For the nearly 500 Chicago-area teenagers —and their nearly 100 adult chaperones — the weekend before Thanksgiving was a time to come together, meet like-minded teens from around the country and glory in the joy of believing.

The high school students who attended the Nov. 21-23 National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, Ind., were treated to high-octane music and evangelization, along with smaller workshop sessions that offered everything from catechetics to help developing leadership skills.

For Pam Perez, youth minister at St. John Brebeuf Parish in Niles, the most powerful moment was at the closing Mass Nov. 23, when the entire group of about 23,000 filling Lucas Oil Stadium joined in the Our Father.

“It was just everyone praying together,” said Perez, who, along with another chaperone, brought four high school juniors and seniors.

That was also the most powerful moment for Catherine Mazur, 18, who traveled with the St. John Brebeuf group.

“Everyone was praying, and I felt really at home and peaceful,” said Mazur, a high school senior.

It was the first time St. John Brebeuf sent a group to NCYC, and Perez said she expects the group will grow next time around, which will happen in 2015.

“It will definitely spread,” she said. “That’s how these things get rolling.”

And it will be helpful to have more than three months to raise money for the trip, she said. This year, the teens did not decide to do fundraisers until they were returning from a summer service camp in July.

All four of the girls from St. John Brebeuf were among the 12 archdiocesan young people who volunteered to be ambassadors, introducing and thanking the speakers and leading opening and closing prayers. Another four teenagers from the archdiocese served as “animators,” dancing and clapping and generating enthusiasm among the participants before the largegroup sessions, said Cooky Perez-Eraci, coordinator for youth ministry in Vicariate V, who coordinated the archdiocesan pilgrimage.

Mazur and Amanda Durava, 17, also from St. John Brebeuf, said that being ambassadors meant they had to miss some of the activities they wanted to do — especially eucharistic adoration with Matt Maher — but it helped them feel like participants more than spectators.

This year’s contingent from the archdiocese was larger than in any previous year, Perez-Eraci said, with 479 teenagers and 578 total pilgrims, including Bishop John Manz, the archdiocesan liaison to youth, as well as 17 archdiocesan priests.

“It keeps growing and growing every two years,” Perez-Eraci said. “This was the biggest one yet.”

The benefit of NCYC is to bring teenage Catholics from all over the United States together, Perez-Eraci said.

“It gives them the chance to see the bigger church, outside of just their community,” she said. “They are more engaged with the Mass and the Eucharist, and they have a chance to see the bigger speakers and musicians that we can’t always get for local events.”

In a letter to the young pilgrims, Bishop Manz suggested that they take the opportunity to grow in faith.

“As I’m sure you have been already told, this event is a great opportunity for you, as a young Catholic to come together with thousands of others to pray and to seek to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “So as you are waiting to participate in this great event, ask the Holy Spirit every day to help enliven the gifts of wisdom and understanding in you and all the others who will be there.”

Mazur and Durava said it was definitely that kind of experience for them.

“I felt like it would be a life-changing experience for me, to be with 23,000 other young people who are involved with their faith,” Mazur said.

“It was amazing how many people were there,” Durava said. “I felt so loved there. I wasn’t afraid to show my faith.”