Relying on faith during challenging times

Trials and doubts are part of everyone's faith journey, ‘even mine,’ but Christians know they can get through the hard times with help from God, other Christians and those in heaven.”                                                          — Pope Francis

 The theme for this year’s Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Conference (ACYC) is “Walk On.” At the heart of the theme is relying on our faith during challenging times. There is so much happening in the world today that can shake our faith but I believe these challenges can actually strengthen our faith through the people around us and the example of saints during difficult times.
On Christmas Eve 2022, I went to the airport for a flight.  As I approached the airport, I received a notification that my flight was delayed. My flight was delayed two hours before it departed. My flight was able to depart right before a lot of flights were cancelled. As I spent Christmas with friends, I watched the news detail people stranded at airports and luggage pile up at airports.  It is very different to watch something from afar than be in person. I was very fortunate to miss the chaos during Christmas.
Recently I attended the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) annual membership meeting in Colorado Springs. At the meeting, we were blessed to listen to Bishop Joseph Espaillat encourage us to pray with people when they are struggling and not just say we will pray for them. He gave us examples of people praying with him. This can be very intimidating in reality but something I am willing to try moving forward.
After the meeting, I boarded a plane for Dallas where I would connect to a flight heading home. As we approached Dallas, there was bad weather so we were placed in a holding pattern until it was safe to land. As we were circling, our plane ran low on fuel. The decision was made to fly to Abilene, Texas, to refuel.  As soon as I heard the plan, I started checking on my connecting flight. We were told that flights were grounded and not taking off. While we were on the ground in Abilene, I noticed that my flight was boarding. I was pretty sure that I was not going to make my connecting flight.
When we finally arrived in Dallas, my connecting flight was long gone. The line to rebook was extremely long. I joined the line. The lady behind me in line said she would hold my place while I tried to rebook at one of the gates. The gate I went to was boarding but the agent helped me as best that she could by checking on flights and giving me the phone number to call to rebook. I was surprised that when I called someone answered right away. I was able to rebook in a couple of minutes and I shared the phone number with the lady holding a place for me and a family that was on my flight which included two small children. The amazing part of this whole experience was how calm and nice the people I encountered handled the situation. This included the people stranded in Dallas and the airline employees that were handling a lot of frustrated flyers.
As I went through this experience in person, I could hear Bishop Espaillat’s words in my mind about praying with people.  I felt I was helpful and very nice to people, but it really was intimidating to pray with the people I encountered.  I feel like I missed an opportunity. A lot of people are nice and helpful, but are we able to show our faith by praying with people when they are struggling or giving glory to God when things are going well? Moving forward, I want to be intentional about praying with people even when it might be uncomfortable for me.  I want to accept Bishop Espaillat’s challenge to show my faith in God by openly praying with others.
— Tex Phelps is the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. He may be emailed at [email protected]
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