From an article I read this morning. Courtesy:Catholic News Sevice.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cradle Catholics haven't done enough to show people that God exists and can bring true fulfillment to everyone, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of his former students.

"We, who have been able to know (Christ) since our youth, may we ask forgiveness because we bring so little of the light of his face to people; so little certainty comes from us that he exists, he's present and he is the greatness that everyone is waiting for," the pope said.

The pope presided at a Mass Aug. 28 in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, during his annual meeting with students who did their doctorates with him when he was a professor in Germany.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, a regular participant in the Ratzinger Schulerkreis (Ratzinger student circle), gave the homily at the Mass, but the pope made remarks at the beginning of the liturgy.

The Vatican released the text of the pope's remarks Aug. 29.

Pope Benedict highlighted the day's reading in Psalm 63 in which the soul thirsts for God "in a land parched, lifeless and without water.

He asked God to show himself to today's world, which is marked by God's absence and where "the land of souls is arid and dry, and people still don't know where the living water comes from."

May God let people who are searching for water elsewhere know that the only thing that will quench their thirst is God himself and that he would never let "people's lives, their thirst for that which is great, for fulfillment, drown and suffocate in the ephemeral," the pope told his former students.

However, it also is up to Christians to make God known to the world, the pope said, and older generations may not have done their best.

"We want to ask (God) to forgive us, that he renew us with the living water of his spirit and that he helps us to celebrate properly the sacred mysteries," he said.

The formal discussions of the "schulerkreis" this year focused on the new evangelization.

The closed-door seminar was held Aug. 25-28 in the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo and was attended by 40 people, reported L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

The pope chose two speakers to give lectures: Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, a female German theologian and professor, and Otto Neubauer, director of the Emmanuel Community's academy for evangelization in Vienna.

The lectures were followed by discussion among the participants, including the pope.

Summarizing the discussions for L'Osservatore Romano Aug. 27, Cardinal Schonborn said participants felt that recent World Youth Day events in Madrid represented a fresh "boost of renewed hope" for the church.

He said older generations have suffered by first living their faith at a time when church life was thriving, and today they are watching parishes lose so many parishioners.

But, today's young Catholics seem to realize they are a minority in a secular, relativistic world and have shown their "undaunted willingness to give witness to their peers in such an environment," he said.

Seminar participants saw the so-called "John Paul II and Benedict XVI generations" as a whole new phase for the church. No one thought young Catholics would be so open to being in "the courtyard of the Gentiles" to evangelize, said the cardinal.

He said the meeting also reflected on how to spread the Gospel in a secular world that nonetheless "shows that it is waiting to receive anew the Gospel message."

Be Not Afraid.

Be not afraid. That’s what John Paul II tells us as Catholic Youth. This picture is of a dear friend of mine, who is exactly that, "not afraid".

Its hard to "be not afraid". We're afraid of what people will say, what they will think, and how we will look if we told them that we are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

We barley hesitate to profess love for an athlete, or a singer. "Oh I love that band!" or " Yea, man, A-Rod is a BEAST." We fight for our favorite baseball team as if life depended on it. Even though the Yankees do stink...just sayin'... 

Why cant we stand up for our faith with as much enthusiasm?

Why? Why should we be afraid of professing a faith in something that is so much greater than any athlete or musician? Because we are human.  

But my brother in this picture, he takes Jesus on the field with him, and he doesn’t care what people would think or say. And if someone says something about it, or maybe dislikes him for it, than SO WHAT. Fifteen hundred years ago, a man could lose his life for wearing such a symbol. He would be crucified, and his children would be fed to lions. Yet we are afraid of a little ridicule.

I know I'm guilty of it. How many times have I denied Christ? Many, but God knows my heart, He knows that I try to be strong. My resolution for this upcoming school year is to follow JP II's advice, and be not afraid. I want to proclaim my love for Christ to all, so that word may get around school that I am a Christian, and willing to live up to such a label. I will take pride in my faith, and be a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

"Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in Heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
-- Matthew 5:11&12

My Late Great Uncle.

    Well, a few weeks ago, a very good man passed away. My great Uncle "JJ". He was really a great man, faithful Catholic, and was a good role model too me throughout my life. He was known as many things; dad, grandpa, brother, uncle, husband and 'Doc'.

   He once told me a story, about when he was younger and there was a priest that he was really close with at our parish. Now, my Uncle was an avid fisherman, and one day he had invited the priest to go fishing with him. Well, they go fishing, and they catch quite a few fish. After, this priest said to him
   "I must confess, I did a very bad thing coming here to fish with you today."
   "How?", asked my uncle.
   "Well," says the priest, "I was supposed to give Mass this morning…"

   You see, this priest had given up Mass, to go fishing with my uncle. And if that isn't a great testimony to how great of a man my uncle was, then I don’t know what is. 

   My uncle also once told me about a great way to look at confession, especially penance.  He told me a story of once, when he was little, asking a priest about penance.  Here's what the priest said:
   
   "You got a white fence at home? Every time you commit a sin, go home and put a little black nail in your fence. And after about a month when you next go to confession, make a good confession, and confess all those sins. And then go home, and pull all those nails out. Now what do you got? You got a bunch of holes, and now you have to fill them in with good stuff."

Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace.
May his soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God's mercy rest in peace

Pax Christi.

"My Spirit is Strong, But My Flesh Is Weak,"

Well, like any other teenage male, I struggle with certain "temptations". And I have been struggling with them for quite a while.  It is a "thorn in my side" as I like to call it. But unlike St. Paul, God didn’t give me the same response to my prayers. It is purely my own impurity that causes me to fall into temptation.

When I was younger, and first discovered such "pleasures" I thought they were pretty great. And I continued to indulge in them.  It was like I got on a train. A train that was leading me farther and farther from Christ. Once I realized that it was a sin, and that I should stop, it was too late, and I couldn’t. I was addicted. 

So I turned to the only thing that promised to bring me back to Christ, The Sacraments. I started to go to Confession, and confessed it over and over again. In 2 Corinthians, when Paul mentions his "thorn" he also says "For when I am weak, then I am strong." Just lately have I realized truly what this means.

I realized that in the sacrament of Reconciliation, we go to the priest when we are at our weakest, When we are sad, shameful, and desperate. But when the priest, acting in persona Christi- as the person of Christ-absolves us in the name of our God, he gives us strength. The strength to carry our cross.

He also gives us Grace. "For only my grace is sufficient for you."

I realize now, after reading over what I had just typed, God has answered my prayers in the same way that He answered Paul's, I just hadn't realized it. Wow. 

 "Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." I will rather boast most gladly of my weakness, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me." ------ 2 Corinthians  12:7-9 

Pax Christi.            

The Grace of Altar Serving.

Altar serving...Oh how I love it so!

I feel that altar serving is one of the greatest tools of discernment. Because when one is assisting the priest in something that only the priest can do, its like getting an "exclusive pass" to the greatest prayer ever. Personally, I feel that God bestows certain graces on me while I am altar serving, graces that really strengthen His call.

When I am not serving, I am always watching the servers, and sometimes get a little too distracted. And I always long to be serving when I am not. Its like an addiction-an addiction to the grace of service. And the cassock. Definitely an addiction to wearing a cassock....hahahahaha.

Just today, I altar served for my Great Uncle's funeral Mass. He was a great man, and will be truly missed. He gave me some great advice, advice I might share in another post. But altar serving for his Mass, it wasn't done for me, it was done for him. He was proud that I want to be a priest, and it was just one more thing done to honor him. Of course, one of the greatest moments was when all of his grandchildren went and placed roses on his casket. He loved them so much!

And after Mass, all everyone said to me was "great job" and it was difficult to be humble. I just kept saying "it was for him, he was really proud.".

And in that grace of service, God really spoke to me. Seeing how much Fr. Paul---oh I forgot! Fr. Paul, by the way is our new Pastor. Can't believe I haven't wrote about him yet! I'll have to do another post....

Back to what I had been saying: Seeing how much Fr. Paul was able to console the family, and seeing how fruitful his service was to them, it was beautiful. To truly be a shepherd to people, even in the darkness of death...its such a humbling thing. Ive struggled with grief, and conquered it, but I know of people who haven't. And I want to help them.


Sorry, I got a bit off topic, but...whatever. hahahaha. Anyways, altar serving rocks, and so does wearing a cassock. And so does my new Pastor, whom I'll talk about in another post. Pax Christi.

LEAD!

Well, first off, I have plenty of things that I will be posting about in the future, but I'm going to take my time with it. I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and post something.

As a mentioned in my last post, I was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville last week for LEAD and one of their annual youth conferences. It was truly an awesome week. I really learned a lot and made a lot of new friends, friends that I could call on when I am in need of any help.

As much as we learned about prayer and God, and the Church, the biggest thing I learned about was myself. See, we spent a lot of time in personal prayer with God, and we learned how to listen to Him. I realized that He knows me better than anyone else, and in that personal prayer time was when I learned all these things about me. God is like a loving parent in a lot of ways, one of those ways is that He likes to talk about us, His children, quite a bit.

I learned that silence isn't always awkward, but can be a blessing. I was able to see the identity that God had created me for, the person that He wants me to be.

I learned how to cast aside my old identity-the one built on sand-and embrace the new one-the one built on a rock-. I had been getting tired of the old identity. It was prideful, loud, and obnoxious. The new one is humble and reverent and very servant like. That is the man that God wants me to be, not the man that the world tells me that I need to be.

And my new family. Oh how I miss them! I'm referring to the other 40 people that I was there with, people whom I built relationships with that are closer and stronger than relationships I have with people Ive known all my life; even though we only knew each other for five days. This led to another realization of mine, that when a relationship is built on Christ, it grows stronger and stronger ten times faster than an average relationship. Look at it like this: when a house is built on rock, it is so sturdy that the construction time is cut in half. The builders don't have to worry about setbacks from an unstable foundation. One of my new brothers can attest to that, he builds houses for a living. He's really awesome. They all are really awesome.

As you can see, I like that whole built on rock/built on sand metaphor thing. It works!

Franciscan LEAD.

Well, in four hours, I leave for the Franciscan University of Steubenville. I was accepted to attend their LEAD (Leadership, Evangelization, And Discipleship) retreat held before each summer youth conference.

It will be a week full of workshops, daily Mass, Adoration/praise and worship, and making a bunch of knew friends. And then finally wrapped up with a MASSIVE youth conference.

Yea, I'm finding it very hard to sleep right now. Hahaha.

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