Happily Ever After: More than a Fairy Tale

   So I must admit, I am a fan of the TV series “Once Upon a Time.” For those who haven’t heard of it (and without going into much detail), it is a show where the fairy tale world and our world interact with one another. Lately, I have noticed that a lot of popular movies and TV shows are about fairy tales. For example, the new movie “Into the Woods” (which I haven’t seen yet) includes characters from popular Disney fairy tales. There is also a new “Cinderella” movie coming out. This got me thinking, “Why are people so drawn to these movies and shows?” And then I believe I figured it out: because we either believe in, or want to believe in, happily ever after. We are drawn to hope, true love, strength, heroism, and faith. We believe (or for those who don’t, they want to), that the challenges and struggles of life will lead to something greater. We know we were made for joy. In other words, we want a happily ever after, an end to suffering, a life of hope, peace, joy, and love.

   Here’s the part where we forget something really important: that desire isn’t a fairy tale. Happily ever after is real and we were all designed to desire it and all made for it. Where we go wrong, is that we think we find it only in this world, or not at all. Yes, our world is beautiful, but it’s not the end all, be all. There is so much more than this. Happily ever after (the one we are made for and called to) is heaven.

   God sent His only son Jesus into our brokenness, into our world, so that we could have abundant life. He sent His son to save us and lead us to eternal life. That is what our hearts long for. God made all of us for more. He wants the best for each of us. He wanted it so badly, that He gave His only son to die, so that we could be united with Him and experience the joy of heaven. He doesn’t want any of us to be lost or to miss out.

   Heaven is real, and God wants all of us to be there with Him. So, believe in happily ever after with Christ, and believe it with your whole heart. Then, live your life for Him, commit your heart to Him, and seek to love Him and others. Let Him love you. We can experience heaven here on earth. He has given us so many graces, including His own body and blood in the Eucharist, the holy Mass, in which heaven and earth meet, and He has given us one another, to bless each other, care for one another, and experience relationships and friendships with Him at the center.

  This new year, don’t lose sight of who you belong to. You are His, and He is always the answer to your happily ever after. God bless you and Happy New Year. 

Seeing the Blessings in Life: “Don’t Let Satan Steal Your Joy”

   Happy Thanksgiving everyone (a day late but still…)! Recently, I have been thinking about just how blessed I truly am. It is always easy to find things to complain about and around the holidays, people tend to be more stressed, exhausted, and busy. We focus more on our struggles and the things we think are dysfunctional about life, rather than focus on the blessings God has given us. To be honest, my job can be really exhausting. There are days when I am on the road traveling for 10 or more hours, and then there are retreat days. Many times I have been exhausted, and I am definitely guilty of complaining. However, the reality is, I am incredibly blessed to have this amazing opportunity. Since my last blog post, our team has done retreats in Ogden, UT, Ashland, MT, Park City, UT, and Colstrip, MT. Ogden was our fourth Utah retreat, and it was a success. We had a good group of youth and great weather. I was able to go to Confession on this retreat after the youth went, and the priest I went to was so thankful for the work we are doing with Reach. One thing he told me that stuck out was “don’t let Satan steal your joy.” I think we all need that reminder at times.

    Ashland was our second St. Labre retreat and this time, it was with 11^th graders. My favorite part of that retreat was the cultural elements that were added to it. The retreat included a meditation lead by a woman who has been a part of the school for many years. Her name is Grandma Nellie, and she is so wise, fun, and wonderful. We also had a talking circle led by two of the elders. We all sat in a circle and a talking stick was passed around. When you had the talking stick, you could share about something that had been bothering you lately. Some of the youth shared as well as some of the adults, and it was beautiful to be part of that. Park City was beautiful and we had a great retreat. We had about 70 youth and a lot of them went to Confession, which was awesome. They were also responsive and seemed to enjoy the retreat. They did a great job with skits and participation in general. Colstrip was also a great experience. We had a Friday night retreat with 16 middle school youth and a Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon retreat with 9 high school youth. This retreat showed me the importance of youth ministry in the lives of young people. The youth were coming from different faith backgrounds (some Catholic, many Catholic but going to other churches, and others were not Catholic). All are welcome, and it was wonderful to meet these young people and get to know them. It was clear that these kids love God and they have a hunger to learn more. Young people care about faith, they want to be part of it, and they want to be involved. They want to learn more and share more. If they have the opportunity, they will rise to the challenge.

   The blessings of my life go beyond retreats and beautiful scenery: daily Mass and prayer time are a planned part of my day, I meet wonderful host families, I work with wonderful people, I am healthy, I have a supportive and loving family, I am alive, I have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep on…I could keep going.

    Yes there are challenges, but I am blessed to have challenges that allow me to grow in my faith and learn more about myself. To be blessed doesn’t mean that everything in life is perfect. It means that you recognize that God is present in your life, He loves you, and that is what truly matters. So as we celebrate the holidays, let’s think about the things we are thankful for and all the blessings we have. I know my goal is to be more thankful for all of my blessings. God is good! May God bless you and your family! 

On the Road

   Happy November! I apologize for the delay in updating this blog. We have been super crazy busy over the last month. Our team hit the road on Oct.3, and we have been going ever sense. Our first retreat was in Cedar City, UT. It went really well for a first retreat together, and we met some amazing people. This was the first of what will be 5 retreats in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Then we went to Draper, UT. That retreat had close to 100 youth. 

Our next retreat was back in Montana. We went out to a retreat center with the students from St. Andrew’s Catholic School in Helena. The retreat was about 3.5 hrs from Helena. Those high school students were great. They loved the games and were also really responsive in discussions. Then we went to Malta, MT. This is a really small town Northeast of Helena. The retreat had 11 middle and high school students and all of them were wonderful. I love when we have a lot of youth on a retreat because we get to share the love of Christ with so many hearts. However, small retreats are so beautiful and they are really special. The kids and the adults were so appreciative, and they loved that we came to do a retreat for them. Then we went to Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy near Hardin, MT. It is on the Crow Reservation. We did a middle school retreat and then went to St. Labre in Ashland, MT for another middle school retreat. It is on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. We got to tour the school and sit in on some culture classes, which I loved. I sat in on a beading class where I learned the reasoning behind different colors. I also went to a class on Northern Cheyenne culture. Additionally, we all went to a drumming class and listened to the teacher and a group of 5^th graders drum and sing. It was so cool. 

Next we went to Price, UT, and that drive was about 13 hrs (yes, it felt like it took forever). I loved that retreat though. It was a smaller town and the area was so beautiful. We were surrounded by great people and beautiful scenery. The kids participated in activities, and they were so full of joy. Then we went to Spokane, WA. We met an awesome priest, some young adults who did Reach in the past, and other adults who were wonderful, caring, and very supportive. The youth were also great. They got into the activities and listened really well. Yesterday, we went to Anaconda, MT. It was for 3 retreats (each for 1 hr). We got to work with grades 3-5 for the first time this year. That is always fun because they are so energetic and joyful.

 Tomorrow we leave for Ogden, UT for our fourth Diocese of Salt Lake City retreat. After that we return to St. Labre and then we go to Park City, UT for our last Utah retreat. Please continue to pray for us. We always appreciate it. Things are busy, but everywhere I go I learn something new, meet awesome youth and adults, and get to share the love of Christ. I am truly blessed. I am praying for you all. God bless! 

Reach Year Two Has Begun

It is hard to believe that I am back in Helena, MT for a second year of service with Reach Youth Ministry. First of all, I want to thank all of those who have supported me financially as well as spiritually this year. It is because of your love and support that I am able to be here again this year, and I am so thankful.

Now to tell you about this year: there are 11 Reach members and two teams. My team is the Helena team and our patron is St. John Paul II (so so so awesome). We will be traveling across the Diocese of Helena doing retreats and youth group nights. Our team will also be traveling to Utah as well as Arizona and New Mexico. I am very excited about going to the Southwest because I had the blessing of going there with my Reach team last year. My team is returning to some of the cities I visited last year, so I am really excited to see some of the same amazing families and individuals again. The other team (St. Kateri) will be based in Yakima, WA and will travel across the Pacific Northwest. However, this year, something new and really awesome is happening in the last few months of Reach. Both the teams will come together as one big team (under the patronage of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati) to work at a camp near Seattle, WA. God is good!

In the last three weeks, we have been pretty busy. We have heard talks from amazing speakers in the community, we are learning ministry skills such as leading games, activities, and giving a testimony, and we are also getting to know one another and growing in fellowship. A typical day of training includes an hour of personal prayer time, a morning session, Mass, lunch, outdoor activities, afternoon session, and team prayer. I have gone hiking, played sports, gone to a lake, etc. Montana is beautiful! This includes the scenery and the people.

The Reach members are split into three different host homes, and all of us live with wonderful families. I am staying with a beautiful couple that lives near downtown Helena. They have been so good to me and the other two girls that are my roommates/teammates. We are definitely being taken care of here in Helena. There are also families across Helena who have generously offered to host the Reach teams for dinners on weekends. I am in awe at how beautiful, loving, and supportive this community is toward Reach. We are so blessed.

Additionally, last weekend, both teams had the pleasure of going to Legendary Lodge (a place where the Diocese holds summer camps) to attend the first CYC (Catholic Youth Coalition) Board meeting. The CYC Board is a group of a little over 100 high school youth who serve as leaders in their parishes and come together throughout the year to grow in faith, fellowship, and to plan events throughout the diocese (especially the big youth convention that takes place in the Spring). These young people are amazing and it was wonderful to spend the weekend with them and see what amazing witnesses they are. The youth of this Diocese are an example of what the young church can do and wants to do. These kids are given great responsibility, great adult guidance, and they rise to the challenge.

This weekend, the Reach teams are traveling to Conrad, MT to help with a Kickball Tournament that is a big deal in this diocese. I am excited to be part of this fellowship event.

Please continue to pray for me and for my brothers and sisters on Reach. We are praying for you as well. God bless you!

 

 

 

Blessed moments and Farewell to the Southwest

Note: this blog post is long, but it is full of stories of God working in the lives of young people. I hope you read it despite the length.

For the past two months, our Reach team has been traveling across the Southwest doing ministry. We worked in Grants, NM, Phoenix, AZ, Vista, CA, and Las Cruces, NM. We have been blessed by so many wonderful schools, parishes and host families. Our time in the Southwest has come to an end. We are beginning the trip back to Helena, MT this week. Therefore, as a farewell to the Southwest, I wanted to write a blog sharing some of the stories and highlights of our time and our work in this beautiful part of the US.

 Our first stop was Grants, NM. During our time there, we worked at two schools and did a weekend Confirmation retreat at one of the parishes. The kids and youth we encountered had so much joy and love in their hearts. Here is a funny story from our time in Grants: We worked at a Catholic school in which we planned a session for the various grades (K-8). When we worked with grades K-1, we decided to do an interactive Noah’s Ark, in which the kids pretended to be their favorite animal. As I was sitting with them to tell the story of Noah, all of the kids looked at each other and slowly started to crawl like animals toward me. They then jumped on me! It was so cute but also crazy that they communicated this plan without using words. Later, I was standing and asking questions about what it felt like to be on the Ark etc., and they started crawling toward me again. This time I was worried that I was going to fall on them because they grabbed my legs. Thanks to my team, everything was fine. I love telling this story not only because it is funny, but because it is a reminder that we are called to be childlike in our faith. Children are beautiful examples of joy, and those kids continually made me smile. Their laughter, happiness, and joy, radiated the presence of Christ.

 In Phoenix, we did some youth group nights, and one of the Youth Ministers we worked with was an amazing man. He taught us so much. I learned the importance of being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Our faith is not always comfortable, but as our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said, “you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness.” While it is nice to have a plan, sometimes you have to be willing to change things and adapt as you go. It was a great lesson for us to learn. Also, while we were at one of the middle school youth group nights, the Youth Minister sang “Lord I Need You,” by Matt Maher. He didn’t know that the kids knew it, and normally when he played songs and sang, they didn’t sing along. That night however, they were singing! It was beautiful to hear their voices singing to the Lord.

 In Vista, CA, we met some amazing people, including a former Reach member. She was awesome and shared stories about her time with Reach. It was great to hear from her and meet someone who could relate to us so well. We also had the blessing of meeting some lovely women who had done Reach in the 1990s. They invited us over for dessert and we got to share stories and experiences with them. It was an evening of laughter and joy. Also, while we were in Vista, we did a Saturday retreat with Confirmation students. At the end of the night, the Youth Minister asked if anyone wanted to share an experience from the day. One girl stood up and said that before the retreat, she didn’t know if she believed in God, but after spending time in prayer during Adoration, she felt something. She didn’t know what to think of it, or whether it was God, but she knew she felt something. She was not the only one who shared about God working that weekend. God was truly working in their hearts and showing them his love. It was beautiful.

 After that we went to Las Cruces, NM. We did a youth group night and also a weekend-long Confirmation retreat. It was an incredible weekend with wonderful youth. The Holy Spirit was definitely acting in their hearts. A lot of them chose to go to Confession, some for the first time in a while. We also had Adoration, which was new for many of them. Afterwards, several of the youth told us that it had been a powerful experience. On top of that, the youth received letters from loved ones that were written to encourage them and show them that they are loved. They read these silently during Adoration and most were moved to tears. There are a lot of stories I could tell but one that really sticks out to me was that I found out after the retreat that one of the young men had asked the Youth Minister if he could talk to a priest after the retreat. During Adoration, he had felt the Lord calling him by name to be a priest! He wanted to talk to Father about this. God is so so so so so good! At the end of that retreat, he was talking to Father. I pray that he had a wonderful and blessed conversation. Additionally, many of the young people on the retreat said they felt closer to God at the end and wanted to continue to get closer to God. We did an activity in small groups where the youth picked a photo from a set of pictures that they felt illustrated what they want their relationship with Christ to look like. One of the girls in my group chose a picture of a fishing hook and she said that she wanted Jesus to “hook” her so she can continue being close to Him. I think this is a good reminder for all of us, we are called to be “hooked on Jesus.”

  have learned so much here and I want to thank all the host families, parishes, schools, those who hosted us for dinners, and all of those who blessed us with their presence over the last two months. They have all been amazing examples of Christ and will have a special place in my heart. God bless you all!

"Be Not Afraid"

Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. -Isaiah 41:10

 

We see verses throughout scripture that tell us “be not afraid.” These words are encouraging, but at times it is easier said than done. We may know that God is with us, that He is for us, and that with Him all things are possible, but we also know that we face people in life who want us to keep our faith to ourselves, people who joke about the Catholic Church, and people who reject the message of love. We also have a fear of upsetting people if we fight for our faith and we don’t want to seem like we are judging others.

 But the truth is, if we don’t reach out to others, we are doing more of a disservice than we are when we give them a taste of the truth in a loving manner. I recently heard a priest say “truth without love is cruelty; love without truth is abandonment.” We know that we have an incredible gift because of our faith. We know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We know that He gave His life for us and as if that weren’t enough, He humbled Himself to the point of turning ordinary bread and wine into His own body and blood, so that we could consume Him, and He could remain with us forever. We are loved and we are all chosen. The difference is, we know we are chosen and others still have yet to realize they are children of God. We want others to know this message, so we have to tell it to them. We need to share our faith and hope. He is with us, and if we are receptive to the promptings of His spirit working in us, if we give our “yes” even in trial and hardship, He will give us the words and wisdom to speak truth with love. There is nothing to fear.

A few weekends ago, I met over 100 high school students who have stepped up and said “yes” to the Lord, serving as leaders across the Diocese of Helena. Two of our Reach teams participated in a weekend long meeting in which these young leaders discerned a theme for their convention, prayed together, and gathered to share in the love of Christ. They planned details for a convention that has the ability to bring so many of their peers into a deeper relationship with Christ. It was beautiful to witness so many youth giving their time, talent, and treasure to the Lord and wanting to serve with their whole heart. Throughout the weekend, the students were reminded that they are called to evangelize and to invite; to be witnesses and show others that Christ is alive, and wants a relationship with them. They have said “yes” to being brave, to putting their trust in the Lord, and to remaining faithful.

 I am blessed to be with Reach Youth Ministry this year, to have the opportunity to work with some great people and serve awesome youth. However, I am also blessed because I get to learn from those I serve. We ALL are the Church and it is beautiful to recognize that we work together to build up the kingdom of God. Whether you are a youth, young adult, or adult, YOU are the Church, and YOU can help bring others home. God bless J