So what is this NET thing anyway?

I remember confusedly asking myself this exact question about 6 years ago when I was invited to apply to NET Canada, but this past week our NET staff took the initiative to answer this popular question for the young adults in the Ottawa area by hosting our first ever "Come and See" evening at St. Maurice parish in Nepean (special shout-out to Miss Hannah Sheridan pictured here for heading up the planning and execution of it all!) It's one thing to tell a faithful young person, "Hey, you'd be great for NET, you should fill out an application!" and a whole other thing to invite them to simply get to know the ministry with no pressure to apply. What we've found after an event like this one is that once you meet this amazing ministry and get to know it's mission, you can't help but fall in love with it and desire to somehow get involved!
That's what we witnessed among the crowd attending our event. It was a great mix of people: there were some NET alumni, some NET staff, someone who was already accepted to NET, another who was in the process of finishing his application, others who were still finishing high school, and still others who were in the midst of university. We presented to everyone the heart of NET Ministries and the simple mission of it, which really comes down to young people sharing with other young people how God has worked in their lives. NET Ministries is challenging young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the Church, and we do this through proclamation of the Gospel, invitation to live it out, and forming and equipping young people with the skills they need to do this.
What really caught my attention when I was considering NET was encountering the change I saw in my own brother, Peter. When I was 16 years old, Peter had just returned home after serving a year with NET Australia, and the transformation in him was undeniable; he was uniquely passionate about his faith, and he understood it! That was something I wanted so badly. That's why when it came time for me to decide where to go after high school, NET was one of my first options. But I really didn't know what NET was about just by looking at my brother.
And so it was for many of the young people who attended our event. It's easy to have heard of NET when you live in Ottawa and many of your friends are NET alumni, but it's just as easy to not really know why NET is so great and why we need young people to participate in it's powerful mission of evangelization.
For me, it wasn't until I got halfway through my first year of university that I realized I wasn't happy with where I was and where I was going. I was studying music and practicing my cello for endless hours every day, truly devoting my entire life to music. But at the end of each day, I'd come back to my dorm room feeling empty. I wanted God to be at the center of my life, but in reality my cello was! So I realized a change needed to happen, and whenever there is potential for drastic change my life, I tend to take the deepest plunge I can. I decided to apply for NET Canada, even though I had no idea what exactly I'd be doing. I just knew that I was called by God to do something great. That meant radically giving up my cello and music degree for a whole year and for the first time ever, I was okay with that. I soon realized that God was more important to me than my cello, and if he asked to do something as radical as taking a year off my music degree my only response could be, "Yes, Lord! I'd do anything for you!"
For so many young people, that kind of decision looks too scary and too intimidating, but I encourage all to adhere to the words of Pope John Paul II when he spoke encouragingly to thousands of young people at World Youth Day in Denver: "Do not be afraid to go in the streets and into public places... this is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel."