What Matters Most: Empowering Young Catholics for Life's Big Decisions

by Leonard J. DeLorenzo

Overview

What if we taught young people that they can measure success by how they follow Christ rather than by how much money they make or where they go to college?

In What Matters Most, University of Notre Dame theology professor Leonard J. DeLorenzo urges youth ministers, teachers, and parents to help young people redefine success in light of their call to discipleship—completely saying yes to God.

In Luke's account of the Annunciation, Mary offers a true model of discipleship for young people to follow. Her example will empower them to make choices about how to live their lives as a courageous yes to God in everything they choose—just as she did.

DeLorenzo, who served as the long-time director of Notre Dame Vision—a program designed to help young Catholics find their true calling as disciples of Jesus—shows how Mary exhibited four habits that will guide young people to make important life decisions:

• Listen carefully and practice patience.
• Remember who we are and what we value most.
• Respond with compassion to choices we face.
• Embrace sacrifice for the sake of love.

DeLorenzo includes personal stories from his experience as a father and working with youth and young adults with spiritual wisdom to equip teachers, mentors, pastoral ministers, and parents to reexamine the way they encourage and help form young Catholics approaching significant life choices such as college and jobs. He presents ways to remedy spiritual deficits in these young people created by cultural realities such as the fast pace of tech-driven lives and the looming pressure to succeed with worldly accomplishments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594718083
Publisher:	Ave Maria Press
Publication date:	03/02/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Leonard J. DeLorenzo has worked at the McGrath Institute for Church Life since 2003 and teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is an award-winning author who has written or edited eleven books, including Witness and What Matters Most.

Through the McGrath Institute, DeLorenzo is developing the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative, devoted to fostering scholarship on, and devotion to, the saints. He also launched, produces, and hosts Church Life Today––a popular radio show and podcast. In addition to writing books, articles, and essays, he speaks regularly in academic and pastoral settings on the saints, biblical catechesis, vocation and discernment, and the theological imagination, among other topics.

DeLorenzo and his wife, Lisa, live in South Bend, Indiana, with their children.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 From My Daughter to the Blessed Mother 1

2 Pondering and the Meaning of Time 29

3 Memory and the Authority of Hidden Assumptions 61

4 Prophecy and the Cultures of Mercy 103

5 Sacrifice and the Joy of Trust 135

Epilogue: The Ones Who Give Life 163

Notes 169

Selected Bibliography 191

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a must-read for those who work with young Catholics and struggle to help them find the depths of God in their overscheduled lives. Leonard DeLorenzo urges us to seek and embrace silence for ourselves and his thought-compelling stories remind us to dwell in the presence of God every day as we accompany young people along their paths of vocational discernment." —Katherine Angulo, Associate Director of Youth Ministry, Archdiocese of Atlanta

"Thanks to What Matters Most, parents and faith formation ministers have a map for the difficult journey of raising Catholic children in the midst of a confusing world. Leonard DeLorenzo invites us to look to Mary as the perfect role model for choosing to live as disciples. You will be encouraged and experience a spiritual deepening because of his excellent work!" —Michael St. Pierre, Executive Director, Catholic Campus Ministry Association

"I love what Lenny DeLorenzo wrote! Love it. I need to reread this book every single year to remind myself how to minister to young people well and why it's important to do so. His personal witness, masterful insights, crucial and compelling questions, and practical explanations make What Matters Most an essential text for anyone who works with and loves young people today." —Katie Prejean McGrady, Catholic speaker and author of Follow

"What Matters Most is both radically simple and profoundly challenging. It portrays our work in the formation of young people today—tomorrow's saints—as daunting but doable. The ultimate goal is clearly, positively, and often beautifully defined." —Adam Kronk, Head of School, La Lumiere School

"What Matters Most is an engaging theological reflection on the important work of introducing—or reintroducing —young people to a vital spiritual life in Christ. Leonard DeLorenzo takes on the courageous task of challenging the prevailing cultural ethos that encourages youth to value accomplishment, achievement, and scholastic metrics over faithfulness to the Gospel's call to listen, remember, respond, and sacrifice." —Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., President, University of Portland

"Leonard DeLorenzo sheds profound light onto how faith is rooted in ways of being in the world that are often at variance with the grasshopper habits of digital natives. He beautifully demonstrates how a Christian culture, with its way of seeing the world, is necessary to liberate us from the anxious narratives of our time and glimpse God’s way of being, which we are constantly invited to share. I am grateful for this book. It has taught me much." —Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., Author of Take the Plunge

From the Publisher