Last Monday, while on his visit to the Czech Republic, Pope Benedict offered greetings to young people following a Mass in Prague:

Dear friends, it is not hard to see that in every young person there is an aspiration towards happiness, sometimes tinged with anxiety: an aspiration that is often exploited, however, by present-day consumerist society in false and alienating ways. Instead, that longing for happiness must be taken seriously, it demands a true and comprehensive response. At your age, the first major choices are made, choices that can set your lives on a particular course, for better or worse. Unfortunately, many of your contemporaries allow themselves to be led astray by illusory visions of spurious happiness, and then they find themselves sad and alone. Yet there are also many young men and women who seek to transform doctrine into action, as your representative said, so as to give the fullness of meaning to their lives. I invite you all to consider the experience of Saint Augustine, who said that the heart of every person is restless until it finds what it truly seeks. And he discovered that Jesus Christ alone is the answer that can satisfy his and every person’s desire for a life of happiness, filled with meaning and value (cf. Confessions, I.1.1).

Read the full text of his comments.

The Ravens games is on Sunday afternoon but I’m gonna be in Church during the game.  My daughter, Nichole, has the very same problem, she will be at work as well.

Thank goodness for my Verizon DVR.  We, along with developing football fan Johanna, have a date to watch the game on tape delay (without the commercials!)

My past week seems to have been conducted entirely on tape delay. It happens every fall and yet it always catches me somehow by surprise.  My introvert needs to be sentenced into solitary confinement.  My sinuses reject the change in temps and affect my throat, appetitive, and sleep. Any good efforts of stocking up reserve postings for the blog are lost to a general dislike to even touch a keyboard, ever, ever again.

And, so unannounced, and with minimal apology, I drop out of the bloggosphere and even the office slightly and work towards recovery.  We are now caught up on posting the entirety of the youth contact postings and hope to resume daily blogging.  If you’ve been looking for updates over the past four or so days, that’s what happened.   Sorry for that.

Throughout this week, we will be “airing” segments of our Youth Contact meetings, conducted over the previous two weekends. The full ArchBalt resources is now live here.

Our theme for the training was Salt and Light. How do we help young people to preserve the faith?  How do we fully reflect the prism of Christ’s light?

Kristin Witte addresses the issue of Spiritual Bipartisianship. 

The concept that there are Catholics that are horizontal in their ecclesial tendencies or vertical in their ecclesial tendencies of spirituality, theology, ecclesialology, or  prayer in regards to their ministry must be abolished.

The cross has both horizontal and vertical beams.  Christ himself declared that every kingdom divided against itself will be laid to waste; and that no town and not house divided against itself will stand. Jesus Christ never promoted division, bias, or any type of ecclesial bigotry.

Whether serving at Eucharistic Adoration or at a women and children’s shelter or at , to divide the Catholic Church through bias denies us the most complete image of the Body of Christ.

Kristin suggests that building unity across the aisle will take more than an symbolic gesture.  It requires support and structure to institutionalize ecclesial bipartisanship.

She suggests:

> acknowledging each other’s presence and dignity

> recognizing the authenticity of another’s passion

> seek consensus and common ground

> celebrate diversity

> be fluent in a language other than your own

Throughout this week, we will be “airing” segments of our Youth Contact meetings, conducted over the previous two weekends. The full ArchBalt resources is now live here.

Our theme for the training was Salt and Light. How do we help young people to preserve the faith?  How do we fully reflect the prism of Christ’s light?

Margaret Brogden discusses “Diversity” in her portion of presentation on light.

Here she suggests that “universal does not always mean uniformity” We all belong to the universal church; the Catholic Church has lived and continues to live in a diversity of cultures and languages because she is lead by the Spirit of God to bring the Gospel to all peoples. She known how to accept what is truly good in all cultures.  The Church does not negate or ignore culture; the Church celebrates it.

Margaret Brogden and Kristin Witte return to the “They” skit once again… with a different perspective.

“They should be more Catholic.”