More than 40 teenagers and young adults from Our Lady of the Rosary Caloundra Catholic community have celebrated the opening of the 2022 Ignite Catholic Conference in Brisbane with an evening of music, dancing, prayer and encounter at St Lawrence’s School, South Brisbane.

The annual Ignite Conference had drawn together hundreds of high schoolers, young adults, ministry leaders, teachers, priests, and religious from around the country, sending them out with a passion for authentic faith in Jesus.

The conferences, hosted by Ignite Youth each year, are described as “one of Australia’s most powerful Catholic youth conferences.”

This year, Caloundra Catholic Parish Associate Pastors, Fr Francis Fernandes and Fr Valentine Ejikeme Ntamaka, were joined by Youth Minister Felicity Jones and 40 young parishioners — the highest ever number of participants from Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic parish.

Parishioner Dale Rolls said interest from young people in the parish had grown by 85%, with only six participants from the parish attending the very first conference.

Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Priest, Fr Joshua Whitehead, has called all parishioners to “pray for the 40 young parishioners of our parish that the may encounter and develop a closer relationship with God and others.

“Pilgrimages require us to move out of our comfort zones of what is comfortable and familiar, and to come back renewed by our faith and to share the joy and good news of our faith with others!”

“Sometimes we don’t understand just how much God loves us and how God has called us to His own. If we really knew who God was, and encountered his unconditional love for us, we wouldn’t be afraid. Instead we would be ready to share that joy that is to love Christ,” he added.

Over the next two days, the Ignite Youth Ministry Team, will continue to lead the audience in praise and worship, Mass and formation sessions, sharing with hundreds of youth and young adults the joy that is to love Christ from 23 – 25 September 2022.

Let us pray for them!