Ignite Your Torch 2006
June 22nd, 2006 by Father Bill Garrott, OP
The Ignite Your Torch Youth Conference drew crowds of over 200 young Catholics to the campus of Spalding University in Louisville, KY again this year. Deacon James Cuddy, O.P. opened the conference on Thursday, June 15th with an amazing talk that had the crowd crying tears of laughter. Over the course of three days, Student Brothers Hyacinth Cordell, O.P. and Ignatius Schweitzer, O.P. led workshops on the nature of the Church and Salvation. James Cuddy, O.P. also led a workshop on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fr. Steven Dominic Hayes, O.P. led a well attended workshop on aplogetics. In attendance were many other religous: Domincan Sisters, Sisters of Life, Capuchin Franciscans of the Renewal, and others.
Events included a mass gathering of teenagers and religious at the local Planned Parenthood where the young Catholics prayed and bore witness to the inviolability of human life as they beheld the abortion industry in action. Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P. celebrated the Mass of Corpus Christi and led everyone in a special procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Louisville, KY. Special thanks to the Louisville Police for their escort.
Also worthy of note was the music at all the liturgies of the four day conference. The music of the “Missa Simplex” was the norm. Chant and sacred polyphony held pride of place. The sound of hundreds of young Catholics chanting their way through the Mass was like a sound emanating from the heart of the Trinity itself.
The conference was made possible by the herculean efforts of the Thrid Order Dominicans of New Hope, KY.
Special thanks to all our brothers and sisters in the Third Order who made possible “Ignite Your Torch 2006″.
