Great River TEC needs your help to help form future Catholic leaders

As part of the efforts of Great River Teens Encounter Christ in Forming Future [Catholic] Leaders, Anthony Virgil Holtschlag [a Quincy name if ever there was one] II, made an excellent video in which he artistically describes how the TEC movement helped him grow in faith:

(If you missed the previous two videos in the series, be sure to watch them here].

In the video he rightly highlights the importance of the support of the community in helping young people encounter Christ in a perhaps more personal way through TEC retreats; the tremendous ongoing adult involvement in Great River TEC is one of the reasons it remains so active and influential today.

Great River TEC is sharing these videos as part of its 3rd Annual Fundraising Campaign to support the apostolic works of the movement in the Quincy area, a campaign to which I am more than happy to lend my support.

Before I began my studies here in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, I made a point to celebrate the Holy Mass with the Great River TEC community in thanksgiving for the many blessings and graces he has bestowed upon us through this ecclesial movement. During my homily that night, I said:

We have come here this evening because Great River TEC has helped us to encounter the person of Jesus Christ and has encouraged us to take up his Cross and follow in his way, striving always to enter through his narrow gate, to delve deeply into his open wounds.  As we think back over the years and the many people with whom we have prayed during our TEC weekends in this chapel and throughout this building, how can we not be filled with a joyful wonder?  The words of Sirach come streaming to mind: “Yet even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord” (Sirach 42:17).  How can we adequately express what the Lord has done for us through the TEC movment?  Many have his graces been, “all of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain” (Sirach 42:24).

As I think back over the twelve TEC weekends and the many Quests and Mini-TECs on which I was a candidate, a Wheatie, a resource, a member of the adult team, and the spiritual director, my heart swells with gratitude for the many blessings that have been given to me through this ecclesial movement: the reconciliation and healing, the insights and inspirations, the friendships and the laughter and the tears.  Each of us has received these same or similar blessings and together have come to express our gratitude to the Lord.  Truly, the wonders of the Lord are renewed every morning and we do well to bask in their warmth and to give him what thanks we can (cf. Lamentations 3:23).

For my part, I am grateful to each of you for the part that you have played in my own journey of faith.  TEC, in no small way, helped me to discern the will of the Lord for my life that now unexpectedly leads me to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University.  I never quite knew why the Lord would call me to his service as a priest – nor do I now – but many of you helped me to realize that he was calling me; your prayers and encouragements helped me to accept his call.  For your many kindnesses to me I will be eternally in your debt; from the bottom of my heart, I thank you, and promise to remember you often at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and at the altar of the Lord.

I have kept this promise to remember Great River TEC in my prayers, and also with my finances; I humbly invite you to do the same, to remember Great River TEC with your finances, and especially in your prayers.

Following the overwhelming success of the 1st Annual Fundraising Campaign three years ago, Great River TEC was able to reduce the cost of a TEC retreat weekend from $100 to $50. Wouldn't it be great if, through our ongoing generosity, the cost of a TEC retreat weekend could now be reduced from $50 to $0?!

If you would like to make a donation to Great River TEC, you may send a check made payable to Great River TEC to this address:

Great River TEC Coordinator
1421 North 7th Street
Quincy, Illinois 62301

Or, if you prefer to make a monthly donation, you may complete this form.

Thank you for your support, prayerful, financial, or both!