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!