They take

Tonight at our parish our middle school youth group, STATIC Youth, is holding its second move night. This is a chance for all generations to come together and be a community, to watch a movie and enjoy the company of others, and it’s all for free, and that’s a good thing in today’s economy.

One of the things we try to teach our youth is giving back to the community that you belong to, not only to the world at large, but right here at home. We offer our youth many opportunities to give back, from serving dinners to our parish to service projects they create. The opportunity to give back is more than a cute little lesson; it is a life lesson, one that some adults need to learn as well as our youth.

All too often the adult parish feels that the youth is there to be seen and not heard, to clean up after the adults, not the other way around. Well STATIC Youth, I am proud to say, has turned that idea upside down! We believe that the youth of the parish should be an active part of parish life; they should be seen and heard.

All too often the powers that be place no value on the youth; they see them as always taking from the parish, taking money, time, space and resources, yet never giving back. Not too long ago this was an issue at my parish (who am I kidding it still is). The religious education director had to defend the parish program for our middle school, we were called on the carpet for taking, taking, taking, and never giving.

Now this was and is totally untrue, but as the powers see it, they spend money, and the youth of our parish do not have nice little envelopes with their names on them to give money back, they see it as all taking.  Never mind the fact that the parents give, not only money but time as volunteers to the youth program, and because of that, some are even more actively involved in the parish, but that don’t count, the youth just take. Never mind that we run several fundraisers each year to help defray the cost and to raise money for the youth, and never mind that the powers that be tell us that the money all goes to the general fund, and not the youth, we just take.

Our middle school program does more than any other parish group to try an involve the whole parish in activities, we have the movie nights and two dinners throughout the year, we have invited our high school youth group to join us in many events (not that they come or invite us to anything). We have presented many ideas to raise money and most have been knocked down, and yet we are told we take.

I really don’t think this is an oddity, that my parish is different than most. I would hope it is, but I have a feeling it is not.

Does the youth take, sure but so does the men’s club and the woman’s groups or the prayer groups and so on. The difference is that they are allowed to give back, they are allowed to raise funds, and they are, now this is the big part, get ready for it, they are RESPECTED!

It’s that simple, the youth are not respected, they are not considered part of the parish life, and they are outside of the community. How sad.

It breaks my heart to say such a thing, but it is true, most parishes consider the youth a burden not a blessing. So how do we change this, but teaching our youth that they are important to the community, and praying that when they become the leaders of the church that they will remember what they were taught, that the youth are important. We can change the way the youth are looked at and treated, it will be a long hard road, it can be done, through a lot of prayer and hard work. Start today; show one youth at your parish that they have something to offer, teach one youth that they are loved and convert one heart at a time to understand that the youth of our church is the church as much as we are, all members of the body are important, just ask St. Paul what he thinks.

Paul

 

The Way

The year of St. Paul…

This past Sunday the reading for mass was on the conversion of St. Paul, one of the first great evangelists of the Catholic faith. The story of Saul to Paul is a great story; it truly shows that God works in mysterious ways.

Saul, as he was known before his conversion, was on his way to Damasks to persecute the Christians, the followers of Christ. The movement was known as the “way”. I like that, for some reason that really struck me, the “WAY”.

But if you put it simply, Catholicism is the “Way”; it is the Church that Jesus Christ established here on earth. History proves the point and the Gospels point to it.

(Go to http://www.catholic.com/library/Peter_the_Rock.asp for more information on this topic)

The “Way”…

It fits in to so many different scenarios:

1.       I have found the “way”

2.       I have lost the “way”

3.       I know the “way”

4.       I want to know the “way”

5.       I have known the “way”

6.       Teach me the “way”

7.       Be the “way”

 

And so on, it allows for the imperfection of humanity to exist and allows for the grace of God to priciest. God, in all his glory never seems to stop amazing me, such a simple work, yet so much meaning.

 

Today I will continue along the path, the “way” to God. I will walk slowly with my hands to my side and my eyes on the path, following the footsteps of Jesus. I will allow Mary, the mother of God, to hold my trembling hand and guide me to her son, whispering soft words of love. Today I will allow the Holy Spirit to wipe the tears of sorrow from my eyes so I can see my “way” down the path of salvation. Today I will continue my journey along the path of the “way”

 

Paul

 

Home

It is good to be home, it is always nice to travel around and meet new people see new things but the comfort of home is always welcomed. Our faith can be a lot like that, it is nice sometimes to try new forms of prayer that we never tried, or even to attend a different Mass or even a parish, but if we truly have a home in our parish, it is nice to return to it.

Adventure is part of our makeup, it helps define us and create us. Without adventure we would never discover life. Our faith is built upon adventure, exploring new and exciting things, seeing the world from different points of view.

The followers of Jesus, Peter, Mathew and the rest all set out on an adventure, one that Jesus called them to. The early Christians did the same, traveling to new worlds and converting the people. St. Paul traveled the world, as he knew it, see all sorts of new cultures and meeting people from very different back grounds than his own. But I am sure that when he returned home, he breathed a sigh and said, “It’s good to be home”.

Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” states it the best “There’s no place like home” and I could not agree more.

So I return home, for how long I do not know, but I am glad to be here among family and friends.

Paul

 

Inspired

Inspiration was how the bible was written, God inspired the writers, to write the word of God down for generations to read, how cool is that!

We read about and learn about people who are inspired by God, the great things they did, such as writing the bible. And for most of us, we hope and pray that what we are doing is pleasing to God, and they, the inspired ones know it.

Ever wish you where St. Paul or Mosses or any other of the bible characters. I do, sometimes, I would just love to have conversations with God, and to truly hear his voice, not just in my heart, but just like I was talk to you, next to me. Abraham walked with God discussing Saddam and Gomorra, King David visited with him and Mosses built his earthy house ( well more like a tent) to visit with him.

Yes I know that the Church is Gods house, and yes I know that when I pray I am talking to God, and yes I know that God responds and yes I even know that receiving Jesus in communion is more than they ever hoped for. But still it would be cool.

Think about it, you’re at work and your friends all ask you what you did over the weekend and you say, “Well I had God over for a BBQ, it was nice we chatted about world hunger and how the Detroit Tigers can’t seem to pull it together.”  You know what I mean, just a nice little chat, an everyday conversation.

Now I know that’s not being inspired, but it will work for me, I don’t ask for much, just a chat will do. But it would be cool to turn in a report that was inspired by God; I would love to see someone criticize that one. You know someone will, there is always that one person who thinks they are smarter than the rest or they just have to find something wrong with it. But that would make for a great meeting, don’t you think?

“Umm, Paul, I think you are using the wrong facts, where did you get them”

“That would be God… He gave them to me”

“God did?”

“Yah, he stopped over last night, so I asked him to proof it”

“Well I think he messed up here, this can’t be right”

“So your saying God got it wrong… ?”

“Well maybe not wrong, but this can’t be right”

“So you know more than God, do ya?”

“Well God might have made a mistake, I mean we all do”

“But this is God… I think he knows what he is talking about”

“Come on, everyone makes mistakes, and this is wrong, I don’t care what God thinks he knows”

And so the conversation would go, I would love it! Everyone knows someone like that, I know I do.

But to truly be inspired by God, to know it with all your being, how awesome that must be, one day I hope I too will know that feeling.

Paul

 

Edging God Out

EGO… It’s a word we hear a lot about, we all have one, some are larger then others, but in someway we all have one.

 

The ego serves only one purpose, and that is to make you feel better about whom you are. That in-of-it self is not a bad thing, but the ego has no concern for others, or really for it’s self.

 

The ego will, and has, destroyed many a great person, all in the name of defending it’s self. The whole purpose of the ego is to self preserve it self.

 

The ego’s job is to make you feel better about yourself, and it will do what ever it needs to do to make that happen. The ego is the voice inside of you that tells you to kick them when they are down, to make others feel bad about them-selves; all in the name of lifting yourself up, making you feel better about you.

 

We see it all the time, and I am sure we have all lived it. We take the opportunity to use others disadvantages to our advantage. Sad but true… We here about it on the news, read about it in the paper, or we see it first hand, and we all say, tsk tsk tsk, how sad that another human would treat someone that way… But we fail to see it when we are the ones doing it, we justify it, we turn it around and repackage it, dress it up to make it look better, we may even call it by different names, but in the end its all the same, it is the ego doing its job, using others misfortunes to its advantage.

 

Some will argue that the ego is needed, that it really does serve a good purpose. But the argument is week at best and self-serving at all times. We tend to want to hold on to that which makes us feel better. Much like a drug addict, we need to get that ego fix daily or we start to go through withdraws. We start to feel the tingling of self-doubt setting in, the layers of falsehood start to peel off, and we head in to a tail spin of despair, as we try to piece back together the image of self that was created thru deception and ignorance of others.

 

The ego does not allow for God to truly be present in you, there is no room to serve to gods, the god of self and the one and true God. The ego replaces God with the god of self. This is why, many times through out the bible, we are warned about the sin of pride, the sin-of-self.

 

Why is that? If the ego is a good thing, God or Jesus would have said so, but they did not, they keep reminding us that pride (ego) is a road block to true happiness.

 

1 Corinthians 4:6
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.

 

St. Paul warns us about pride, as do the saints and writers of the Old Testament. Pride is the work of the devil, it is his tool that is used to separate us from God, the ego (Edging God Out) is the most powerful tool he has, it is deceiving in its ways, make us feel that we are serving others, when in reality we are serving ourselves.

 

The ego needs to be dealt with; it needs to be overcome and destroyed, we need to remove the ego from our hearts and allow God to live there.

 

Pay for the Holy Spirit to come upon you, and wash you a new, pray that he removes from you the sin of pride, the sin of ego and allow him to work through you and with you.

 

Ego has no home is Gods creation, ego has no reason to live in the temple of God, it is an impure thought, one of distraction, and destruction of self and others.

 

The battle is long and hard, all the Saints of the world have battled with it, some have lost and some have won, but all have seen it for what it is worth, all have heard its true voice, the voice of lies the voice of death.

 

Matthew 16:23
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

 

Paul

 

Faith is an "F" word

Faith is an “F” word a lot of us don’t like to use a lot, it’s a word that people can find very offensive. So much so that we seem to find a need to water it down, make it more palatable, easier to swallow. But in doing so we also make is a cheep word, a word with out much meaning.

Faith in others, Faith in ourselves and Faith in Church and God….

Faith in others, is a concept that seems to be lost, we are a people that seem to think we must do it all ourselves, we say things like, “I can’t trust them to do it right”. What we really mean is, “I can’t trust them to do it my way”.  We seem to think that our way is the only way, and sometimes that may be, but mostly it is not. We need to learn to trust others, to except that there is more then one way to achieve the same goal. We need to learn to grow from the experience and see things in a different light. Faith in others is Faith in ourselves. By allowing the process to proceed, we will challenge ourselves in ways we never expected. Sure it may be the wrong way, or a different way, but really in the end, does it really matter? No, not really, because we can always re-do it. Life gives us the opportunities of re-do’s so why not take them? This of course is assuming that what ever you did was not life ending. Your ability to discern must be used in all situations. But for the most part what we do an a daily bases is not life ending. Faith in others is the ground work for a life well lived!

Faith in ourselves is something that we sometimes have to much of, we only believe that we can do it, no one or nothing else can do it! We are the only person alive or dead who could ever do this or that! What a sad and silly way to think. Humans are made to work with other humans, we are created to be social, yet we live in a world of individual. As St. Paul tells us, we are one body, many parts but one body. The hand is nothing with out the arm, and so on. Yet we believe we can do it all, with out others. Faith in our selves is important, with in moderation’s, somethings we have to do ourselves, but really, not many. Some will say that we can only fix ourselves, no one else can do it for us. And that is true, to a degree, but really, we can only go so far before we need that outside intervention. The calming words of a friend, or the hug of a child. Each of these outside influences effect us deeply and profoundly. Yet if we close ourselves off to it, keep the mindset that only you can do it, we lose this input, the value of life is diminished.  We become “self reliant” and that’s just another word for “Self centered”. If you are self centered, you leave no room for others, so you leave no room for real profound growth. The story of the seeds being scattered on the ground, some in good earth and others in weeds is a good example, self centered people leave no room for good earth, only the weeds of self are allowed to grow. The hermits who live a life of solitude, are not self centered, but rather they are world centered, all they do, is for the betterment of others, not of self.

Faith in Church and God is Paramount to any happiness we wish to achieve. With out this, we cannot have faith in others, nor can we have real faith in self. What we have is a shallow faith that will evaporate very quickly when issues arise in life. Faith in church and God, grounds us, and feeds us so we can believe in self, it gives us the ability to see life through the lens of Christ. Allows us the abilit to Christ in others, to have faith in them. It is also the hardest to achieve, because it calls us to look outside of ourselves, and to depend on the unseen. We are called to let go of self and others, to trust in God, but in doing so, we will be able to truly see others as they are, Christ, and ourselves as we are, Christ. What a gift, what a liberation that would be. But it calls us to a task most of us are not willing to take on. It calls us to be free of self and in doing so, we can be truly self for the first time. Self can not exist outside of God, but rather it is fulfilled in God, when you turn it over to God.

What a concept, by giving ourselves over to God, by having FAITH, we have become a creation that we can have faith in, and we can have faith in others.

 But it’s not an easy task, like most things that are good for us. But is is a task that we all should be working towards. We need to start by allowing others to help us along the path (Having Faith in others) and by believing that we can accomplish the task (Having Faith in ourselves) but most importantly we must pray for the grace of God (Having faith in Church and God). We can also pray for the help of the saints (Faith in others and the Church).

So have FAITH, and remember its not the “F” word we should avoid.

Paul