Eucharistic preacher inspires Catholic high school students

Twice in two turbulent moments in his youth, Father Patrick Hyde, OP, found peace and transformation in the Blessed Sacrament.

At 12 years old in Saint Louis, Mo., kicked out of his sixth-grade Catholic school classroom and threatened with expulsion after acting out, his distressed mother promptly drove him to a nearby Carmelite monastery, and dropped him off in the front row of the chapel.

Gazing at the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance, he realized that “I had peace in my heart … I knew I was loved.”

Later in high school, again in trouble after an incident during a retreat, he once more found himself in a chapel in front of Jesus – this time, however, hearing a call to leave the wayward path and follow one to the priesthood.

“This was not something anyone in my life would say,” he stated matter-of-factly.

With Jesus seeing past his transgressions, the young man found consolation unlike any ever known.

“When I was stripped down, vulnerable, hurting, God came to me with his eternal love,” Father Hyde said.

Such were the life stories Father Hyde, pastor and campus ministry director at the St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University, shared with the young Church as he visited Catholic high school students from Gloucester Catholic, Gloucester City; Camden Catholic, Cherry Hill; Paul VI, Haddonfield; Holy Spirit, Absecon, and Wildwood Catholic Academy, Wildwood, on March 22-23.

Father Hyde, a National Eucharistic Revival preacher, is one of two main speakers for the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress set for March 25 at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden. For free tickets, visit camdendiocese.org/ectix.

Emphasizing “the great love of my life,” Father Hyde spoke on the power of Jesus in the Eucharist during two spirit-filled days that also included Adoration and benediction, and music and witness from the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal.

Acknowledging that we all “have an infinite desire in our hearts to be known, to be loved,” Father Hyde said, “So many of the decisions in our lives are governed by [wanting] someone else to cherish them.”

Getting caught up in acts “that win other people’s love” in ways such as “speaking, having money, experiencing pleasure” or crafting engaging social media posts, a problem arises when one realizes it’s only a worldly, temporary love, he continued.

“Our culture is good at convincing us that we are only as good as the number of followers we have on social media. This is a lie,” Father Hyde said. “God chooses us out of a sheer act of love. Your value is not what your produce; it’s who you are.”

He recalled feeling broken and unloved when he was the same age as the high-schoolers in attendance, and encouraged them to “open your heart to love eternal and all-powerful in the Eucharist.

“When you turn to Jesus, when you turn to His mother, when you turn to the saints, they may not give you what you think you need in that moment, but they will not disappoint you. … They will love you, they will support you, they will draw you deeper into the love that fuels their life, and that is love eternal.”

He continued, “We lose nothing and gain everything in relationship with Jesus. It is the Eucharist. That is the highway to heaven.”

Father Hyde’s talk came in-between music, storytelling, laughter and prayer with the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal from Atlantic City

In addition to her own powerful testimony, Sister Philomena Folse, CFR, shared the stories of her fellow sisters’ lives before they, too, answered a calling from the Lord.

Sister Philomena was a college science student; Sister Ann Kateri, an engaged Harvard graduate; Sister Joseph, a high school dropout and atheist; Sister Guadalupe, an engaged immigrant from Mexico, and Sister Fidelis, a dreadlocked saxophone player from Austria.

“What would compel someone to leave their family, their home, their country?” she asked. “Jesus Christ alive in the Eucharist.”

“We did not grow up wearing religious habits,” Sister Philomena reminded students. “We met someone who radically changed our lives. That same person is in this room today,” she said before Adoration.

At Camden Catholic High School, where both Camden Catholic and Gloucester Catholic students gathered in the gym, students said they found comfort and inspiration in the talks by Father Hyde and Sister Philomena.

“Oftentimes, as teenagers, when we mess up, we think it’s the end of the world,” and Father Hyde’s words helped “me realize that it’s not,” Gloucester Catholic senior Genevieve Driscoll said. “Knowing that it’s not, we can turn to God, get better and [give] our lives to him.”

As well, the day taught her to “put a little bit more of God in my life, and not let other things take so much precedence.”

Sister Philomena’s words that “when you don’t feel heard, Jesus hears you, and when you don’t feel seen, Jesus sees you [is] going to stick with me for a long time,” Camden Catholic junior Christian Sawn said.

“Just being in the room with so many others my age, children of God, was impactful on how I see the Eucharist, and how it can provide a different perspective in my life. The day was beneficial,” Sawn said.

Senior Jakob Hansen was among those from Wildwood Catholic Academy who gathered with Holy Spirit High School students in Absecon. He said he could relate to the speakers’ experiences with the Eucharist.

“I felt a connection to their stories,” Hansen said, explaining that he is a Christian, but not Catholic. A couple of months ago, however, Father Cesar Pirateque Serrano, the school’s director of Catholic Identity, brought the Eucharist into the classroom.

“During that time of Adoration, I felt a calling to become Catholic and enter into the love that God provides for you,” he said. “Afterward, I talked to Father Cesar. I told him I felt something in my heart saying that I need to become Catholic – that God is pulling me into the loving embrace of his arms.”

For Holy Spirit senior Sean Finan, Father Hyde’s story “taught me something I had never thought of before” concerning the Eucharist. “He explained that he was not the best kid in school, but when he went to Adoration, his life was changed. The way he saw the world and God completely changed – and that really stuck with me.”