More than 40 young people from across the diocese enjoyed four days of catechises, prayer and fun at a Catholic summer residential event at Ampleforth.
They joined another 50 young people from Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Scotland at Faith Summertime during the first week of the summer holidays to grow in their Catholic faith and in friendship.
The youngsters listened to five talks, which explained to them concrete evidence for the truths of their Catholic faith. 
The first talk explored proofs for the existence of God, outlining that the universe is a “cosmos” not a “chaos”, and that the laws of science and the complexity of creation confirm that there must be a “lawgiver”, who is God.
The second presentation focused on the high-point of God’s creation, human beings, who are intelligent and a unity of body and soul, made out of love, for love. 
Then, the young people looked at how the disaster of original sin has confused our intellect, scattered our emotions and weakened our will towards committing personal sin.
The next talk was about Jesus Christ, true God who becomes true man as our saviour and our redeemer from sin. Lastly, participants looked at Christ’s establishment of the Church as our “spiritual environment” in which we can hear the Word of God today in its teachings and meet Christ in the sacraments. 
The children showed what they had learned in all the talks by producing, in groups, a “children’s Catechism” book designed to explain the central truths of the faith to eight-year-olds.
Three of the young-adult helpers also gave powerful testimonies on the last morning about their own love of the Mass in their lives. 
Mass, celebrated in Ampleforth Abbey, was at the heart of each day and the young people also joined the monks for compline on two of the nights. There was also an opportunity for the Sacrament of Confession, a period of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and other periods of prayer.
On the first full day, in what is a highlight for many of the young people, there was an afternoon trip to Flamingo Land where they enjoyed rides, games and the zoo. On the second full day, they took part in sports such as cricket, football and traditional school sports day activities. 
Faith Summertime is an event of the Faith Movement which always takes place at the beginning of the school summer holidays. To look out for the date for next year, visit faith.org.uk. 

Father Richard Marsden