NCYC 2025
Youths at NCYC see joy in a broad array of religious attending the conference
Alana Brooks-Murphy, an aspirant in the Salesian Sisters, sits atop a dunk tank on Nov. 20 in her religious community’s booth in the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis during the National Catholic Youth Conference held from Nov. 20-22. Some 16,000 Catholic teenagers from across the country came to Indianapolis for the conference. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
When Alana Brooks-Murphy became an aspirant for the Salesian Sisters in August, she was ready to go on whatever adventure God put before her.
She just didn’t expect that one of those adventures would be to sit atop a dunk tank, ready to be sent in an instant into a tank of plastic balls by a good throw from a Catholic teenager.
But that’s what she did on Nov. 20 at the booth of her religious community in an exhibit hall of the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis on the opening day of the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).
“Even when it’s difficult, it’s for the best,” said Brooks-Murphy with a smile as she reflected on following God’s lead in religious life. “Because I know that, no matter where he takes me, it is exactly the best place for me to be.”
When she was a child and then a teenager, Brooks-Murphy, 24, didn’t have any experience of people in religious life. She also knows that many of the 16,000 teenagers who came to NCYC are in the same boat.
“Being able to be that witness to them is just a beautiful thing, no matter what they’re discerning, no matter what they’re called to,” she said. “I’m just being here as another person who can say that this is a good life.”
Brooke Vollertsen, a teenager from Helena, Mont., at NCYC was glad to see representatives from so many religious communities at the conference.
“We literally don’t see them at all on a daily basis,” she said. “So, it’s interesting just to meet them and see their personalities. They’re truly so beautiful, and it’s not an outward appearance. You can tell spiritually that they’re blessed by God in such a special way.”
Daniel Dachs came to NCYC with Brooke and other youths from the Helena Diocese. He said meeting so many religious “breaks stereotypes that religious life isn’t fun.”
“But they get to do things like this and reach out to different people,” Daniel said. “It makes having a vocation less intimidating. You know that they’re happy doing that.”
Bridget Lehner, a member of St. Jude Parish and a sophomore at Roncalli High School, both in Indianapolis, was impressed and encouraged by the witness of religious at NCYC.
“It’s really special to see how many people are living out the life that God wants for them,” she said. “It’s encouraging to see that whatever plan God has for me that I can live it out just like them.”
Benedictine Brother James Jensen, a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, spoke with The Criterion at NCYC about the effect that attending youth conferences when he was younger had on him.
“I saw other youths my age that were active in their faith,” he said. “That gave me a bigger perspective on the Church.”
That broader view of the life of faith eventually led him to be open to and to discern his call as a Benedictine monk.
Brother James has worked with many youths and young adults in One Bread One Cup, a youth liturgical leadership conference held three times each summer by Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. From this, and from his own experience, he knows that an important part of discernment is putting oneself in silence before God.
So, he’s glad that NCYC has places for teens to enter into that silence, like its eucharistic adoration chapel and a relic chapel, which is new this year at the conference. And this year, just as in years past at NCYC, the cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium was enveloped in silence as the 16,000 youths at the conference all entered into eucharistic adoration.
“That tells us of the depth of their heart and that they’re open to silence,” Brother James said. “They just may not have experienced it before. So, something like NCYC gives them the ability to experience it. Then they take it back to their parish where they might have a regular holy hour.
“At the least, they might appreciate more, if nothing else, the silence in the liturgy that is already at the heart of the Church.”
Sophie Clark, a teenager from Helena, Mont., who was at her second NCYC, appreciates the way that she and so many of her peers enter into silent prayer during the conference, listening to God speaking in their hearts.
“It shows how great our faith is if we’re all willing to be that reverent,” she said, “and respect the Lord that much that we’re all willing to be quiet and be still for so long.” †
See more stories from the National Catholic Youth Conference here
