Our Response to God's Revelation

Trying to explain FAITH to 14 year olds these days is not an easy task.  They come to us, for the most part, from a desert, where they have not been nourished by, nor even heard of so many things we take for granted:  e.g.  that the Gospels are about Jesus, or that "the Bible" is made up of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament of Four Gospels, Acts, several letters, and Revelation.  It's all new.  How then explain FAITH when these and other basics are missing?  A lot of patience, a lot of creativity, and a strong community of faith are needed.
One helpful definition of Faith is that it is our response to God's revelation of himself: through creation, through Jesus, and the disciple/witnesses that have come after him.  This definition warrants a knowledge of God, of Jesus and the Holy Spirit...not just a book knowledge, but an experience of God through our example (more and more reason for the deepening of our own knowledge and experience of God), through simple prayer...such as a conversation with or a directed meditation, and through the lived faith of the community. 
Over and over again at the Marist Youth Encounter Christ in Esopus, I heard the refrain from the Marist Young Adults who are in college, "When I come to Esopus, it's so easy to feel God's presence and to believe".  Yes, we reinforce one another.  One wrote about trying to bring this experience back to her college; it was like trying to bring water to a vast wasteland.  Yet somehow, God is present there too, hidden though he may be, and our living response to what God has revealed to us will eventually uncover his presence so that others can see him, and realize how thirsty they are for him; at the same time, in helpling others, we deepen our commitment to the revelation we have received.
Bro. Rene