DEVETT O’Brien is passionate about young people’s involvement in the Church and has now responded to a new call by God.
“I felt that God was calling me to go further and give myself up to do something that didn’t benefit me,” the 21-year-old said.
Devett experienced this prompting during the Agora dei Giovani (meeting of the young people) conference in Italy in September.
He was chosen with 15 other Australians to attend and promote World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.
A highlight of the journey was a prayer vigil with Pope Benedict XVI and 300,000 others in Loreto as well as a visit to the tomb of St Peter.
“(While at the tomb) I felt like I was in a position like St Peter of saying I would go anywhere and do anything but when it came to the crunch I didn’t want to admit to following Jesus.
“So I was challenged to do more than this … I decided that I should give up the financial benefits of the job I had as a way of being more humble and trying to learn how to be more open to God.”
Devett, who for the last three years has been the only paid employee of the Young Christian Students (YCS) nationally, will work in a similar capacity for no pay in 2008, following God’s “call”.
“I’ve got no idea if it will work but I’ll give it a go,” he said.
YCS is facilitated by secondary school students and exists for their benefit.
First involved in the movement in 1999, Devett said he has gained much from the experience including leadership skills.
“As a student it really gives you the chance to take ownership and make it the movement that you want it to be.
“Now I have a group of five students who are 15 to 18 years, who are my boss.”
The movement has experienced 500% growth in the last three years which “shows that what we are doing is connecting with the reality of young people”, Devett continued.
He hopes to build on this growth in 2008.
“Our challenge is to then go beyond the initial connection to develop a sense of the relevance of God in their lives.
“Pope Benedict has called for us to ‘build a new generation of apostles’ and this is exactly what YCS does through connecting with secondary school students and forming them as Christian leaders.”
While Devett will work in a voluntary capacity for YCS this year, his role has been divided in two which he said “will allow some more time to develop that formation process that produces young leaders who are prepared to follow Jesus”.
“It will also mean that we can offer the experience of being involved in YCS to more people and more dioceses. It is something that our Church and our world really needs right now,” he said.
Since January 10, Devett has been at the YCS national conference in Sydney where more than 50 secondary students Australia wide will gather to share news and plan for the future.
“We’ll develop a vision and plan for YCS and over the next three years we’ll implement that plan.
“Obviously this conference will have particular importance because the plan will include World Youth Day and the start of the post-World Youth Day period when peoples’ energy and enthusiasm will be high.”
Themed “Empower the students, enrich their lives, enlighten their faith”, the YCS conference will be a chance to “give school students a voice on a national level”.
Last Thursday, to open the conference, Bishop of Darwin, Eugene Hurley, and Bishop of Wollongong, Peter Ingham, celebrated a Mass in Parramatta Cathedral.
Also on the opening day, a student forum was held based on the YCS national campaign theme of “100 percent respect”.
“The campaign is about building respect in all areas of our lives,” Devett said.
The remainder of the conference, until January 16, will be held in Mittagong, south-west of Sydney, after which Devett will return to his Brisbane base to take up God’s invitation.
