Head, Heart, Hands.  It’s what we hear every time we discuss adolescent faith formation.  And, yet, something has always seemed missing.  There is a something between the inside stuff of head and heart and how that impacts the outside stuff of the hands.

Maybe it is in the feet.  By watching the feet, you can see the internal stuff of “where we stand” while watching “we we are going.”.  But, for you purists out there who need an “H” word to go with “Head, Heart, Hands,” then let’s follow the classic 4-H model and add “Home.”  This speaks to an identity piece that we are all searching for within our efforts.

A mature faith makes the iintegral connection between internal faith and external actions.  The USCCB’s Everyday Christianity reminds that “Being a believer means that one lives a certain way – Walking with the Lord, doing justice, loving kindness, and living peaceably among all people. Christian discipleship means practicing what Jesus preached.”

Faith Formation reminds us who we are and Whose we are.

Planning ahead for your New Years’ Resolution?  Got one for you right here!  Be an entrepreneur!

The entrepreneurial spirit has been described as involving passion, positivity, adaptability, leadership, and ambition.

My friend Sharon insists that this “is precisely this type of spirit to which the Church of the 21st Century evangelizer is called.”

A new year offers an opportunity to recommit ourselves to new ways of living, but you don’t have to wait to stop yourself of being in the trap of doing the same old the same old way

Pope John Paul II in Ecclesia in America  reminded us that  “We must commit to a new ‘new evangelization’ –new in methods, new in expression, and new in ardor.’”

The Context and Content of the Emmaus Walk will eventually lose value and meaning if it is not offered within the experience of the Emmaus Meal/ Communion. Communion is the on-going commitment of an intimate relationship with both God and God’s people. Our tradition, or religious imagination, our sensibilities regarding sacrament, justice, and holiness are all communicated within our “staying with” one another and sharing prayer and meal together. It is when “minds are enlightened and hearts are enkindled (that) signs begin to “speak”.

The process of conversion leads the disciple towards taking their own life experiences and their knowledge of the Lord and making a living, explicit and fruitful confession of faith. It is this profession of faith that forms the foundation for the continuing journal of faith of the disciple under the care and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This conversion is nourished in the life  and sacraments of the community.

The invitation to remain and the acceptance to do so are also parts of evangelization. In an all-too brief but intense encounter, an intimate relationship in faith is being built. The catechetical teaching that began with Moses and the prophets is now brought to culmination in the remembrance of the Last Supper experience. In this action, a teaching without words but with ultimate meaning, recognition has occurred.

Guess what the news of the week is….  Two days to go.  See you in KC.

KANSAS CITY, MO – -Tree houses in a simulated rain forest are just one of the fun features that await thousands of Catholic youth attending a national conference next week in Kansas City.After three years of planning, the two local dioceses are ready to welcome more than 20,000 youths and chaperones to the National Catholic Youth Conference Thursday through next Saturday.The largest Catholic youth event in the country will be at the Sprint Center and the Kansas City Convention Center and will include prayer, worship services, workshops and recreation. “Christ Reigns” is the theme.

A highlight will be a 191,000-square-foot thematic park that opens at noon Thursday in Bartle Hall. The “reign forest” will feature three mega tree houses constructed from more than 10,000 feet of lumber, interactive sports, social justice projects and 700 exhibitors. Also, 40 live bands will perform on stage in the coffee house throughout the conference.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, attendees will walk — praying and singing — from the Sprint Center to Bartle Hall. Leading will be Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and a keynote speaker; Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. “By processing through the streets, our Catholic youth will signal that they are united around this living presence of Jesus Christ and that we carry Christ’s love and promise of salvation to the world,” Finn said.

Read the entire Kansas City Star article.

What a feeling! I owe my college education to the movie Flashdance.  Seriously?  Yep.  Flashdance was one of those early great soundtrack movies where the music was as popular was as popular as the film itself.

For those of you on the younger side, yes, a decision to return to school was built upon a story of a Pittsburgh woman who was folding down two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer, but really wanted to get into ballet school. Go figure.  That movie just got to me. (What can say?  I’m complicated.)

Certainly, movies can inspire.  Look to Rocky, It’s a Wonderful Life, Hooisers, Dead Poets’ Society, or Shawshack Redemption, for instance. There is something more at work here than the context or the content of the story.  You walk away from those movies with a new pace to your step, you are encouraged. 

The French word for heart is coeur.  To en-cour-age is to en-heart-en.  The disciples felt that along the walk to Emmaus and they were not ready to let go of that feeling or experience.

As we pack and prepare to load out (in three days) for NCYC, I have revised some thoughts put together from Wondering Thoughts by Joe regarding various “Ways To Know You Need To Retire From Youth Ministry.”

5. You really hate large crowds.  You stand in the middle of thousands of high school kids and try to figure out who is supervising all the other kids beyond the 200 that you are attempting to get from point A to point B.

4. You wonder when Eucharistic Adoration stopped actually involving silence.

3. You have given up all hope on ever being syncopated with the crowd on the latest set of hand motions

2. You can’t keep your eyes open past 10:30 pm; any time after that you are too cranky for human contact.

1. Pizza gives you indigestion.

It turn out that I just might actually be too old for this “stuff.”

He has asked “What’s been going on?” and now answered His very own question reminding them of their own lived experience as well as the faith of their fathers, beginning with Moses and all the prophets.

They got to their destination, Emmaus, and they had gotten away from Jerusalem.  Their journey, for now, was over, but He gave the impression that He had further to go.  But, they were not done yet, “Stick around,” they urged.

And they gathered at table and the Stranger suddenly became quite familiar as “he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.” Their anger, their hurt, their confusion fell like scales from their eyes and they recognized him, just for a moment, and then he was gone. (Luke 24: 27 – 31)

These have been some tough times for folks, including my beloved Ravens who have a game Monday night.

Yet, we always remind ourselves of the promise of new life.

For those “stuck in a moment,” and, at times, myself, the lyrics have been ringing in my head:

You’ve got to get yourself
  together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later will be
  better
Now you’re stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won’t last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass

It’s just a moment
This time will pass

The training season continues to roll along.  Last night, I finished up session six of our Seminars in Youth Ministry class.  Here is the power-point.  Much of the stuff is connected to our Emmaus walk that is part of our second postings in the Caffeine series.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, we re-visited doing slide-shares.  It was the start of a series of developing a “culture of formation” that our ArchBalt offices are attempting to address.

The author and voice-over is Margaret Brogden, our coordinator for youth ministry formation and lead driver on this “culture of formation” stuff.

It’s only 3 minutes long, and I think I have fallen in love with short form presentations like this.