“This book is a must-read for those who work with young Catholics and struggle to help them find the depths of God in their overscheduled lives.”
What if we formed young people to measure success according to Christ rather than by the standards of wealth, job status, or even college admissibility? In What Matters Most, Leonard J. DeLorenzo urges youth ministers, teachers, and parents to help young people redefine success in light of their call to discipleship – completely saying yes to God.
This book relates directly to the upcoming synod of bishops on "Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment." Dr. DeLorenzo is accepting speaking and interview requests related to this book for all of 2018 and early 2019.
Discussion Guides for What Matters Most
These discussion guides will help your high school community, parish, or parent group dig in to this book together and engage in meaningful conversations about the art of empowering young people for life's big decisions. One guide (left below) is designed for parish, diocesan, or college groups of parents, young adults, or mentors. The other guide (right below) is for high school communities where first the administrators and faculty, and then parents of students to engage in a broad discussion about forming and educating young people in faith for lifelong discipleship. For more information or to customize an offering for your parish, diocese, or school, please contact Leonard J. DeLorenzo directly (contact form at bottom of this page).
Parish, Diocesan, and Parent Groups
Click on image to access PDF of this guide.
High School Admins, Faculty, Parent Groups
Click on image to access PDF of this guide.
Praise for What Matters Most
“I LOVE what Lenny DeLorenzo wrote! Love it. I need to re-read this book every single year to remind myself how to minister to young people well, and why it’s important to do so. DeLorenzo’s personal witness, masterful insights, crucial, compelling questions, and practical explanations makes What Matters Most an essential text for anyone who works with and loves young people today.”
“What Matters Most is an engaging theological reflection on the important work of introducing — or reintroducing — young people to a vital spiritual life in Christ. DeLorenzo takes on the courageous task of challenging the prevailing cultural ethos which encourages youth to value accomplishment, achievement, scholastic metrics over faithfulness to the Gospel’s call to listen, remember, respond, and sacrifice.”
“Lenny DeLorenzo’s book is both radically simple and profoundly challenging. It portrays our work in the formation of young people today—tomorrow’s saints—as daunting but doable. The ultimate goal is clearly, positively, and often beautifully defined.”
“Leonard DeLorenzo sheds profound light onto how faith is rooted in ways of being in the world which are often at variance with the grasshopper habits of digital natives. He beautifully demonstrates how a Christian culture, with its a way of seeing the world, is necessary to liberate us from the anxious narratives of our time and glimpse God’s way of being, which we are constantly invited to share. I am grateful for this book. It has taught me much.”
“Raising kids just got a little easier. Thanks to What Matters Most: Empowering Young Catholics for Life’s Big Decisions, parents and faith formation ministers have a map for the difficult journey of raising Catholic children in the midst of a confusing world. Leonard DeLorenzo invites us to look to Mary as the perfect role model for choosing to live as disciples. You will be encouraged and experience a spiritual deepening because of his excellent work!”
“This book is a must-read for those who work with young Catholics and struggle to help them find the depths of God in their overscheduled lives. DeLorenzo urges us to seek and embrace silence for ourselves and his thought compelling stories remind us to dwell in the presence of God every day as we accompany young people along their paths of vocational discernment.”