American speaker and writer Katie Prejean McGrady expressed that the best part of traveling nearly 25,000 kilometres a year worldwide to preach the Gospel of Christ, are the authentic human encounters she gains, and being able to get young people excited to love Jesus. “It’s the conversations that are exchanged. “A young person comes up to me and says thank you, or when I get to ask them what stuck out to them in the talks, or when we are able to share stories with each other,” she added. The proud mother to two-year-old daughter Rose, and wife to Tommy, sat down with The Record during her time at the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) to give a recap on her talks, and challenged the youth of today to use their faith in Jesus to be world-changers. “I gave a talk called ‘You Gotta Have Faith.’ It was all about our encounter with Jesus Christ that leads to passionate faith. How do we then articulate that and share it with the world?” she explained. “I do a lot of research with Gen Z, and data shows that this particular generation want to be world changers, they truly believe that they can change the world. “My hope is that this talk will encourage and inspire them to be the type of people to go and articulate their encounters with Jesus,” she added. In her second talk ‘Mary, Queen of Heaven’, Katie spoke of Our Lady as the perfect model of faith. “Mother Mary was a teenager, of course she is without sin, which sometimes may seem difficult for us to relate to, but in reality she is a woman that said ‘Yes’. And that one ‘Yes’, changed the world.” Her plenary keynote, leading into Adoration of
KATIE PREJEAN MCGRADY BELIEVES AUSTRALIAN YOUTH ARE WORLDCHANGERS IN FAITH
the Blessed Sacrament on the second night of ACYF, was about opening up to the Holy Spirit and the Father’s love leading us to and encounter
WO R D S Amanda Murthy
with the Holy Spirit.
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THE RECORD MAGAZINE
The Record Magazine ISSUE23.indb 18
30/01/2020 2:57:49 PM
