Jason Evert asks, ‘Why are you Catholic?’

By Elizabeth McFarlane
An audience of more than 800 young people heard Jason Evert speak at Blacktown. Photos: Elizabeth McFarlane.

“Why are you Catholic?”

His question lingered, calling on the young people gathered at Patrician Brothers’ College, Blacktown, on 17 May to reflect on their faith.

“There’s ultimately only one reason,” Jason Evert explained. “Because it’s true. Because if it’s not true, then what are we doing? Life is too short to spend it believing in holy fairy tales.

“It should be everything or it should be nothing. But it can’t just be something on the side.”

Over the past 15 years, Jason Evert has travelled to six continents to bring the message of chastity to more than one million people through Chastity Project.

Founded by Jason and his wife, Crystalina, Chastity Project promotes the virtue of chastity so that individuals can see God, and be free to love. (Matt 5:8)

Jason is the best-selling author of more than 10 books, including Theology of the Body for Teens and Saint John Paul the Great.

“My greatest influence is St John Paul II. He loved young people and he loved human love,” Jason explained.

“He spent much of his priesthood and his life with young married couples, engaged couples and dating couples; their problems were his problems.

“People who think celibates can’t know anything about human love need to pick up St John Paul II’s book, Love and Responsibility, where he just shows what human love is supposed to look like. It’s the best book that I think I’ve ever read on love and it’s written by a celibate 50-something year old man! It’s pure genius.”

Detailing the beauty and treasure of the faith, in his talk Jason revealed the power of the sacraments and the remarkable words and deeds of the saints.

Jason and Crystalina lead an international alliance of young people that promotes chastity in more than 40 countries.

“I met Crystalina at a chastity conference for leaders. She came out to visit me one day, many months after the conference, and I asked her to get on stage with me,” Jason said.

“She shared her testimony in front of the high school students and she just knocked them dead. The kids came up to her afterwards, hugging her and crying, and I thought, ‘I think we make a pretty good team.’

“We continued speaking as a dating couple and then I proposed to her during a high school assembly. I figured, ‘She can’t say no to me in front of 800 people!’

Together they continue to speak at high schools, colleges and universities around the world.

“Please pray for our ministry and all the young people that we speak to,” Jason said.

“That’s what makes it fruitful, not giving a motivational talk; it’s the grace that comes from people interceding for ministry that makes it fruitful.”

For more photos from the night, visit: Flickr

For more information about Chastity Project visit www.chastityproject.com

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