It’s month-end posting time and again we are adding a lovely word cloud or wordle review of the content of the past month. As always with almost any pictures on the blog, you should be able to chick on it to received an enlarged view.

The site meter is back up to snuff, so these top posts are actually verified.

Today is a day that serves as a reminder.

When we romanticize the sacrifice, it is easier to dismiss it (and isn’t this true with our faith as well?)

Yet, there are our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews and cousins and neighbors who are toeing the line in defense of our freedoms… and they are doing the hot, hard, and often boring (with intermittent yet long-lasting moments of horror) work of service

Are we are called to “Earn this… Earn it.”

Memorial Day, not unlike Easter, or even our birthdays should be a day not only of burgers and dogs and the first swim of the summer. It should be a moment when we look each other in the eye and demand “Tell me that I have lived a good life. Tell me I’m a good person.” and pray, just pray, that we get a response in the loving affirmative.

Please pray today for all those in service to our country, especially those deployed to areas of conflict.

Taking more of a break this summer.  I want to eke out a healthier summer this year.

My paystub  indicates six weeks of personal time due to be taken from the office. There is a significant to-do list of office writing. There are at least two work trips this summer. And, this is not a “poor me” post. It’s all good, really.

Between now and Labor Day, I’m gonna let go of the conceit of posting everyday. Also, letting go of the annual tour of the State of Youth Ministry, which we have traveled together for the previous three summers,  but not this year… ‘Cause (in the words of Ms. Sheryl Crow)

I’m gonna soak up the sun. I’m gonna tell everyone to lighten up. (I’m gonna tell ‘em that.) I’ve got no one to blame. For every time I feel lame, I’m looking up. I’m gonna soak up the sun.

That’s my new summer resolution. <image source>

So, you go to a youth conference or event, and there is still the chance that you might see this scene…

That one guy, who lugged his guitar all the way to the event (not that he will either be asked to support worship music nor even volunteer…)

and he will be off in a corner with his own small contingent of fans assembled…

Well, next time you see this sort of thing… resist this sort of response.

And, f you go to a toga party, well, then, this is the least of your worries.

On Wednesday, my late spring speaking tour wrapped up with a presentation to middle schoolers and their families.

Knowing the age group of the audience, we went pretty hard core active for the first half of the presentation. An icebreakers that involved animals (which connected to later) a vote with your feet activity, a writing/ drawing activity, before attempting to do just a little content which lead into a video of Father Tony’s story of Creation (where the animals connected back in.

What Father Tony does not cover in Genesis 1:27- image and likeness stuff. We did and tied that into how we car called to look at things differently as disciples.

That lead to a fast drive through the upside-down thinking of the Beatitudes and a call to be church together, using my favorite metaphor of the Kia Hamsters.

It was a fast moving 90 minutes.  It had to be, I was facing a four-hour late-night ride home!

 The most important hour is always the present;

the most significant person is precisely the one who is sitting across from you right now;

the most necessary work is always love.

Meister Eckhart

“Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror, I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doin’ the best that I can.”

Randy Raus was being polite when he recently called for an unassuming youth ministry stance. I’m not as nice a person.  We probably are not answering hard questions out of a semi-unconscious state of false arrogance.

There, let speak of the unspoken sin of youth ministry — Arrogance.

It is arrogant to just expect kids to show up without putting some real effort towards invitation  It is arrogant to wear our events as badges – mission trips. youth conferences, pilgrimages and retreats somehow make us assume that large numbers on events automatically mean we are transforming teens. It is arrogant to not connect in with neighboring parishes or the diocese because we assume we won’t get anything out of them, rather than attending to see how we could serve or give back. It is spiritually arrogant to believe that it is us who is making the difference and not God.

Randy’s whole list is a worthy read as an examination of conscious as we enter summer.

Oh, Lord, help us be humble, as only You are perfect in every way. As we catch ourselves looking in the mirror, open our eyes towards how you see us, gifted yet flawed. We desire to know You and love You. Oh, Lord, help us be humble so that we might be doin’ the best that we can.

Did you know that some of the new words of the Mass come straight from scripture? The new translation of the Missal not only better follows the Latin, but it also makes scriptural connections much clearer. We hear some great examples of this in the Lamb of God during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. When we prepare to partake of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the words we hear and say will remind us of all that Jesus has done for his people. In this video, you will hear some teens talk about what the Eucharist means to them.

Liturgical Training Publications and SpiritJuice Productions have put together have out together a series of videos for young people as a resource regarding the New Roman Missal.  We will profile them all over the next Wednesdays.

Consider taking advantage of the change in the mass as an opportunity for greater inclusion of young people in the ministries of the weekend liturgies.

Sometimes you do presentations because you are invited to presentations and it’s an “all right” experience.

Tonight, I spoke to nearly for the adults at St. Vincent Basilica Parish in Latrobe, PA…

… and, yeowza, I personally had a good, nahhhh, nope, a great time.  We were talking about the tough questions and were really struggling with some answers.

We used two video clips that show as dark slides… I can’t find the first one on-line anymore but it starts with kids asking “Can you see me?” and ends with them promising to make the world a better place… sentiments I have every confidence towards the next generation; Kenda Dean was at the end, reminding the adults that, while we are asking them to step up within the community’s work with young people, if they just let God’s grace flow from them— the world will change.

Thanks to Sharon Bogusz, Tina Komarinski, and the good folks at this beautiful Benedictine shrine for their charism of hospitality.