This week I have a request for everyone who reads this column.

Every person's life has moments of special importance. They're turning points that influence everything that comes after them. Marriage, the birth of a child, ordination, religious vows — these events shape the way we think and act. They change the way we understand ourselves and our purpose in the world.

Communities are no different. For Catholics around the world, Vatican II was a moment of grace. Forty years later, the council continues to touch every element of our life as believers. In a similar way, World Youth Day 1993 was a turning point for Catholics in Northern Colorado, and a decade later we continue to feel those few extraordinary days of grace shaping the life of our Church.

Last week Bishop Gomez and I had the privilege of accepting the promises of Miss Luciane Urban in her perpetual consecration to the Marian Community of Reconciliation ("Fraternidad") Luciane is from Brazil. Rossana Goñi, her local superior, is from Peru. Other members of her Denver community come from around Latin America. The Fraternidad, a wonderful community of consecrated lay women, is just one of the vigorous new movements and communities that have sprung up since the council, and gravitated to Denver since World Youth Day.

Since the Holy Father's visit, the Church in Northern Colorado has welcomed the Neocatechumenal Way, the Community of the Beatitudes, the Christian Life Movement, communities new to Denver like the Nashville Dominicans, Oblates of the Virgin Mary and the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, and a new spirit in already existing religious communities and groups like the charismatic renewal, Focolare, Communion and Liberation and the Cursillo.

But even more important, World Youth Day energized hearts among our pastors and in our parishes. It changed the Archdiocese of Denver at the grassroots through thousands of individual conversions and "reconversions" — people who discovered or rediscovered their faith, and in turn influenced thousands of others. We'll be reading about many of those stories in these pages in the coming months.

Outsiders sometimes ask me how I measure the success of World Youth Day. It's easy. Every day as I walk from my house to my office at the pastoral center, I pass and often speak with the outstanding young men at our Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary and St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. Every Sunday I meet hundreds of committed people — the young and the young at heart — at the cathedral's 6:30 p.m. Mass. Every time I visit a parish, which is nearly every week, I see new life in youth ministry, formation in the sacraments, Bible study and service to the elderly, infirm and poor.

In tough economic times, and especially after a very difficult year for the Church nationally, we can lose sight of the good all around us. World Youth Day was a time when God touched our local Church, young and old alike, in a special way. And like a seed, that moment has grown into new faith and hope throughout Northern Colorado. We need to remember and thank God for that, and in this 10th anniversary year, we need to honor it in a special way — about which I'll be writing in the coming weeks.

So here's the request I'd like to make to every World Youth Day 1993 veteran: Tell us your story. Send in your experiences from 10 years ago and what they've meant for your life since. Nothing inspires hope more surely than hearing the work of God in the lives of others. Share your story, and we'll share it with others!

Readers who wish to offer their memories and experiences of World Youth Day 1993 should direct them to Roxanne King, at the Denver Catholic Register (roxanne.king@archden.org). The archbishop will continue with his liturgy series next week.