Rantings of a Catholic Youth Minister

Feast of the Annunciation

2011-03-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was March 25 (for those of you who missed it it will come around again in another year or so) which just so happens to be the Feast of the Annunciation here in the Catholic world. It is an amazing full blown Solemnity right here in the middle of Lent, designed to give hope and joy to our lives as we plod on towards Easter. When a solemnity goes cruising by in the normal liturgical year (and by normal I mean not Lent), most of us tend to blow it off and pretend like it's not really a big deal. At least that's our reaction if we ever new it was a solemnity at all. One of the great things about Lent, however, is how it call us to a slightly different standard than Ordinary Time. It calls us to the standard of holiness that revolves fasting, abstaining, and extra alms-giving. When a Solemnity rolls around during Lent we get to indulge in whatever it is that we gave up; and if it happens to fall on a Friday we even get to eat some meat. Yesterday evening was about 40 degrees here, but that didn't stop me from firing up the grill and throwing on some Polish sausages because hey, it was the Annunciation and a Friday all rolled into one. I even contemplated making a cake to celebrate. What really makes me laugh are the people who was consider such a celebration to be cheating God. These are generally the same people who give me condescending looks when I tell them they don't have to fast on Sunday's during Lent. The look is usually followed by some comment about how real Catholics fast every day during Lent and don't look for excuses not to suffer for God. When I respond by telling them how real Catholics practice this funny thing called obedience and quit trying to be holier than the Church they usually get mad and walk away. This is why I don't have very man friends. It does continue to make me wonder why so many people seem to be against having fun in the name of Christ. Christ himself was at a wedding feast and when they ran out of wine, He made some more. Heaven itself is described as the wedding feast of the Lamb. I pray for those people who feel that holiness is 2 parts sad face and 1 part judgmental attitude towards those celebrating. Someday they will realize that it is 3 parts awesome, and that should be enough for anybody.

Modern Misguided Morality: thoughts on smoking, drug use, and murder

2010-12-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a short movie with my middle school youth group. The movie was called Most and was a European film done in Czech with English subtitles. If you ever have the opportunity I recommend seeing it. You can catch the shortened version on YouTube, it is The Bridge. It is about a man who works on a railroad drawbridge and one day his son convinces him to take him with him to work. Unfortunately a train fails to stop when the bridge is open for a boat. The son tries to pull the emergency release lever on the bridge because his dad doesn’t see the train coming. Unfortunately he slips and falls down into the machinery that runs the bridge. The dad sees the train and sees his son fall into the bridge. He knows if he closes the bridge to the train can go over, he will crush his son. If he leaves it up everyone on the train will die. He chooses to sacrifice his son in order to save everyone on the train. The point of the movie is to show how everyone on the train is from different walks of life. You have joyful college students, abandoned boyfriends, drug addicts, elderly people, and young children. All of humanity is represented. The Father sacrificed his Son to save everyone. After we watched the movie I did an explanation and then began to answer questions. However, one of the predominate questions and attitudes was one that completely blindsided me. I expected anger and frustration that the little boy had to die in order to save everyone on the train. What I didn’t expect was the hostility towards some of the trains passengers, at least not the passengers I expected. Far and above the most hated group on the train was the happy go lucky college students who were having a smoke and enjoying each others company. Not the drug users, prostitutes, or soldiers but the smokers. “How could he have killed his son to save a smoker” someone asked. “Smokers all deserve to die anyway. They are killing themselves and us already” said another. I was floored. I guessed I missed the point in our culture where smoking suddenly became a sin so grievous and unnatural that it put one beyond the salvation of God, or somehow made one less of a person. Someone that deserved to die. I am not trying to enter the debate on whether smoking is good or bad, right or wrong (I don’t think most people would care for my thoughts on that anyway) but simply that we have made it a cultural sin of momentous proportions. How we can hate tobacco this much and want to legalize marijuana is beyond me or logic. On the flip side I am constantly saddened by how many people support abortion. Why does our culture present something that is merely unhealthy as worse than something that kills one innocent human being and mentally scars another for life, resulting in higher rates of depression and suicide? When middle school students think that smokers deserve to die and go to Hell, while abortion deserves to be protected as a basic human right I think we have serious problems in our schools. This Christmas pray for the conversion of these souls. Pray for the light of Christ in their lives. “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”

~ Mother Theresa

Adventures in Materialism; an amazing resource for your faith(potentially) in your pocket

2010-04-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

As much as I hate to admit it, one of the constant battles I face in my life as a Catholic is with the ever present sirens (think beautiful ocean girls singing men to their doom, not police and fire trucks) of materialism. I recently gave in to the call of the sirens and purchased an ipod touch from Apple. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ipod touch, it is device that plays music and movies. It can also connect to the internet, allow you to check your email, and run programs called “apps” which is short for applications. There is only one button, everything else involves a touch screen interface. I think it was the shiny touch screen that really sucked me in and dashed me against the rocks of consumerism. Anyway, after acquiring my ipod touch, I discovered that it could, if fact, enhance certain aspects of my spiritual life. There are several of the “apps” which are specifically Catholic and designed to help us keep our faith with us on the go in the modern, busy world. For example, iPieta contains the entire Catholic Bible (in English and Latin), a liturgical calendar (so you will always know who's feast day we are celebrating), a plethora of prayers, novenas, and devotionals (some of which even I had never heard of), The entire Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, most of the writings of the last 12 Holy Father's, as well as writings by many of the Church's most well known Saints, mystics, doctors, and fathers. All for less then the cost of a latte (and it doesn't have to be a large latte either). Another app that has come in handy to me over the last couple of days is called A4C, which stands for Answers for Catholics. It is an apologetics resource that helps you quickly locate the biblical basis for many Catholic teachings like confession, the Eucharist, prayer to the Saints, etc. The app, however, that has gotten the most use from me so far is called iBreviary. I have to update it each day, but that usually only takes about 20 seconds in the morning. It gives me the complete Liturgy of the Hours, including the Divine Office. It also gives me the the Mass readings for the day in case I am too lazy to make it to morning Mass, which usually I am. In case you are worried about how much all this will cost you let me put your mind at ease. A4C and iBreviary are both FREE (at least they were when I downloaded them), so if you have an ipod touch you have no excuse not to have these excellent resources. A couple of other free apps I picked up because I am a giant nerd are: The Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Stations of the Cross, and several works of Plato and Aristotle. I can honestly say that I practically carry a library of some of my favorite books in my pocket. I even found 101 classic novels for $0.99 (for the whole bundle) and have started in on the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now granted, the ipod touch is not my favorite way to pray or read a book, but I must admit that it is one of the most convenient resources for the faith that I have ever encountered, especially when it all fits into my pocket.

Even Jesus had a Judas

2010-04-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

In the life of the Church we are often tempted to think that everything should be perfect, holy, pure and most importantly, the way we want it. While deep down we are always going to know that we can’t have everything exactly the way that we want it, we are still tempted to ask for it and still frustrated when we don’t get it. The reason I bring it up is the recent accusations against our Holy Father saying that he knew about the inappropriate conduct of other priests and bishops, and willfully did nothing. Since I haven’t had the chance to speak with the Pope personally about these accusations, I feel that it is my duty as a Catholic to assume his innocence until someone can prove him guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. Unfortunately I know that many of my Catholic brothers and sisters do not agree with me. For them the mere thought that the Pope participated in scandal, even though there is no real evidence, is enough to make them foam at the mouth and begin barking for his resignation. Sometimes we tend to forget that the Pope isn’t some elected official who is at the beck and call of his constituents. Rather he is the vicar of Christ himself and answers to God. However, the point remains that this is only one of many things that can dissolution many faithful and holy Catholics. Not just that the Pope could be accused of participating in covering up a scandal, but that a scandal could have occurred at all, and for some within their own parish and with their beloved priest. How do we deal with the fact that those who are our spiritual leaders sometimes let us down, and on occasion in very big and catastrophic ways? The answer is thus, Even Jesus had a Judas. Now I do not say this in an effort to in any way diminish the suffering of victims, but instead to help us remember and grow in holiness. The name of Judas Iscariot will forever be marked as one of the greatest traitors of all history. Sometimes I like to think that Jesus never wanted Judas as a disciple and that he was somehow tricked into it, but I know that isn’t true. You can’t trick Jesus. Rather he willingly chose him as one of the Twelve Apostles. When Judas betrayed him he not only betrayed his God, but also his friend and companion. He turned him over to the scribes and the Pharisees to be tortured and eventually crucified. What is it that makes us think that there are no more Judas’s in the world? We see them everyday in secular society. People who will stab their friends and clients in the back to make a quick profit, and we think nothing of it. It is normal and we pray for such people. Why do we assume that the Church is exempt? None of us are perfect, and some of us less so than others. What we have to avoid at all costs is the temptation to let Judas keep us from following Christ. We are not called to put our faith in men, but rather in Christ and his Church. Christ and his Church are perfect, not the men and women in it. This is why the Sacrament of Confession is so important. That being said, I encourage you all to pray for our Holy Father as he endures this time of trial and persecution. Long live Peter!

Beware the Lucky Nut; Sometimes we all just need to be purged (Easter Sunday Rant)

2010-04-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

My son Thomas has a favorite book about a couple of pigs named Toot and Puddle. As I recall the book is called I’ll Be Home for Christmas and is about Toot trying to get back home to his friend Puddle at Christmas time. Yes, I am very aware that it is Easter and I am talking about a Christmas book, but anyone who is such a liturgical season Nazi that they are offended by Christmas books in April will just have to stay mad at me. In the end it is their choice. I bring up the book only in reference to Toot’s lucky nut, which he receives as a gift from his Great Aunt Peg. Ever since Thomas started really enjoying his pig book, all nuts have become lucky and as soon as he gets his hands on them they find there way into our living room. Now the nut may be lucky to Thomas, but to his clumsy oaf of a father (me) they are, in fact, very unlucky. My feet specifically find them unlucky, especially early in the morning when I am stumbling around in the dark trying to find the coffee pot and the light switch, the former being more key to my existence than the latter. To put it simply, I hate the “lucky nuts.” Thus when Katie and Thomas went out of town this past week to visit the grandparents a rare and unforeseen opportunity suddenly struck my household. A chance to purge myself of those cursed nuts that are constantly causing me varying amounts of pain. As I went about my apartment hunting down lucky nuts, I started thinking about Lent, Easter, and Holy Week. I also started thinking about how my hunt for the nuts was a very imperfect example of our relationship with God. Sometimes we have things in our lives that we really enjoy, like Thomas’ lucky nuts. The thing is, they aren’t always good for us, or those around us. Lent is kind of like Thomas and Katie getting out of the apartment for a few days. It gets us out of the way and gives God a chance to move in and clean up all the junk. That way when we come back after Easter we are ready to make a fresh and clean start. The biggest challenge is for us to not be like Thomas, who will almost without a doubt find a lucky nut or two in the parking lot and kart them inside, much to the chagrin of my poor feet. Once we have been purified during our Lenten journey, the trick is to avoid falling back into old habits that can lead us back away from Christ. Like I said, I know that it is a VERY imperfect example of Lent and Easter, but it came to mind the other day while I was on my search and destroy mission for lucky nuts. And don’t worry about how mean it might sound that I am throwing away something that belongs to Thomas. No doubt he will relish the opportunity to begin his little collection of torture devices all over again. That being said, I pray that you all will have a truly blessed and wonderful Easter.

Adore 2010: a call to be authentic Catholic men and women

2010-03-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

When I think about the ADORE 2010 retreat that was co-sponsored by St. Joe’s and Holy Apostles last weekend, one specific thing stands out in my mind above all others, and that is a call to once again discover an authentic manhood and womanhood. This call flies in the face of modern feminism (which actually degrades women) and its desire to reduce masculinity to politely opening doors, well manicured finger nails, and impeccable manners. While I missed out on what was said during the women’s session talk (for obvious reasons) I was able to glean that one aspect of womanhood that was discussed was a woman’s mysteriousness. Now this isn’t some kind of bizarre cloak and dagger sort of mysteriousness, but rather a mysteriousness that accentuates a woman’s feminity. One specific example I can think of where mysteriousness might play a role is in modesty of dress. A woman of God does not live by the philosophy of “if you’ve got it flaunt it.” Rather she understands that flaunting attracts lust, not love; and that Prince Charming is not a man to be attracted to a girl who only knows how to flaunt her body. Instead Prince Charming should be the kind of man who wants to fall in love with a girl who has some degree of self confidence. A girl who dresses modestly to protect both her body and her heart from being taken advantage of. To me this is the kind of mystery a true woman of God possesses. A mystery that invites men to come and get to know the real woman, rather than trying to seduce them with purely external and physical appearances. As a culture our perception of what makes a woman beautiful has been distorted to encourage men to only look at this external aspect of femininity, completely neglecting her true womanhood. This is where our men’s session talk kicked the guys in the backside. We talked about how our society doesn’t really want a group of men who know how to love. Men who know how to love know how to sacrifice everything for their beloved. Men who know how to sacrifice everything also know how to stand up for their beloved. They know that true love means not being controlled by their passions and desires, but rather putting their passions and desires at the service of others. This is where things like pornography come into play. Pornography aims at keeping men acting like little boys. Little boys let their passions and desires rule their lives and determine their relationships. Just ask my son about chocolate milk and you will see someone easily manipulated by his physical passions. He doesn’t think, he just wants more and more. There will never be enough, until it makes him sick. Once he recovers he will want more again, until he learns the truth about chocolate milk making him sick when he drinks too much. Our society treats lust the same way. It encourages men and women to give in to lust rather than love because lust is easier and completely selfish. Pornography degrades women down to merely physical objects and tells men that this is ok to treat them as such rather than loving them. After the retreat I was reminded that every man can be a Prince Charming if he wants to, and every woman is a princess worthy of a Prince Charming. Let’s not settle for the lie anymore.

Only at Ave Maria: Why I love my Alma Mater

2010-03-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

As lent carries on (and I feel like it has already been carrying on for about forever) I just wanted to take a moment to bring to light a rather humorous email conversation that I have recently been part of from Ave Maria University, of which I am an alumnus. Let me also add, less anyone think that I am writing this as an attack, that I love Ave Maria and wouldn’t trade my time their for anything. I share this with you because I just wanted to point out how different some of the people are that go there, and I mean that in a good way.
Subject: The Renaissance Ball on Saturday will lead to Excommunication!

Dear fellow Ave Maria Community,

As you may have heard, on this upcoming Saturday Ave Maria will be hosting a Renaissance Ball. Among the attractions are dancing, dinner, and dueling. Those who take part in this event will be blatantly and sinfully disobeying the teachings of the Church! Please do not allow this sinful event to take place upon our campus!

The 25th Council of Trent clearly states that "dueling, introduced by the contrivance of the devil, may accomplish the ruin of the soul, shall be utterly exterminated from the Christian world."

The Council of Trent also declared that: "As to the persons who have fought, and those who are called their seconds (sponsors), they shall incur the penalty of excommunication, and of perpetual infamy, and are to be punished as homicides, according to the sacred canons."

As Catholics, we must avoid excommunication, and we have a moral obligation to ensure that our friends and fellow students also avoid excommunication. This is a serious matter, and we should not blatantly disregard the teachings of the Church.

Name Removed is in charge of this Ball, and please encourage her not to proceed with this blasphemy!

Excommunication with the Church puts one's soul in mortal danger!

Subject: RE: The Renaissance Ball on Saturday will lead to Excommunication!

Oh Ave.. can you please be normal for like one a day!
Thanks,

Apparently there was going to be some mock sword fighting taking place during the Renaissance Ball, which offended the moral sensibilities of one of the students. I have only included one of the many replies that floated through my inbox. Many contained witty responses that were far too long and humorous to be printed here. But I ask you this, how many other “Catholic” colleges and universities out there are going to contain public outrage over a violation of the Council of Trent in the area of dueling? I am going to take a guess and say not very many. In fact I doubt most students at most “Catholic” colleges and universities could even tell you when and why the council of Trent occurred, let alone know that it laid down the law on dueling. The real message here is quite clear. Don’t duel during Lent, because no one wants to be excommunicated at Easter.

p.s.I love Ave Maria, I hope it never goes “normal.”

Pain is temporary, holiness is forever...I think

2010-02-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

As Lent approaches like a starving lion on the trail of a wounded gazelle, I find myself once again asking just what kind of penance I want to take on this year. While I haven’t yet made any final decisions, I promised everyone at youth group a couple weeks ago that I would challenge you to really grow in holiness and try something a little bit more challenging than giving up chocolate, again. This isn’t to say that I object to giving things up, I just think that candy might be taking it a little too easy. If you are set on giving something up, try meat. That’s right, meat. Instead of just abstaining on Friday’s during Lent, abstain every day. Some other ideas that have crossed my mind are as follows. You don’t have to limit yourself to just one thing, either. In fact, I challenge all of you to take the opportunity to rise up and go for the gold this Lent. Try these on for size, or come up with some ideas of your own.
No TV. If your family does a weekly movie night or something along those lines then you can make an exception, but try cutting yourself off from generalized network television and instead read a good book, like the Bible or the lives of the Saints.
Adoration. The perpetual Adoration chapel always has a few empty slots that need to be filled up. Is an extra hour a week too much to spend with our Lord? You can go at anytime, not just in the empty slots.
Get up early. This also entails going to bed a bit before midnight. Try getting up an hour earlier in the morning and dedicating that time to the Lord. This might involve spending the time in prayer or helping your family with some early morning preparations for the day. Regardless, offer it up to the Lord.
Pray a Rosary: I know this one might sound a little bit easy, but I encourage you to take a devotional like the rosary every single day. The power of constant prayer can be an amazing force in your life.
Daily Mass. If you only do one thing, do this. Like Jesus said, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” If we truly want to live the life that Christ has offered us, we need to have His Body and Blood within us. The Eucharist can have deep and profound effects on your life, but it helps if you actually receive it more than once a week.
Anyway, these are just a couple of suggestions. You don’t have to take any of them, but I think you will find Lent to be far more fulfilling if you really give it your all and do something more challenging than just giving up chocolate or candy. Remember, Christ gave His life for you, what are you willing to give up for Him?

The Peace of Christ in 2010

2010-01-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

At Mass every Sunday, just before we sing the Lamb of God, we stop and take a few minutes to exchange the Kiss of Peace. Now granted, in American culture kissing everyone around you in the Church is somewhat frowned upon, but we still shake hands and say “peace of Christ be with you.” It got me thinking the other day, what exactly is this peace of Christ which I am asking for and wishing on my brothers and sisters in Christ? My simple question about Christ’s peace turned into a more in depth line of thought than I originally anticipated, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you. For starters I don’t think that the Christ’s peace is something that we should take lightly. For one, I don’t think it matches up very well with what many people consider to be peace. For one thing, the whole idea of peace at any cost doesn’t really seem to me to be the kind of thing that Jesus Christ preached. After all, Jesus didn’t exactly die quietly in his sleep one night. His passion and death was extremely violent and even Pilot feared a riot. Then Jesus turns around and rises from the dead, and breathes His Spirit out upon the Apostles and gives them his peace. After that the Apostles take up the preaching and teaching where Christ left off, and in return they all had the opportunity to share in his suffering and death. Only John managed to not become a martyr for the faith, ad he got exiled instead. Stephen got stoned by Saul and Peter and the rest were thought crazy drunkards within moments of Pentecost. All this because of the Holy Spirit and the “peace” of Christ. So to me the peace of Christ is something far more in depth than merely a lack of violence. It cannot be attained through modern nihilistic philosophies that preach tolerance at the cost of truth. More than anything the peace of Jesus Christ is not for wimps or sissies. The peace of Christ is for real men and real women. The kind of men and women who are not afraid to stand up and say that right is right and wrong is wrong, and your personal feelings don’t change the truth of the matter. The peace Christ offers is not necessarily a lack of violence, for that can only occur when everyone converts. This is not to say that we can achieve peace by causing violence, for that would be a lie, but the true peace of Christ does mean that you are ready and willing to suffer violence at the hands of others for the sake of what you believe. For example, our faith teaches us that that human life is a precious gift from God, yet even Catholic universities like Notre Dame arrest people for protesting against abortion and those who promote it. We know that marriage is between one man and one woman, yet our world tells us that such views are intolerant and should be considered hate crimes. Thus for 2010 I pray that the peace of Christ would rest upon every member of our parish. That we would all be willing to accept the truth that God has offered us rather than the lies presented by the world, and that we would all be willing to suffer and die in defense of those truths. The seeds of the Church are sown in the blood of martyrs.

Xmas vs Christmas: Which holiday are you going to celebrate?

2009-12-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

First off, I just want to make it clear that the majority of the ideas I choose to express this week are not necessarily original to me. While I am sure that many share these ideas, I have been indulging myself this Advent season by once again turning to C.S. Lewis for a bit of inspiration and philosophical advice. I read his essay called Xmas and Christmas, a lost chapter from Herodotus. It takes a look at modern times from the point of view of someone who is completely ignorant both of Christianity and of modern culture during the Xmas/Christmas season.. People spend an oddly large amount of time preparing for Xmas. One Xmas tradition involves sending little pieces of paper with images stamped on them to all of their friends, relatives, acquaintances and anyone else who might think about sending them a card. The images on the cards are of beautiful winter scenes, birds sitting in trees, people dressed as they did 200 years ago and riding around in coaches and on horseback. What, exactly these images have to do with the actual celebration of Xmas is a religious secret so closely guarded that no one will explain to an outsider. Given how much time and effort are spent on the cards though, it is obvious that they a very key part of Xmas. If they get a card from someone whom they failed to send a card to themselves, they stress out, utter curses at the sender, and trudge back out the door to by more Xmas cards. Sending gifts to each other is even more a painful and important a part of Xmas as are the cards. People go out and buy each other all kinds of things that they would never buy or want for themselves. The merchants and shopkeepers get into the spirit by selling all of the items that they were unable to sell during the rest of the year under the label of Holiday Special. All this is called the Rush. But when the day of Xmas actually comes around, everyone is so tired from preparing for it that they lay around in bed until noon and then get up and eat 5 times as much food as on a normal day and drink wine until they are too intoxicated to remember all the time and money they spent on Xmas. Such are the customs of Xmas. There are some, however who celebrate the festival of Crissmas on the same day that everyone else is celebrating Xmas. Those who celebrate Crissmas do so in the opposite way of those who celebrate Xmas. They rise early in the morning and go to their temples where they partake in their sacred feast. Many of their temples are filled with sacred images of a woman and her child, which are part of their sacred story. Some think that Xmas and Christmas are the same, since they are celebrated on the same day. This, of course, makes no sense whatsoever. First off, the images on Xmas cards have nothing to do with the sacred story the priests tell of Crissmas. And secondly, most people, not really believe in the religion of the few, nonetheless participate in the sending of cards and gifts and participate in the Rush and drink and feast. It does not stand to reason that anyone should suffer so many things in honor of a God they do not believe in..
I really enjoyed the entire essay by Lewis, and if you have the time I recommend that you read it here. It isn’t too long and it does a much better job of conveying Lewis’ wit and charm then I could ever hope to do.

Tis the season to be... preparing?

2009-12-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

As Advent progresses and the count down until we celebrate the birth of the redeemer of the universe continues, one thing seems to remain the same in our culture, the constant fight between the holiday season and the Christmas season. Every year this miniature battle over
whether or not it is legal to have a nativity scene visible in a public area without paying proper respect to every single other religion. Or if you should even be allowed to force your intolerant Christian beliefs down every one else’s throat with that unwholesomely holy looking baby in a manger. Now as you all know, I am never one to lose my cool and fly into a rant about such things. I have often been complimented on being the very heart and soul of calm and rational discussion and just agreeing to disagree. Or something like that. But I know how easy it is for some of us to get really uptight over a simple Seasons Greetings or to snap off someone's head over an unintentional (and probably well meant) Happy Holidays. I think sometimes we tend to focus so much on what words people use to describe the few days surrounding Christmas that we lose track of what Advent and Christmas are really all about. Indecently, when was the last time
anyone got mad at a bell ringer for failing to wish them a Joyous Yuletide or a Convivial Advent? All in all I think that bickering over the use of names and terms is worse than useless if we fail to actually live out what we claim to be arguing for. We can all claim to hate the idea of how consumerism tends to dominate the entire Advent season, but how much money do we spend on Christmas gifts and do most of us even own an Advent wreath? If you do, and you actually sit down with your family every night and focus on what Advent is all about, then I think you are a step ahead of many of us, myself included. We think that jamming a plastic manger scene into our front lawns somehow makes it ok to reject what God has revealed to us about the sacredness of marriage or the fact that human life begins at conception. Are we truly living out the faith that we tend to get so defensive about when our relatives send us holiday greeting cards instead of Christmas cards? As we enter into this second week of Advent I strongly encourage all of you to be the voice of Advent in your family. Get an Advent wreath and take some time to sit down and pray with your family. Shut off the TV and spend some quality time with our Lord. Christmas
comes but once a year, but the love of God is eternal. Focus on that.

Issues of Reconciliation

2009-12-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

As far as everyday reception of the sacraments is concerned, the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation is one that many of our protestant friends really have a difficult time accepting. The big, and dare I say obvious, question that usually comes up quite quickly is this, Why would you go confess your sins to a priest? Don’t you know that it is God who has the power to forgive sins? The first place we need to go in Scripture is Jn 20:19-23 where Jesus appears to the Apostles , after the Resurrection, breathes on them, and tells them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This passage begs the question, why would Jesus give his Apostles the power to forgive sins if they were just supposed to keep that power to themselves? What would be the point? Logically we can gather that Christ wanted his Apostles to actually use the power and authority he gave them to continue his work on earth after his Ascension. Paul gives us a specific example of this mission in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 when he tells the community in Corinth, “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” This is the mission Christ has sent us on, a mission where the forgiveness of sins is central. And just as the mission of the Church did not end with the original Apostles, neither did the authority Christ gave them. It was passed on to their successors, modern day bishops and priests. Finally we can also look at James 5:13-16 Where James tells the people to call a presbyter (priest) if anyone is sick and they should anoint him with oil and pray for him, and his sins will be forgiven. James then follows this by commanding us, “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed “ James flat out tells us to confess our sins to one another. And what would be the point unless at least some actually had the authority to forgive those sins? Ultimately it breaks down to this. God gave us the sacrament of confession for the forgiveness , why should we pretend like we know a better way than his?

Tu es Petrus: The authority of Peter and the Papacy

2009-11-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of weeks we have taken a look at a couple of the main differences between Catholics and our Protestant brothers and sisters. Please understand that I do not point out these differences in an effort to degrade or insult anyone, only to point out how the Catholic Church has been blessed with the fullness of the Truth. This isn’t to say that other denominations don’t make better use of the truth that they do have than Catholics, but nothing can change the fact that both historically and doctrinally the Catholics Church is the only Church that was founded by Jesus Christ. All that being said, the Pope, Church authority, and our dependence on sacred tradition have always been sticking points for dialogue with our protestant friends. In fact, they were part of the basis for Martin Luther choosing to leave the Catholic Church in the first place. Now I am not going to deny that there have been some real jerks that have sat on the chair of St. Peter, but no matter how much personal holiness they may have lacked, they never changed a single Catholic doctrine. In Mathew 16:13-19 Jesus tells Simon, “You are Peter [Rock] and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The keys to the kingdom represent the complete authority of Christ. Knowing that he will be crucified, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven; Jesus has put Peter in charge of things. We can also look at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 where the early Church was trying to decide whether or not Gentiles were required to follow the Mosaic Law as well as the Law of Christ. There was a lot of discussion, but after Peter spoke, the assembly fell silent. Peter’s statement ended the discussion for everyone, so it is obvious that the early Christians recognized his authority as final. Just as God established the Mosaic priesthood in the Old Testament (2Chr 19:11, Mal 2:7) to be a living, continuing authority, he does the same with Peter and the other Apostles. In John 21:15-17, It is Peter who is made the shepherd of Christ’s flock. Peter is the rock on which Christ builds his Church, and he has been given the authority of Jesus, as well as his mission as shepherd. All this provides solid biblical evidence for the authority of the papacy. The Church can trace our Popes back in an unbroken line all the way back to Peter.Even historically the early Christians and the Church Fathers all recognized the authority of the Bishop of Rome. Another question that may arise in a discussion about the authority of the papacy might revolve around the idea of Papal Infallibility. Papal Infallibility is where the Pope, when teaching on matters of faith and morals, is incapable of teaching error. Many Protestants and even a few Catholics get this doctrine wrong and think it means that we are required to agree with the Pope on everything, which isn’t true. It only applies to teachings on faith and morals. If you think that red is better than blue, and the Holy Father’s favorite color happens to be blue, it is still ok to disagree without running the risk of excommunication.

Apologetics round 2: Flaws in sola Scriptura

2009-11-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don’t know, the doctrine of sola scriptura means “scripture alone” and was one of the main doctrines of the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th century. Essentially it means that anything and everything you need to know about Christianity can be found in the Bible. You don’t need a Pope or a Church to tell you what to believe, just go straight to the Bible. Anything or anyone that claims to have authority equal to that found in scripture is wrong and trying to lead you astray with man made rules. As Catholics we can often be taken aback by such statements and sometimes even agree to them if we are not thinking rationally. First we have to start off with the question of “which came first, the Church or the Bible?” If we follow the idea of sola scriptura to its logical conclusion then when Jesus ascended into heaven he must have left the early Christians a fully complete version of the New Testament so they would know how to act. This, of course, is a ridiculous idea. The New Testament was written down after Christ, and if you read last weeks article on how the Bible was put together then you know all about it. As Catholics we believe that we have Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium (teaching authority) all to guide us, not just the Bible. However, for the sake of discussion, let’s take a look at what the Bible itself says about such things as Tradition. First we have to remember that not everything Jesus said and did is recorded in scripture (Jn 21:25) and we are also called to hold fast to the oral traditions, the preached word of God (1 Cor 11:2, 1 Pet 1:25) Paul specifically states in 2 Thessalonians “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” Both the written traditions and the oral traditions were considered by the early Church to be key in living the Christian lifestyle. And why would Paul even be writing to the Thessalonians unless he had some kind of authority over them liturgically? If all we need is the Bible, then we are in big trouble. Ever since this idea came about 500 years ago (give or take) Christianity has split into over 30,000 different denominations, with only the Catholic Church holding fast to Sacred Scripture and the Traditions handed down by the Apostles. As Catholics we are truly blessed to have the Church there to help us interpret scripture. Peter tells us that it can be difficult to interpret scripture correctly(2 Pet 3:15-16) and God has not abandoned us to our ignorance. So, if you are curious about what a verse means in the Bible, or something just doesn’t seem to make sense, come into the parish library and look it up , and remember, BE NOT AFRAID.

Apologetics, and we're not sorry: A retreat and Monday morning update

2009-10-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Over the last month and a half I have been asked on multiple occasions about what exactly apologetics is. First and for most, apologetics sounds a lot like the word apology, which is exactly the opposite of what we are all about on Monday mornings. 1Pet 3:15 tells us “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” and this is exactly what we are doing. Now I am sure that you are asking yourself, how is this any different from our normal Lifeteen youth group? Well, the answer is, not a whole lot. With apologetics we have less time, so we have to cram a lot into just one hour. We also use the Bible A LOT. We are not just learning about our faith, but we are also learning how to defend and explain it. For example, one of your protestant friends might ask you why your Catholic Bible has more books in it than their protestant version. This is an excellent question, but many Catholics don’t even know that there is a difference, and thus they are caught off guard. Sometime around 250-125 BC the entire Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) was translated into the modern language of the day, Greek. This translation, called the Septuagint because of the 70 scholars that worked on it, was done in Alexandria and contained 46 books, This was the set of scriptures in use at the time of Christ, Paul, and all the original Apostles. It wasn’t until about 100 AD that a group of Jewish rabbis met at a place called Jamnia and rejected 7 book of the Alexandrian cannon because they could not find the original Hebrew scriptures that they were translated from. The Christians, however, continued to use the Alexandrian cannon. After all, good enough for Jesus, good enough for us. The council of Hippo in 393 A.D. and the Council of Carthage in 397 both affirmed both the 73 book cannon that makes up the Catholic Bible. In 405 Pope St. Innocent I approved this cannon and the discussion was closed. The Bible was determined for all Christianity in the 4th century and remained that way until changed it 1100 years later. He agreed with the rabbis at Jamnia and began to use their cannon for his Old Testament, while the Catholic Church continued to use the Alexandrian Cannon that Jesus and the first Christians used.

Questions and topics such as this one were part of the focus of the retreat two weeks ago. Tim Staples converted to the Catholic faith because of truths like these and he was a huge, spirit filled inspiration to all of us who attended to get to know our faith better.

Summer Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

2009-08-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Howl’s Moving Castle is a movie that will go unseen by most Americans because it hails from a genera unappreciated and misunderstood by many in our great nation. It is an anime movie from Japan and as such is a bit different from what we normally expect in from things that we class generically as “cartoons.” One of the things I like about Howl’s Moving Castle is how each character is individually seems to represent some great flaw in mankind that they must overcome. Howl, for example, represents both vanity and cowardice. He is an extremely powerful wizard, but when his hair is accidently died a different color he completely loses his mind and says, “If I can’t be beautiful, I would rather be dead.” While on the one hand we might dismiss such a comment as completely outrageous, how many women are out there who feel the same way and struggle with eating disorders? For one to place their entire self worth in how they look is to forget about the fact that we are all children of God. Jesus died for our sins no matter what we look like and calls us to develop a much deeper inner beauty that will never fade with the mere passing of time. There is also the Witch of the Waste, who is completely absorbed with having the hearts of as many young men as possible. She pursues Howl not as someone to love and care for until death, but rather as a young, handsome man who is merely a trophy. Something to own as a possession rather then a person to be respected. While this is generally an attitude that men hold towards women, it is no less disordered when turned the other way. In the end she is forced to give up Howl’s heart to someone else who truly loves him for who he is. There are other interesting characters in the movie, each with their own personality flaws, but I encourage you to see it for yourself. Even though many of us are tempted to dismiss anime as something that is either for little kids or morally offensive, this is often times only extreme cases. While Howl’s Moving Castle may appear as just another cartoon, it deals with complex issues such as the morality of war and those who are forced to fight as well as love, friendship and kindness. It is certainly a welcome alternative to the glorification of violence and sexuality that seems to flow out of Hollywood these days. .

Summer Movie Review: Jurassic Park

2009-08-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Jurassic Park is, in my opinion, a Spielberg classic. Honestly, who wouldn’t think it ridiculously cool and fun if scientists were able to find a way to genetically engineer and clone a dinosaur? The answer should, unfortunately, be me. Well, me and you. And I only say unfortunately because I would love to see a real dinosaur. The problem arises when we look at the means of actually producing the dinosaur, cloning. Now I am not a moral theologian, so I had to go around and do some digging in my efforts to find out what the official church teaching is on animal cloning. The end result was, to be honest, a bit confusing. Human cloning is, of course, completely against the dignity of human life. But animal life does not have the same amount of dignity that a human person does, otherwise it would be morally wrong to kill a cow and enjoy a big juicy stake. This is not to say that animals don’t have any intrinsic dignity, only that humans have more. I think that the whole process can be summed up by one of Jeff Goldblum’s lines in the movie “Just because we can do something doesn’t mean that we should.” Jurassic Park is a great movie because it really takes a look at critical look at science from a non religious perspective. Our modern society tends to view faith and religion as the enemies of science, which has never been true. Well, almost never. There was that whole Galileo thing, but that was almost 400 years ago so I say it is high time we just let it go. Anyway, the point is, the Church doesn’t hate science. It just thinks we need to be careful about what we are doing and what the methods are that we use to achieve our ends. For example, many people question why the Church is against embryonic stem cell research. The answer is quite simple, because it is wrong to kill a baby just so you can run scientific experiments. The Church instead supports the use of adult stem cells for research, that way no one has to die. But back to cloning dinosaurs. I am still not sure what the official teaching is on the subject, but from a purely realistic point of view I just don’t know if I want to share the modern world with a velociraptor. Still though, it made for a great late night movie.

Welcome to another Lent: And no, we don’t meant the stuff in your navel

2009-03-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who somehow missed that we just jumped into the liturgical season of Lent, welcome. I only went to Mass once on Ash Wednesday, so I make no guarantees about what you may have heard in your homily, but the one I heard was right on the money. Fr. Tom talked about Lent being a special time to focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For most of us the fasting takes the form of giving something up. Fr Tom talked about the need to check our motives when we are giving something up and I couldn’t agree more. How are we really honoring God if what we are giving up is really something for ourselves? If we look at Lent as a time to give up sweets and our real goal is just to lose some weight, is this really what the spirit of Lent is all about? Not that it is bad to give up sweets (I think my wife has) but the goal should be to grow in holiness through self discipline, not to lose weight so we feel better about ourselves when we look in the mirror. Instead of giving things up this year I have a different challenge to lay down for everyone, young and old alike (and those who are young or old at heart). I challenge you to start showing up at daily Mass at least twice a week. For those of you who want to lean on your high school as a crutch for not coming to Church, have no fear. Your classes begin at 8:15AM and Mass is usually out by 7:45/7:50, so even if you don’t have a sweet set of wheels you still have enough time to walk up to the high school and be on time to your first class. So there you go. You really can have your cake and eat it too, and while you are eating your cake you can be partaking in the Divine Wedding feast through your participation in the Mass. Am I not ridiculously cool for offering you this fine suggestion? Even if you have already decided to do something else for Lent, going to Mass certainly isn’t going to hurt. In fact it might make it easier for you to offer up whatever you are doing. If everyone just showed up twice a week for daily Mass, Fr. Tom (after he picked his jaw up off the floor and put his eyes back in their sockets) would be forced to move it out of the chapel and into the main church. Why not give it a try? If you are really interested in growing in holiness there can be no substitute for frequent reception of the Eucharist. The body of Jesus Christ himself taken into your stomach, broken down, and sent as both physical and spiritual nourishment into every cell in your body. Cool? You better believe it. Amazing? Definitely. But the real question is, will you come?

36 years of lies and death; Will we have what it takes to stand for Christ?

2009-02-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

As many (hopefully all) of you know, this past Thursday was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision forcing abortion on America and sentencing millions of children to death each year. Our Catholic faith clearly teaches us that this heinous practice is gravely immoral. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us in paragraph 2272, “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.” Yet despite the gravity of abortion, many Catholics are still pro-choice. The question I would ask is why? Why do so many people claim to be Catholic, yet support something that GOD says is wrong. It is not something I have an easy answer for, nor do I believe and easy solution exists. The root of the problem lies in exactly the same place that some say the root of all sin ultimately resides, pride. That desire to do whatever I want and no one can tell me otherwise. It is a common misconception of freedom that in the end is just a dressed up form of anarchy. It is kind of like a little kid who throws a tantrum when his mom won’t let him play with scissors. The mom knows the scissors are sharp, so when she sees her little son (whom she loves) playing with them, she takes them away so he won’t hurt himself. The son, who was having fun playing with the scissors, feels that he has a right to those scissors and his mother is infringing on his freedom by taking them away. The same principle applies to the pro-abortion movement. They refuse to acknowledge that no one has a choice to kill another person (we call that murder) just because they want to. If pro-abortion people were really all about protecting peoples rights, they would have to start with the rights of the child. Pride, however, gets in their way. For Christians it is a refusal to recognize to put the will of God ahead of our own. In all reality it really isn’t all that much different from what happened in the Garden of Eden. We listened to a pack of lies from the devil about what would make us happy, then turned on God and went against his will. Look how well that ended.

Conscience on the high seas: Is there really such a thing as a Catholic pirate?

2009-01-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

I have been reading and discussing a book about conscience with some other men here at St. Joe’s, and I just wanted to take a brief moment to share some thoughts on the subject. Here is a brief excerpt from chapter 3 “The Christian life is not about ‘not stealing’ or ‘not committing adultery.’ It is about the high adventure of loving God and neighbor, throwing in our lot with the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth, wherever that may take us.” I love this quote because it does an excellent job of summing up the Christian lifestyle. To many people think that the Catholic lifestyle is nothing more than just a bunch of rules about what you can and cannot do. But is all truth, being a Catholic is all about what you can do, not what you can’t do. I especially like the part about high adventure. It makes me think of adventure on the high seas. Kind of like being a pirate, but without the whole pillaging and looting thing. Maybe if you can imagine life as a pirate who instead of doing bad things (like the pillaging and looting we just mentioned) did good things, like preached the Gospel and helped the poor. You would still get to live on a pirate ship and sail the seven seas looking for buried treasure and saying cool pirate sayings like “avast ye Jim lad” and “ahoy there ya salty sea dog.” The difficult part would be funding your adventures as a Christian pirate, since most pirates fund their activities through illegal activities. Still though, I think if you could find a way to make it work I would totally join your crew. I think part of the reason I find the whole idea of being a pirate so attractive is the whole freedom aspect. I know it is a romanticized version of piracy, but I still think of it as this grand adventure that never ends. No one gets older, dies while fighting the evil authorities, or drowns while at sea. It is a glorious adventure where we are the misunderstood heroes fighting the wrongs in the world. Sort of a Robin Hood at sea kind of thing. Anyway, even though I don’t have a pirate ship or a crew of salty buccaneers , I keep reminding myself that I can still live my life as an adventure. I know that loving God and neighbor doesn’t really sound like high adventure, but in many ways it really is. Part of a good adventure involves taking a risk, and this is exactly what our consciences spur us on towards. Not being satisfied with just not killing my neighbor, but truly loving them. Changing my life so I am not just avoiding sin, but truly living my life for God with everything I have. If you don’t believe this is a risky venture, then you have never tried it.

Happy Feast of Mary, Mother of God

2009-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings all and happy New Year. I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas break. Hopefully you all went to Mass on Thursday, because it was a holy day of obligation. Even if it wasn’t a Holy Day of Obligation, I think it would have been a good idea to attend Mass anyway. What better way to thank our Lord for another year of life and to look forward to the next then with the Eucharist? While we are on the subject of the new year, I always like to revisit the whole idea of a new year’s resolution. Now I know I have said in the past that there is no need to wait for January 1 to make a good change in your life, but for those of us (and yes, I do mean to include myself) who sometimes have a bit of trouble turning over new leafs, maybe a new year’s resolution is just the incentive we need to get things started. The next question we have to ask ourselves is on the more utilitarian note, what should I resolve to do this year? Now, I realize that my advice may not be suited for everyone, but I am going to do my best. First up, I recommend making a firm resolution to eat more chocolate. Chocolate is good for you. It is loaded down with antioxidants (whatever those are) and other nutritious things like milk and stuff. And eating chocolate can make you happy. So, go chocolate. For those or you who hate chocolate I recommend chewing on rocks until you are more willing to cooperate. Along with eating more chocolate I also recommend trying to get to daily Mass every once in a while. I know from experience how easy it is to find an excuse not to get out of bed in the morning, but Jesus is waiting for us every day at 7:20am. Another idea is to go on a retreat or other youth group outing. Sometimes it is good to just get away from everything and focus on God for a couple of days. You never know, it just might change your life. All that aside, I recommend taking some time to learn to appreciate yourself as the child of God that you really are. Sometimes we get so caught up in all these resolutions to change that we forget who we really are at the core. We are all children of God, and as such have an incredible dignity. No matter what we resolve to change about our lives, nothing can change who we really are. However, just because nothing can change our status as children of God, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking for ways to act more in line with this great gift. So regardless of how or if you decide to do a new year’s resolution, I encourage you to pray about it first and then do something that will help you to focus on your dignity as a child of God, like eating chocolate.

Falout 3: An adventure into the intenssness of nerdom

2008-11-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are not familiar with the Fallout series of video games (which I am assuming is probably most of you) you play a character in a post apocalyptic society running around doing various quests and missions. The actual point of the games is not really as important right now as the fact that the first two were incredibly popular and built up a significant fan base. Fallout 2 was released in 1998, which of course meant that some fans haven’t had a decent nights sleep in the last ten years because they have been wondering about what Fallout 3 will have in store for them. In my defense I wish to point out that I am not one of these fans. However, I was intrigued by the game enough that I pre-ordered it from Game Stop and went to the midnight release party this past Tuesday morning. Having attended these release parties at Game Stop in the past, I more or less had a rough idea of what to expect. I must admit though that I was rather surprised at what I actually found. I arrived at roughly 11:40PM because I knew that due to fire code no more then 10 people were actually allowed inside the store at any one time. This means that everybody stands outside and waits in line. Once midnight rolls the doors open and groups of ten are allowed in to pick up their purchase. The last release party I went to was also at the end of October and there were maybe 10 or so people waiting out in the cold. This time when I got there I took my place in line at number 16. When I arrived about ten of the fifteen people already there were smoking cigarettes and chatting casually about what they thought the game would be like. Then there were the fantastic four. Not super hero fantastic, but fantastic in the sense that I am pretty sure they had been there since 10:00 to make sure they were first in line. They were the man skirt (it was definitely not a kilt) wearing Monty Python quoting hard core fans. Though I doubt any of them were even out of kindergarten when Fallout 2 was released, these guys were pumped up and ready. About five till midnight about a dozen or so more people showed up who sat in cars rather than freeze in the cold. I was moderately impressed. I was also saddened. If people can get this excited about a video game, which contributes no real substance to their lives as a whole, why can’t they get this excited about God? If we had Mass or youth group at midnight on a school night, how many people would come? I don’t think very many. And Unlike Fallout 3, Christ should have a significant impact on your life.

Lost in Disc Golf Land: my fight with the golf disc eating tree

2008-11-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

As many of you are reading this right now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “wasn’t there something important this weekend that I was supposed to do?” The answer to that question is yes, there is something important you were supposed to do. You were supposed to wish my wife a happy birthday. On Saturday (October 25) she turned ?? years old. So if you see her around feel free to wish her a happy belated birthday. Now on to other news. On Wednesday of this past week I took a trip to the Tri-Cities with a couple of the youth group to play some disc golf. If you are not familiar with disc golf it is similar to Frisbee golf, except it is played with a golf disc, not a Frisbee. You throw the disc from the tee pad and attempt to get it into a basket in as few throws as possible. If all this sounds terribly confusing go check out the disc golf course at Rotary Park up on Western and that will clarify things for you a bit. Anyway, we went down to Kennewick to conquer their course and all in all I must admit that things went rather well. I personally made the two worst throws of the days, and they were even my first two throws. On one I thought I had lost my disc to the Columbia (the river, not the sporting goods outfitter), and on the second I managed to get my disc stuck high up in a tree surrounded by a thicket on extremely prickly bushes. I finally prevailed, but it definitely wasn’t the start I was hoping for. I think one of the reasons I enjoy disc golf so much is because it is so similar to the spiritual life. When I am disc golfing with friends, even though we are all headed towards the same goal, we are very rarely in exactly the same spot. Sometimes on our journey towards heaven we might get lost or land out of bounds. We need friends to come along and help us find our way (or our disc). Sometimes I think I just made a perfect throw and the wind will unexpectedly gust and I will land even farther away from the basket then when I started. The key is that you just have to keep playing. If you quit every time a throw didn’t go exactly where you wanted it you would never finish a game. It is the same with our spiritual life. Our goal is heaven. Sometimes we may get blown off course by the wind, but Christ always guides us back on the right path. The key is not quitting. Disc golf, like the spiritual life, is more fun with friends. A good friend will call you on to greater holiness when things get difficult, and maybe even help you climb a tree to get your disc down.

Are we Catholic? (June 8 2008)

2008-06-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

“I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a soiled utility room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lives,” Stanek told the U.S. Congress, describing one such case. “He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breath. Toward the end he was so quiet that I couldn’t tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall.”

The above is a section from an editorial that appeared in the May 18 2008 edition of the National Catholic Register. The process it is describing is one called Live-birth abortion. This occurs when an infant survives the actual abortion process. In 2002 the state of Illinois tried to outlaw the process described above through the Induced Infant Liability Act. This bill never became law. One man, at least, used his authority to make sure this protection never happened. That man is Barak Obama. Mr. Obama openly voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act. He openly voted in favor of allowing a small child who only wants the comforting embrace of its mother; to be allowed instead only to find the cold embrace of a solitary death; alone, somewhere, in a utility room. We commend these children to our Blessed Mother, may they find the lasting comfort in her arms that they were denied in their last moments here on earth.

I recieved a bit of criticism for publishing this article in the bulletin. Some people do not want us to speak the truth decause it is inconvenient or it doesn't fit with the fact that we want everyone to vote Democrat. If you are offended by this article or think that it is inappropriate or think I am corupting the youth, I will keep you in my prayers. If speaking the truth labels me as a corruptive force, then I proudly bear that label. It is better then coward, which is what I would be if I failed to respond to the call of God. My Question still stands, are we Catholic?

Merry Summer: Merry or Happy, what will your summer be like? (June 1 2008)

2008-06-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Today I was sitting around pondering the difference between “merry” and “happy”. Ok, while maybe I was doing more then just pondering this particular subject, the difference did cross my mind and I decided to go ahead and write about it. Since I didn’t really have the slightest idea what the difference was, I decided I had better turn to good old Websters for a bit of help and good advice, which I now want to pass along to you. If you don’t want advice or help from Webster’s, you had best stop reading right now. For those who do want help and advice (like myself) here is what I found. If you are like me, you probably thought that happy people and merry people were more or less the same kind of people, but that’s where you would be wrong. Happiness is described thus: “1. favored by luck or fortune 3. enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment “ There are other parts to the definition, but you get the idea. “Merry” on the other hand is quite different. “2. enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment 3. marked by festivity or gaiety.
Suggests cheerful, joyous, uninhibited enjoyment of frolic or festivity”
So when I mish you a “Merry Summer” this is what I want for you. Since we are all good Catholics and don’t really believe in things like luck or fortune (they imply another power that governs our lives outside of God) and I want more for all of you then just wellbeing and contentment, merry seems to be the more appropriate word choice. There is an intensity about the word merry that just seems to be lacking in the definition of happy. I want all of you to have a summer that involves a cheerful, joyous, uninhibited frolic or festivity. And why not? God loves you, he gave you a beautiful world to frolic and have festivities in, the days here are long and warm, and Ice cold lemonade is back in season. There is no possible reason I can think of to not have a merry summer. Even if you have to work, work merrily. Live your life with the joy of being truly alive. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it to the abundantly (Jn 10:10) Take hold of the abundance that Jesus is offering you and live out this summer in absolute merriment. I even have 4 fun tips to help you along the way.
1. Go to daily Mass. The Eucharist will change your life. Guaranteed
2. Stay involved with the youth group programs.
3. Honor your parents. I know this can be difficult, but it is worth it.
4. Go to Confession at least once a month. If you don’t need it, please give me some tips on attaining perfection.
There you go. Have a merry summer and I will see you at our summer events.

Where we Sit: Life after the Doner Haus

2008-06-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

To all of you who have been crying yourselves to sleep over the past couple of weeks because I have written nothing in the bulletin except unsuccessful pleas for help at the D&oumlner Haus, have no fear. Today I will not ask for your help because we have a whole year for me to pester you. In fact, after a brief update on how things went, I refuse to mention fundraising for at least a month. Or maybe a week. Anyway, the net haul for 10 days of craziness and backed up youth ministry work came out to be around 3000 bones. I still have to split this money with the youth group from Holy Apostles, so our take will be substantially less. We were also forced to hire some guys to help out during lunch time during the week, which cost us $1200 that could have been added to the $3000 that we made. So all in all we went from bringing in around $4200 down to (and this is just a rough guess) less then $2000 into our program because I couldn’t get enough volunteers. I don’t really mind sharing with the Holy Apostles youth group. In fact they are all great kids and I really look forward to doing more events together and building up strong relations between the two programs. But the $1200 to hire outside help is just money down the tubes. It isn’t being used to help anyone draw closer to Christ. You guys as a youth group really did awesome helping out in the afternoons and evenings, so don’t think that this is really directed at you. What we need to do next year is work on getting parents, grandparents, and everyone else here at St. Joes involved in this. It just hurts me to know that we lost half of the money we could have made.

Alright, no more whining about money or things that are in the past and cannot be changed. On to bigger and better things, like stamps. Rubber stamps to be precise. This last Wednesday I was somehow tricked (I blame the feminine wiles of my wife) into buying my first rubber stamps. My wife probably owns around 100 different stamps that she uses for hand making her own birthday cards, invitations, thank you cards, etc. She loves it; and with the birth of Thomas she has had no end of reasons to ply her trade on unsuspecting gift givers. Somehow she infected me and now I find myself trying not to get excited about the thought of creating my very own line of greeting cards!!! This is an unacceptable abomination in my life! I know there must a cure somewhere, and I fully expect that it has something to do with hammers, nails, and duct tape. Maybe. Now if you will excuse me, my best friend needs a kick rock Thank You card of the kind only I can provide.

Fires of Holliness: what men do when women aren't around to stop them (March 30 2008)

2008-05-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, I feel that I need to make it clear from the beginning that this weeks Lifeteen update is in no way meant to trash talk either men or women. Quite the opposite actually. I wanted to take a few moments to share with those of you who were unable to join us on our “Man Trip” some of the things that you missed. It must also be understood that many of our exploits cannot be shared in the bulletin because, well, it was a man trip and the laws of the universe forbid full disclosure in areas where women might hear, or in this case read about them. The same laws apply to woman trips. Anyway, on to share some of the highlights. The first highlight of our trip involved the discovery of The Ultimate Power, or just the power for short. The power was actually discovered at Big 5 a couple days before the Man Trip started, but we brought it along and it provided near endless entertainment and wrist strength. We left Wenatchee on Monday evening and spent Monday night down in Yakima playing countless hours of video games with the youth minister for Resurrection Parish in Zillah. On Tuesday we crossed over the boarder into Oregon and spent the afternoon at the Grotto in Portland. If any of you have never been to The Grotto, you are truly missing out on one of the most beautiful shrines in the Northwest. It is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. That alone would have been well worth the trip, but we chose to continue on. We spent Tuesday night in a cabin at a KOA. While there we all tried to puzzle out why any one would spell (k)campground with a K instead of a C, but unable to solve this particular mystery we drifted off into blissful slumber. On Wednesday we rose with the dawn, and then promptly went back to sleep until a more civilized hour. We spent our day at Mount Angel Abbey and took the opportunity to learn how to chant with the Benedictine monks. We spent most of our day wondering around the beautiful abbey grounds and discussing The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. We roasted Bratwurst and marshmallows over a campfire and then once again hit the sack. On Thursday we headed back to good ol’ Wenatchee so we could all recuperate before school started on Monday. All in all in was an incredibly fun trip. I wish more of the guys had been able to attend, but I know you had many other commitments. Hopefully we will be able to do this again next year. Ladies, I am still trying to figure something out for all of you.

The Zombie War: And what it takes to protect the ones you love (March 23 2008)

2008-05-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

In addition to enjoying video games and movies, one of my other pastimes involves the study of the undead, and no, I don’t mean Christ. I am referring to the undead hordes, zombies. When fighting zombies there are several rules that will help you to have success. The Zombie Survival guide (yes, a survival guide for fighting zombies does exist) tells us that zombies feel no fear, therefore you shouldn’t either. This echoes the sentiment and often repeated slogan of John Paul II, “Be Not Afraid.” This simple phrase sums up how we are called to live our lives. Another one of the top 10 tips describes how the secular world wants us to live our lives, “keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert.” We live in an age where religion is a private matter, not something to be discussed with friends in the cafeteria at the high school. Keep quiet, keep low, in other words, don’t do anything that is going to make you stand out or draw attention. While this may be important in avoiding zombie detection, we are not zombie hunting, at least right now. What we need to do is stand up and go forward. Men need to be men, and women need to be women. As foolish as that statement may sound to some, it seems that our culture has gotten the two genders confused. We tell jokes that are degrading to both genders and treat women like they are objects and men like they are beasts. Honor and dignity only seem to exist in fairy tales and Jane Austin stories. Why? Because it is easier to just “fit in” If everyone else is doing something wrong, you are going to stand out if you don’t go along. Standing out takes courage and strength. It is also the first step to becoming a real man or woman. The lack of real women in our age is just as great as the lack of real men. How do I know? Because a real woman doesn’t accept or encourage fakes. Real women have high standards and want a real man as their husband. Real men know a real woman when they see one, and they know that a real woman is forth fighting for. Real men have honor, and that honor means treating all women a certain way, with a special dignity. When women refuse to be treated with that dignity and lower their standards, men forget their honor; and lose it. Now is the time to take it back. Real men stand and fight the incoming zombie hordes.

Temptations: The sneaky fleshy kind that jump you in alleys

2008-03-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

As most, if not all of you know, Katie and I recently decided that sleep was over rated and that we should become insomniacs. In order to further this goal in our lives and make sure there was no going back we had Thomas, and no, he is not sleeping through the night yet. Anyway, this is where the real story begins. One of the things I discovered about being a new parent is that you suddenly acquire a lot of things that you didn’t even know babies needed. I have a feeling that this lack of knowledge may in some way be tied to my Y-chromosome, but real scientific research has yet to support my theories. Regardless, you will accumulate many things that you (and by you I mean men) never even knew existed. Aside from the many gifts of various clothes, diapers, toys, etc. Katie and I also received many gift cards. Gift cards are great because parents with three baby swings and no diaper bag can put the gift to the best possible use and not have to go through the feelings of guilt that come about when you have to return two out of the three swings to the store because you failed to have triplets. This is where temptation enters the scene. A gift card to a baby stores scarcely a temptation for me as I don’t really like baby shopping. However a gift card to say, Target or Wal-Mart is a completely different story. Suddenly a whole electronics section has been opened up before my very eyes and a shiny new gift card is in my hand. The fact that the gift card is for buying baby things means very little to me. After all, I will be supporting Thomas for the next 18 years of his life, if I am lucky. Longer if I am not. And I have yet to see a gift card that covers a college education. So when a friend puts a baby card in my hand, and it contains a substantial gift card to a store that sells video games, and Katie is not around to even know that a gift card has been given or received, or if I find a gift card that may have been forgotten about... Yeah, temptation. Rest assured, however, that I rose to the occasion and told my wife about the gift card and did not run off and spend it frivolously behind her back. In the end I decided that she would notice if Smash Bros. Brawl showed up and no money disappeared from the bank account. And I am just to honest. This is why I generally have my wife manage the finances. It keeps us from eating a diet of Ramen noodles.

On an only slightly related note, Katie and I want to thank everyone at St. Joseph’s for their support of Thomas through prayers and gifts. Especially the youth group. You are all amazing.

Retreat?!!? Are they really worth your weekend? (March 9 2008)

2008-03-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

When any retreat or other special event comes around, the question that always comes up is the same. Is this really worth my time? This question is no less relevant to me than it is to you. There are many good events, groups, guilds, organizations, etc. here at the Church that it can be difficult when we are forced to pick and choose where we want to be involved, and that doesn’t even begin to factor in the commitments to various things at school and with friends. All in all it can be very easy to become swamped or overwhelmed with a plethora of quality time commitments. I decided to use the word plethora because it took up less space than gargantuan truck load, in case you were wondering. Anyway, with all these worthwhile activities going on in our lives, where does one find time to go on a retreat? If you guys are like me, by the time the weekend rolls around, all I want to do is sit back and relax. To quote Peter from the movie Office Space when he was questioned about what he did over the weekend instead of coming in to work “Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be.” This small statement speaks volumes, especially to me. Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do. It provides you with a chance to kick back and recharge, let your worries go, whatever you need. I really like doing nothing. The problem is, usually there is something that needs to be done, so doing nothing is not always possible. There is one other thing I like almost as much, and at certain times more, then doing nothing. Going on a retreat. Now I am not talking about a half hearted retreat where the talks are long, boring, and have no real meaning to my life, but rather a real retreat. One that truly embodies the essence of the word. One where you leave town for a couple of days and go someplace special. Someplace up in the mountains or out in the woods. Where the talks are not to intense and rather than just preaching at you, they give you things to contemplate about your life. The atmosphere is very relaxed and you have a chance to just let God speak to you. These retreats are few and far between, but they are very enjoyable. The other kind of retreat I enjoy are big, loud, exciting, fun, and super intense. Retreats like REACH Gonzaga and Steubenville North West. Rather than calm, passive retreats, these are like a spiritual powerhouse that are designed to get you pumped up about your faith. They are incredible weekends and I cannot recommend them enough. If you can, please plan on attending these events. I think they are worth the money or I wouldn’t be taking people. If money is an issue please let me know and we can try to work things out. Apple Blossom is coming and we will need help with Doners.

Weekend Retreat: How things went on our Confirmation retreat (March 3 2008)

2008-03-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been keeping an eye on the “Upcoming Events” column on the right, you know that some of us spent this past weekend over at Holy Apostles on a retreat. I know that not everyone was able to attend the retreat, so I thought I would take a few moments to talk about what some of you unfortunately missed. The speaker for the weekend was Chris Stefanick. The first talk, given on Friday evening, was about chastity, contraception, and STDs. Chris reiterated the Church’s teaching that contraception is not only intrinsically evil (CCC 2370), but also degrading to the humanity of everyone involved. As I put it to the Confirmation class a few weeks ago, “How does keeping a woman all drugged up so that you can have sex with her whenever you want without getting her pregnant say ‘I love you?’” I am not even going to enter into the lies that come with using condoms, at least not this week. The point of the matter is this, contraception is the antithesis of true love, and as such has no place in a loving relationship. Chris also went on to talk about how in a world where the divorce rate is above 50%, the divorce rate for couples who use Natural Family Planning to space their children is below 5%. Even if I wasn’t a Catholic, I think that I would consider switching over to using NFP instead of contraception just to figure out how to increase the chances of making my marriage last for a life time. These statistics alone tell me exactly what happens when we turn our back on Gods plan for love and marriage and try to do it our own way, we get broken. It is not God that breaks us, but rather we who break ourselves. By rejecting the plan of the author of Love, we find that we have actually rejected Love itself. Anyway, the last talk that was given was a talk on relativism and living out our faith. Relativism is where we say that nothing is really right or wrong, except in the eye of the beholder. There are no real moral truths, because in the realm of faiths and morals there is no empirical evidence to support claims of right and wrong. This is, of course, a bunch of hogwash and we must reject it outright. There is such a thing as right and wrong, regardless of our opinions. If the U.S. passed a law tomorrow saying that rape was no longer a crime, wouldn’t it still be wrong? Of course it would. As Catholics we are heirs to the fullness of Christ’s revealed truth. We have a responsibility to live that truth out in our daily lives.
There, I summed up the beginning and the end of the retreat. In the middle there was a great game of pictionary, Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, Mass, tasty food, and a few other excellent talks. If you missed this one, Brendan Case is coming April 20 so don’t miss it.

My Weekend: How I spent my Presidents Day and beyond (February 24 2008)

2008-03-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have had writers block before, but this week I really feel like I am at the end of my rope. I even spent the last hour or so cruising around on the internet trying to find something to offer my highly valued opinion on. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I am just drawing a blank. So instead of finding something witty or intellectual to entertain you with, I am just going to tell you about the last few days of my life. If nothing else this will explain why putting on a sweater this morning was one of the most painful events of my entire life, or at least of the week. Katie and I decided to spend our extended weekend up in Port Angeles with a surprise visit to her parents. It was a very enjoyable visit and I have always enjoyed the Church (Queen of Angeles) up there. While on our way back we decided to stop in Silverdale and do a little shopping. For Katie it was an opportunity to visit a large Jo-Ann Fabrics and find some good crafting supplies, for me it was a time to peruse Best Buy and Circuit City for all the various movies, video games, and music that I don’t really need. I was with my brother-in-law, James, and it was at Best Buy that we made the first kill of our hunt. We found them in a bin near the front counter, just waiting for us. The sign on the bin read “Strategy Guides $.01” Now, it didn’t really matter to either of us that we didn’t own any of the games that these guides referenced. In fact, most of the books were for P.S.3 and Xbox 360 games, neither of which I own. However, for a penny a pop how could we pass up such a wonderful opportunity. I only bought one, about the only Wii guide in the box, for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I figure that this is a game I might actually own one day, but who knows. James, however, bought one of everything in the box. Having conquered Best Buy, we moved on to Circuit City. Here I was able to find a Wii import of an old arcade shooter, which I picked up for $30 or so. Having exhausted all possibilities, we had lunch with Katie’s family and began the trek back to Wenatchee, bringing James with us. It was at this point that I learned that Thomas does not do well on long car rides, especially late in the afternoon. He screamed an awful lot. I will definitely keep this in mind for future trips. On Wednesday, James decided that we should get a good start on his visit by doing 400 pushups. I foolishly agreed to this machoistic display and undertook the competition. Bad idea. I don’t remember the last time I did a pushup, which is very poor preparation for a day of 400. By the end, yesterday evening, it was all I could do to move my arms. And that is why I was so stiff I could hardly move this morning.

The Secret of Love: I found it inside a Dove dark chocolate heart (February 17 2008)

2008-03-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting around with my wife watching some Stargate SG-1 (yes, I am a Sci-Fi nerd) and munching some Dove chocolate hearts that we were given by our friends. This was some exceptionally good chocolate. I think I am going to convert over to the dark side, of chocolate that is. Anyway, that is not the point. Well, I guess in a way it is the point. If any of you are like me and have been munching those little Dove chocolate hearts, you know that you can’t help but read the clever little sayings on the inside of the wrapper. Now these sayings aren’t like the ones you would find on those candy hearts, you know, catchy valentines Day sayings like “Be Mine” and “U R Special.” Oh no, Dove takes things a step further. Seeing as the chocolate is in the shape of a heart, they are of course about love. Or so they want you to think. After painstakingly analyzing these seemingly innocent statements, I have interpreted their true meaning, which I pass on to you now so that you may be prepared just in case the “Dove Man” comes for you. Remember, the best defense is a good offense. The original Dove comments are in italics, with my comments following in normal text.

Share a secret; prove that you are untrustworthy.

Trust with your heart, not with your head; What would common sense know anyway

Sleep under the stars tonight; hypothermia is only temporary

Listen with your heart, what would your foot know about love

Hold hands firmly, hearts gently; hearts don't have bones so they break easier

Remember your first crush; Wasn’t 2nd grade wonderful?

A gentle touch speaks volumes; but so does a slap in the face

Savor small romantic moments; The big ones are tend to be bitter

Be your own Valentine; Life’s cheaper that way

Discover how much your heart can hold; I’m betting on 4 ounces

Hug someone today; It is only a crime if you are at the high school

Chocolate always loves you back; it’s called heartburn.

Anyway, these are just my impressions about the little sayings on the inside of Dove chocolate hearts. I am looking forward to Friday when they go on sale and I can buy 10lbs of them.

Love is Pain. Anyone who says different is selling something (February 10 2008)

2008-03-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

One of the big questions that always comes up in people’s lives is “how can a loving God allow all this suffering?” For many, this one question can drive them away from the Church for a long time, maybe even their whole lives. If God really loves me, why does he let all these terrible things happen? This is a toughie. What it really boils down to is Love, hence my quote from The Princess Bride that I used above. One of the primary components of love is free will. You cannot force someone to love you, not with a real love. Because God loves us, he gives us the option of loving him in return. We are made out of love, and we are made for love. But since love is a choice, we always have the ability and the option to choose an unloving option in any given situation. This option is called sin. Pain and suffering are not a result of God’s failure to love us, but rather in our failure to love God. Because we can be relatively certain that everyone is not going to have a conversion tomorrow, the question now becomes, what do I do with the suffering in my life. I have often said that I would have no problem with outright martyrdom for the faith. If someone wants to shoot me in the face for being Catholic, go right ahead. Where I tend to get a bit more reluctant is when we cross over from a quick and painless death for my faith into the realm of suffering and maybe even torture. Pain and I, we don’t generally mix willingly. Is this a bad thing? Well, that depends on your point of view. If you view pain as something which is intrinsically evil and must be avoided at all costs, then you might want to rethink your faith and read through the Gospels. Many people believe in the old Health and Wealth Gospel, which pretty much says that as long as you follow Christ and avoid sin, you will live a long, healthy and prosperous life. If you are poor or suffering, then it must be because of sin in your life. This is primarily a Protestant view of Christianity. As Catholics we see much more value in suffering. We are called at all times to try to imitate the life of Christ, and Christ did some pretty hard core suffering. This was not because of sin on his part, he was perfect. It was something that he did not deserve, but he took it on willing. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t justice, it was a sacrifice. This is what we are also called to. We are called to endure suffering and injustice and to join our sufferings with those of Christ. This is what Fr. Tom is talking about when he tells us to “offer it up” We do not do this in an effort to avoid suffering, but rather to give our suffering some meaning. This is especially powerful when we could get out of the suffering, but willingly choose to keep it and offer it up as a prayer. Just something for you to think about during your fasting this Lent

How I love Winter: and what would Calvin do? (February 3 2008)

2008-03-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite comics growing up was Calvin and Hobbs. The strip was cancelled when I was in middle school due to the retirement of its author/writer Bill Watterson. One of the comics that ran through my mind the other day was one where Calvin loses a quarter in the snow. Hobbes tells him that he is just going to have to wait until spring, when the snow melts. Calvin is, of course, outraged at the thought of having to wait to find his quarter. The final panel of the strip shows Calvin outside with a hairdryer melting the snow in an effort to find his lost quarter. Why exactly am I telling you this? I am glad you asked. I actually have several reasons. The first is because I still love Calvin and Hobbes. I own all the books except for the large, all encompassing 3 volume set published a few years ago; and someday I will have that one as well. The second reason involves the quarter (or quata if you happen to be from Boston) The quarter reminds me of the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin in the Bible. In both cases something is lost and once it is found there is great rejoicing. With Calvin we never know if he finds his money or not, though probably more on the “not” side of things. For me the whole point is that he is searching for it. He didn’t just lose it and say “oh well, I guess I will never find my quarter” but he went to find it. First he got his best friend to help. When the two of them couldn’t find it, his friend advised waiting until the searching would be easier. But instead Calvin goes into the house and gets a hair dryer, determined to melt all the snow in his yard if that is what it takes. He wants his quarter back. In many ways this could be looked at as a representation on the spiritual life and our faith in God. We may go on a retreat or have a deep and personal experience with our savior, but then that initial bliss fades or we sin and everything feels different. It is important to realize that regardless of how we feel, God is there welcoming us with open arms. If we sin, then we go to Confession and we keep pursuing God. We must seek him out with the same recklessness that inspired Calvin to fight Old Man Winter with nothing more than a hair dryer. This is what we are made for and our lives will seem empty and meaningless unless we seek fulfillment in our Creator. All that and I just want winter to be over.

Woman of God: Or just something pretty to look at? (January 27 2008)

2008-03-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I blasted the men for a lack of manners and how I felt that it was a sign of a deeper problem, a lack of manhood. Women everywhere cheered and I received offers from feminist groups from around the country to come and continue raging against my brothers. Or not. Anyway, even if I had received such offers I am sure that they would dry up after today. The question still stands What does it mean to be a woman of God? This is an even more difficult question for me to answer than the man of God question, so I am just going to hit on a couple basic ideas. First and foremost you are a child of God and you are loved. This is probably the biggest and most important aspect of true womanhood. Ironically the same principle holds true for men. For the ladies, however, it seems to be more important, and more easily forgotten. Let’s hit the subject of modesty first. While often associated with home school girls in ugly frumpy dresses, modesty is a key part of the virtue of chastity (and has little to do with frumpy dresses). Modesty is all about protecting the dignity that God has given you as a woman. For some this means wearing the frumpy dress, but for most it just involves wearing clothes that accentuate the whole person, not just certain physical attributes. The whole person should say, look at me, I am a child of God. You don’t even need a shirt with a catchy God slogan to say this, it will just radiate from you. The exact definition of what is modest and what is not is a challenge, especially in a society that places a woman’s worth on her good looks. Here are a few basic pointers that you might want to consider.
· Am I constantly pulling up the front of my shirt to keep my belly button from being exposed by my neckline?
· Is my underwear showing (for men too)
· Is my midriff showing?
· Does this outfit encourage others to grow in holiness when they look at me?
These are just some of my personal tips; as always you may do with them as you will. The last one I think is especially important. We should all consider the consequences of our actions, in everything we do. This is especially true for women in how they dress. Ladies, please do not wear clothing that is going to make men lust after you. They deserve better than that, and so do you. The T.V. shows and movie stars of our age are constantly telling you a lie that men only love women who wear slinky outfits and treat their bodies like nothing more than objects for men to ogle at. This is a lie. Real men don’t love that kind of woman. They love a woman who has dignity, self respect, and a knowledge that true beauty is a virtue that must be lived out on a daily basis. Remember, you are a child of God.

Thomas Jeremy: The Boy Who Lived

2008-03-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are big Harry Potter like myself, you know that The Boy Who Lived is the name of the first chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Now comes the question of who is Thomas Jeremy, and What does he have to do with Harry Potter? In response to the first part of the question, Thomas Jeremy is my son. He was born at 4:52pm on Tuesday and weighted in at 7lbs. 12 oz. What does he have to do with Harry Potter, absolutely nothing. Why then did I make the comment about being the boy who lived? I made the comment on behalf of the boy or girl who didn’t. For those of you who, like myself when I was in high school, don’t know the significance of January 22, I am here to let you know. January 22, 1973 was the day when the Supreme Court of the United States of America handed down its decision that it was ok for a woman to murder her unborn child. The boy who lived comment was made on behalf of the 23,461 babies here in the state of Washington in 2006 who never got to be kissed by their mom, or hugged by their dad. The 23,461 babies who never did anything wrong. The 23,461 babies who didn’t make it. Our prayers and our hearts go out to them.

Being a gentleman: and how I made a girl wet her pants (January 13 2008)

2008-03-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us had just finished a rather intense game of floor hockey and were on our way out of the gym when this girl (and other girls) attacked us with snowballs. Most of the guys just shrugged it off, a few threw snow back. But not me. I chased down the girl who instigated the attack, grabbed her around the waist and threw her into the biggest snow drift I could find. I then buried her in said snowdrift. She was laughing so hard she wet her pants. This may not have been the most gentlemanly moment in my life, but hey, no one is perfect. In modern times, one of the seemingly lost arts to many men is the ability to act like a gentleman. Now before all the ladies get to overjoyed at the fact that I am picking on the guys today, I am just going to give you a heads up, your turn is coming. Anyway, back to the gentlemen. What is it that makes someone a true gentleman? Is it just holding the door open for the ladies, or is it something much deeper? For me, and keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, acting as a gentleman is the first step towards being a man. When I say man, I mean a real man, not just an adult male. When it comes to talking about what it takes to be a man, there are many different opinions and thoughts on the subject, some of which are good, and some of which are a load of garbage. Anyway, being a gentleman is, in many ways, like being virtuous. It is practiced by doing certain actions, whether you understand them or not. At first it may require a lot of thought and concentration, but after you have been doing it for a while, the actions just come as second nature. For example, if you make it a point to always hold the door open for the ladies, eventually you won’t even notice that you are doing it, it just becomes a habit. These actions, however, do not make one a true gentleman. It is merely the beginning. Now that you have the actions down, you have to have the attitude that goes with it, and that attitude can be summed up in a single word, honor. Not your own honor either, but the act of honoring someone else. You could also say service. It is not something you do because you want to be noticed, but simply because it is the right thing to do, or the way someone deserves to be treated. As men of God we should show special respect to all women and help them to realize how precious they are in the eyes of God and they do not need to wear immodest clothing to be beautiful. Women are worth so much more than that. One of the keys to being a man of God is understanding how to honor, respect and treat women. I learned the hard way that this does not involve whitewashing them.

Remember the Epiphany: and a partridge in a pear January 06 2008)

2008-03-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

As many of you may be aware, the Christmas season officially ends today. That is, of course, assuming that you are reading this on Sunday January 6, the feast of the Epiphany. I find it ironic that we were almost to Epiphany before I found out what the song The twelve days of Christmas was really all about. I have known for some time that the twelve days are referring to the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany, but that is where my knowledge stopped. I thought everything beyond that was just a bunch of weird gifts that some guy decided to give his wife or girlfriend. In no way did I think that this was a religious song. But I was wrong. For those of you who are like me and never had a clue that each of the gifts given on each of the twelve days has a religious meaning, I figured I would share my newfound knowledge with you. This knowledge is worth filing away for a future Christmas cocktail party because you can use it to impress your friends and wow your enemies, assuming that you have any enemies that is. And assuming that your enemies would be at the same cocktail party as you. Anyway, the gifts of twelve days of Christmas. The first thing to remember is that YOU are the true love, the beloved of God. These are the gifts he is giving you.

1st day: a partridge in a pear tree refers to Christ.

2nd day: two turtle doves; the Old and New Testaments of the Bible

3rd day: 3 French hens; the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love.

4th day: 4 calling birds; the four gospels, proclaiming the Word of God

5th day: 5 gold rings; the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible which give a history of humanity’s fall and God’s response of grace and redemption.

6th day: 6 geese a laying; the 6 days of creation that reveal God as the Creator and Sustainer of the world.

7th day: 7 swans a swimming; the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophesy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and compassion. (Rom 12:6-8, 1Cor 12: 8-11)

8th day: 8 maids a milking; the eight Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. (Mt 5: 3-10)

9th day: 9 ladies dancing; The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Gal 5: 22)

10th day: 10 Lords a leaping; the Ten Commandments

11th day: 11 pipers piping; The eleven faithful Apostles. (Judas went piping to the wrong crowd)

12th day: 12 drummers drumming; The twelve points of doctrine found in the Apostles Creed.

There you go, now you can go show off your new found tidbit of information and hum yet another religiously based Christmas carol. Special thanks to: www.crescourcei.org for their info on the song (this is not a Catholic site, so if you visit beware of what they tell you to believe).

You can't judge me: discussions on right and wrong (12-29-2007)

2008-03-18T14:52:00.001-07:00

Many of us have had discussions with our friends or family members where we may have heard the words “well, you can’t judge me.” These are often thrown in our face as a last desperate effort to some how rationalize something wrong. We try to help someone by pointing out that they are sinning, and we get snappy, angry comments about judge not lest ye be judged, and others along similar lines. Knowing that we will receive such harsh criticisms can often times persuade us that it is better to say nothing at all rather than risk a confrontation with one of our closest friends. The question then becomes “How do I talk to someone without coming off as judgmental?” The truth is, I don’t really know. One thing to remember is that you are not judging the person as going to heaven or hell (if you are then you need to stop and reevaluate) you are simply saying that their actions are morally wrong. It can be very difficult when we are called on by God to tell each other these things, but our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ must out weigh our fear of embarrassment. We must make sure to speak out of love, and not the mushy kind of love. True love that puts someone else's good ahead of our own. John 15:13 tells us, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This means that we must put it all on the line for our friends if we really love them. This may even mean making them angry at us for a while. It can be a difficult situation but the most important thing we can do for our friends is pray for them. Pray that their hearts will be open to what we may have to say and that we will only say what God wants us to say. Afterwards pray that our words will have an effect on them and that God will have the strength to continue to be God’s instrument. Be careful not to fall into the trap of just praying and doing nothing. We need both prayer and good works in our lives and the two are not separable. While on the subject of judging things, I wanted to talk a little bit about what I look at when judging the goodness (or lack thereof) of a movie, or in the recent case of The Golden Compass a book. One of the first things that I believe one needs to look at are the motives of the author. Is the author just trying to entertain, or does he/she have an agenda that that they are trying get you to agree with, like C.S. Lewis or P. Pullman? Their agenda may be good or bad, but we should know that it is there. Lewis pushes a very pro-Christianity message, while Pullman pushes an anti-Christian message. These overall themes are important and should color our readings of the books or watching of a movie. Secondly, what are the characteristics of the main characters and what do they hold as important? Sometimes these characteristics do not hold with the teachings of the Church, like doing an evil deed in order to achieve a good end. The end never justifies the means. Sometimes it is easy for us to overlook these things and get caught up in an exciting story, but we must be careful. We should try to find books and movies that even if they are not blatantly Catholic, still promote the lifestyle that the Church says we should be living.

Beware the Weepies: Things that hit us at Christmas (12-23-2007)

2008-03-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Christmas weepies. A dangerous syndrome that can have a profound effect on even the most stout hearted, Christmas loving soul. What, exactly, are “Christmas weepies” you ask? Well, since you have asked, I will answer. In my experience Christmas can be a very emotional and for some stressful time. This is directly related to the fact that our society puts a lot of emphasis on various secular aspects of the holiday. One example would be the romantic aspect. Now I am just as romantic as the next guy, maybe more so depending on who I am being compared to, and even I find this a bit nauseating. I don’t think you can go for more than 10 minutes without seeing some kind of commercial that involves buying diamonds for the woman of you dreams or a chainsaw for that logger in your life. For those who are single, this constant barrage of finding your self worth in buying some girl a diamond advertising can be irritating, frustrating, and in a worse case scenario, a point of infection for the weepies. After the weepies have infected someone, all their Christmas spirit is quickly sucked out through the skin. The end effect is a poor, zombie like creature who is barely human. People with the weepies walk around through the snow with sad or sometimes bitter looks at people who are enjoying the Christmas spirit, especially couples. This is classic type-A Christmas weepies. A sad, yet not uncommon disease. Type-B weepies is similar, yet different. Type-B weepies are more likely to effect adults than youth, especially women. Girls like to plan things out and have everything perfect. This involves everything from getting everyone the perfect gift to planning out the perfect Christmas or New Years party. Perfect decorations, perfect food, perfect accessory in the hair. Everything perfect. For some reason the holiday season seems to heighten this need for perfection in some people. Romans 3:23 tells us that All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, thus none of us are perfect. While it is important to strive towards perfection, we cannot allow it to destroy our lives when we fail. On the moral level, this is why we have the sacrament of confession. On the non-moral level, we just make mistakes. Parties don’t turn out the way we plan them, people don’t like their gifts, etc. People who get caught up in everything find there world crashing down do to our human nature. And then the weepies move in. People with type-B weepies are always tired because they are too stressed out to sleep and bald because they have pulled out all their hair. A dangerous predicament to be in. The question then arises, how can we avoid the weepies this year? First and foremost we must keep our eyes on the prize, and I don’t mean gifts under the tree. This season is about Christ; not girls, gifts, and parties. If serving him is our primary goal, we have already set things in motion for success. This doesn’t mean there won’t be some snags, it just means that our goal is worth working for. Maybe spend some time in Adoration on Christmas day and tell the Lord thank you. If all that fails you can always hug a puppy, which I hear helps some people feel better, at least in the short term.

The Golden Toilet: A critical look at The Golden Compass (12-16-2007)

2008-03-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

First of all I need to get one thing out in the open. I have not seen this movie, nor do I intend to. The Golden Compass is nothing but a bunch of atheistic, anti-Catholic propaganda. If this is the case, why am I writing to you about it in the bulletin, especially after we spent our Life-night last week talking about it. Simple, the reason revolves around the fact that a lot of people skipped out on or were unable to make it to youth group last week. I felt that this topic was important enough to warrant taking a chance that they might read about it here. Besides, I have more to say than I said at Life-teen. First, let's deal with the movie. Since I refuse to go see it, and thus give money to support an attack on my faith, I got a book on tape instead. As previously stated, it is atheistic propaganda designed to destroy our faith in God (more on that later) and an attack on the Catholic Church. Any attack on our faith is a attack to us personally, and we should fight it as such. The author, Phillip Pullman, is a renown atheist (someone who denies the existence of God). He wrote the series His Dark Materials as a response to the popular Christian fantasy of authors like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. The title of the series should give us a clue to his overall opinions on God. The main villain in the series is a group known as “The Magisterium.” Does that word sound familiar? It should, seeing as it is also the word that refers to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. In The Golden Compass the Magisterium is power hungry religious group that seeks to control all of humanity, telling them what to believe and how to think. If anyone has any free thoughts or different opinions, they are branded as heretics and are often killed. The Magisterium is trying to find a way to repress peoples sexuality, because it is at the root of original sin. To do this they cut them away from there daemon (pronounced demon), which is an external expression of their soul. When they are cut off they lose all their joy, emotion, and happiness. They become mindless, controlled zombies. Let me throw a quote at you just in case you think I am just being overly sensitive: “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves – the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself….The first angels condensed out of Dust, and the Authority was the first of all. He told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie.” Sounds pretty freaky eh? Many people would say, “that's the book, the anti-Catholic themes were toned down in the movie.” From what I have hear, this is indeed true. The reason for this is because they knew Christians in general would already be upset enough without any extra provocation. The director has already said they are not going to tone down the next two movies, if in fact they make two more. If they lose money, they won’t be able to make a sequel and continue their attacks. They are planning on parents seeing the movie and then getting their kids the book for Christmas, without ever reading it themselves. Let me make one thing clear, if you go to see this movie in the theater, you are supporting the continued corruption of young souls in this world. The same can be said about buying the book. I encourage all of you to stay away from The Golden Compass, and to help protect your family by encouraging your younger brothers and sisters to do the same.

Patron Saint: The Michael Jordans or the spiritual life (12-09-2007)

2008-03-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Our world is filled with sin and temptations. I know that I didn’t really need to say that, but I figured I would go ahead and throw it out there as a starting point none the less. So you may now be wondering what, exactly, a world filled with sin has to do with you. As teenagers living in the U.S., it has everything to do with you. As I am sure you all know, most of the advertisements we see on TV and billboards, and the internet is directed towards you. In some ways this is a good thing. It means that as young adults in our world, you get to set the stage for most of what happens in the fashion industry. If you all want to wear clothing that shows no respect for your dignity as a child of God, just keep buying it and that is all they will make. But if you stop buying immodest clothing and choose to dress like a child of God, then the industry will pick up on it and the fashion pendulum will swing back the other direction. It is all up to you. The Good Lord knew, of course that we might need some help along the way. When temptation rears its ugly head and comes flying at you across the room, you need a friend. And not just any friend, but a friend who loves God and wants you to love God as much as they do. Imagine, if you will, that Michael Jordan wanted to be your personal basketball coach. I know Michael Jordan has been out of the public scene for a while, but still, he was a man who loved basketball. If he was your personal coach, he would not just teach you how to play basketball, he would want to infect you with his love of the game. He would know that the only way to be the best, is to give it everything you have. You have to love the game. As Catholics, we have much more at stake and much more to love than just basketball. This is one of the reasons that we have the communion of saints “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” If you don’t have a patron saint, I cannot recommend one enough. If you have a confirmation saint, which most of you should, start there. You don’t need to be limited to just one either. Grab yourself a couple. Ask different saints to help you in different areas of your life. If they wrote any books, find them and read them. If you can’t find their books at the library, talk to me and I will see if I can help. If we want to get to heaven, what better way than asking the people who are already there to help us, guide us, and coach us.

Saint Nicholas, Great Saint or Jolly old fat man (12-02-2007)

2008-03-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

As Christmas approaches, and yes, it is ok for me to talk about Christmas now that we are officially into Advent. Anyway, as Christmas approaches I find myself once again pondering the myth, legend, and facts about the man we currently know as Santa Claus. Santa Claus, as I am sure you all know is an anglicized version of the name Saint (Santa) Nicholas (Claus). Now there have been many saints named Nicholas over the 2000 year history of the Church, a few of them have even been canonized. The St. Nicholas that is generally associated with Christmas is St. Nicholas of Myra also called St. Nicholas of Bari. Why does the same saint get two places, because Myra is where he was bishop and originally buried and Bari is the town in Italy where his remains were moved after Myra was conquered by the Muslims. He lived during the 4th century and is one of the few saints of that time to have died from old age rather than martyrdom. All that being said, how does guy fit in with our modern concept of Santa Claus? The legend of St. Nicholas involves exactly 0 elves at a toy factory in the North Pole, 0 reindeer, and no sleigh whatsoever. One legend talks about a young boy who lived in Myra. On the Feast of St. Nicholas the city was attacked by pirates and the boy was taken as a slave. He was made the cup bearer for their king. His mother prayed every day for his safe return and for the protection of St. Nicholas. On the Feast of St. Nicholas the following year, the young boy suddenly appeared in the town, still holding the kings golden cup. He said that God had whisked him away from the pirates and St. Nicholas had brought him home. Thus, St. Nicholas is known as the protector of children. Another legend tells of three sisters who had no dowry and were on the verge of being sold into slavery. As each of the three girls came of age to marry, Nicholas would sneak in and leave them money for a dowry. Once he left it in some stocking that were hanging above the fireplace to dry. Thus he became known through his legends as a giver of gifts and a protector of children. His feast day is on December 6, (Thursday) and the tradition used to be to leave out you shoes and he would put some candy of fruit in them for you. I think this is a fun tradition and I encourage you to give it a shot for your younger brothers and sisters (or parents for all your kids). It is a great way to honor the real St. Nicholas during this time of Advent as we prepare for Christmas.

What's in your Wallet? The Capital One card of teh spiritual life. (11-25-2007)

2008-03-18T13:57:00.001-07:00

Don’t ask me why I was thinking about this. The truth is I don’t really know myself. Anyway, I was thinking about what kind of credit cards God would give us if he were running a credit agency. The first thing that came into my mind was the old Capital One commercials. The one where the guy goes out and buys all the stuff and then the pirates start swarming out of everywhere and jumping out of store windows ready to pillage the poor guy with ridiculously high interest rates. Frankly I find the commercials really funny. Their whole point is that the capital one does not endorse piracy, even in the area of interest rated. When the pirates discover that the shopper has a Capital One card, they go away sad and dejected, until they find someone with “the other credit card” whence they gloriously pillage anew. What does this have to do with the spiritual life? Really, very little. Anyway, back to the point. God and a credit card. The whole purpose of a credit card is to help us do something financially that we are currently unable to do on our own. It helps us to overcome the little difficulties in life that we may run into on a daily basis. At the end of the month we pay back part or all of the money that we borrowed. The great thing about God is that everything he does for us is a gift. There is no paying him back at the end of the month. Indeed, his gifts are so lavish that it would be completely impossible to pay him back. We can, however, say thank you. If God handed out credit cards, or rather gift cards since we are not able to repay him, I think they would run on humility. This goes back to the Capitol One card analogy with the pirates and interest rates. Pride has often been seen as the root of all other sins. Like interest and the pirates. Therefore, we need the opposite of pride in our lives if we are going to avoid sin. Humility. This is a humility that can only come from God. It is a true gift of grace that we need more of in our world. We live in a culture where we are told to go ahead and do whatever we want and that no one has any right to tell us otherwise. It is difficult for us to place ourselves at the service of others, especially when we may not even like them. It is hard to let someone trample on our dignity and sometimes even rob us of what we think are our rights. It may be hard, but we must remember that Jesus did nothing less for us.

Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for? (11-18-2007)

2008-03-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

I must admit that sometimes the Thanksgiving holiday confuses me. Is it supposed to be a religious holiday, or a secular one? While the obvious conclusion would be secular, maybe we should pause before jumping to the obvious. Let’s pause and take a look at what makes it a secular holiday. It was never something instituted or celebrated by the early Fathers of the Church, so that’s a strike against it. It marks no significant event in the life of Christ or the history of his Church. Strike two. It marks the beginning (at least in my book) of the secularized, materialistic Christmas season. Strike three, and Thanksgiving is secularized and OUT! Or is it? Regardless of what we may think about the Thanksgiving holiday, the act of giving thanks is not something that the secular world at large has a monopoly on. In fact while all the Atheists in our country gather around their turkeys and give thanks for their family, their health, and their job, we as Catholics have something much, much higher to be thankful for. The blood of the Lamb. Rather than just being thankful for the material things that get us by in everyday life, we should be looking to what gives us eternal life. We get to go to Mass every Sunday (and weekdays if you want) and receive the body and blood of God himself. It may just be me, but that really seems to put a dead bird to shame, no matter how much cranberry sauce you have to go with it. There are also all the little things to be thankful for. For example I am particularly thankful that my wife and baby are both ok after a car accident last week. I am not, however, just randomly thankful. I am thankful to God who protected them. Our car was totaled, but all my wife got out of the deal was a stiff leg and a couple of bruises. I feel sorry for those who believe that such things are just luck. So while Thanksgiving may not be a specifically religious holiday, I encourage you to think not only about what you are thankful for, but who you are thankful to. You don’t just say “thank you” to yourself, that would be ridiculous. You have to give your gratitude to someone or something else. Who can deserve our thanks more than God? No one. So I think a great way to celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday would be to make sure to attend Mass. Not just Mass on Sunday, but Mass on Thanksgiving day. What better way to say thank you to God. I can guarantee it will be the best meal you can receive.

Did Jesus carve a pumpkin? And if he did, what did it look like? (11-11-2007)

2008-03-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

As you grabbed your bulletin this morning and excitedly flipped to your favorite page (that would be this one) to find out what is going on in the world of youth group this week, you may have been slightly creeped out by the mustache face staring back at you. This is the face that I chose to carve onto my pumpkin this year. Now you are no doubt asking yourself, “why did he carve such an odd face on his pumpkin, and why should we care?” Both are very good questions. You should care because the Catholic thing to do is to care about what your brothers and sisters in Christ are up to in their lives. As to the why, that takes a bit more explaining. Back in college my household brothers and I entered a pumpkin carving contest. Our pumpkin was beautiful, but since it wasn’t religious we got passed over for any of the prizes. This, however, failed to dampen our creative spirit and we decided this year to all carve pumpkins and send each other the pictures. Thus the pumpkin with a giant mustache was born. The whole point behind this little story is brotherhood. My brothers and I carved pumpkins to let each other know that we were thinking about and praying for each other. Was it also goofy, silly and a lot of fun? You better believe it! As far as Jesus ever carving a pumpkin goes, I don’t really think that he did. But I am sure that he did other things with his disciples that were similar. Things done just for fun to grow in the bonds of brotherhood. It is important for us to remember that Jesus was like us in all ways except sin. That means he knew how to just relax and have fun. We are called to imitate him in this area of our lives just as in all the rest. We just need to make sure that the fun we have is the same kind that Jesus would have had. I always wonder if he ever did whatever the ancient equivalent of short sheeting was to Peter’s bed? Something to ponder for the week I guess.

Trick-or-Treat?!!? Who should you look like this year? (10-28-2007)

2008-03-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have always found Halloween to be an interesting holiday. For starters it gets far less mainstream controversy than, say, Christmas; but it is in fact one of the most exclusively Catholic days to celebrate. I say Catholic rather than Christian because our Protestant brothers and sisters do not believe in praying for the dead like us Catholics. Halloween is the feast of All Saints day, and for me, this is where the controversy lies. As I talk to other Catholics and friends whom I hold in high regard, I have received a wide variety of opinions on the subject of All Hallows Eve. I grew up in a family where trick or treating was the norm and every year we had to think up a new and more inventive costume. My all time favorite is still the ninja outfit that we made. Good times, good times. Anyway, I only bring this up because I was talking to someone who was shocked that I would ever partake in such evil pseudo-satanic activity as trick-or-treating. After getting a dictionary and finding out what pseudo-satanic meant, I was quite puzzled about the outburst. I didn’t really see anything wrong with trick-or-treating let alone anything down right evil. Needless to say my humble and innocent opinion is not shared by all. After some rational discussion with others who are anti- trick-or-treating, I have come to understand and respect their views. They see trick-or-treating as something not only unhealthy, but also disrespectful to the true meaning of the holiday. All Saints day should be a day to honor and remember all the Saints in Heaven, not run around in a goblin or devil outfit. This is true. Thus I now suggest this compromise. Dress up as your favorite Saint this year when you go trick-or-treating. Chances are people are going to ask you about your costume and you will have a chance to share a bit about your saint with them. If this doesn’t work for you, you can always do what I do, wait until all the candy goes on sale on All Saints Day and go stock up .

Chastity Speaker: Catherine A. Walsh has been sharing her love of her Catholic faith with youth for the past 17 years. She has spoken on many topics in a variety of different settings, but has always felt that God was calling her to do more. Realizing that it was her own lack of courage that was keeping her from doing God’s will in her life, she has recently set out to complete a book for young women on self esteem and chastity. She has also begun a public speaking career with a focus on involving God in our daily decision making process, particularly when it comes to our relationships and chastity. Vans will be available after Mass to go to this event.

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Monster truck madness in the Baptismal font (10-14-2007)

2008-03-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

I always thought it would be a lot of fun to be the voice on the TV or radio who got to do the announcements for the Monster trucks, Nascar, and other intense sporting events that don't include football or basketball. I have been thinking a lot about birthdays, baptism days etc. and for some reason it resonates through my mind with “the voice” “SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! This Sunday only at the superdome you’ll see Baptism like you’ve never seen it before. Chrism, water, and the cleansing of sin. Tickets go on sale soon for the whole seat, but you’ll only need...the edge.” At least that is how it plays out in my mind. Even though we don’t announce or advertise Baptism quite like sports center would, we should still be on the edge of our seats for it. This kind of talk tends to bring about the discussion of whether or not people should celebrate their baptism day instead of their birthday. I once heard that our late Pope J.P.II was asked what the most important day of his life was. Most expected him to respond that it was the day he was elected pope, or the day he became a priest. But he told them that it was the day he was baptized. It makes one stop and think about what makes our birthday’s so special that we celebrate them every year? Well, for starters you can’t be baptized unless you are born, so in a way birth is a pre-requisite for baptism. You also finally get some room to stretch your legs and arms, you get to scream all night and keep your parents awake, and you get to torment your brothers and sisters.. All-in-all, not a bad day to commemorate by throwing a little party. Just for kicks and giggles let’s go back in time nine months or so, to the date of our conception. This should also be a memorable day. This was the day that God, through the cooperation of our parents, brought us into being, made in his image and likeness. He continues to hold us in being even to this day. So maybe we should celebrate conception day. Baptism holds similarities to both our conception and birthdays. We are born again of water and spirit. The old self is dead and gone and we are a new creation in Christ. All of these days are worth celebrating in my book, and none should be forgotten. So whichever day you choose to hold the party, just make sure that you are celebrating the complete package.

Kilt vs. Man Skirt, and how the Bible can show you the way (10-07-2007)

2008-03-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ahh, October. My favorite month of the entire year, and not just because my wife’s birthday is on the 25. October is when no one can try and talk me out of being in a “Fall” sort of mood. Fall is a great season. The leaves are changing, the air is cool and crisp, and hot chocolate stock is on the rise. It is also the season where we begin to change what we wear. We move from shorts and t-shirts over to long pants and sweaters. It was while meditating on fashion, clothes, and all the various things that one can wear that my mind wandered over to the subject of kilts. Now being of Irish descent myself (yes, Irish people are also allowed to wear kilts), I wanted to clear up a few modern misunderstandings about kilts. For some bizarre reason that I shall never fully understand, certain people are trying to help kilts make a comeback into popular culture after being ousted for the last 400 years or so in favor of pants. I support such valiant efforts; and if I actually owned a kilt I might actually wear it on very rare occasions. The problem stems from the fact that not everyone who wants to see the kilt make a comeback actually know anything. Some people are just in this for the money. Enter “the man-skirt.” Now to the untrained eye the man-skirt and a kilt may appear indistinguishable. Since I am a youth minister and not a fashion expert, I am not going to go into the differences here. I do wish to make it clear that I am sad because now says any piece of cloth half-heartedly thrown about the waist on a man is considered a kilt. Needless to say, it is not. Popular culture and fashion designers who only want your money couldn’t care less about what a kilt actually looks like, or about the brave men who wore them. Like Mel Gibson. Sort of. Because we don’t live in an age where kilts are common, we are often deceived into wearing a man-skirt instead. Not satisfied simply with ruining authentic Celtic fashion, our culture applied the same methods to truth and morals. Something is right or wrong good or evil based solely the ability of the media to influence popular opinion. It can be difficult to make good decisions under these circumstances, but God has an answer. He has given us his word in the Bible, and the Church to help us understand it. So read your Bible daily and if you have questions don’t be afraid to ask. God loves you, so take your moral advice from him and not someone who calls a skirt a kilt just to make a buck. Mel does.

Cow tipping, and other social abnormalities (09-30-2007)

2008-03-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

I don’t really think that most of you expected me to write on cow tipping in the bulletin this week, by I am none the less. First of all I need to make abundantly clear my personal views on the subject. I stand as a firm supporter of sneaking up on poor defenseless cows under the cover of darkness and pushing them over, at least in theory. I say “in theory” because I have never actually partaken in such miscreant behavior, at least that I am willing to admit to. Now back to my support of tipping the cow. As fore stated there are some guidelines that I feel must be followed. First and foremost, the cow must belong to one of the parties involved in the actual tipping. That way if you are caught you are only in trouble with your parents and not with the law. Secondly, I would have to be assured that the cow itself would come to no real harm. Real harm does not include being freaked out and angry at being pushed over. It involves serious things like broken bones or ruined steaks. No doubt the question on most minds right now (other than where they can hide their cows) is “why is he talking about this?” Not a bad question if I do say so myself. I recommend hiding your cows in a barn. I promise that I won’t go sneaking in and tipping them over without permission. As to the real reason, we must first look at why people go cow tipping in the first place. First and foremost cow tipping is a social activity. It is also, usually, something that appeals to the gents rather than the ladies. Being a highly social male, it thus appeals to me. It is also a bit weird, which has its own appeal completely separate from the other two. Really, cow tipping is a social guy thing that most of us have never done outside of our own minds, nor ever will do. The point of it all is that it would be a good way to hang out and get to know each other. Another great way to hang out and get to know others would be to just spend some social time doing something equally as pointless as cow tipping; like playing video or board games, watching movies, etc. I have gone to great lengths to make my office a place where such random social activity may take place. I have a couch, a stereo, a Gamecube, a weird convection oven thingy, and oh so much more. What I am really saying is that I want you to come hang out with me in my office after school. If you have a great multiplayer game you want to try out, a movie you want to watch or a cow you want to tip, just let me know and we will make it happen.

Questing Supplies (09-23-2007)

2008-03-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

I am sure that I do not really need to remind any of you, either junior or senior high, that our theme last week . One of the things that we discussed was the need to be properly prepared for a quest. Our quest for the kingdom of God is no different. Included below is a quote from Eph 6:13-18 talking about the armor of God.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

While a knight needs armor to protect his physical body, it is even more important for us as Catholics to put on the armor of God to protect our souls. While most of us will never go off and slay dragons or evil ninja-wizards, the armor of God still gives us the protection we need. As young Catholics in high school and middle school, we need the armor of God to help protect us from temptation. This passage from Ephesians tells us that we are in a battle, whether we want to be or not. It also tells us how to be prepared. Truth, righteousness, readiness in the gospel and faith are not things that we just wake up with one morning. We must cultivate and practice them every day. This is why prayer is so important. I encourage all of you to set aside 15 minutes a day just for prayer. It might be difficult at first, but the more you do it, the easier it will get. If you don’t know what to do for those 15 minutes I will give you a few suggestions: Reading Scripture,
Praying the Rosary,
Chaplet of Divine Mercy
If you still need ideas or just want to talk feel free to email me or stop by my office.

Our Movie (09-16-2007)

2008-03-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

The movie that we have been working on is coming along great. If any of you see Matt Ockinga this week, be sure to thank him for all the time he spent in my office helping edit the video together; and by helping I mean doing all the real work so I could focus on getting everything ready for the middle school youth group. One thing I can say about this video is that it does include a ninja scene. In my opinion the greatness of most movies is directly proportional to the number of ninjas or zombies that it contains. If there are actually ninjas fighting the zombies, so much the better. Zombie ninjas, however, would just be ridiculous. It is a well known fact that zombies cannot run or jump, thus eliminating their ability to act in a truly ninja fashion. All ninjas and zombies aside, come see the movie tonight. It is absolutely ridiculous, but you can come and laugh at me in my cape as I try to rescue the beautiful princess Lily.

Middle School News: Our middle school youth group is starting this Monday, September 17 at 7:00pm in the gym over at St. Joe’s school. If you haven’t had a chance to fill out a registration form yet there will be some available. We will be using a new set of books this year that I hope everyone will like. I will be taking over the 6th grade for the year while Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Baumeister teach the 7th and 8th graders respectively. I think this is going to be a great year and I am really looking forward to it. Also there is going to be a middle school youth rally sponsored by the diocese here at St. Joe’s on September 29. They are bringing in the REACH teams and it looks like it will be a fun day. The Diocese has put a lot of time and effort into this rally so I hope to see all the middle school youth from our parish in attendance.

The Journey begins (09-09-2007)

2008-03-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are curious about what is going on next week, I am offering you a rare sneak peak into what is to come. The theme for our year will be Discovering the Sacred. As a kickoff for this theme, our first official life-night will feature the hit movie, The Journey Begins, which is a spoof on The Princess Bride. Having now used up my weekly quota of italicized words, I will no longer be mentioning any movie, book or article titles. The aforementioned movie spoof is currently under production by myself and the core team. I have no idea how the whole thing will turn out, but whether it is good or bad, it is going to be ridiculous and in my opinion that’s a good thing. I hope to see all of you next week at Life-teen so we can make this the greatest youth group experience of your life. Or at least second greatest.

Lifeteen Bar-B-Que:
I have been shamelessly plugging our Fall kickoff barbeque to just about anyone who will listen and is under the age of 19 for the last several weeks. I really encourage all of you to come and join us after the Life-teen Mass over at the school for some free food. Not only do I want all the youth to come, but I want them to bring their families. That’s right, moms are allowed to skip cooking dinner and tell the rest of the family that they are eating out tonight. It will be just like going to a restaurant, except different, and better…Never mind, just come and enjoy yourselves. Just to reassure those of you who live in terror of actually being forced to eat something that I have cooked, I will have nothing to do with the actual grilling process. It will be a great opportunity to meet all of the new volunteers and maybe throw a frisbee around. I hope to see all of you there.

Life-teen update (09-02-2007)

2008-03-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix: we had our last movie night of the summer last Friday and the movie of choice was Chain Reaction, with Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. While this movie fails to present a whole lot of moral issues or challenges, it is a fast-paced action movie that is only rated pg-13. The violence is kept to a minimum and is not gory at all. There are no sex scenes or shots of nudity. There are a couple minor uses of profanity, but all in all my opinion of the movie is very high. I wanted to hold it up as a model of what a good action movie can be. More often than not Hollywood has filled our movies with enough profanity and sexuality to choke a camel. As long as we continue to watch movies with things that offend our Catholic morals, society will continue to produce them. By supporting movies that are clean, decent, and wholesome we send a message to movie producers and actors that this is what we want. Most people in the movie industry are primarily influenced how much money they can make, and as such we must show them that they can make good money through the production of quality, family friendly movies. The one thing that I did notice in the movie that I didn’t agree with was the theory that the world was over populated. While this was not a major theme in the movie by any means, it was there and we had a good discussion about population control and why the Catholic Church says that use of contraception constitutes an intrinsically evil act (CCC 2370)
Life-teen: We are having our beginning of the year barbeque kickoff next weekend after the Life-teen Mass. This translates into about 6:40pm or so for those of you who prefer to attend the 9:00am Mass. This is open to all high school students and their families. I encourage everyone to come and join us for the kickoff of what promises to be a rocking year. Please remember to watch the bulletin for updates and deadlines for important events.

Life-teen update (08-26-2007)

2008-03-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix - Second Hand Lions: Second Hand Lions is one of my all time favorite movies for many reasons. For those of you who missed the movie last week or have never seen Second Hands Lions I feel nothing but sadness. In my opinion this movie can be considered nothing less than a classic. It has everything you could want in a movie: Cheesy one-liners that never get old, bar fights, sword fights, and true love. It is about Walter, a young boy with no idea of what it means to be a man, who is abandoned by his mother and forced to spend the summer with his two uncles who only recently reappeared after having been missing for the past 40 years. Through the stories of his uncles Hub and Garth, Walter learns a little bit about what it truly means to be a man. Second Hand Lions is not only one of the manliest movies I have ever watched, but it is also very family friendly and comes with a pg rating. Much of the movie can be summed up in one of the quotes from Uncle Hub. “Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.” I find a lot of truth in these words; especially where he says that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; money and power mean nothing. In many easy this is a very counter cultural message. We live in a time where the measure of a man is how much money he makes, how big his desk is, and where his office is located. It is acceptable to treat other people like dirt and walk all over them in order to make yourself look good and get a promotion. This is a sad, sad way of life to choose to live. Last week we talked about how being a man or woman of God involves living a life of courage, honor, and virtue. But how do we do that? This is a question that was much harder for us to answer. It involves a choice everyday. We must rally around the battle cry of John Paul II and “Be not afraid.” When we see people at school being picked on and bullied, we must stand up for them. Some may say that they don’t want to stand up for others because they are afraid of the gangs or of embarrassment. I understand your fear, but you cannot use that as an excuse to avoid doing what is right. Christ was not afraid of the Jews or the Romans when he preached the Gospel. He stood up for others, for the poor, the sinners, the lost sheep. Will we imitate his example of true love, or will we slink away with our tail between our legs because we would rather live a life of fear and cowardice? This is a question that we must all answer for ourselves on a daily basis. I pray that courage, honor, and virtue mean as much to each of you as they meant to Uncle Hub. There will be no more Friday Night Flix for the rest of the summer.

Life-teen update (08-12-2007)

2008-03-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix- Batman Begins and Sola Fide: This past week we watched Batman Begins. In my humble opinion this was one of the better batman movies that has been made over the last two decades or so. My favorite quote from the movie is when Rachel looks at Bruce and tells him, “It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.” Ephesians 2:8 tells us “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is a gift from God; it is not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” God has prepared for us a life of good works. I am not saying that we should all don a cape and cowl in order to become crime fighting heroes. Not at all. What I am saying is that the Bible speaks of salvation in many places. Many of our protestant brothers and sister mistakenly believe that we are saved by faith alone. They are often times quite disturbed if we cannot tell them the exact time and place where we were “saved.” The truth of the matter is our salvation was purchased for us over 2000 years ago by Christ on the cross. He gives us the grace to live in him and do good works for the sake of his kingdom. We make a choice on a daily basis whether or not to accept this grace, or reject it. The idea behind Sola Fide is that Faith is completely separate from actions. Once you have accepted Christ as your savior, it no longer matters what you do. There is no need for the sacrament of confession because you are covered in the blood of the lamb. Unfortunately this leads to a very false and shallow Christianity. Under this view you can do whatever you want and not care or be repentant, because you have already been saved. Batman gives us a bit clearer view of the playing field. If we truly believe everything that Christ taught us, it must have a dramatic effect on the way we live our lives. “It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.” In other words, what you do is what really defines who you are underneath. Our actions reflect the inner core of our being. If we say that we are against abortion or sexual promiscuity, then we must show it. When we know that people are engaging it actions that are sinful, we are tempted to let it pass and just say, “Oh well, I guess it is a personal choice. I am a good tolerant Christian who loves everybody and doesn’t want to offend, so I won’t say anything. Besides, if I say something they might not like me anymore.” : ( (That was a frowny face, not a punctuation error) What this really troubling is that we care so little about the real person. If we truly care, then we must do something. That person’s soul is in great peril and we must not walk on by. We don’t have to be Batman or Superman to change the world. We just have to be ourselves, and by “ourselves” I mean the men and women that God has created us to be. Created for the good works that he has prepared for us. Don’t forget to join us on Friday nights at 7:00pm for our weekly movie night. This weeks movie will be a surprise, but I think all of you will enjoy it.

Life-teen update (08-05-2007)

2008-03-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix: This past week we watched The Princess Bride. As much as I like to look for various evil media messages mixed into an otherwise wholesome movie, Princess Bride really lets me down. I have always felt, and still feel, that this is a great piece of wholesome family entertainment. For those of you who haven’t seen it, The Princess Bride is a classic love tale involving an evil prince, pirates, revenge, and most of all true love. I suppose if I really wanted to get picky about the movie I could point out that Inigo is obsessed with revenge, which is never a good thing, but that is about it. Of course This doesn’t include all the bad things that the bad guys do, but over all even those are relentlessly mocked and are not admired by anyone other then the bad guys themselves. There are no affairs, no flings, no sleeping with each other out of wedlock, no lies, and none of the many other things that our society considers perfectly normal in love story, and that is just from your main hero or heroine. The Princess Bride portrays love as something that is long lasting and enduring. Westley even says that seath cannot stop love. As cheesy and romantic as that may sound, he is right. God is love, and death itself could not stop his Son. True love has already conquered death and it can conquer anything that we may experience in our lives, if we let it. As St Augustine once said, “love, and do what you will.” If we do everything out of a sincere love, we will never go wrong. The hard part is discovering what love really is. Pop culture tells a lot about what they think love should be, but they are usually wrong. For one thing true love has to know the truth. God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. True love must, by necessity, begin and end with him. Anything less God is less than true love, and who ever dreams about finding that?

Life-teen update (07-29-2007)

2008-03-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix: Superman Returns I know that some people felt very strongly about various aspects of this movie, my beloved wife being one of them. Her main concern with the movie was the morality issue. Superman has an affair with Louis Lane, fathers a child, and then disappears for several years. While this aspect of the movie does bother me a bit, it failed to ruin the rest of the movie. Yes it was wrong for Superman to have an affair with Louis, but from the way it was described it seemed that it was more of a one night stand rather than anything long term. This isn’t an effort to excuse his actions, but rather to simply say that we don’t need to crucify because he had a less than super moment. While he may be Superman, he isn’t God. At the end of the movie, when he finds out that he has a son he shows that he wants to take a more personal role in his life. Having just said that Superman isn’t God, I found some interesting correlations between God and Superman that I thought were worth sharing. One of the first comes from Superman’s father who says, “They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.” In many ways this is not unlike many of the central aspects of Christianity. After the fall we had lost our way in the darkness. The Father sent us his only begotten Son to us as the Light of the world. Jesus showed us how to stand for Truth and Justice, just like Superman. Another scene that I really enjoyed is where Louis tells Superman, “The world doesn’t need a savior, and neither do I.” Superman responds by taking her up into the night sky and asking her what she hears. After she tells him “nothing” he responds, “I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but I hear them crying for one everyday.” Our hearts cry out for a savior everyday, and we have one. Where Superman may be able to save us from a burning building or an out of control car, he can’t save us from death. Christ has conquered death and opened up the gates to everlasting life. When compared to Christ even Superman needs a savior. I will let you all know next week how our discussion on The Princess Bride goes and I encourage all the high schoolers (This includes recent 8th grade graduates) to join us this coming week as I continue my superhero kick at 7:00pm with Batman Begins. As always food will be provided, so come and join the fun every Friday night. If any of you have any questions please feel free to call me here at the church or email me at Lifeteen@stjoewen.org.

Life-teen update (07-22-2007)

2008-03-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix: For those of you with inquiring minds who want to know how our movie nights are going, I just wanted to give you a quick update. We got everything kicked off on July 13 with the extended version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We had a few minor problems involving the sound, but once we got them all ironed out everything else went smoothly. Afterwards we had a great discussion on the various themes of the movie. Aside from the glaringly obvious relation between Aslan being killed in the place of Edmond, we also noticed that there were some other interesting examples of Christian symbolism. For example Just as Christ was striped before the crucifixion, Aslan was shaved. After the resurrection Christ first appeared to the women of the group, not to the Apostles. Similarly, After Aslan is raised from the dead he first appears to Lucy and Susanne, not to Peter and Edmond. There are many other examples, in fact more stand out to me each time I watch the movie. All Christian symbolism aside, there are a couple of other things that make The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a great movie. For one it presents a very clear view of good and evil. There is no middle ground between the Witch and Aslan. This is becoming an ever increasing oddity in our secular world that teaches that both black and white are wrong and the only truly morally acceptable position is one that is gray and rejects the concepts of both right and wrong in the name of tolerance. A gray position would have said that Aslan and his followers had no more right to the control of Narnia then the Witch and her followers. The real right answer would have been to sit down, negotiate, and divide up Narnia so that everybody could get part of what they want, and each sside would have to respect that the other side had just as much right to exist as they did. After all, right and wrong and just two different personal opinions on the same subject and no one ever has the right to force their point of view on someone else. It is a good thing that we as Catholics do not believe in being gray. I am not saying that there isn’t room to compromise on certain issues, but when it comes to the moral sphere there is right and there is wrong. I have yet to hear an actual gray moral issue, though I know some people claim that they do exist. Getting back to the movie, All of our hero’s are truly people that can be admired, even Edmond. In the beginning of their adventure into the wardrobe Peter and Susanne are scared of what may happen, they are tempted to turn back but they don’t. The persevere to the end even knowing that they might die. In one moment of weakness Susanne tells Peter that just because some man in a red coat gave him a sword, that doesn’t make him a hero. In many ways she was right. What she couldn’t see was that Peter had what it took to be a hero long before he had the sword. This is true for all of us. We all have what it takes to be a hero, and it takes more than just a sword. It takes the courage to use it, to take the risks that come our way, to put our life on the line for our king. The theme of self sacrifice is hit on over and over in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Next up we are going to watch The Princess Bride. All high school youth are welcome to join us Friday at 7:00pm as we take a look at love and how it is presented in the media. As always there will be some kind of not so nourishing food, maybe pizza this week. God bless and I hope to see you all on Friday.

Life-teen update (07-15-2007)

2008-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Flix: Hey Life-teen fans!! I hope that summer is going well for all of you. Whether you are working or playing away the summer hours, I have some updates for all of you. Since I am actually writing this before we have our first kickoff movie night with The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe I can’t give you an update on how it went. Rest assured that I will have one out for you all next that will include a bit of an overview on the discussion that we had afterwards as well. Next weeks movie of choice is going to be Superman Returns. I am not just picking this movie because I have yet to see it, but rather because it is a superhero movie. A superhero is supposed to exemplify what is good in all of us, which often manifests itself in an ability to stand up to a super villain which the erst of us are unable to face. There are other aspects of the movie that I have heard about and think will present good discussion material so I encourage you to come and join us at 7:00pm this Friday. There will be some sort of food provided, I am thinking maybe hamburgers, but exactly what it will be is subject to change.

Life-teen update (07-08-2007)

2008-03-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Now that we are all back safe and sound from our mission trip to the Gulf Coast, I just wanted to give a second update on how the trip ended. Aside from the heat and humidity which I ranted about last week, I wanted to just share on what the Lord did in my life while we were down there. It was a great opportunity to work and pray with relatively few external distractions. As a group we went to daily Mass at the oldest Catholic Church in Mississippi and for the most part were faithful to praying morning, evening, and night prayer from the liturgy of the hours. We were also able to go to Eucharistic adoration at the local retreat center and have some good discussion about a movie. In addition to taking time to pray, we helped two different families clear some of their land of debris from the storm and clear away some of the local jungle so that they could begin the process of rebuilding. We also helped a group of 7th Day Adventists put in the windows and tyvec insulation on a house they were building. The work was nothing more than good hard physical labor; the kind where you can sweat away your worries and leave your mind free for God. This is what I often found myself doing. As I heard someone say once “The only God some people might ever meet is the one that they see in you.” This is not to say that we are God, but we are his servants. We are called to carry out his will in the world and to let his love shine forth from within us. While this was constantly In the forefront of our minds while we were on the mission trip, it is no less true in our daily lives. St. Therese of Lisieux talked about how the path to holiness is not through doing great things, but by doing little things with great love. The love of Christ and the desire to serve his people must permeate our daily lives. This trip served me as a good reminder of that fact.

Friday Night Flix: We will go ahead and kick off our Friday night movie night this Friday (July 13) at 7:00pm with the consumption of some Nachos and a viewing of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I know that many of you have seen this movie, but I encourage you to come anyway, if for no other reason than to eat nachos with me.

Life-teen update (07-01-2007)

2008-03-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

I hope that all of you have been doing well in the great state of Washington this past week. As most of you are aware, I am down in southern Mississippi and Louisiana with the mission trip group. We have been working down here for the past couple of days and I just wanted to give all y’all (I have learned to speak with a southern accent) a quick update just to let you know that we are all still alive and what we are up to. First and foremost we are sweating; a lot. I am thinking about one of those super absorbent headbands that basketball players wear just to keep the sweat from trickling off the end of my nose like some kind of miniature waterfall. It wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that the bugs keep trying to go spelunking in my mouth. Other then just being in the mid 90’s, the humidity is near 100 percent. This of course means that your body begins to perspire profusely when you even think about going outside. Add this to working outside for six hours clearing brush with weed eaters and a chainsaw and I think personally sweat enough cause another flood of the Gulf Coast area. In addition to helping clear brush from some land, we also helped put up some insulation on a house, install some windows, and fix the deck. All in all I think it had been a very fruitful trip for all of us. We have been attending daily Mass at the oldest church in Mississippi, Our Lady of the Gulf, and it is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen. It is right across the street from the Gulf of Mexico and has withstood several major hurricanes other than Katrina blowing over the top of it. The faith of many of the people down here is also amazing. Many are like Job,
“Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb and naked I shall go back again. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” ~Job 1:21
Others don’t have quite such a faith based attitude about things, but they are still trying to get by the best that they can. We are trying to take lots of pictures and even some video to show all of you once we get back. I personally cannot thank everyone enough who has helped make this trip possible. Both through prayers and finances you have helped us to reach out and love those who are hurting. The man who’s house we worked on today lost everything in the storm. When the water settled and the worst looked like it was over, his wife divorced him and took everything that the storm had missed. He has been living in a FEMA trailer for two years with no money, no house, and no job. But he had faith none the less. He thanked God that he had survived when others had fallen, and that we were helping him rebuild his house when there were still so many others homeless. Even though we are only going to be here a week, you have all helped us show God’s love to some of the people here on the Gulf Coast. Thank you for all that you have done for them.

Life-teen update (06-10-2007)

2008-03-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again Life-teen fans. Things seem to be kicking into full gear for the summer and we are not even half way through June. With all the various activities, sports, vacations, and what not that are going on over the next three months I want to remind all of you to continue to make time for prayer in your daily lives and be sure to attend Mass on Sunday. For those of you who are hanging around and looking for a little something extra to keep you energized I have a couple things in mind that you might find enjoyable. First off I am in serious need of some new volunteers to help me out with music for the Life-teen Mass. John is taking the summer off and it is up to us to step and make sure that we have music to praise our Lord during Mass. Please let me know if you are interested in serving the Lord and his Church in this way. The second thing that I have devised to keep you all occupied over the summer is the Friday night movie night that I talked about last week. We are going to have our first movie night on Friday, July 6 at 7:00pm here at the church. I apologize to those of you who were hoping to start a bit earlier, but this will be the first Friday after school gets out that I will be around. Between the REACH camp down in Ellensburg and the mission trip to the gulf coast, I will be out of town for most of the last half of June (much to my wife’s dismay). All this being said, please make sure to keep everyone going on the mission trip and to the camp in your prayers. For those of you who are not able to join us for these events, have no fear. The youth minister over at Holy Apostles has approached me about a game of Ultimate Frisbee featuring our youth group against his. Being of the competitive nature that I am, I of course accepted. We have yet to set a specific date, but it will be on a Saturday afternoon and the game will be followed by a barbeque and some fellowship. Even if you don’t want to play, we are going to need some serious crowd support. Also, for those of you who are avid music lovers, Creation Fest 2007 will be going on in the gorge July 25-28. For those of you unfamiliar with Creation Fest, it is a gathering of the biggest names in Christian music as well as some dynamic speakers, preachers, and all round good people. Lucky for us it is right here in our back yard. Tickets are $93 for four days of awesome music and fun. If anyone is interested in attending please let me know and I will make arrangements for us to take a group. As always you are all in my prayers and I look forward to all our summer activities with great anticipation.

Life-teen update (06 03 2007)

2008-03-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Holy smoke, I can hardly believe that it is already June. By the time most of you have read this, we will have already celebrated the baccalaureate Mass and dinner for our recent high school graduates. For those of you who were unable to attend I have listed the names of all those from our parish that are graduating (I think) this year.
Monika Graf
Sarah Gutzwiler
Mark Hahne
Justin Hazen
Aislinn Hays
Michelle Hassler
Amy Johnson
Beth Kirpes
Kyle Larson
Meredith Mills
Mathew Metz-Fjeldseth
Shawn Larson
Andrew Ockinga
Brett Piepel
Skylar Piro
Sarah Arndt
Jay Zimmerman
Andrew Provo
Kristen Ballinger
Amber Barden
Karen Cox
Andrew Donabaur
Lynn Evans
Nicholas Feldman
Nathan Fife
Erik Graafstra
Katie Robbins
Andrea Mora
Joel Perez
Nataly Valencia
Ricardo Padilla
Araceli Padilla-Velazquez
Izchel Chacon
Bianca Navarro
Alicia Najera
Malcolm Velásquez
Olga Alvarez
Guadalupe Amezcua
Jose Avila
Joel Banuelos
Noemí Bazan
If I missed anyone or listed you incorrectly, I apologize. In other news, whether you are graduating this year or not, now that the month of June has descended upon us like a metaphorical eleventh plague upon Egypt I am preparing to move Life-teen into a new mode, which I am tentatively calling Friday Night Flicks. Friday Night Flicks (FNF), as the name implies, will take place on Friday nights during the summer. It will involve a movie, discussion and maybe nachos, pizza, or some other tasty snack. The purpose of FNF is to help us continue to grow in community and have a look at how the secular media chooses to engage us. Some of the specific areas that we will examine are questions like what is love? What does it really mean to be a man or woman? What does it mean to be a Catholic/Christian. For those of you who are worried that I am only going to use movies from the 60’s and 70’s that illustrate my point, you are sorely mistaken. We will be watching modern, popular movies like Spiderman, Chronicles of Narnia, The Matrix etc. I will list all movies here in the bulletin the week before so that everyone will have a chance to look at the proposed movie and decide whether or not they want to come. I will try to keep the movies at PG-13 or less, since most of you are under 18. If any of your parents have concerns about the movies that we are going to watch please tell them to contact me. I will announce the first movie here in the bulletin shortly, so keep your eyes peeled. All those who just finished the eighth grade are welcome to come and join us for FNF.
Speaking of things that our almost freshmen are welcome to join us with, the age limit has been lowered for the REACH camp down in Ellensburg. That means if you are 14 or going into your freshman year of high school (or older) then you are eligible to join us for a rocking 6 days at the lazy F camp that will involve daily mass, praise and worship, small groups, games, incredible talks and much, much more. This will be an incredible event and I encourage everyone who is eligible to attend. This will be similar to the life-teen camp that some people attended last summer. If you want to go the registration deadline is June 8, so give me a call here in the office at 662-4569 and I will put your name on my list and get you the paper work. That’s about it for this week, so tune in again next week and I will update you on where we are at with Friday Night Flicks. Once again, congratulations to all our senior graduates.

Life-teen update (05-27-2007)

2008-03-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

One would think that according to certain laws of physics (which I freely admit to knowing absolutely nothing about) that the fewer events you have to plan, the less work you would actually have to do. No I am no physicist, but this concept makes a reasonable amount of sense to me. However, this law seems to have been violated just as soon as I decided that it must exist. As Life-teen and middle school youth group wind down for the year it would make sense that I would have slightly less to focus on and be able to just leisurely focus on putting together our summer activities. Instead I find myself busier then ever trying to get everything organized. I am not saying this to complain, just to point out how sometimes the work God has for us sneaks up on us and attacks when we least expect it. We are then presented with the choice to either take up God’s work or try to ignore it. I freely admit that sometimes I am a bit of a slacker. The result of this is that I don’t always do what God is asking of me. Most of the time it is much easier to just try to pretend that I didn’t hear God and that it is just a weird, irrational desire that will go away if I just ignore it long enough. While this may in fact sometimes be the case, sometimes it is not. As the English Author G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” It is far easier to just let go by the wayside than to actually pick up the torch and follow Christ. Especially when what Christ wants us to do is controversial. We then let ignore his call in the name of not offending anyone. I am not saying that we be intentionally offensive, far from it in fact, but neither should we shy away from the truth. The retreat we went to at Gonzaga this past weekend was a great witness to those who went of what it truly means to be Catholic. Unlike many other religions Catholicism is not a salad bar religion. You can’t just go down the line and pick and choose what you want to believe in and what you want to leave out. It is the whole package or none at all. Christ gave the Church the fullness of the truth and it is not up to us to call him a liar by saying that what he told us is wrong is really ok. Those of you who are choosing to go on the mission trip to the New Orleans area with me have also made a statement. You have chosen to say that you value helping God’s people who are in desperate need right now over working for that week of the summer. Some of you may have even been forced to give up working for the summer altogether. None the less, you have chosen to make a sacrifice for the kingdom of God and he will bless you for that choice. If any of you are interested in helping us helping us fundraise just let me know. God bless you all this summer and know that you will be in my prayers.

Life-teen update (05-19-2007)

2008-03-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hello once again to all who actually read this small section of a rather massive bulletin. As most of you are aware as the school year gradually winds down, so does our Life-teen program. For those of you who are going to go home and cry because there will be no youth group to hold you through the summer, fear not. We will have various activities such as barbeques, picnics, movie nights, day trips, etc. to help you keep your social life here at the church going full steam ahead all summer long. I am also thinking of starting a summer bible study or something along those lines. You will just have to wait and see. One thing I know that you are all happy about is the return of pizza on Wednesday afternoons during lunch time. To tell you the truth I have missed it myself, but ye ol budget has been a bit tight and I haven’t been able to afford it. Luckily my tax refund arrived in the mail and has provided some new found funding for our pizza loving habits, so rejoice and be glad. Another thing you may all rejoice and be glad is the addition of a new member of my family. Many of you have heard the rumors and I simply wish to confirm the fact that yes, Katie and I are expecting a little Chase to join us in January and end our ability to have a decent nights sleep. Other than that not much is going on in the world of Life-teen. This week will be our last regularly scheduled Life-night. I have something special planned, so don’t forget to come over after Mass. Next week I will be able to give everyone an update on the REACH Gonzaga retreat and how it went for all those who chose to attend. I know it is going to be a blast and I am quite excited to be able to go. If you are coming on the mission trip don’t forget to show up for all of our meetings. They will be published here in the bulletin.

Life-teen update (05-13-2007)

2008-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

First and foremost please let me apologize for the lack of bulletin correspondence last week. Between the Doner Haus booth down at Apple Blossom and then picking up a round of the flu I was dead to the world for most of last week. But have no fear, I am back on my feet and running full steam ahead. I also need to apologize for not making it down to the school this week. Since I spent most of my time last week making sandwiches, I didn’t spend it doing any of my paperwork, which now needs to be done in a very bad way. My special thanks to all of you who came down and helped out with the Doner Haus fundraiser this past week. It would not have been possible without all of you, especially the Sells family, the DiTomasso family, and Katie Gahringer, who ended up being the winner of the 30gb IPod. I don’t have a clue about how much money we made down there, but I do know that the Saturday crew set a new Doner Haus record by making 980 sandwiches, so good job team. This will go a long way towards getting us to New Orleans.
It brings me great sadness to say that our Life-teen year is slowly winding itself down and coming to a close. I was originally planning to have our last life-night on May 27, but then I realized that was Memorial Day weekend and thus most of you will be off gallivanting around and enjoying the summer sun. So I reconsidered and was forced to have next week, May 20 be your last official Life-night. Our big end of the year party will be sometime in June, so don’t think I am letting you all off the hook for the summer quite yet. In fact, I don’t plan on letting you off the hook for the summer at all. We will be doing tons of fun activities for no other reason then we can and we are Catholic. That being said, I will see you all on Sunday.

Life-teen update (04-22-2007)

2008-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

First off I want to thank all of you who came last week and competed with an open heart and spirit, especially the ladies who had their hair done (you know who you are). I am working on putting together a video of our exploits but I am not quite finished with it yet. When I am I will let all of you know. I am dedicating this weeks space specifically to talking about all the upcoming events that we are going to have. If you just want the list without any of the details than you can just skip to the Upcoming Events section, but then you would miss reading all of my pointless ramblings and that would be a true tragedy. That being said, here we go. The first thing I want to invite you to is the Confirmation mass on Wednesday April 25 (yes, that is this coming Wednesday). Mass will be at 7:00pm and there will be some sort of minor shindig afterwards just for kicks and giggles. Next up on the block is the food booth at Apple Blossom. This is a major fundraiser for some of our summer activities and various retreats. We are going to need a ton of volunteers, and not just from the youth group. If any of your parents or grandparents are interested in helping out please have them sign up. We will be working with the Doner Haus making sandwiches in their booth. This is a great opportunity and we don’t want to blow it and not be invited back to work with them next year. It has also been rumored that there will be free food involved as well as some prizes. I don’t know exactly what the prize thing is all about, but the Doner Haus assures me that they do exist. I guess we will have to find out together. The booth will also be accepting donations for the food bank that the sisters run at St. Joe’s school on Saturday morning. I am also in the process right now of planning out a summer mission trip to the gulf coast area to do hurricane relief from hurricane Katrina. Many people in that area are still homeless and in need. I don’t know yet exactly how much it is going to cost, but it will be several hundred dollars. If you are interested but don’t think you will be able to afford it, make sure you work with us during Apple Blossom. Yes, we will be visiting New Orleans on this trip. The tentative time frame that I am looking at is June 25 through July 8, but this is open for change. If a mission trip to New Orleans doesn’t sound like you cup of tea, REACH is hosting a camp called “The DUB” for anyone who is going to be entering 10th grade or will be 15 years old by the beginning of June. The camp will be down near Ellensburg at the Lazy F, June 16-21. The cost is $200 per person. There is also the REACH Gonzaga trip, but I talked about that one last week. All in all there is a lot going on and I encourage you to pray about what you want to attend, work at the food booth with us, and then have a great summer.

Life-teen update (04-15-2007)

2008-03-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday Life-teen fans. Today, April 15 is Divine Mercy Sunday, which marks the end of the Easter octave, the eight day feast during which we celebrate Easter. In days long past this was represented by eight straight days of feasting and rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord. It was a party in the name of salvation. These days it seems like we have a tendency to forget about Easter as soon as all the eggs are found and the dishes have been cleared away after dinner. The octave is a good way of reminding us that the Church carries on the rejoicing for another seven days. If the eight day octave wasn’t enough to continually remind you of the resurrection, then maybe the Easter liturgical season will be. 50 days from Easter to Pentecost. As was pointed out to me this past week, Easter is the only liturgical season where we get to have the Easter candle lit at every Mass. The Easter candle stands as a constant reminder to all of us that Christ is the light of the world. If we want to dwell in the light rather then the darkness, than we must dwell in Christ. As Catholics we are called to carry the light of the resurrection, the good news of salvation, out to all the nations. As young adults this takes primarily in school and in our families. School is probably the more difficult of the two. In our country you are allowed to say pretty much anything you want in a high school as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. Even I have been warned by the administration that my Wednesday afternoon lunches at the high school can be cut off if I start trying to convert anyone. So far though they haven’t told me that I can’t hand out free pizza to anyone I want. Actions are much more difficult to control than words. If a picture is worth a thousand words, think of how much more it means to actually be the one in the picture. We don’t have to say anything to preach the Gospel, we just have to do it.

Life-teen update (04-08-2007)

2008-03-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

A very happy Easter to you all. I hope that you all had an enjoyable spring break and are rested up and ready to finish out both the school year and the Life-teen year on a strong note. Our Spring break kickoff extravaganza did not go off quite as we had planned, and by that I mean that there were only four people in attendance. So after a brief emergency core team meeting, we decided to postpone the festivities and did something completely different. Oh well, this just means that those of you who were unable to come (which was most of you) haven’t missed out on the festivities that will now be used to celebrate the end of the Easter Octave. The Easter season has always been one of my favorite times during the liturgical year. We have spent the last forty days building up for the greatest event in the history of the world, the death and resurrection of our God. This is the time where we have been able to really hone our focus on the price of our salvation. How great a god we have that he was willing to come and die for us so that we might live with him. This is the season where we celebrate true love. Unlike Valentines Day, where we simply have a few weeks of build up followed by half the candy in the world going on sale, this is the big one. Easter shows us that Love is not all about candy, hearts and flowers. It is not something that is here today and then everything goes on sale tomorrow because it is over. Well, maybe it is in the secular world; but I generally choose to just ignore what hallmark has to say about the holidays because they rarely get it right. For the Church we have the entire octave of Easter followed by the Easter Season. Love is something that is eternal, and it involves suffering. My mentor once told me of a girl that came up to him once and said that she though she was in love with this boy. He asked her how she could be so sure? “Well,” she said, “I have this feeling of butterflies in my stomach, my face gets flushed, and I can hardly sleep at night.” His response to her was, “How do you know that you don’t just have a cold?” When he first told me this story I laughed, and then didn’t really think much about it. Later it came back to my mind and I decided to roll it around for a while. I realized that what he had been trying to tell the girl was that real love is more than a feeling. Feelings come and go, but love is a choice that remains constant. You can love someone even when you are mad at them, even when they disappoint you. More often than not, love involves suffering. The love that Christ set up as an example for us to follow was one of humiliation, betrayal, suffering, and death; but it is also one of new life, of conquering death and fear, of joy that can only be found in God. This is what love is, and this is what we rejoice in. As someone far wiser than me once said, “the only way to Easter Sunday is through Good Friday.”

Life-teen update (04--1-2007)

2008-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

or those of you who are amongst the number of souls who go to either the Saturday evening Mass or the Sunday morning Mass and then run out to your car and read the bulletin in hopes of getting a sneak peek at what we will be doing this week, today is your lucky day. Not only am I going to give you a sneak peek, but I am also going to invite you to join us. This week I had originally planned on continuing or discussion on relationships. After some careful and closed consideration with the core team (hooray! alliteration is back), we decided instead to have a SPRING BREAK KICKOFF EXTRAVOGANZA! Ok, so maybe my use of all caps in that particular instance might have been a bit over board. But maybe not. When you read it you have to imagine the voice from a car commercial shouting it over out over a pa system. You know, something like SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! This Sunday only right here at St. Joe’s in Wenatchee Washington we will be hosting the event of the season… (voice building in intensity) A SPRING BREAK KICKOFF EXTRAVOGANZA! One night only after the Life-teen Mass. Come and make the memories that will last you the rest of your lifetime, or at least the rest of the week. In all seriousness we spent quite a while coming up with some games that I think most of you will enjoy, and no you do not have to be athletic to play them and have fun. You just need to be willing to give your all. That is about all I am going to give you for a sneak peek, but I guarantee it has the potential to be more fun than a sack of hammers. I am also trying to work it out so that we will have some pizza there to help counter some of those after Mass hunger pains that occasionally crop up.
For those of you who are into baseball and want to join a fantasy league (or for those of you who aren’t into baseball but are saying what the heck I’ll give it a shot) I have set one up on Yahoo. The league name is League of Saints and the password is Piergiorgio. It should be a lot of fun and I encourage anyone who is interested to join up with us. For those of you unfamiliar with fantasy sports, it is where you pick a team of real major league players and their stats in the real life games affect your team’s stats against whomever you are playing for the week. I personally find it to be a lot of fun.
Anyone looking for a little spring break fun time is welcome to come out and join me Wednesday at the Frisbee/disc golf course at Rotary Park over on Western. Make sure you bring your own Frisbee of disc golf equipment if you have any. If you don’t and still want to play come anyway and I am sure we will be able to scrounge something up from the back of either my car or some one else’s. The games will commence at 1:00 in the afternoon. I hope to see some of you there.

Life-teen update (03-25-2007)

2008-03-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Another week done and gone, another student tortured, and another WASL taken. Hopefully the WASL didn’t do to much damage to any of you. If there is one thing I hate in this world it is standardized testing. Maybe this is because I have never been much of a test taker. As promised, I have been keeping all of you and your exams in my prayers this past week. I even prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph of Cupertino, the patron Saint of test takers. St. Joseph was not really a bright kid and had very difficult life. He wanted to enter the Franciscan order, but was so poor at his studies that no one thought he had a chance. When it came time for his exam he was only able to remember one thing from all of his studies, and it was the one thing he was asked. He also experienced visions and levitation. Because he was unable to control these visions he earned the nickname “The Gaper.” Not everyone was impressed with St. Joseph’s visions and levitations, including the pope and various bishops. This led to him being forced to live in exile for many years and undergoing examination by the inquisition. Throughout it all he always trusted in God. Even though he was classed as uneducated, he was often able to answer complex and difficult questions. So may The Gaper pray for you during your exams and God’s will be done.
On a brief side note, I have something to distract you from your WASL studies. I know your parents, teachers, and future college recruiters won’t appreciate my efforts to distract you, but I am going to plunge ahead none the less. Fear not my friends, it will be a very brief distraction and then you can return to memorizing biology facts or something along those lines. One word: Zombies. Zombies, you ask yourself? Yes, zombies. A friend of mine sent me a link to a You Tube video called Hunting with Father Fearless. I encourage you to take a brief brake and check it out. It was done by a Christian film school in North Carolina that is just getting off the ground. I laughed, and you might too.

Life-teen update (03-18-2007)

2008-03-18T11:08:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was definitely one of the busiest that I have had in a while. We had a great confirmation retreat down in Cowiche. We played a game of four-way soccer the morphed into something that resembled rugby halfway through. No one died and we all had a lot of fun. For dinner on Saturday night we had curry chicken. My friend Amanda was helping with the cooking and she decided that if the recipe called for five teaspoons of curry, then six could only make it taste better. Amanda had never cooked with curry before and the end result was a curry chicken that was so spicy that we had to put it in ceramic bowls because it would have melted through anything else. Needless to say our tummies were all nice and warm for the rest of the evening. After the retreat we all went to Miners for lunch and then headed back home to Wenatchee.
I am sorry that I did not make it out to the high school this week. There were several people on the Confirmation retreat that were very sick and I think one of them must have infected me. I haven’t really been feeling myself and the last thing I want to do is make anyone sick right before they have to take their WASL.
In other news I just wanted to give you a quick update on things that are in the works. We have a retreat coming up on May 18-20 at Gonzaga. The cost will be $75.00 per person as long as we pay by May 11 and does not include meals. If anyone is interested in going please let me know. I will talk a bit more about this as it gets closer.

Life-teen update (03-11-2007)

2008-03-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

I know the question that many of you are asking yourselves, and some of you are even asking me. Why oh why did I shave? And not just my face, but my entire head! For those of you who are worried that I have run off and joined some kind of mysterious cult that requires me to shave my head or hooked of with some kind of white supremacy group than please allow me to calm your fears. I have done nothing of the sort. Why then did I choose to cut my hair so short that even my scalp felt a bit nervous? Quite simply because I felt like it. Before I became engaged to my lovely wife it was quite common for me to be running around without any hair on top of my head. I had grown it out for her because she wanted me to have hair at our wedding and I felt a sudden and strong urge to return to my pre-wedding baldness for a while. Last weeks rousing discussion about St. Rita left me with a few thoughts that I didn’t have time to share at Life-teen, so I wanted to share them with you now. Nothing is to big or to small for God. He can move mountains with faith the size of a mustard seed, and what’s more he wants to. We are not deists, who believe that God created to world and now just sits up in heaven and watches it go, like some kind of divine clockmaker. For us as Catholics God should play a much more personal role in our lives. He wants to work miracles in our lives. Just as nothing is to big for God, it is also important to remember that nothing is to small for him either. We don’t need to have an abusive alcoholic husband with a gambling addiction (like St. Rita) before we turn to God. We should turn to him with even our smallest problems. We must also remember to turn to him in our joy and thank him for all that he has done for us. I challenge all of you during the rest of this Lenten period to focus on turning to God in the big and small things in life and giving him thanks and praise.

Life-teen update (03-04-2007)

2008-03-18T11:05:00.002-07:00

As we enter into this second week of Lent many of you may be experiencing some minor difficulties with your Lenten penance. For those of you who are not, I am extremely jealous and wish that I had your strength. I, on the other hand am having all kinds of difficulties. One of the things that I am doing involves fasting for the poor souls in Purgatory. Now I have never been very good at fasting and am reminded of this fact every time I step onto a scale. I like my greasy tasty food just as much as the next man, and when it comes to potatoes probably more. But I am diverging from the point. The point is that my stomach, in an uncontrollable fit of hunger, declared war on my small intestine and tried to devour it. Luckily I have a strong small intestine and with the help of its larger brother and some extra supplies sent in by the spleen, it was able to repel the ravenous advances of my stomach. If that was just a little to graphic for you than I apologize. Maybe the real point of this has nothing to do with the interior struggle of my digestive tract, but rather that Lent is already presenting me with challenges and the rest of the forty days looks to be rather challenging, and some might even say down right hard. For those of you who are like me and are finding Lent to be hard I want to quote Tom Hanks from A League of Their Own. He is asking one of the players on his baseball team why she is quitting and she tells him that it was just too hard. He responds and tells her, “It’s supposed to be hard. It’s the hard that makes it good. If it was easy everyone would do it.” I find an odd sort of comfort in this particular quote, and not just during Lent. It’s the hard that makes it good. If it were easy everyone would do it. In more than just Lent this applies to our entire Catholic way of life. Why was it in John 6 that so many of Christ’s followers left him after he tells them that unless they eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood they will not have life within them? Because the teaching was to hard. Many Christians today still cannot accept Christ’s gift of the Eucharist because it is a teaching that is to hard. But it is true none the less. So as Lent progresses on I encourage you to join me in turning to the Lord when you are weak and to depend on his strength to get you through. It is the hard that makes it good. If it were easy everyone would do it.

Life-teen update (02-25-2007)

2008-03-18T11:05:00.001-07:00

Greetings, salutations, and a very happy Lent to everyone. I have always found the thought of a happy Lent to be interesting. I know that growing up I always associated Lent with some of the most intense suffering known to mankind, giving up chocolate. It also meant my yearly trip to the confessional for reconciliation. As forestated, the most intense suffering known to mankind. This view of Lent as the Church’s official liturgical season of gloomy depression seems to be relatively widespread. For those of you who attended mass on Ash Wednesday you heard the gospel reading from Matthew about how to fast and pray, and there was nothing gloomy or depressing about it. Jesus tells us, “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting.” Fasting is not something that needs to be broadcast to the entire world, it is between us and God. Our suffering during this time of Lent is not something that we should fear or avoid. We should happily embrace it and allow it to draw us closer to our God who loves us. As Christians we don’t have the same view on suffering as the rest of the world. Suffering is something that can bring about great good in our lives if it helps us turn towards God. During this Lenten season I encourage all of you to think about what you are sacrificing and giving up for the Lord. If it is something that is easy or fails to challenge you in your daily life, then I encourage you to take on something that makes you suffer just a little more. If you are looking for something that will definitely challenge your daily routine than I encourage you to come to daily mass every day at 7:20am before you head to school. I guarantee it will be good fore you and help you to grow closer to God.

Life-teen update (02-18-2007)

2008-03-18T11:03:00.002-07:00

Greetings all. It is my hope that you are all taking advantage of this wonderful four day weekend to catch up on some sleep, eat leftover St. Valentine’s Day candy, and do an act of charity out of love for God and neighbor. This past week and weekend were all very busy for those of you who chose to partake in the various activities that occurred. Two of the big ones were the Confirmation retreat out at Cowiche, and the parish mission right here at good old St. Joseph’s. For those of you who were able to attend the retreat you are well aware that it involved not only quality talks on the sacraments, but it also contained one of the most intense games of eight-base that I have ever seen in my life. The REACH team really enjoyed having all of you on retreat and sincerely hopes that you will all attend their annual week long retreat called “The Dub” in June. I think all of you would enjoy it and will tell you more about it as the time approaches. For those of you who missed the parish mission with Mark Price, you missed something that I personally found very powerful and spiritually uplifting. His thoughts on the life of St. Peter and Judas were very well done and meaningful. I especially liked his line from Judas where he says, “There is a part of me in all of you.” How true this is in our daily lives. We constantly sin and fall from God’s grace, but we must choose to get back up again and continue to follow Christ. We must not let our pride get in the way of our salvation or our doing what God is calling us to. This is usually harder than it sounds and has been an obstacle to even the greatest of saints at times. As St Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet” I will now shamelessly plug the Life-teen program. I know that it is easier to go home, watch TV, and then go to bed Sunday evenings rather than going to youth group. Shoot, there have been a few evenings when I wanted to skip youth group myself and go spend the time playing video games. But God calls us to go beyond what we may want to do and calls us to take up our cross and follow him. I try to make Life-teen a relatively light cross to bear by including things like snacks and games, but some may find it heavy none the less. I still invite and encourage all of you to come. We meet right after the 5:30pm mass. For those of you who attend other masses, stop by around 6:45pm. We are not meeting this Sunday (Feb. 18) but things will be back into full swing next week on the 25. If you don’t want to come alone, than bring a friend. Everyone is welcome regardless of what denomination or religion they may belong to. I hope to see all the high schoolers in our parish next week. God bless.

Life-teen update (02-11-2008)

2008-03-18T11:03:00.001-07:00

I don’t really know how this week has been for most of you, but for me it has been a roller coaster of emotion, all of which started last Sunday with the Super bowl. I was one of the few people outside of Illinois who was rooting for the Bears. I was elated to have them score on the opening kickoff, only to find myself hunkered down in the cold dark depths of defeat several hours later. I will leave the complete details of my personal life for some other time, but on the whole it has been a rather enjoyable week. The other day in a fit of nostalgia, I purchased a Sega Genesis compellation for my Playstation 2. It contained such classics as Phantasy Star, Alex Kid, and Golden Axe. To many of you these game titles may seem like strange pieces of a 32bit video game past that are not really important, and never experienced. But for the gamer of my generation it is something else. This is a past that will never be forgotten and these games are labeled as classics for a good reason. Many of the game writers of today were brought up on these same games, and thus have influenced their minds and game writing styles. No doubt you are saying to yourself, “very interesting (or not), but what on earth does this all have to do with Life-teen and religion? Well, I would draw a correlation between the history of video games and the history of Christianity. As it has been said, “We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.” This statement bears huge relevance on us as Catholics and even more on us as the younger generation of the Church. We are standing on two-thousand years of teaching, tradition and saints. They lift us up and allow us to see much further than we can on our own. This is something that many Christians of the varying protestant denominations have lost. They are like dwarfs who have climbed down from the giant and claim to be able to see much more because they are free of the giant and able go and do whatever they want. Just as video game programmers are indebted to and influenced by past generations, so to are Christians. As Catholics we are fortunate enough to have our deposit of faith to help us and guide us. Maybe this connection is something that only a mind as weird as mine would ever think up, but maybe not. Anyway, I hope you all remember that there is no Life-teen this week because I want all of you to come to the parish mission this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening. Likewise, there is no Life-teen next week because of Presidents day weekend. Life-teen will resume on February 25 and I want every one to try and bring one of the other high schoolers that you see at the Life-teen mass, but that never makes it over to the gym afterwards.

Life-teen update (02-04-2007)

2008-03-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again Life-teeners, as no doubt most of you are acutely aware, today is the Sunday of all Sunday’s, the Superbowl. This year it pits the Chicago Bears against the Indianapolis Colts. Seeing as it is Superbowl Sunday, I was thinking about the various correlations between the spiritual life and the athletic life. According to the late John Paul II, "Sports are not merely the exercise of muscles, but the school of moral values and of training in courage, in perseverance, and in overcoming laziness and carelessness. There is no doubt that these values are of greatest interest for the formation of a personality which considers sports not an end in itself but as a means to total and harmonious physical, moral and social development." For me, this quote sums up why I love sports so much, and why I am so competitive when I step onto the field. Sports are not to be seen as an end in and of themselves, but rather the means to making us well rounded sons and daughters of God. We should train ourselves spiritually in the same way that a professional athlete trains himself physically. This means prayer on a daily basis and paying attention at Mass. While a professional athlete makes his worldly living by maintaining a high level of physical conditioning, we as Catholics are maintaining something far more important through our prayer life. We are maintaining our spiritual lives, which will continue on long after our bodies are picking turnips with a stepladder. The modern world likes to try to downplay the spiritual part of our nature, but I felt it was worth bringing up here none the less.

Life-teen update (01-28-2007)

2008-03-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

February is fast approaching and you know what that means, all the discount Valentine’s day candy that you can eat will be available for your sampling pleasure in only a few short weeks. This is a yearly ritual that I look forward to with no small amount of fear and trepidation. How can I sample all of the various new delicacies out there on the market and still eat my fill of all my favorite chocolates without making my self disgustingly sick? In short the answer is, of course, that I can’t. This inability most certainly does not stem from a lack of strong desire, but more from a lack of ability to eat large quantities of chocolate without becoming rather ill for the next several days. This is a good thing. It is like a built in mechanism that God has given me to prevent my overindulgence around the various holiday seasons that involve the reduced price of chocolate. Left to my own devices, I would cause my body physical damage, but if I get sick before that particular point than the seriousness of the damage is greatly reduced. This is not unlike our spiritual life. If we have a properly formed conscience then we will realize that we are getting closer and closer to sin before we actually fall into it. This is why it is so important to come to Mass on Sunday and youth group. Our conscience is a gift from God telling us what is right and wrong. If we fail to form it correctly than we will be less likely to know when our actions are leading us away from our God who loves us. The Church is here to help us with that formation. My exploits of this past week have allowed me to come in contact with several people’s consciences and how they make their decisions. While I was up at the high school this past Wednesday I met some people who desired the pizza that I was carrying. They asked me who I was, why I was up at the high school, the usual runaround. Then they asked about the pizza. I explained that I was a youth minister and had come to meet with anyone from my youth group who would be willing to have lunch with me. They asked about who was in my youth group, and then asked if they could join. I told them that they would be welcome to come at Life-teen, but that me giving out pizza was not dependent on it. We talked a bit more and I gave them the rest of the pizza to share at their table. You may draw what conclusions you wish from my little adventure, but I found the whole thing rather thought provoking.

Life-teen update (01-21-2007)

2008-03-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations Life-Teeners. I apologize for my long absence from Wenatchee, but needless to say I have now returned and am ready to face the challenges that 2007 might bring my way. To help me face these potentially hazardous and life threatening challenges I decided that I needed a stalwart companion (spiritually stalwart, not physically) to help and guide me. Thus I embarked on an intrepid journey to the nether reaches of North West Washington and have returned with a wife. For those of you who have not yet had the opportunity to meet her, her name is Katie and I am hoping to drag her along to Life-teen occasionally. All this being said I hope that you all had an enjoyable Christmas break and a smooth start to winter term. I was not able to make it up to the high school this past week because I have been trying to catch up on some things from before Christmas break. I will, however, be making my usual rounds this coming Wednesday. Whether or not I will be traveling in the company of either Juan or a greasy mass of pizza has yet to be determined, but I am hoping to have both with me when I arrive. For some reason more people seem willing to come and talk to me when I have one, or both of these companions with me. For those of you who have been crying yourselves to sleep at night as a result of Life-teen withdrawals, your night has come, and that night is tonight. That’s right, Life-teen resumes tonight, January 21, 2007. My original thought for a Welcome to 2007 Life-night involved a troupe highly trained acrobatic squirrels doing back flips through flaming rings doom, all the while juggling acorns and whistling Dixi. However, budget constraints being what they are and the squirrels insisting on hibernating during January, the core team and I have come up with something else instead. While not quite as death defying as the back-flipping squirrels I still think you will enjoy it. So come one, come all and discover what is in store at this weeks Life-teen.

Life-teen update (12-31-2006)

2008-03-18T10:51:00.001-07:00

Greetings, salutations, and a happy New Year to you all. As some of you are reading this you may even be on you way to a New Year’s party somewhere. If this is so, than congratulations. I on the other hand am probably not on my way to a New Year’s party. I am either there, or not there. I find it far to dangerous to drive and read the bulletin at the same time, especially when the roads are icy. It is important at this time for us to remember that the twelve days of Christmas will be coming to an end rather shortly. This means if you were going to get someone a partridge in a pair tree (or something equally ridiculous) then your time is rapidly expiring. Our lovely (and in some cases musical) twelve days of Christmas will be culminating with the feast of Epiphany on January 6. I have always been a big fan of Epiphany, which is traditionally celebrated as the day the three Magi brought their gifts to Jesus. Epiphany gifts are great ideas because you can put off your shopping until the last minute and get things half price with the after Christmas sales. This year I am an even bigger fan then normal because it is the date Katie and I chose to get married. I must admit that I am looking forward to my wedding immensely. Greg will be taking over Life-teen for me when we return on January 7, and he has something planned that I think you will all find very enjoyable. There will also be an Epiphany party here at the church, which I recommend that you all attend. There are, no doubt, more details about the party elsewhere here in the bulletin. Also, there is no Life-teen on January 13 do to Martin Luther King jr. day on the 14. Well, that about does it for what I have to say this week. I recommend you all have an enjoyable day and a very blessed Epiphany and I would ask that you all keep me in my prayers as I prepare for my wedding.

Life-teen update (12-24-2006)

2008-03-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

To quote Carroll’s Walrus, “The time has come to talk of many things: of shoes- and ships- and sealing wax- of cabbages and kings- and why the sea is boiling hot- and whether pigs have wings.” I recommend taking Carroll’s fine words and committing them to memory. You can then spit them back out at one of the many Christmas or New Years parties that you will be attending. If you have already used up your supply of party invitations then I definitely recommend getting invited to another one just so you can recite this little poem. No doubt you are now wondering why I would ask you to remember this little ditty and what could it possibly have to do with Christmas? Or maybe you are among those who think that my cheese has finally slipped off my cracker. Regardless of which group you may happen to belong to, I actually had a point. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Walrus and the Carpenter, they appear in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. The Walrus and the Carpenter are walking along the beach and meet a bunch of oysters, whom they invite to join them. They then lead the oysters up the beach and eat them. The reason I want you to think about this is because it is an easy trap to fall into around Christmas. We must remember that Christ is the reason for Christmas, not Santa Clause. Now I enjoy getting Christmas presents as much as the next guy, but we should stop and make sure that we thank God for those gifts that have been given to us. It is also good to remember that the Incarnation was the greatest gift that could be given to anyone, and it was given to us, but we still have to accept it. If anyone actually chooses to recite this small portion of Carroll’s work, I would be interested to know the reaction of those around you. Don’t let the world lead us astray from our oyster bed of Christianity and devour our souls with consumerism. Rather resist the secular and shout Merry Christmas and God Bless from the rooftops, but be careful because rooftops are icy and I wouldn’t want anyone to fall and get hurt. May all of you have a very blessed Christmas and I will see you all at youth group soon. Remember, there is no Life-teen on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve.

Life-teen update (12-17-2006)

2008-03-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

We have now reached that joyous and festive time in the middle of Advent that I have been warning everyone about for several weeks, pink… I mean Gaudete Sunday. We are now entering into the third week of Advent and Christmas is fast approaching. This means that your time to buy Christmas presents is severely limited. If you are like me and you still haven’t even started doing any Christmas shopping yet then Gaudete Sunday also means that you should rejoice that you still have a week in which begin and finish said shopping. Procrastinators can rejoice because it means that they still have a whole week before they need to freak out of their minds. All in all rejoicing is a very enjoyable way to spend ones time. I was able to get my rejoicing started a little bit early by heading up to the high school this past Wednesday. I rejoiced because people came up to me and talked to me without taking any of the pizza that I had brought to share. Now my critics might jump to the conclusion that this was simply because they were wrestlers and they couldn’t eat my greasy, tasty, wholesome pizza without risking a weight gain. This may be true, but I would choose to counter with my argument that I am supposed to be on a diet to lose weight before my wedding (which is at least 3x as much fun as a wrestling meet) and I still managed to munch down two pieces. I prefer to think that they chose to come and talk to me simply because they wanted to and they left the pizza for those who needed a little more encouragement. Over all it was a very enjoyable trip and I even stuck around and attended part of a history class in order to watch a video on immigration (There was a section on the Irish). Next week I will be coming up on Tuesday because by Wednesday many of you will have joined Tim up on the slopes as you rejoice over your Christmas break. Tuesday night is also the night of our Christmas party. The Poirier family has been nice enough to allow us to celebrate the coming of Christ at their house, so if you see them please remember to say thank you. I will have directions for you all at Life-teen. Remember that it is ok and encouraged to bring a friend with you. For those of you who are curious about what we will be doing over Christmas break, I have decided to give you all Christmas Eve and New Years Eve off. This means that you will have to go two whole weeks with out regularly scheduled Life-teen fix, but please feel free to stop by the Church any time over the break and see me in the office. I am always here, except when I am not. We will resume Life-teen on January 7 at our regularly scheduled time and place.

Life-teen update (12-10-2006)

2008-03-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations to one and all! As we bravely embark on our journey into the second week of Advent I wish to impart a small piece of wisdom that I have learned. Gaudete Sunday (the third Sunday in Advent) does not translate into English as “Pink Sunday.” To continually refer to it as pink Sunday will, in fact, irritate some priests to the point of causing them to say uncharitable things to you, or so I hear. Gaudete, as we discussed at our life night last week means rejoice. Our entrance antiphon on this Sunday would be “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! The Lord is near.” There are many things for us to rejoice about and prepare for during this Advent season (Christmas season still hasn’t started). For example this week I prepared to go make my weekly visit to see all of you up at the high school. However, my partner in crime/evangelization, Juan Godina, was not available to come up with me. He got a letter from the bishop summoning him to Yakima to participate in a series of talks on how to be a priest and left me out to dry without any kind of transportation. For those of you who are unaware, my car has been giving me a large quantity of trouble recently and I have chosen to walk everywhere rather than argue with it. Thus I owe all of you an apology for not coming over to the high school this week like I promised. On the bright side I should have my car up and running by next week, so please just save your enthusiasm and we will overpower the cafeteria with our joy and reckless abandon for Christ next week. Remember, it is Advent, and Advent is all about waiting, sacrifice, and penance. In addition to being forced to wait a bit longer for me to return to the high school, we are also waiting for our Advent/Christmas party, which will be held on December 19, so mark it on your calendars. This is on a Tuesday night, but since you don’t have any school I though it would be a great opportunity to stay out late and have a party. We will have all kinds of food, fun, and festivities to celebrate the upcoming birthday of Christ. All high schoolers are invited to attend no matter which youth group you normally go to, or even if you don’t come to youth group at all. You are also invited and encouraged to bring any friends who may want to join us in for our festive gathering. All that being said, I want to remind you all that you are in my prayers in a special way during this Advent season, and I hope that I am in yours as well. God bless and I will see you all at Life-teen.

Life-teen update (12-03-2006)

2008-03-18T10:46:00.001-07:00

First and foremost I want to be the first one to wish all of you a happy new year. Happy new year you say? That is correct, happy new year. This being the first Sunday of Advent, it is officially the beginning of the new liturgical year. So scream it from the rooftops, throw a handful of confetti in the air, and maybe make an advent resolution. Maybe try to find some particular way to grow closer to Christ during this season of preparation for his birth. Or not, it is all up to you. For those of you who have been praying for me to make it back from the Olympic Peninsula safe and sound I can personally confirm that your prayers have been answered. Whether or not this makes me the answer to your prayers remains the subject of some debate, but I was able to dig my poor car out from under two feet of snow, defrost the frozen parking brake with a blowtorch, and fight all the crazies on the road in order to return safely to Wenatchee. This of course means that all youth group activities will resume as scheduled this week (pause for applause). As I am writing this little article, I am also preparing to leave for the national youth minister’s conference. Baring any kind of unforeseen weather or airport problems, I will give all of you a full rundown of my adventures either at youth group or in next weeks bulletin. As Christmas approaches myself and the core team are working feverishly to put together some kind Christmas party. We are not sure yet on the exact date, but we certain that it will be more fun than a sack of hammers. For those of you going on vacation during your holiday break, we are sorry if you miss the party. If any of you have any ideas or thoughts on things that you would like to see or do at said Christmas festivities, please let me know and I will try to incorporate it. Well, that about raps up all the current updates on my life, so I will continue to pray for all of you and see you at youth group. On a parting note, if you have any friends that are not Catholic, or even some that are and do not come to youth group, please feel free to invite them to join us at both our Christmas party and our Sunday life-nights.

Life-teen update (11-26-2006)

2008-03-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

By the time most of you are reading this you will have finished at least one Thanksgiving dinner (I plan on eating at least two), watched a football game or two, and once again wondered what the name of the chemical is in turkey the makes you want to fall asleep. I personally think that it is a great defense mechanism gone wrong. The turkey needs to find some way to make predators fall asleep before he gets eaten, not after he is already been turned into dinner, but enough about turkeys and there mortal, non-rational souls. This past week I attended the diocesan youth convention down in Kennewick. I spent a good portion of the drive down to the Tri-Cities crying because none of you wanted to come with me. I got lost while trying to find the church where the youth convention was being held. Just as things were beginning to look hopeless for our hero, he saw a sign from the heavens. There on the horizon was a Chinese super buffet, and right next to it was a Christian bookstore. The Super buffet lived up to its name and provided sustenance to continue the journey and the Christian bookstore provided directions, so our hero was no longer lost. After finally finding my way to the convention I was able to attend a workshop on how to live out your Catholic faith in the modern world. It was an excellent workshop that I think all of you would have enjoyed. Also during this weekend I found out about The Episcopal Church saying that it was merciful to starve babies to death or withhold medical treatment if they were born disabled or prematurely. The main point of the workshop on living out our Catholic faith was that in order to live out our faith, we first have to know and understand it. This is where coming to youth group, confirmation class, etc. come into play. Having now descended from my soap box, I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Remember that there is no youth group this week for either the high school or the middle school. There is also no Confirmation class this week, so sleep in and recover from all the shopping that may or may not have occurred on Friday. God bless.

Life-teen update (11-19-2006)

2008-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again Life-teen fans. This past week has brought excitement and fun in what can only be described as metric tons. However, since the United States does not subscribe to the metric system, and there were no Canadians handy to transcribe it over for me, I was forced to come up with my own equation for figuring out a metric of fun. First I took all of the fun we all had in the last week x 3 (the triune God had fun too) + 12 (for the apostles who were praying for our fun) + 1 guardian angel for each of us (who are God’s messengers to us on how to have fun) – 3 (for Brutus, Cascious, and Judas who are in the center of Dante’s hell and not having any fun at all) = one metric ton of fun. After figuring that we had a metric ton of fun during this past week, you all have no idea of how difficult it was to hide a metric ton of fun from our local fish and wildlife commission who state that anything over one cubic meter of fun requires a special permit do to potential ecological damage and disruption of habitat for the local mosquito population. All this aside, you may be wondering exactly how we all had so much fun this week? I am glad that you asked. First of all we must examine some of the current weather trends here in the state of Washington. While other places in the state were being washed away by flash floods, or left shivering in the dark due to power outages; we were blessed by God with at least two incredibly beautiful days of refreshingly brisk weather. When I made my weekly trek up to the high school I brought some pizza with me. This of course made my popularity instantly skyrocket. I felt like the king of the high school, benevolent and loved by all, until the pizza ran out. At this point I felt more like someone who should have brought more than four pizzas if he was planning to feed the whole of Wenatchee High School. Oh well, I managed to escape with my life and most of you were able to escape with a piece of pizza. If I ever bring pizza again I will first devise a clever way to distribute it in secret. This week I felt more like a drug dealer peddling my wares in front of the local courthouse and saying things like “psst, hey person in my youth group, do you want a piece of pizza?” If I was caught actually opening up the box I was instantly set upon by hordes of pizza deprived students, each claiming to be more hungry and and closer to starvation than the last, until the entire pizza had been ravenously (an excellent cocktail party word, but a poor cocktail party attitude) devoured. Once again I was glad that I took Juan with me. Our surly seminarian snarled smugly and silently at any suspicious students (use of alliteration will probably get you punched in the face at a cocktail party because you will appear to be a snobbish jerk, so write it, don’t say it). Ok, so Juan isn’t really surly and I don’t think he had to snarl at anyone, but he did help out the ladies in the office with his mad translation skills and he helped me set up our pizza table. When it was all said and done we were able to spread the Word of God to some of the students via our free gift of pizza, just like God shares his love with us through the free gift of himself in His Son. Juan and I decided that next time we need to make t-shirts. These past two weeks at Life-teen have been, in my humble opinion, very good. There have been a lot of questions asked and some of them have managed to slip through the cracks. For example when five people ask me questions simultaneously and when I am done answering the first one, five more completely different questions are asked, and so on, you can see how I might not answer a couple. This is not because I don’t know the answer or because your questions are not good or important, it simply stems from the fact that when things like this happen I tend to get overwhelmed by more questions than I can answer at a single time. This being said, please bring your questions to youth group. If you truly want to believe in God, than get to know him. Ask questions about him. Ask questions about the Church. Ask, ask, ask and I will continue to answer as many questions as I am able. Please remember that I don’t guarantee that you will like the answer that you will receive, only that it will be the truth. All that being said I have a few announcements about important upcoming dates. Next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend. There will be no Life-teen this weekend, as I expect many of you to be exhausted after eating as much Turkey as possible. There will also be no Confirmation class on Monday the 27. I hope you all have a great break and come back the following week completely rejuvenated and ready to talk about God. May the blessings of God rest upon each of you during this upcoming break and protect you from harm, especially if you are going to be doing any traveling.

Life-teen update (11-12-2006)

2008-03-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

This weeks adventures in the life of a youth minister involve intense pain and suffering, the thrill of victory, and the bitter taste of defeat; and all this on Monday night while playing dodge ball with the middle school group. I guess I could some up the whole thing by just saying that it was a lot of fun, but where is the joy in taking the short road? My right shoulder has almost made a complete recovery. For those of you wondering what to expect this week at Life-teen, all I can say is make sure you bring a solid pair of athletic shoes to change into after mass. How this is really different from any other week I’m not really certain, but you have been warned. By this point I am sure that you have all received a registration form for the upcoming youth rally down in Kennewick on November 17-19. We have been talking about this for quite some time now, so I hoe that you have been able to decide whether or not you are planning on attending. If you are I need all of your paperwork by Monday November 13. This allows me enough time to try and arrange for all of us to make our pilgrimage down to the Tri-Cities, (whooping and screaming all the way I am sure) without leaving anyone behind crying on the corner of Elliot and Cherry. This week I also made my second visit up to the high school for lunch. Whereas last time I was only able to make it for first lunch, this week I only made it to second lunch. I have decided that I enjoy second lunch much more than I liked first lunch. I think that there may be some type of direct correlation (cocktail party word) between my enjoyment of lunch and the number of people who come and talk to me. This week I drug our ever faithful seminarian Juan Godina with me. My plot was that when people would see Juan, they would naturally want to go over and talk to him. I would then jump out of the shadows where I had been lurking and join the conversation. My plan worked brilliantly and Juan and I were able to corner five or six of you before we had to head back to the church, we even got invited back for lunch on Thursday, but alas, were unable to attend. That about brings us to speed on everything that has happened in my life this week. A bit boring I know, but next week I might slay a dragon or something like that. The only way to find out is to keep reading the bulletin (though all dragon slayings are also announced at youth group as a matter of protocol

Life-teen update (10-29-2006)

2008-03-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

As another beautiful Wenatchee week rears its morose, homework-ridden head to attack us while we attempt to sleep in on Monday morning, take heart. Before the school week can jump on you faster than a starving Somalian refugee on a plate of free hamburgers, God is there. “There” you say? “Where exactly is ‘there?’ ” I am glad you asked. Since we are all good solid Catholics (as opposed to hopeless pagan followers of Zeus) we get to have a God who is incorporeal ( a very classy word to use at a cocktail party), which is a nice big fancy word that means He does not have a physical body. This means if you already bought your plane tickets for Greece to visit him on Mount Olympus you might want to see about getting a refund. Instead I highly recommend coming to this weeks life night after the 5:30 Mass. While God might be omnipresent (another great cocktail party word meaning that he is present everywhere), he will be particularly present as we celebrate the Eucharist at Mass. After Mass all are invited over to the life night in the school gym. This week we are attempting to put together a coffee shop atmosphere where you can talk freely amongst yourselves. This stands in sharp contrast to our normal atmosphere of having Jeremy stand up and monologue for an hour while everyone sits back and longs for a tomato to throw. Thus, two things will be different from last week. 1. More participation will be needed from all those involved, except Jeremy, and 2. Tomato stock is expected to fall in an amount directly proportional to #1. All this being said please come over right after Mass. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to attend such fantastic things as a St. Joseph’s Life-Night, then this is your big chance. All are welcome to come over and have a cup of hot chocolate while enjoying the company and delightful conversation of your peers. If you have recently been out of town, really busy with homework, fighting off invaders from other solar systems, or missing youth group for any number of other perfectly valid reasons, then this is your call to return. While we may not have enough fun to choke a camel this week, we can certainly try.