Here’s a quick wrap-up of July’s top posts of the month…

from The Far Side

Every saint
is a man
before
he is a saint;

and

a saint
made
be made
of every sort of man.

–G.K. Chesterton

On youthworker.com, Brenda Seefeldt campaigns for a change in the role of youth ministry… The money quote:

Your role in this is crucial. Typically, a youth minister’s role is to lead all things youth ministry, which he or she does passionately because of his or her love for teens. May I suggest redefining your role? Instead of being the center of the teen relationships or developing volunteer staff to form relationship with teens, you become the go-between of the teen relationships with everyone in the church family. You become this great chess master. You have one big chessboard with the prize being the faith and formation of teens.

In this role, you are moving all the pieces of the church family to interact with the teens. Every person from the widows to the nursery workers can be players in the youths’ extended family.

Check out the whole article.  <image source>

Here a nice little summer diversion, one worth sharing with others.  The link to the video is www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYI_aOyCn9Y 

Hopefully, this day, if you are able to listen deep inside of yourself, you will be able to hear the positive, the good news, and God being glorified.

Father Austin Murphy is Baltimore’s director of vocations, has long served as this blog’s chaplain, and is a double blogger as well. Yesterday, he posted his homily given as our High School Leadership Institute began.

You’ll remember the readings… the parables of the treasure in a field and the discovery of a pearl of great price.

Well, that’s pretty ripe territory for leadership kids about selling out your all for the gifts of God… but, then, Fr. Austin like to mix up pop culture reference, so wait until you see how his homily takes a magical turn when he throws in a dash of Harry Potter into the mix.

The homily works for all of us: The stakes are that high, friends. Do not settle for mediocrity. You are better than that – because God has made you so! If the Lord asks something of you, you are capable of it. All it takes is trust and prayer – just like young Solomon in the first reading, who prays for the wisdom to do what he is called to do. The invitation has been sent, my young friends. And you have accepted. Now, with God’s help, you embark on an adventure that will lead you to discover the great things that you can do.

Even in Hawaii (where my son who took this picture is stationed), life has its challenges…

The cheerful are
much easier to guide in the spiritual life
than the melancholy.

–St. Philip Neri
h/t to the ironic catholic

<image source>

It is easy to think about space these days. Atlantis landed early this morning bringing a close to three decades of space shuttle service, Yesterday, we celebrated the 42nd anniversary of man landing on the moon. 

Recently, UK buddy blogger Jack Ragan pondered over links between lessons learned form the effort of putting man on the moon (still a very significant historic game changer) and our own need in the field of youth ministry for get it right and to make the changes neccesaary to fo so.

We make this efforts because it is hard, because we are challenging ourselves to go further, and to be better and to achieve more are part of what it means to be alive.  Jack’s lessons learned include:

> Accept the fact that you are going to have a few fights along the way.
> Don’t get drawn into spats.
> If you have an idea, make it happen. and
> Hope and Pray.

It’s a good read as we all choose to shoot for the stars.