When a group of ECYD members realized that there was no strong Catholic identity at their public school in Chantilly, Virginia, they decided to do something about it. They started the Catholic Student Association at Chantilly High School, where students can gather to deepen their understanding of the Catholic faith and grow in the confidence to apply it in their daily lives, while building good, solid friendships along the way.
The club is open to all, from Catholics and non-Catholic Christians to anyone interested in learning more about the Catholic faith. Meeting every other week, the students gather for a variety of activities, such as Bible studies, Catholic trivia, faith-sharing, and formation sessions where they learn about topics like prayer and the sacraments.
In December, Fr. Parthi Raj Soosai from the nearby St. Timothy Catholic Church came to talk to the group about the season of Advent and answer questions about the Catholic faith, and students celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and had a Christmas party before the winter break. Meetings typically open in prayer and then introduce a topic or activity of the day, and always involve a snack!
Most of the students running the club are members of ECYD, the Regnum Christi charism lived by adolescents, who make a pledge of friendship with Christ and with each other so that they can transform the world.
One of those ECYD members, Jhonny Fernandez, is hoping that the CSA at Chantilly High School will continue to grow, and that they will be able to start up more and more charitable initiatives. In fact, the club has already been collaborating with St. Timothy’s and ECYD to run food drives, and in November, some members of the club joined an ECYD street mission in downtown DC.
ECYD member Matias Reyes agrees, and would like to see this collaboration with ECYD grow and ignite the sense of mission in his fellow students:
“My hope for the future of CSA is to bring all the members into ECYD and make them a part of our spiritual family, bringing them to street missions and even Holy Week Missions in DC.”
“It’s great to have a community of Catholic students here, learning more about their faith and growing closer to God,” says Tony Kitherian, an ECYD member who just associated into Regnum Christi at this year’s Feast of Christ the King. His hope, too, is that the club will not only continue to grow in numbers, but also will inspire its members to evangelize their peers, and others, with courage.
And this is one of the principal goals of ECYD: to call young people into true friendship with Christ so that, following his example, they can bear witness to charity, sincere friendship, and generosity.
“ECYD brings the experience of the friendship of Jesus to young souls, so that they can then bring this experience to others through their testimony,”
says Fr. Vito Crincoli, LC, the Boys ECYD director for Washington, DC. “When kids become apostles, they can do great things!”
To find out more about Regnum Christi in the DC locality, visit their website or ECYD and youth page. Read more about what’s happening with ECYD in Washington, DC and be sure to follow the Chantilly High School Catholic Student Association on Instagram to see what they’re up to in the new year!
