I look to all the saints as examples of holiness, but it’s the ones who were married that bring a special curiousness to my heart. We are in need of being inspired to live out our vocations, whatever they may be. I think many of our generation look at marriage and think, “wait, what . . . holy?”
As Youth Ministers, it’s always easy to get caught up in the difficulties of youth ministry, especially this time of year. And while it’s always important to confront our struggles and challenges, we need to spend just as much time, if not more, counting our joys.
So what’s wrong with our obsession with gear? Well, maybe nothing if we are buying these items to serve God in our ministries and get the best possible sound for our praise of God. But, if I have to be honest, there have been several times in my own life when the gear has consumed me and I began to lose my focus. Is our goal to have the biggest or best mixing console out of all the musicians we know or is our goal to make great music and serve God through it?
With Mothers Day approaching this Sunday, I can’t think of a better time to reflect on what our Mother means to us. I mean Mary, of course, the Blessed Mother. Very recently I became relentlessly re-quoted by two friends because I kept repeating “but Mary is the new Eve” during a discussion about Mary. It just seemed like that connection could close the discussion from any angle. How many of us think about it this way? We call Jesus the new Adam, which in itself is a very amazing concept.
I was tired of living paycheck to paycheck, so I took a part-time job as a personal trainer. (Cha Ching). Ready to make the big bucks, I shadowed around another trainer for a week. Finally, it was time for me to hit the floor and start working with clients. I motivated them as they did crunches. I drilled them as they worked their legs. I pushed them to improve their cardio . . .
God always answers our prayers – There are three answers that He can give us: Yes, No, and Not Now. The hardest one for us to ever hear is “No.” I remember my parents telling me “No” many times as a child. It was hard to accept because I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do. As I grew up, I came to realize that it is because they knew what was best for me. It’s the same way with God. He knows what we need, when we need it. If we don’t need it, the answer is “No.” This is also true when our prayers are for others. He knows what everyone needs, when they need it.
In the past couple of months, I have been challenged in ways that I didn’t think would ever be possible. However, that isn’t even the strangest part. The person that has been bringing those challenges my way is what has been the most surprising. As a youth minister, it is easy to fall into complacency within your faith. It’s not something that happens because we want it to, but we can become very wrapped up in ministry. In fact, we can become so immersed with what we are doing for the
In a homily I recently heard, the priest told a story about being challenged to recognize how good things were. He told us that in the busyness of trying to juggle everything it was easy to miss that the Lord’s goodness was abundant. It’s not a stretch to see how easy that is to do in youth ministry. We know youth ministry is hard work. We can be working on environments for Life Nights, trying to find a chaperone for a retreat, scheduling what events we’ll get to this week, checking
One of the first and best pieces of advice I learned early on as a high school journalist was K.I.S.S. — Keep it simple, stupid. I am going to propose the same for this Lenten season. Keep it simple.
In her beauty, the Church seems to always find a way to keep it simple for us — seven sacraments, five precepts, you name it. With Lent, it’s also quite simple. Three things: prayer, fasting, almsgiving.
When dad calls us, we must discern that call to make sure it is really Him calling. But discernment isn’t enough, once we recognize that it is His voice, we must respond. We have to move. This is why prayer is so important to our everyday lives. It is in prayer that we begin to know the voice of the Father. It’s amazing to me that in a crowded room, full of noisy kids, you’re children recognize your voice when you call. It’s because they know you, and they know your voice.