SONfest ’06
July 28th- 30th, 2006
St. Martin Parish, Ennismore

SONfest ’06 was an amazing and uplifting experience for all those who attended. It seemed as though nothing could weather the spirits of those young people gathered in Ennismore, not even several severe downpours of rain!

Preparation for SONfest began early in 2006, but it wasn’t until the Youth Cross Pilgrimage to Ennismore a week prior to the event that we all began to realize how quickly the weekend was approaching. The CORCs (‘Catholics On the Road for Christ’) - the diocesan Youth Ministry Team - along with many others, decided to take it upon themselves to prepare spiritually for SONfest by walking the Diocesan Youth Cross, weighing close to 90lbs, from the Cathedral of St. Peter-in-Chains in Peterborough to the host parish of SONfest ’06, St. Martin’s in Ennismore, a distance of about 15 km. We left the Cathedral shortly after 5am and arrived exhausted at St. Martin’s just in time for 9am Mass.

As it so happened, a few days prior to our walking pilgrimage Pope Benedict had announced that this very Sunday, July 23rd, would be a day of penance and prayer for peace in the Middle East. With that in mind, we made the trek to our local “Holy Land” with the intentions of a successful SONfest as well as for peace in the Middle East. The best part was that we knew that this was only the beginning of what would be a super awesome SONfest weekend.

We arrived at SONfest on Friday, enthusiastic and ready to go! After being introduced to our MCs Claire Cavanagh, from host parish St. Martin’s, and Anthony Hoffman, from the totally awesome radio station KAOS (99.5FM), we were also introduced to members of the ‘Catholic Council of Trent’, a Tent University organization of Catholic students, who helped to lead us in games throughout the weekend. As exciting as all of this was, the weekend truly began to take off when we met our guest speaker Chris Padgett from Steubenville, Ohio. After only a few minutes of listening to this dynamic speaker, we knew we were in for an entertaining, yet educational weekend. As a convert to the faith in 1999, Chris spoke to us about his conversion, about finding his vocation and about devotion to Mary. Every talk left us with questions to ask ourselves and challenges to grow in our faith. One of my favorite moments was during his open question period. Chris was asked how he knew he had a vocation to the married life and his quick response was, “Ha-ha. Snort! Dude, I saw her!!!!” Of course he went on to tell us how his relationship had developed and how faith had brought him and his wife closer together.

Other highlights of the weekend were the ‘Hello Kelly’ Concert, the Stations of Light, nightly adoration, Mass with Bishop De Angelis, the talent show and, of course, the vocation panel. This year, we were especially blessed to have on our vocation panel members of Famille Marie-Jeunesse, a very young and vibrant religious order from Sherbrooke, Quebec as well as three sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

For me, SONfest ’06 was a renewal of the joy and enthusiasm I had after arriving back home from WYD Cologne last summer. Each day at SONfest blessed me with the opportunity to meet new young Catholics from across our Diocese, to share and to grow in our faith together. By attending Mass each day and praying together each morning, we were able to connect in a way very unique to our faith!

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be a part of SONfest ‘06, both as a participant, a Youth Office volunteer and as a CORC. Through this, I have come to know the dedicated faces behind all the hard work that goes into putting an event like SONfest on. My sincere thanks go to the parishioners of St. Martin’s, to Fr. Broda, their pastor, and to the many VEYO volunteers for organizing such a great weekend. My thanks go to all of the wonderful musicians who graced us with their talents, especially to Sara and ‘Moments Fail’ for working with the CORCs on Praise & Worship music. I’d also like to thank and acknowledge Fr. Norbert for all of his hard work and support throughout the year. We truly are blessed to have you as Director of the Youth Office, and with such a youthful and vibrant heart and excitement about the faith, you can’t help but get us young people excited too.

SONfest set me back on fire for Christ, just as VEYO’s motto ‘spirit-filled and fired-up’ suggests it would, and so with that I leave you with a quote from Pope Benedict XVI, taken from his homily at the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne:

            “I know that you as young people have great aspirations; that you want to pledge yourselves to build a better world. Let others see this, let the world see it, since this is exactly the witness that the world expects from the disciples of Jesus Christ; in this way, and through your love above all, the world will be able to discover the star that we follow as believers.”

Krista Wood, CORC

For SONfest History, Click here