Random Things and Information
Hello one and all. I'm just posting randomly to try and organise some thoughts regarding the Youth Ministry and this blogsite.
This past weekend was hugely busy and I'm wrecked from it! Friday night my buddy Eric (who co-produces www.dailydisciple.blogspot.com -- check it out for some insightful Christian advice by a couple 15 year olds who are wise beyond their years!), a man from my church, Henry Karabela (Cool guy, very devout and friendly) and I drove down to see Dr. Scott Hahn talk on marriage and family and such. Good topic. I didn't go for the subject though, but because I really wanted to meet Scott Hahn, who is my favourite author and Catholic apologist and teacher. It was one of his (many) books that brought me to my faith in the Catholic Church. I'll go into that more in detail in my next post (which will be my testimony, because as I've said, the point of this blog is to post my talks from YG meetings, and Sunday, our first meeting, I gave my testimony).
But this book in question by Scott Hahn was Hail Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God. It's about how the Church's teachings on Mary are based on Scripture and what they really teach and how those teachings give glory to Jesus. Dr. Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister before his own conversion to Catholicism back in '86, is a master at biblical theology, interpretation and teaching, and his books, especially Hail Holy Queen, really opened up the Bible to me in a way I'd never even thought of (and I thought that's what getting a Diploma in Biblical Studies would have accomplished)! There is so much depth and meaning in the Love Letter that God wrote for us! Anyway, after Scott Hahn's talk, I got to meet him, briefly, and get him to sign my copy of Hail Holy Queen, and shake his hand, and profusely thank him for his part in my own conversion! It was awesome!
After the meeting, we drove back to Oakville (the talk was in Toronto) and I dropped Henry off at his home (Matt and Madeleine, if you read this and think it's really weird that I call your dad Henry, sorry. It's weird to me, too, but he won't let me call him Mr. Karabela lol). Then my buddy Eric and I went on to Burlington to a Pizza Pizza/Tim Hortons where my old Pentecostal Youth Group hangs out after their Friday Night Youth Services. One of them is interested in Catholicism, and a little while ago I got him a Catholic Bible (one with all the books). He wanted to discuss Catholicism, which I'm always up for--except that night, since Eric and I had to be up extremely early the next morning for the Lift Jesus Higher Rally in Toronto. However, this guy, Lazarus (that's really his name! Cool, eh?) is a talker--so much so that it makes it really hard to teach him anything about the faith, 'cause he hardly stops to listen long enough! LOL!
So as it happens, some of our other Protestant Pentecostal friends sit down, and before I know it, I'm fending off attacks on the Catholic faith from 3 different fronts. One person wanted to know why we confess to priests, why the priests can't get married, and anything else I might want to add about the priesthood. Another was on and on about the sacraments, baptism in particular, and about faith vs works salvation (which is a complete misrep of Catholic teaching, btw), while in a third strain, the concept of authority and the Bible Alone was being argued. My head was spinning. Eric, bless his heart, was doing a pretty good job backing me up (even though he's not a Catholic yet) and so was Laz, who kept trying to somehow relate every Catholic doctrine back to St. Michael the Archangel (who is Laz's hero). Good times. Speaking of the time, Eric and I didn't fight our way out of there until the wee hours of the morning (2:30!) and finally arrived back at my home around 3:00 AM! We figured that if we had to be up at 5:30 to get to Oakville by 6:45, we might as well stay up all night, because we'd just be more tired after such a little amount of sleep. That lasted until 4:30, when we caved in and slept for an hour and a half, waking up at 6! We got to St. Michael's on time to catch their bus down to the Rally, and had a super good day of exhaustion!
The Lift Jesus Higher Rally was super cool. We had a blast with 1500 or so teens from all over coming together to do just what the rally says, Lift Jesus Higher! The worship was fantastic, by the Mustard Seeds, the NET team was great in their presentations of drama and testimony, and the talks were amazing and inspiring. One of the speakers, Alex Jones, used to be a Pentecostal minister, but he converted, as well as his wife, and 54 members of his congregation! During his talk he talked about living for Jesus, and then he said he felt led to have people respond if they felt a call to the priesthood or religious life. Right then and there he had an altar call and called those people up for prayer. Eric, who was with me, went up for prayer--and he's not even a Catholic yet! God is amazing!
The best part, though, were the celebrations of the sacraments. They had an opportunity for Confession, which I took up, and the priest I had as a Confessor was excellent, and helped a lot. Then we has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and if you've never done that before, I seriously encourage you to check it out when you can! Spending an hour in the Real Presence of Jesus is like nothing I've ever experienced before (and when it comes to spiritual goodness, I've experienced a lot--not to be boastful)! Finally, we ended with a celebration of Mass, and were blessed to receive what we had just spent time worshipping--Jesus Christ Himself! Man, I love the Mass!
So afterward I drove Eric home, and lent him Hail Holy Queen. Then I went home and slept! And I slept through mass Sunday morning (which spiritually is okay, because the Mass at the LJH rally was the Sunday Obligation Mass, but for me as the youth minister, isn't so cool, because some people wanted to make sure the YG meeting was still on and my absense sent out the wrong message. Reeeaaaaallllyyyyy sorry about that one!).
Then we had the first YG meeting. I think it went well, but it certainly could have been better! Soon we'll be having times of praise and worship, as well as other fun (so it won't always just be me talking!).
Speaking of that, just to let you know what's coming up talk-wise, I have a schedule of talks made up to provide some direction for the YG. Starting this Sunday, I'm beginning a series on our identity as Catholic Christians titled "Who We Are Instead", which comes from the track, "Trouble Is", from my favourite band (Jars of Clay)'s second to latest album called (amazingly) "Who We Are Instead". The chorus makes the point that often we don't live our lives as Christians to the fullest potential because, "Man, the trouble is / We don't know who we are instead."
April 17th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 1 We'll be looking at our identity and our self-image as Children of God. When we really understand who we are, it affects everything we do!
April 24th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 2 We'll talk about God's Grace, and how that alone gives us the power to be who we are instead.
May 1st: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 3 We'll discuss how living for Christ will make a difference in the world!
May 8th: It's my birthday, so I'm taking the day off! No, that's not why! It's Mother's Day, and as a Youth Minister, I believe that Family comes first. Next to God, our families are most important (as evidenced in the 10 Commandments. Once God lays out the first 3 commandments, with regard to our behaviour toward Him, He starts the next part off by saying "Honour your Mother and Father". So spend Mother's Day with your moms!
May 15th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 4 Jesus told us in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have life, and life to the fullest! Yet so many people look at Christianity and think that it's boring and you can't have any fun! I'm here to tell you otherwise!
May 22nd: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 5 We are called to be Saints! How do we get there? This ends the series!
May 29th: This is the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so, appropriately, we'll be discussing the Eucharist! If I can swing it, we'll practice what I just preached above, and see if we can Adore the Blessed Sacrament!
Don't forget, May 21st is Christian Day in Wonderland, with 5 stellar bands rockin' out the grounds, plus full access to the park! Please talk to me ASAP about wanting to go so that I can order tics and everything.
God bless!
This past weekend was hugely busy and I'm wrecked from it! Friday night my buddy Eric (who co-produces www.dailydisciple.blogspot.com -- check it out for some insightful Christian advice by a couple 15 year olds who are wise beyond their years!), a man from my church, Henry Karabela (Cool guy, very devout and friendly) and I drove down to see Dr. Scott Hahn talk on marriage and family and such. Good topic. I didn't go for the subject though, but because I really wanted to meet Scott Hahn, who is my favourite author and Catholic apologist and teacher. It was one of his (many) books that brought me to my faith in the Catholic Church. I'll go into that more in detail in my next post (which will be my testimony, because as I've said, the point of this blog is to post my talks from YG meetings, and Sunday, our first meeting, I gave my testimony).
But this book in question by Scott Hahn was Hail Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God. It's about how the Church's teachings on Mary are based on Scripture and what they really teach and how those teachings give glory to Jesus. Dr. Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister before his own conversion to Catholicism back in '86, is a master at biblical theology, interpretation and teaching, and his books, especially Hail Holy Queen, really opened up the Bible to me in a way I'd never even thought of (and I thought that's what getting a Diploma in Biblical Studies would have accomplished)! There is so much depth and meaning in the Love Letter that God wrote for us! Anyway, after Scott Hahn's talk, I got to meet him, briefly, and get him to sign my copy of Hail Holy Queen, and shake his hand, and profusely thank him for his part in my own conversion! It was awesome!
After the meeting, we drove back to Oakville (the talk was in Toronto) and I dropped Henry off at his home (Matt and Madeleine, if you read this and think it's really weird that I call your dad Henry, sorry. It's weird to me, too, but he won't let me call him Mr. Karabela lol). Then my buddy Eric and I went on to Burlington to a Pizza Pizza/Tim Hortons where my old Pentecostal Youth Group hangs out after their Friday Night Youth Services. One of them is interested in Catholicism, and a little while ago I got him a Catholic Bible (one with all the books). He wanted to discuss Catholicism, which I'm always up for--except that night, since Eric and I had to be up extremely early the next morning for the Lift Jesus Higher Rally in Toronto. However, this guy, Lazarus (that's really his name! Cool, eh?) is a talker--so much so that it makes it really hard to teach him anything about the faith, 'cause he hardly stops to listen long enough! LOL!
So as it happens, some of our other Protestant Pentecostal friends sit down, and before I know it, I'm fending off attacks on the Catholic faith from 3 different fronts. One person wanted to know why we confess to priests, why the priests can't get married, and anything else I might want to add about the priesthood. Another was on and on about the sacraments, baptism in particular, and about faith vs works salvation (which is a complete misrep of Catholic teaching, btw), while in a third strain, the concept of authority and the Bible Alone was being argued. My head was spinning. Eric, bless his heart, was doing a pretty good job backing me up (even though he's not a Catholic yet) and so was Laz, who kept trying to somehow relate every Catholic doctrine back to St. Michael the Archangel (who is Laz's hero). Good times. Speaking of the time, Eric and I didn't fight our way out of there until the wee hours of the morning (2:30!) and finally arrived back at my home around 3:00 AM! We figured that if we had to be up at 5:30 to get to Oakville by 6:45, we might as well stay up all night, because we'd just be more tired after such a little amount of sleep. That lasted until 4:30, when we caved in and slept for an hour and a half, waking up at 6! We got to St. Michael's on time to catch their bus down to the Rally, and had a super good day of exhaustion!
The Lift Jesus Higher Rally was super cool. We had a blast with 1500 or so teens from all over coming together to do just what the rally says, Lift Jesus Higher! The worship was fantastic, by the Mustard Seeds, the NET team was great in their presentations of drama and testimony, and the talks were amazing and inspiring. One of the speakers, Alex Jones, used to be a Pentecostal minister, but he converted, as well as his wife, and 54 members of his congregation! During his talk he talked about living for Jesus, and then he said he felt led to have people respond if they felt a call to the priesthood or religious life. Right then and there he had an altar call and called those people up for prayer. Eric, who was with me, went up for prayer--and he's not even a Catholic yet! God is amazing!
The best part, though, were the celebrations of the sacraments. They had an opportunity for Confession, which I took up, and the priest I had as a Confessor was excellent, and helped a lot. Then we has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and if you've never done that before, I seriously encourage you to check it out when you can! Spending an hour in the Real Presence of Jesus is like nothing I've ever experienced before (and when it comes to spiritual goodness, I've experienced a lot--not to be boastful)! Finally, we ended with a celebration of Mass, and were blessed to receive what we had just spent time worshipping--Jesus Christ Himself! Man, I love the Mass!
So afterward I drove Eric home, and lent him Hail Holy Queen. Then I went home and slept! And I slept through mass Sunday morning (which spiritually is okay, because the Mass at the LJH rally was the Sunday Obligation Mass, but for me as the youth minister, isn't so cool, because some people wanted to make sure the YG meeting was still on and my absense sent out the wrong message. Reeeaaaaallllyyyyy sorry about that one!).
Then we had the first YG meeting. I think it went well, but it certainly could have been better! Soon we'll be having times of praise and worship, as well as other fun (so it won't always just be me talking!).
Speaking of that, just to let you know what's coming up talk-wise, I have a schedule of talks made up to provide some direction for the YG. Starting this Sunday, I'm beginning a series on our identity as Catholic Christians titled "Who We Are Instead", which comes from the track, "Trouble Is", from my favourite band (Jars of Clay)'s second to latest album called (amazingly) "Who We Are Instead". The chorus makes the point that often we don't live our lives as Christians to the fullest potential because, "Man, the trouble is / We don't know who we are instead."
April 17th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 1 We'll be looking at our identity and our self-image as Children of God. When we really understand who we are, it affects everything we do!
April 24th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 2 We'll talk about God's Grace, and how that alone gives us the power to be who we are instead.
May 1st: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 3 We'll discuss how living for Christ will make a difference in the world!
May 8th: It's my birthday, so I'm taking the day off! No, that's not why! It's Mother's Day, and as a Youth Minister, I believe that Family comes first. Next to God, our families are most important (as evidenced in the 10 Commandments. Once God lays out the first 3 commandments, with regard to our behaviour toward Him, He starts the next part off by saying "Honour your Mother and Father". So spend Mother's Day with your moms!
May 15th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 4 Jesus told us in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have life, and life to the fullest! Yet so many people look at Christianity and think that it's boring and you can't have any fun! I'm here to tell you otherwise!
May 22nd: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 5 We are called to be Saints! How do we get there? This ends the series!
May 29th: This is the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so, appropriately, we'll be discussing the Eucharist! If I can swing it, we'll practice what I just preached above, and see if we can Adore the Blessed Sacrament!
Don't forget, May 21st is Christian Day in Wonderland, with 5 stellar bands rockin' out the grounds, plus full access to the park! Please talk to me ASAP about wanting to go so that I can order tics and everything.
God bless!
Labels: Announcements, Eucharist, Personal Reflections, St. Andrew's, The Blessed Virgin Mary
posted by Gregory at 2:16 p.m.
7 Comments:
HA! I LIKE STAR WARS!
Thank you, Eric...
LOL
my birthday is the same day as christian day at wonderland!
Sweet! You gonna come out, then?
HA! I LIKE STAR WARS TOO!
Hooray for Star Wars.
I love that you read the blog :D That's awesome!
Could I ask for a name? Anonymous just feels so...anonymous, you know?
God bless!
Well, think about it. Who do you know who likes Star Wars?
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