Being the president of the Jornada de Vida Cristiana youth movement in the Diocese of Brooklyn has been a huge part of my life.

I lived the Jornada — a three-day retreat for young people that brings someone closer to Christ through a series of talks, activities, and acts of love — at a time when I was serving God. Or, at least, I thought I served him.

I was a Eucharistic minister and a lector, I was a catechist and a director of religious education, I was a server. However, through Jornada, I realized I wasn’t actually serving — I was just working for — the Church.

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When I participated in Jornada, I truly met Christ. All of my burdens were laid at his feet, and every single thing I thought I knew about our Savior was pushed aside, for he truly found me and opened my heart to what he had in store for me.

Over the past 20 years, I have had the privilege and honor to serve Jesus Christ not just at Blessed Sacrament-St. Sylvester Parish in Cypress Hills, but also in the Jornada movement.

This movement has helped shape the man that I am today.

We have faced many challenging times during my years as a Jornadista, but none were worse than the COVID-19 pandemic, which nearly brought the Jornada movement to an end.

I was asked to lead the committee created to rebuild the movement after the pandemic. I went in with one goal in mind: to ensure the movement remained open so that my daughters could find Jesus in the same way I did.

It was an almost impossible task, and many tears were shed in the committee as we tried activity after activity to restart the movement.

The bond we created led to the prayerful and Christ-centered community we have. The prayers and help we asked from our Savior, the Blessed Mother, and the Holy Spirit made the impact of the very first Jornada after the pandemic, JX4, a spark that has lit the fire of our beautiful movement.

The community we have helped mold and grow is one of the most active and faith-filled communities I have seen. Most of the youth in our group serve God and his Church as altar servers, lectors, sacristans, catechists, delegates (leaders of the different parish youth groups), and auxiliaries (leaders of the Jornada retreats).

We put Christ first in our lives, and this has led me to return to the post that I once held. I am once again the religious education director at Blessed Sacrament, and I am now approaching this role with a youth-centered mindset, striving to engage our kids in knowing, loving, and serving our Lord.

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Leading this movement has helped me to see the true importance of young people’s role in the Church. The youth are not the future.

They are the past, present, and future of the Church. If we can get them to truly believe Christ is their center, then who knows the potential they will bring to our Church.

One of my daughters, Eva, experienced Jornada last year. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I have had in my life, but I realize now that my goal was limited. It wasn’t just my daughters who I wished would get to live Jornada, but your daughters and theirs as well. God is here, and he can count on us.