Welcome to the New Holy Family Youth Ministry Blog!!

Greetings!!  It's been a while.  The Pope sent out his first tweet today on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and so what better day to begin posting again on our blog?  And with this new beginning, a new look.  Don't let the silence fool you.  Holy Family's Youth Ministry has been busier than ever.  We were trying to send our Youth Group to WYD 2013, raising funds like crazy.  Well, we're on track to send a small group--not the whole group, unfortunately, but it's a good start.

Today on this great feast, we want to give a huge shout out to young Mexican Catholics, and pray that they continue devoted to Our Lady and her mission to bring Christ into the world.  What message does Our Lady have for the youth of today.  I think of those words of hers: "No temas. ¿No estoy yo aquí, que soy tu Madre?" ["Don't be afraid.  Am I not here, I, your mother?"]  Mothers, and all those maternal figures in our lives, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers--they are such gifts and we take them for granted when we're young.  Recently, a member of our youth group lost his grandmother.  Our prayers go out for him.  In the same week, breast cancer took away a woman I knew, someone's aunt, and in a way, she was the aunt of every young person that knew her.  And then there's another friend who must face possibly losing her mother early.  These people remind me of all those young people who grow up without mothers, without parents, without family.  Or who having mothers and family, don't have them, who live in their neglect.  There's a Spanish television show, La Rosa de Guadalupe, and the episode today was about such a kid, a teenager whose parents ignored him and who lost the only person who gave him maternal affection, his grandmother.  He is different from his classmates at school and gets mercilessly abused by teachers and classmates alike, growing more angry and hateful by the day.  He stumbles on a website of similarly angry young people and find out how to gain access to firearms.  He and a misfit comrade decide to plan a school shooting.  As he's holding a gun to one of his classmates' head he sees a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and he remembers his grandmothers' words about how the tender gaze of the Blessed Mother looks with love on all her children and he has a change of heart.  It's a fictional story, but the transformative power of a mother's love is real.  How fortunate we are as Catholics that we never have to worry about being motherless.  As our Lord promised us, "I will not leave you orphans."  

Pray today for those children, those young people who do not have their mothers or who have lost maternal figures they love, for those whose relationships with their mothers are not good.  We pray for those young people who are lonely, neglected, angry, hateful, that they might feel the transformative power of Our Blessed Mother's love, the hope that she gives us in the promise of that new birth, the fruit of her womb, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Lastly, we're not yet on Twitter (the Pope beat us to the punch) but Like us on Facebook.    

Back to School Blues

Summer doesn't technically end until September 22, but we know it's really over when school begins and we're already in the season of the back to school blues. Instead of moping and dragging yourself to buy school supplies, why not sit back and remember what those early days of summer did look like, and try to soak in more of those good times while you can.  After all, school is still out until September.  Photos of the Holy Family Pool party/bbq bash courtesy of Michael Peguero.

Meditation: Summer!!

So the summer is here.  School is almost out if not out already.  What’s cool about the summer, at least at the beginning, is the change of routine.  You’re free of routine the first few days or weeks, and maybe even the whole summer for some.  I think that’s why the summer is the time for planning and intention.  Routine kills so many of our plans.  But then there’s always summer.  “This summer, I’m going to…”  We really live in the summer.  But how do we live our faith in the summer?  If the summer is the time to break with routine, it should be a great opportunity for our faith, a time to freshen it up, break out of mechanical mode—a time to really live it.  What does that mean, though?  I suppose it will mean differently for each person.  For many of us, summer is the time where we break out of routine walls and enjoy nature.  I realize that the God of and in nature is a God I’m not too familiar with.  I’m a city person.  I see God in art and architecture and man-made structures.  It’d be cool to take this opportunity to see God in what He’s made.  Nature.  Then there is love.  Literature and film are filled with stories of summer love.  The rule with the summer love, what makes it so special and exhilarating, is that it must end when the summer does.  How to translate this element to the faith will be hard since, of course, you don’t want your love story with God to end.  Of course the thing about the summer love is that though it ends, it really doesn’t.  That’s what the story is about, the enduring impact of that summer love.  The encounter ends, but the impact does not.  So it’s about being open to a temporal spiritual encounter with a lasting effect.  For me, my summer loves have been with the saints.  I’ll try to find a new saint to meet in the summer, and read his/her book or biography and see if I fall in love.  Sometimes there’s no spark.  It’s edifying, it’s a good read, but I didn’t fall in love.  Sometimes I fall in the gradual love, where I reflect with the saint for a while and realize this relationship is going for the long haul.  But sometimes you have that real summer love.  It’s intense, your soul is on fire, you remodel your whole life by this saint’s wisdom—but only for the summer.  When the routine starts up again, you go back to your old ways, you never pick up the book again but the memory of its wisdom and how it touched your life that summer lingers and though everything goes back to normal, normal is just a bit different because of it.  Last but not least: throughout the school year, it’s the three r’s but in the summer, it’s the two.  Rest and relaxation.  Summer can be a time of spiritual r& r, too.  A good time maybe for a retreat, if you can.  But when you can’t make an external retreat, you can make an internal one.  I think of the boat method in contemplative prayer.  Sitting on the beach and just letting your thoughts pass by on the boats or on the waves.  Summer’s a nice time to let your soul rest, to stop beating yourself up about whatever it is you’ve been beating yourself up about, to hang out at that contemplative beach and let your spiritual body hang lose and say “it is well with my soul.” And if anything isn’t well with your soul—drop it off at the confessional and let it sail away.

Holy Family Young Adult Ministers' Retreat- June 05, 2011

Holy Family's Young Adult team of Youth Ministers organized a retreat on June 5 at St. Joseph's Seminary.  Entitled "Speak, Lord, for Your Servant is Listening," the retreat gave us a chance to get to know each other by listening to each other's stories, to hear God's personal call to each of us with some contemplative prayer, and after a morning of listening, we began preparing what we were going to say to the congregation about our ministry.  It was a wonderful retreat.  Check out these pictures that documented the day, courtesy of Mike Peguero. 

Man of the Cloth--Fr. Andrew's Radio Interview

While traveling to North Carolina to speak to the youth at Elon University (see previous post for the full commencement sermon), Holy Family Youth's spiritual director Fr. Andrew stopped to interview with NPR's Frank Stasio on his ministry with Goods of Conscience.  You can hear the interview right here!

Commencement Wisdom

It's that time of year again.  You're either graduating or you're attending someone else's graduation.  To the Class of 2011 and to the proud parents and guardians, CONGRATULATIONS!!!  If you've been trying to think of something insightful, inspiring, and wise to give as a graduation gift, instead of spending $14.95 on David Foster Wallace's This Is Water or whatever commencement address has been printed, packaged, and stacked in the graduation gifts section of Barnes and Noble this year, for less than half the price you can pick up some nice stationery, print out the commencement sermon of Holy Family's own Father Andrew, delivered this past Friday at Elon University, and give your favorite graduate a special piece of local wisdom.  Whether you're graduating or not, know someone who's graduating or not, Fr. Andrew's address on "The Currency of Bees" is sure to help you reflect on life's priorities and discover what God made you to bee (pun intended). Check it out!

The Currency of Bees

"There Be Dragons" Opening TODAY!

There Be Dragons, a film from the director of The Mission featuring the story of St. Josemaria Escriva ("every saint has a past, every sinner has a future" is the film's slogan) opens today, playing in AMC Empire 25 and AMC Village Theater 7.  See the synopsis below as well as the trailer. 

There Be Dragons is an epic action-adventure romance set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. The story traces the lives of two young men, Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox) and Manolo Torres (Wes Bentley), childhood friends who are separated by the political upheaval of pre-war Spain to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. Choosing peace, Josemaria becomes a priest and struggles to spread reconciliation by founding the movement Opus Dei (work of God).
Manolo chooses war and becomes a spy for the fascists. He becomes obsessed with a beautiful Hungarian revolutionary, Ildiko, who has joined the militia in pursuit of passion and purpose. But when Ildiko rejects him out of love for the courageous militia leader Oriol, Manolo's jealousy leads him down a path of betrayal.
As personal and national battles rage, the characters' lives collide and their deepest struggles are illuminated through the fateful choices they make. Each will struggle to find the power of forgiveness over the forces tearing their lives and friendship apart.