Adjust your vision

Mentors in Faith give teens a new outlook at Notre Dame

By Leonard DeLorenzo

Christianity is above all a way of seeing. Everything in Christian life flows from and around the transformation of vision.” When I first read these words, I was so skeptical that I charged through the rest of the book to see if I could prove the author wrong. By the last page I admitted defeat. Christianity does begin with vision.

So perhaps it is fitting for me to work as the director of the Notre Dame Vision programs, which provide high school students with the opportunity to enrich and expand their vision of God, of themselves, and the gifts God has given them. Looking to holy men and women from our tradition, the youth are given examples of responses to the call to holiness.

Sixty University of Notre Dame graduate students, called “Mentors in Faith”, prepare for their work in the summer as a leading team through theology courses, pastoral workshops, and spiritual retreats. Some of the best speakers and musicians from across the country join the mentors to engage participants in a unique experience of faith formation and vocational exploration on the campus of the University.

Participants are invited to envision their relationship with God as disciples of Jesus Christ, called to conversion, and to lead a more genuine sense of self-love and dynamic relationships with others.

The program changes their vision from an individualism incapable of holiness to one of God’s image in which we are all created and calls upon us to live together, discover our own gifts, and use these gifts to change the world. This is the heart of Christianity. For information on Notre Dame’s high school program or programs for campus and youth ministers, visit: vision.nd.edu.

Your turn

Do you look at the world, at your relationships, and your life as a matter exclusively yours? What changes do you think looking at everything with a truly Christian vision would require of you?