By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — “Restless Hearts,” a young adults group for persons ages 18-40, began earlier this year and is open to Catholics from any area parish.
Josh Hinkle of St. Paul the Apostle Parish started the group, inspired by a previous group at the parish. “This group seemed like a great opportunity. I really wanted a group that would be willing to dive deep into the Catholic Church’s treasure trove of saints and thinkers.”
“Many of the groups I had been a part of before tended to be based around reading Scripture, which is great and necessary, of course, but as someone who was a Protestant convert — and thus lived most of my life on Scripture — I thought diving into other texts would also be of much interest to young people.”
The group is growing with support from Kim Burken, who led the previous group, and Quad-City area youth and young adult ministers. The group began in April with three people meeting at Hinkle’s apartment. That worked at first, “but eventually we grew too big, which is a very good problem to have.”
Meetings now take place on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. in McEleney Hall at St. Paul the Apostle. “People can hang out longer after that,” he said. Participants can enjoy free food served by Hinkle or another group member. “We do a lot at the meetings. We talk about what’s going on in our lives for a bit, and then we read our book for an hour. Afterwards, we close in prayer.” Currently, the group is reading “40 Reasons I Am a Catholic” by Peter Kreeft. Free copies are available from the group. Game night with video and board games takes place on the third Friday of each month. “Those can go on for a lot longer.”
About a dozen show up each week for Restless Hearts. Plans are in the works for a trip to Adventureland in September and other outings. “Young people should be interested in this because they need, and the world needs, the Gospel. The laity are still members and representatives of the church, and we need to do what we can to re-invigorate the faith for our world,” Hinkle said.
For more information, contact Hinkle at joshwhinkle@gmail.com