The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-11-08

zled teenagers seeking answers
for their problems.
Of course you wonder, as you
try to figure out just what some
of these people are like, If a Lot
of them are just writing to "see
themselves talk"
But you figure that a lot of
them are real and it makes you
think - you're lucky. You have
problems too, everybody your
age does. You know that Adde'S
cence brings with it a period of
turmoil, of change.
You know that it is the late
winter and spring season of the
garden, when the ground is cold
but has to give sway to the
sprauts and buds that will be the
beautiful full blooms of the sum-
mer.
You know that it is a rocky
time when everything seems to be
all mixed up, when values of
things are based on not what you
know about them but how you
feel about them. You know that
it seems as though the whole
world is against you and that you
will just have to go it alone.
But then you look around and
you see other things too and in
them you see the answers to these
problems. You see them answered
in the same way the problem of
feeding you has been taken care
of for a long time.
You see them answered in the
same way the problem of getting
you up on time for school, of
mending and keeping your clothes
clean, of nursing you back to
health when fever and sickness
mad overtaken you, Of doing the
million and one things that have
been done for you that you have
just taken for granted.
But you see also that now the
problems are a little different and
aren't solved as easily as before.
Indeed the soft hand Is there to
soothe the sore brow and the kind
word is at hand to slow the raging
heart but now it takes a little
more of you for you are growing
up.
You are becoming a responsible
person and much of the decision
in these problems rests with you.
You have to accept that soft hand,
the kind word, the better judg-
ment of some one older. You have
to take into account all of those
past years of wise guidance. of
prudent judgment, of loving care
and fitsit into the pattern of your
newly acquired desire to do it all
yourself.
So what you have to do is to
get with it," to knock it off,
to be normal. You have to develop
perspective, to see yourself in the
whole pattern of things, to re.
mind yourself that you're still
part of a baby and very much
Of a man.
You have to open your big
round eyes and look at life in
terms of other people. You have
to look in retrospect at all of the
years before you, at all of the sac.
rifices and love put forth for you.
Then perhaps you'll realize that
your problems are only a tiny
part of the great thing called life,
that they become smaller yet and
even disappear when they are
placed against the backdrop OF
the great human problem.
You will then maybe realize
how thankful you should be for
what you are, for what you have,
for what you can be, for the gift
of good parents who are a treas.
ure of great price, for a devout
and holy home which is a true
harbor of strength, for the pre-.
cious gift of Faith which is Gods
own giving of Himself.
Perhaps then you will begin to
think a little more about what
you want so easily to overlook.
Perhaps you'll think more about
prayer, about what it means to
pray. Perhaps you will "knock il
off" and let your faith grow ur
with you. You should because
you're lucky.