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Author Archives: Todd Lemieux

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Ministering in the Midst of Terror: A Youth Minister’s Reflection on 9/11

By | September 10, 2011

I need to make a disclaimer, if only to bring myself peace. I was probably less involved in the events of 9/11 than most anyone in the area. I had just moved to Long Island 18 months before. I didn’t know a lot of people. There is nothing that I did that was “heroic” or “spectacular.” I’m writing this from my own perspective. I’m not saying that anything I did was right or wrong. I’m not making any political statements. This is simply how I remember this event and its impact in

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Ministry is Hard. But It Works.

By | February 1, 2010

Today you have a choice. You have the same choice every single day. Unless every single person in your town knows your story, knows your ministry, knows what you do, and knows who you serve, then you have work to do. The work is difficult. The work takes a thick skin. The work takes a lot of prayer so that we have the grace to do what we are doing.

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Be Not Afraid

By | January 18, 2010

There is that moment when we have to make a decision to either go for it, or sit back. That moment when we allow ourselves to rest comfortably in what we know or strike out into the unknown. John Paul II was fond of saying “be not afraid.” So was the Bible. Why is it so difficult to live that phrase?

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Kids Walk When They Want To

By | January 12, 2010

If you are in ministry it can be pretty frustrating when you are trying to convey the Gospel to others and they just don’t seem to want to latch on to it. You try everything.

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Note to Self

By | December 12, 2009

Do you have a note to yourself? Every time I start to lose perspective, I use Twitter and send this little note out to myself. Note to self: pray more, love wife and family more, love people and use things, don’t eat crap, the law of the gift, work don’t waste For me it is enough of a kick in the tail to keep me on track for what I am doing at that moment. The order of the parts of the note are deliberately set for me to keep my perspective in focus and to keep me from going crazy looking at

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I Survived Parish Bingo

By | October 22, 2009

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published on Todd’s website, The Sainthood Project. I don’t know if your Church or ministry runs a bingo program to raise money for various things. I don’t know what your personal feelings are about bingo. The following is completely true. I was working at a parish later in the afternoon in which the office I was working was attached to the elementary school that the parish runs. That evening, bingo was to start at 7.30 pm, and it was 4.30 when I noticed

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It is in Giving that We Receive

By | September 24, 2009

Editors Note: This article was originally published on Todd’s website about modern-day sainthood: www.sainthoodandsurrender.com St. Francis is my Confirmation saint. I love the guy. Loved his life, loved his mission, loved his total abandon. By the outpouring of people that are following in his footsteps, I’m not the only one. One of the things that I love is the prayer that is attributed to him because I think that it shows the absolute holy foolishness of Creation that our world still has not

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Your Journey is Long and Hard. Keep Things in Perspective

By | July 29, 2009

Editors Note: This blog is based off an article Todd Lemieux published on his website called The Sainthood Project. I caught about 20 minutes of the insanity that is the show “Ice Road Truckers” as I was flipping through the channels late the other night. These guys drive shipping trucks across the worst roads on the planet and maybe even worse than roads on Mars. They drive through the northern most parts of Alaska, on ice roads and through snow drifts. It was pretty amazing to watch. It follows