“This group of students reminds me a lot of St. Augustine,” Robertson said. “They have this desire within them, but they don’t have someone to point the way.”

They do now.

“I don’t think they know it is a desire to follow Jesus,” he said, so his mission is to give them courage to learn about the Lord.

Robertson provides students with opportunities beyond the classroom to spend time with the Lord. It is one thing to study Christ and another to know him.

“They know plenty of information,” Robertson said, but only static facts about a person they don’t connect with on a deeper level.

The language of God

Through retreats, he helps teens to build a solid spiritual life, one needed to confront the tough realities that may lie ahead. Students spend even more time with Christ in eucharistic adoration and reconciliation.

“Every time we have a retreat, there are over 100 who go to confession,” Robertson said.

In the quiet of eucharistic adoration and the reflection of confession, teens get “two very visceral encounters with Jesus. Adoration sets the tone where they can feel comfortable going to confession. It’s not a scary thing. It’s not an awkward thing.”

That longing, that desire, starts to make sense to students as adoration and confession offer a quiet place away from the chaos of a rapid and uninspiring culture.

“The language of God sounds like silence,” Robertson said. “We haven’t taken the time to learn that language.”

During silent reflections, “students tell me there is something happening between them and God,” Robertson said. “It’s an important skill we need to be teaching them.”

Mom and dad, too

Reflection is a lesson that parents need to re-enforce at home, because “evangelization is bearing witness,” Robertson said.

If sons and daughters ask parents about their experiences with reconciliation and adoration, that is a beautiful moment for mom or dad to be honest about their personal need for confession. It goes a long way to building faith within a family.

Robertson said trust has a lot to do with it. And, he said he has noticed that ninth graders are especially curious about their faith.

“The freshmen have a deeper openness to what God has for them. Freshmen are going into a new stage in life. Freshmen are more receptive to trying new things in their spiritual life,” he said.

So, when their curiosity bubbles over, a parent must be a witness. Tell them about the importance of Jesus in your own life. Expose them to young believers such as Blessed Carlo Acutis, who documented eucharistic miracles and will be canonized this year, or St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who did things the “Little Way” and became a doctor of the Church.

Robertson said that Acutis and St. Thérèse decided at young ages that Jesus “is what my life is all about.”

He is on a mission to help students build “a vibrant faith that they can carry with them through college.”

He wants their hearts to set college campuses ablaze with wonder and awe for the Lord.

Robertson tells his students that “Jesus is calling you to be a disciple now. He has a plan for you.”

Parish youth ministry

Ryan Altenbach also wants to enkindle a fire in the heart of his youth ministry groups. He’s the

director of religious education at St. Mary of the Annunciation Church in Charleston, and he sees kids looking for meaning in their lives. He is also guiding them toward the Lord.

“They are searching for something bigger than themselves. They are looking at the culture and have found it wanting,” Altenbach said. “We are telling them it is Jesus. There is something bigger than this, and it is the person of Jesus Christ.”

In class, they learn that Jesus loves them; the Bible tells them so. But Altenbach, like Robertson, wants to take those lessons beyond the classroom.

“It’s about creating community,” Altenbach said. “We want to create a space where they can have community, have fun, engage in their prayer life, meet them where they are … If they are on their phone, go there.

“We are not just ignoring the culture, we are engaging the culture. That is a huge part of evangelization,” he said, and it goes for moms and dads, too.

If parents don’t know their faith, they can’t share it. They can’t have that conversation with their kids. If there’s no support from the family, “it’s not going to stick,” Altenbach said.

So, he said taking these lessons beyond the classroom would prove fruitful.

“Maybe it happens at somebody’s house — meet in small groups. Maybe that’s a little more effective,” Altenbach said.

Perhaps a conversation about Jesus that takes place at a lunch table might be the “ah-ha” moment someone needs.

To win souls

Altenbach sees youth ministry as a perfect place to evangelize.

“This is not a class. This is a place for you to hang out and be with friends,” Altenbach said. “No expectations. A place where you can go and be yourself.”

He keeps things mellow.

“If you approach evangelization as an argument to be won, or a puzzle to be solved, you have lost,” Altenbach said. “It’s never about us winning souls. All we can do is point to Jesus. Jesus is the one who wins souls.”

And at St. Mary of the Annunciation, Altenbach said that he wants older students to point the way for younger ones, as he empowers “the high schoolers to help the middle schoolers. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years. The best parishes are the ones that are empowering their youth to lead their youth.”

Perhaps those who have gone through that longing can guide their younger peers toward that wonder-and-awe moment they have found in Jesus.