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The Southern Cross, Page 4 Thursday, June 15, 2000 Summer and the college family celebrating the transitions the summer find that their child has grown up. By Jane Hall or parents of college-bound young adults summer can be a frantic time. Finding hous ing, deciding on meal plans, and setting a budget are stressful. Trying to figure out how to get all the student will need to the school can be a nightmare. After the joy and excitement of acceptance letters and high school graduation, summer can become a time filled with logistical concerns, such as student loan paperwork. The reality of the budget busting extras can fill a house with tension. For first-year students it is a summer spent say ing goodbye and getting ready for the freedom and responsibilities ahead. It can be exciting, sad, fearful and joyful all at the same time. For stu dents who are moving into dorms or apartments it is a chance to be truly responsible for them selves. They will have to learn to deal with day to day issues like balancing a checkbook, doing laundry and balancing friends and study. Getting to class on time and finding their way around a campus can be challenging at first. They will meet students, staff and faculty with different religions, different values, and different beliefs about what constitutes a good time. An astute first year student compared it to being in a wash ing machine on the spin cycle. So much changes so quickly that it is hard to decide what to do next. It can be difficult to juggle all the new experiences and still be faithful to their values. Parents of college students returning home for They begin the delicate dance of providing free dom for the young adult who is used to setting their own rules and keeping the family running smoothly. It is hard when you haven’t been a part of the day to day life of the student to meld them back into the family for the summer. Young adults returning from college often feel their parents try to treat them like high school students. They have to work at communicating their responsibility and independence while being an active, productive part of the family. It is hard for them to give up some of their free dom to fit within the family structure. It can be a time of pain and frustration as the family works to develop this new relationship. However, the discussions and compromises of this time can lead to a deeper and richer view of family and can strengthen the bonds between family mem bers. The process of redefining roles can help both parents and young adults to gain a deeper respect for each other. This is a critical time in the life of the family and the student. One of the important areas of growth at this time is the young adults personal appropriation of the faith. Most college students move from the Catholicism of their family, which was enforced by family rules, to a Catholicism based on a personal relationship with God and church. This new faith life responds to their situation and needs rather than to family concerns. This can be a tough process in which young adults question the very struc tures and ideals that brought them to this point in life. It can be a cause of panic and pain as families suddenly face the questions that their student has grappled with throughout the year. Parents, family members, clergy, campus minis ters or friends who listen to the student and hon estly share their own faith and struggles, can become important resources for the formation of this new faith perspective. The simple act of openly discussing issues and doubts can provide the assistance young adults need to continue to mature in faith. We must try be available to sup port their searching and to help them discover the great wealth of answers contained in scrip ture and the tradition of our faith. Young adults may be surprised to find that the questions they face have been answered by others including some of the greatest thinkers and saints. These four or more years of college are a time when young adults examine and test their values and religious beliefs. Friends and professors ask hard questions or laugh openly at faith, religion, Catholicism or morality. In the midst of this the Church reaches out to be a place of prayer, education and personal develop ment. Our diocese and the church as a whole have committed resources and personnel to be a pres ence to these students. Currently Macon, Savan nah, Statesboro, and Valdosta have active campus ministries to support young adults in this critical (Continued on page 11) Saint who? Saint Anthony, of course By Ticki Lloyd aint who? Saint Anthony, of course. The saint who had bet ter find me a brain so I won’t have to keep imploring him to find my eyeglasses, keys and other every day articles. I’ve always been impressed by the rapidity in which Saint Anthony recovers lost articles, and more importantly, lost souls. Recently, he found two diamond rings a friend of mine thought she lost forever. After looking all over her house, she had given up hope. We decided to pray to Saint Anthony, and in three hours after searching, the rings were found in the same spot she had checked sev eral times. I remember my friend saying, with tears in her eyes, “I just can’t believe it.” I replied, “Believe it. Saint Anthony per forms miracles all the time.” The most interesting “finding” of Saint Anthony’s was the day a lady in a nursing home I visit misplaced her dentures. We invoked Saint Anthony’s help. In less than ten minutes, we found the dentures un der her bed just in time for lunch. Finding articles and mending bro ken marriages and broken people are not the only measures Saint Anthony uses to appease us. He also helps us find our way to holi ness and heaven. We have a beautiful statue of Saint Anthony of Padua (1195- 1211) in our church, which was recovered from the “old” Saint Francis Xavier Church. Almost every morning after Mass, I stop to speak to him. He smiles at me. He talks to me. Well, I don’t actually hear his voice. I feel it in my heart. I believe all Christians believe in the power of intercessory prayer for one another. But Catholics also send their prayers to the saints in heaven. If our family and our friends on earth can pray for us, how much more can the saints in God’s pres ence pray for us? The child Jesus in the arms of Saint Anthony is not just a symbol of his intimacy with Christ. It tells us a story of this saint at prayer in a mystical experience. Saint Anthony holding the Christ Child is probably what most of us know about him. When we look at Jesus in the arms of Saint Anthony, we might be prone to believe we are included in the personal experience Saint An thony had with Jesus. We might even wonder if this intimacy can be ours. It really can. Saint Anthony was a voracious reader. His hunger for truth was fed by words. His enthusiasm for the al phabet was affirmed by Saint Francis of Assisi, his mentor in all things. Everywhere, even in the con stellations, Saint Anthony found messages corresponding to the Word of God. Five words are the sum and substance of his message and his prayer life: prayer, praise, counsel, encouragement and confession. If Saint Anthony were alive today, he would balance his prayer life with his reading Preaching on the Gospel story of the Good Shepherd, Saint Anthony wrote, “Preaching should be straightforward, so that the preach er does not belie by his actions the truths that his words assert; for the speaker’s authority is lost when what he says is not supported by what he does.” Saint Anthony testified that con sistency of thought, word and deed is a mark of the Christian. The good deed demonstrates that God’s grace is active in our lives. What we hold in our heart shows in our hand. Some think that if Saint Anthony were living today, he would sound the themes of the most recent Council, the one called by Pope John XXIII. Both Saint Anthony and Pope John XXIII, were inspired to love the church as an instrument of salvation always in need of renewal. Saint Anthony died on the Tues day after Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. It is almost as though he lived and died according to the liturgical year in 1231. Between Ascension and Pentecost, Saint Anthony retired to Camposampiero where he spent hours in a tree house praying. Although he deserves the title, “Doctor of the Church,” he would feel just as hon ored to be known as a preacher and a teacher. The preservation of his tongue, now honored as a holy relic in Padua, makes a marked link to his gift of words. As we celebrate the anniiversary of his death, let us be reminded to love the Word of God in keeping with the Gospel. And let us ask ourselves if we are drawing closer to Jesus and the saint who held Jesus in his arms. Ticki Lloyd is a member of Saint Francis Xavier Parish, Brunswick