“Jesus, meet me and set me free.”
Those were the words that concluded Fr. Enan Zelinski’s keynote talk at this year’s Frassati Fest, held during the weekend of February 9 to 11 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
Father Zelinski is a parochial vicar of Pastorate 18, which includes the parishes in Dane, Lodi, Waunakee, and Westport.
Frassati Fest is a yearly event for high school students in the Diocese of Madison and includes Adoration, Confession, keynote talks, Mass with the bishop, and time at the waterpark.
This year’s theme was “Restore,” with a special focus on the restorative power of Reconciliation. The theme was inspired by the Sunday Gospel reading — the healing of a leper in the first chapter of Mark — because, “The beauty of God’s love is that He is calling us to something greater and He longs to restore us to what He originally intended, which is perfect relationship with Him,” said event organizers.
More than 300 high school students were in attendance this year.
‘Give me a drink’
In Father Zelinski’s keynote talk, he reflected on the story of the Woman at the Well, which is in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John.
The story follows Jesus as he travels through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s Well at noon. There, he meets a Samaritan woman and says, “Give me a drink” (Jn 4:7). This interaction sparks the conversion of the Samaritan, and Jesus starts “to peel away her shame, starts to heal her of the things that have told her, ‘You aren’t worthy. You deserve to be cast out,’” said Father Zelinski.
He continued, “She’s ashamed of who she is. People hate her, people cast her out, and Jesus changes her.
“She goes back, she tells the people, and they believe because of her — because Jesus has said to her, ‘I know the most broken parts of you and I love you’.”
At the end of his talk, Father Zelinski invited participants to ponder the message, “Jesus, meet me in my shame and set me free,” reiterating that Jesus wants to restore our relationship with him and give us “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).
Taking your shot
Later that day, participants attended breakout sessions and had an extended period of Adoration and Confession with more than 10 priests from the diocese offering the sacrament.
Collin Konetzke’s breakout talk preceded Confession and focused on two stories — one about missing and the other about hitting, the bullseye.
Konetzke is a parishioner of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison.
The first story he shared was of Graham Greene, an English writer and journalist. Greene, accompanied by his mistress, attended a Mass with St. Padre Pio in Italy after an audience with Pope Pius XII. After the Mass, St. Padre Pio made his way to the confessional. Greene and his mistress, although moved by the Mass, did not amend their lives.
Greene later reflected, “I didn’t want to change my life by meeting a saint.”
Konetzke pointed out that, in this story, Greene was missing out on the transformative power of God’s forgiveness.
The second story Konetzke shared was of Zacchaeus, where, in contrast to Greene, Zacchaeus’ life is transformed by Jesus.
After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus gives half his possessions to the poor and repays those he has extorted four times over.
Then, Konetzke explained what it meant for the participants.
He said, “The thing that Jesus wants to give you is the forgiveness of your sins. . . If you want to take that, potentially, one shot of what Jesus is giving you for reconversion, then run, don’t walk to Confession.”
The event concluded with Sunday morning breakout sessions and Mass with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison.
One student said, “As a senior I loved to see underclassmen experience the same revival that I have every year at Frassati Fest!”
Another added, “I loved how each speaker showed and talked about an experience in their life. It was really easy to connect that way. I also enjoyed Adoration and Confession. Time with God is a really impactful thing. Going to Confession and getting to talk to God was really special.”