Last Tuesday night (August 26), I was at St. Thomas More Center deep in the heart of the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa.  In two hours, we covered a lot - - probably too much.  Nonetheless, the folks were lovely and gracious.  Bob Perron and Terry Clark were great hosts and hooked me up with any needs.   In honor of my bother Mike Patin, I picked up on “trash talking” Erin Walsh about “game.”   It was great to see two “old” friends, Barb Mease and Mary Heinrich, and catch up. Apologies for the website being down and the week’s delay in posting materials.   Here’s the links:

> Power Point: Beloit College’s Mindset List for Class of 2012 based on this posting

> Video: Will I? from Rent

> Power Point: Rumage Sale - Future of Church and Youth Ministry (source article)

> Video: Jackie Huba - Customer Evangelists (no longer found on You Tube)

> Power Point: Adding Feet to Head, Hearts, Hands

> Video: What’s Gonna Happen? from the musical episode of Scrubs

How does one continue the good feelings and vice of yesterday’s celebration of a bloggiversary? Same way we played it out last year, folks.

We are checking out, briefly shutting down, “going fishing…”

This coincides with my office vacation so hopefully it will be recuperative all the way around: one work trip, some writing, but hopefully also some rest and relaxation. If some “breaking news” hits, of course, we’ll log on and break news. But meanwhile, we are gonna close the door for a while and do a little renovation around this place. We are moving off the servers from our kind hosts at RaspaNet and we are going to upload into Wordpress and invite your comments: transforming this site from a bulletin board for the profession of Catholic Youth Ministry into what hopefully will become a “virtual water cooler.” All this and maybe, just maybe, a vacation as well.

See you in September!

D. Scott Miller

Running the numbers… Today the web-site is now four years old. It has included, thus far:

• Fifty two podcasts Inside the Youth Ministers Studio, with an additional six extra podcasts. Over eight hours of downloadable magic!
• The posting of forty nine published articles
• The posting of seventy nine Power Point presentations utilized in trainings which will soon become partnered with the distribution of much more than the already two posted SlideShare presentations
• Visits to one hundred twenty nine diocesan websites as part of the States tour twice done
• Two thousand four hundred twenty eight distinct blog entries covering stuff from “my corner of the Catholic Youth Ministry field”
• Numerous “internet friends,” readers like you have supported this site with e-mails and word of mouth
• and, mostof all, one Lord whom we hoped is praised by this effort and continues to bless this ministry.

How it all started:

Greetings to the World. My Name is D. Scott Miller and I am starting a bulletin board log (BLOG) of information that might be shared wtiht eh Catholic Youth Ministry community.

This is just a starting point. I’m not sure where it is going to go. I hope it will be personal. I hope it will be per-fess-ion-ale (despite occasional grammar errors and mis-spellings),  I hope it will be a resource for friends in the field.

And so, we begin.

And so, we continue on.

Hmmmmm, didcha’ notice that the blogger here has now posted four youtubes in a row…  What’s the deal with that? Something must be up!  Come back tomorrow for blog news and celebration.  Bring your party hats folks!

The winner of the NFB Online Competition Cannes 2008 was Alonso Alvarez Barreda for his short film Historia de un Letrero (The Story of a Sign) produced in Mexico/U.S.A.

The punch-line is that even a blind person can experience a change of outlook and how that might impact others.

Saw the movie on Saturday night. The Henry Poole character is sad and lonely, without faith, and gives off the stench of death. Yet, he is surrounded by the happy and the connected, the faithful, and those embracing life. A central character to the story is named Esperanza (español for hope); another is Patience. The story is about the miraculous;  but the miracles are the by-product of hope and patience within human relationships. The face of God can be found within each of us, discovering it in a water-stain on a stucco wall only served to remind us of that. The miraculous transformation occurs for Henry when he discovers that his life (his legacy) is defined no longer in his sad past or his unknown future, but the “is here” of a water balloon fight, a candlelight dinner, his relationships in the now.

Seth Godin has this suggestion for the last two weeks of August: "In the US, the next two weeks are traditionally the slowest of the year. Plenty of vacations, half-day Fridays, casual Mondays, martini Tuesdays… you get the idea. What if you and your team went against type? What if you spend the two weeks while your competition (and the forces for the status quo) are snoozing–and turn it into a completed project?" While, you may not be seeing that by week’s end on the blog (come back Thursday to see why) . . . I am relishing the opportunity to be back at my desk this week.

(Wrote this one on the fly Friday, but liked it and thought I’d share it)

Lord Jesus: You traveled with your disciples on the road to Emmaus, shared stories, with them, and encouraged them to grow in faith and in Your story.  At journey’s end, you blessed the food and they found their hearts burning with enthusiasm to share your message.

At this meal, with these disciples gathered who have shared faith and story, we invite you to bless our food and keep our hearts burning with love for You, Your story of salvation and redemption, Your church, and Your young people.

We ask all this through the intercession of our Blessed Mother.  AMEN.

In today’s Gospel reading, the Canaanite woman risks everything - - discrimination, rejection, and the embarrassment of some basic abject begging - - to ensure a healing for our daughter.  She lets go of everything to obtain that which is essential.

We who are about youth ministry and discipleship will continually find this as our challenge.  First, we have to convey how essential discipleship is in our lives and in the lives of our church community.  Then, we (in cooperation with the Spirit) must encourage young people outside their comfort zone (their ducky) to fully experience joining with the chorus in the song of following the Lord.  We remain confident that when they "put that quacker down" and experience the true joy of sax, opps, discipleship; they will be hard-put to ever return. (If you want an "all star" version of this song, see here)

It was a great week at Our Lady of the Snows, wrapping it up on the Assumption. I had more than one pilgrimage walk around the grounds. We often think of the Mother of Jesus by her qualities (Sorrowful Mother, Mother of Mercy) or her apparitions (Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Guadalupe).  Devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows is one of the oldest devotions to Mary.  It has direct ties to the legend about a marvelous snowfall in Rome in 352 A.D.  Mary had indicated in a dream to a wealthy, childless Roman couple that she wanted a church built in her honor and the site for this church would be covered with snow.  On a hot, sultry morning on August 5, Esquiline Hill was covered with snow.  All Rome proclaimed the summer snows a miracle, and a church to honor Mary was built on the hill in 358 A.D.  Restored and refurbished many times, this church, now the magnificent Basilica of St. Mary Major, still stands today as the seat of devotion to Our Lady of the Snows in the Catholic Church.

And so, we pray…  

Gentle Mother, full of Grace, we are about the work of building the church, responding with a "yes" and you first did in discipleship to Jesus Christ.  It’s August and we are worn from the heat of summer. It’s August and we are overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable hills of September and autumn that surround our calendars.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, send us some snow.  Let us know that, with the Spirit, we are building in the right place. Let us know that, in your honor, we are building in our young people something that lasts. We look to the skies.  We look to you, Blessed Virgin.  We look for the miracle of August snow. AMEN.