‘I have to remember to speak up’

Burk Schreiner

Age: 18

Parish: Queen of the Holy Rosary, Wea

Occupation: Student at Benedictine College

What’s in your toolkit? A relationship with Christ that makes me who I am

What is your Catholic superpower? The rosary is a great gift! The sacraments are amazing, too.

Before the convocation

Burk Schreiner’s faith life would look much different had he not attended the Transform Your World Evangelization Training Camp at Benedictine College, Atchison, two summers ago.

“So much crazy stuff happened,” he said. “In the middle of the week, I gave my life to Christ. I was super excited and went all in.”

Since then, he’s sought to share Christ’s love with others. 

Father Gary Pennings, pastor of Queen of the Holy Rosary in Wea, detected Schreiner’s enthusiasm for the faith and asked him to be a delegate at “Enflame Our Hearts.”

Schreiner described the request as “humbling.”

“It’s such a huge honor to be invited to talk about such important issues with such experienced, smart and holy people,” he said.

“I have to remember to speak up and share the wisdom that I do have because they invited me for a reason,” he added. “I’m young, but I still have a lot to give and a lot to learn.”

Schreiner’s delegation is already looking ahead and hopes to create small groups that will reach out to people in various parts of Bucyrus.

This would “make sure they had a community and someone to talk to if they ever needed anything, and form a better community within our parish boundaries,” said Schreiner.

Schreiner hopes that through the convocation he will acquire even more ideas on how to reach out to those on the Benedictine campus and within his own parish community. 

“I want to take away more zeal and more urgency to talk with people and become more like Jesus,” he said, “so people recognize how awesome Jesus is and [will] go to him.”

After the convocation 

What was your most inspiring or impactful experience at the convocation?

My encounter with Father Agustino Torres, a Franciscan friar from the Bronx. I was one of the first in line to meet him after his speech. When he prayed over me, the Holy Spirit poured out of him. He asked the Lord to dispel my doubts, something I was really struggling with. He prayed for exactly what I needed but he never asked what I needed; he just knew.