Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

Many discovered this song from the soundtrack of WALL-E, but others knew it was from Hello Dolly all along.

Anna Scally is always quick to suggest that any good love song is also a hint of the love that can be expressed between God and ourselves.

And so, this day, let us remember that it only takes a moment… Your heart knows in a moment you will never be alone again.

Let us be open the moments of love, to receive the gracious generosity of the other and to express love in kind and gentle ways.  It is, after all, for what we are made.

And that is all
That love’s about
And we’ll recall when time runs out
That it only took a moment
To be loved a whole life long!

Ahhhh, Lord, this is the weekend where we celebrate the Hallmark notion of love, and yet here we are speaking of rules… How does that all work out?

We trust in you, Lord, so we choose to keep the commandments. We choose to follow the law of the Lord. Our deepest desire is that our “Yes’s” mean “Yes” and our “No’s” mean “No.”

Really, it is a simple choice… not unlike the choices between fire and water, good and evil… even life and death. Lord, you came not to abolish, but to fulfill, the law and the the prophets. So, we beg you, instruct us, in the ways of our statutes so that we might exactly observe them. Give us discernment so that we may observe your laws and keep them with all our heart.

You do not command us to act unjustly nor do you give us license to sin. Open our eyes, Lord, help us to see the wonders of your law. Open our ears, Lord, help us to hear what God has prepared for those who love him. Open our hearts, Lord, on this weekend of love, help us to love like you.

It’s a Jesse Manibusen love song, Lord, that’s how it works out. We who seek to obey and teach your commandments, Lord, live within you. Deep in our hearts, O Love. We live within you. Rest now in us.

Continuing the weekend celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine… This top-ten list of Adam’s pick-up lines with Eve are courtesy of Mikey’s Funnies

10. “You know you’re the only one for me!”   9. “Do you come here often?”   8. “Trust me, this was meant to be!”  7. “Look around, baby. All the other guys around here are animals!”  6. “I already feel like you’re a part of me!”   5. “Honey, you were made for me!”   4. “Why don’t you come over to my place and we can name some animals?”  3. “You’re the girl of my dreams!” (Gen. 2:21)   2. “I like a girl who doesn’t mind being ribbed!”

And the number one pick up line from Adam is:  1. “You’re the apple of my eye!” <image source>

What can I say… As we get close to Valentine’s Day, I get sorta sentimental… 

h/t Non Sequiur

Jealousy

is the tribute

mediocrity

pays to genius.

-Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen
h/t IC

Chris Mueller had a series of posts on the importance of a core team on the blog at www.catholicyouthministry.com. If you are sweating core team stuff, this might be a worthwhile read, Here are some pull quotes:

Part 1:

As the director/Coordinator/youth minister (whatever you call yourself) your job is the Core Team. I know this is teen ministry, but you really should not be spending all your time with teens. I mean it. There is no way that one person…

(more…)

Love TED videos and spent an afternoon over Christmas break taking a in-service opportunity watching a handful if them.

I am writing this post just days before Christmas but am scheduling the post for February.  Why?  Because if I haven’t done something with this post related to our programming, this will serve to remind me. I did remember!

The speaker William L. Ury who co-founded and is currently a Senior Fellow of Harvard’s Negotiation Project.

He discusses the third side of any argument and how it might be discerned not in face-to-face confrontation but in the effort of walking alongside another.

While this stuff might be recognizable to others, I found some of the concepts revolutionary.

Lord, this weekend, we pray for light, Your Light, to shine forth.

Let us share Your Light when we share bread with the hungry, satisfy the afflicted, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked, and not turn our back on our own.

We call upon you Lord, and expect you to answer; we cry for help, and await your response: Here I am.  Help us to be gracious, merciful, and to share our blessings, to conduct our affairs with justice. Help us to be light of the world set forth to give light to al.

Shine forth your light in darkness to us all, so that any gloom we experience shall become like midday.

(The video, from which Pixar got its logo, tells the story, of course, of light. It is also a tale of youth ministry – -

Shine your light!)

All right, when we started our monthly caption contest in January, the response was a little overwhelming… but quite funny!  Thanks!!!

Last weekend, while in Albuquerque, the enclosed picture of me was taken and texted to my family and friends…  (Click on pic to enlarge, if needed… ahem, if you dare)

The responses by text were such fun that it was deemed worthy of the grave, serious risk to my fragile ego to allow it to be worthy of your CaptionThis comments.

Here’s the finalists:

>> Mike Patin’s “In a sad twist to the sports doping controversies, youth ministry icon Scott Miller is showing signs of taking human growth hormones. He will be called before Congress this week.”
>> Chris Weber’s (January’s winner) Harry Potter’s sorting hat one-act play
>> Bob Rice’s “The closest D. Scott Miller will get to being a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.
>> Diana Healy’s “Aspiring to gender equality in the Red Hat Society, Scott finds himself booted from his very first meeting for forgetting his “something purple’.”
>> (Daughter) “Meghan worried that True Grit was the last straw. Her father really wanted to remake every single John Wayne movie.”

And we have a WINNER:

>> Diana’s entry last night of “Scott: How come the horsey won’t go? K-Mart employee: Sir, the ride is for kids. Please don’t make me call security again.”  Congratulations, Diana!  Your no-prize is winging it’s way to you!

Thanks, all! We’ll be back at this again on the first Saturday of March.