantine community here in New Jersey. Uh so what we're really trying to like key into the Maronites and Have you been to their cathedral and Passaic?
SPEAKER_01Not yet, but I think beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_02It's for me as someone who's well, I've been Roman write Latin writing all my life. It's just kind of like re realizing there's other parts of your family that exists in the world. So that the beautiful liturgies of the Eastern Rites are like awesome. So it's yeah.
SPEAKER_03Otherwise, we just want to thank you so much for letting us on your own. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you guys for being here. Thank you, David, as well. Uh and uh we'll keep in touch and uh if you have stuff you want to promote for what we can do, we'll be happy to let others know. Uh, and I've looked forward to getting to one of your events when I've been with me, too. So um we got that. So thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Michael, thank you, Matt, and thank you, David. Um All right. So uh Bishop, before we uh end the the episode, um is there anything you want to offer a word of uh encouragement or reflection on anything that we spoke about?
SPEAKER_01Uh well I'm just really encouraged to see uh uh our our young adults um uh living so vibrant in the faith and and hearing how young Catholic professionals has um been growing. Uh you know, I'm a big fan of Bishop Barron, and um Bishop Barron talks about even going back to the Second Vatican Council, part of the call to holiness uh for the call to for the laity um is to bring the gospel into the world, right? Into the workplace, into the culture, into politics, into law, into um so um uh um sometimes it's looked on that the bishops or priests or religious are the ones that are, yes, we're called to do that, but according to our vocation, and for so often for for laity, for single, for married uh couples and parents, um, uh and especially professionals to bring that faith into um in into our culture. So uh it's very encouraging to see see and hear how young Catholic professionals are doing that, and uh we'll be praying for you. And uh we look forward to hearing how how um how evangelization and and and the call to holiness uh continues to grow in the young adult community.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, keep up the great work. Yeah, you're doing some some important things. Um All right, so we got your recommendation already, so I think we're ready to have a all or nothing's just a clear document.
SPEAKER_01I I um I'm about to start. I've I've heard great things about um Pope Francis' autobiography. You know, he just uh at the beginning of January, he it was uh he worked with a uh journalist um uh and the plan originally was it was gonna be um uh come out after his his uh his death, but um because it was a Jubilee of Hope, and the title for his autobi is an autobiography of hope, uh so it's focused on hope. So again, we pray for his health and recovery, and uh I'm looking forward to to um reading his autobiography.
SPEAKER_04All right, awesome. Okay. Well, thank you all, and thank you for joining us. Please subscribe, comment, and leave a positive rating. Get to know us better by following Beyond the Beacon on Facebook or Instagram. Email questions and podcast topic ideas to beyond at pattersondices.org. Discover our other podcasts, Coffee with Kupke and the Paul Street Journal. See you next time. Thank you, everybody.
SPEAKER_01God bless you, and thank you both for good luck.
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