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DCYC Reflection by Luke Ayers, 11th grade student in our program:
This was my first year going to DCYC, and it falls right in the middle of my RCIA experience. Combine the 2, and it puts me in a great state of mind to grow even closer to God than I already am (which I did). Aside from it just being super fun, and aside from the fact that it was great to make some new friends and deepen existing friendships, going to DCYC this year was possibly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
One of my favorite things about the Church is the huge variety of ways we can worship. We have, of course, the Mass, but we also have music, as well as Adoration and probably countless others I’m missing. DCYC had all of this, which all hit me in a different way. Seeing a room of 2500 teenagers sit in silence, save a few sniffles or sneezes, for an hour, in reverence of Jesus present in the Eucharist during Adoration was awe-inspiring. Adoration itself moved me to tears. And that wasn’t the only time I cried that weekend.
The speakers were also all fantastic. What sticks out though, is something that one of the keynote speakers, Pat Millea, said. He quoted C. S. Lewis, who said, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been; how gloriously different are the Saints.” Now, being a bit (read: a lot) of a Lewis fanboy myself, this was amazing! But, what Pat said after that was just as touching. He said that the Devil doesn’t care enough about us to make us sin in new and creative ways. He tempts us the same way each and every day of our lives, and all too often we fall. And we fall in the same ways, time and time again. But God cares about us enough that He not only redeems us out of that monotonous sin, but He builds us up to something new, and different, because He loves us.
It really is like St. Catherine of Siena said, “If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.” How gloriously different are the Saints, who answered “yes” to God, became what they should be, and did indeed set the world ablaze.
When I was browsing the pictures with “#DCYC” attached to them on Instagram after the conference, I saw someone say that the Holy Spirit hit like a wrecking ball that weekend. Despite the fact that that sentence is uncomfortably close to a Miley Cyrus reference, I have to agree.