Following Jesus' example of seeking strength and renewal in the Wilderness (as evidenced in Luke 5: 16: "Jesus withdrew to the wilderness and prayed"), the Pastoral Juvenil's formation leadership team recently took a meditative hike into the San Gabriel Mountains Wilderness Area in the Angeles National Forest to experience one of their ministry's most popular programs, "Faith and Ecology."

Additionally, the ministry sought to continue building the bonds of unity within their leadership team --- a result that is characteristic of the program's hikes.

The Faith and Ecology program, created by the Office of Religious Education's Pastoral Juveníl in 2006, teaches Hispanic youth about their role as stewards of God's creation. It has been offering creation care workshops, meditative walks and hikes, and service projects to youth groups across the archdiocese.

According to Juana Torres, a program coordinator, Faith and Ecology has been successful not just in mobilizing Catholic Latino youths to care about local environmental issues, like the health of the San Gabriel Mountains, but has created a new venue for young people to experience God.

"Romans 1:20 states, 'God's invisible qualities and divine nature are revealed in what God has created,' and it is through the direct experience of creation in the local mountains that many young people are coming to discover God," said Torres, regional conservation organizer for the Sierra Club's Southern California Forests Campaign.

In addition to acquiring greater responsibility as caretakers of the local mountains and a new way to experience God, participants benefit by experiencing the meditative hikes --- the most popular of the program's components --- as a means to build unity and camaraderie amongst groups:

"I've known some of the people on the formation team for a while now, but it wasn't until I hiked and spent time with them outdoors that I got to see a new side of them you never get to experience when we're in a meeting indoors," said Alfonso Campos, a Pastoral Juvenil formation team leader from Rancho Cucamonga. "The whole team was serene, the joy that comes at seeing wildlife and hearing the sound of flowing water, was evident in their faces."

For more information on Faith and Ecology, contact Torres at (213) 387-6528.