May 11, 2016 // Uncategorized

Young adults host road rally competition

Todays Catholic

The Fort Wayne Frassati road rally brought out a friendly competitive spirit between young adults from Our Lady of Good Hope Parish. Participants smile before they were given a list of the challenges to map out a strategy before the start of the race. After the allotted two minutes of planning, all the teams ran to their cars and raced to complete the challenges.

By Jacob Laskowski

FORT WAYNE — Young adults at Our Lady of Good Hope Parish in Fort Wayne have been building a new ministry to reach out to their peers in their neighborhood called Fort Wayne Frassati, based on the patronage of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. The Italian almost-saint was passionate about bringing his peers deeper into their faith and brought many souls to the Lord through social activities such as skiing. Through all that he did, whether social activities or service to the poor, Blessed Frassati led others to the Blessed Mother and to the Eucharist. He died at 24.

“This is our goal with Fort Wayne Frassati,” said Jacob Laskowski, a co-director of the group. “We host trivia nights, ski trips, Bible studies, and events like this road rally — solely as an effort to bring more souls deeper to Christ. We do that through providing opportunities for formation and prayer as a part of every event we host.”

The road rally featured more than 20 challenges for the young adult teams of 4-5 people per car to complete within one hour. Faking a proposal at the mall food court was one of the many risky challenges that earned participants points, as well as taking a selfie with a priest, writing on sidewalks with chalk to encourage people to pray the rosary, and taking a photo with a random family at a local restaurant. At the end, the final challenge of the night was spending 30 minutes in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

“A perfect end to the evening,” adds Laskowski. “Everything in our lives should revolve around our personal intimacy with Christ — especially in the Eucharist.”

Teams were composed of 30 area young adults, many of whom hadn’t met each other before.

“We wanted to bridge the gap between acquaintances and new friendships,” said Monica Bodien, the other co-director of Frassati. “We have such a great group of young adults here at Our Lady, and building up deeper relationships with each other is fundamental to helping us build a deeper relationship with God. We can’t thrive in our faith on our own. We were made for community.”

Fort Wayne Frassati hosts young adult trivia nights every second Saturday of the month August-May. Bible studies and other event information is available through the website: www.FortWayneFrassati.org or by emailing [email protected].