Wow!  Really, just wow! November 2011 was quite the month. 

> The CatholicYMBlog sponsored the free video event ReBuildmyChurch early in the month (which, by the way, rebroadcasts tomorrow!)
> This site passed over the milestone of 4,000 posts!
> We added the lovely rotating banners up above and have already begun switching images in and out.
> and, from a look at this month’s wordle of the forty-two posts over this month, it seems like this little event known as NCYC played a prominent role in our activity this month.

I’m on vacation this week, so I have pre-posted the top ten based on information on hand and some good guesstimate work:

The Youth Cartel last week held their Extended Adolescent seminar in Atlanta.  I would have attended if not for an anticipated NCYC-related tiredness hangover.  I was a kickstarter backer of the event and look forward to seeing some of the materials.

Recently, Mark Oestreicher wrote about the issues of extended adolescence indicating that Adolescence is now, on average, an almost 20-year trek, lasting all the way through the 20s. Of course, there are 20somethings who are fully living as adults long before they reach the ‘used to be the marker of entering middle age’: 30. But then, there are plenty of young 30somethings still living in an extended adolescence.

There are hundreds of questions we could ask about this, and thousands we could ask about the implications. But I want to zero in on one:

What impact does extended adolescence have on the faith formation of teenagers? Ok, a second question: How should we respond? Read more in this Church Leaders.com posting

Here is some YouTube to Use with your young people…

and it comes fresh off of the NCYC stage.

This was part of our Lectio Divina prayer on Friday night where we looked into Mary’s “Yes” (Luke 1:26-38)

"Faith, in its deepest essence," says Pope John Paul II, "is the openness of the human heart to the gift: to God’s self-communication in the Holy Spirit."

Often, we think that the path to sainthood is challenging and difficult.  But our call to holiness starts with one’s “fiat” (an act of will that creates something without or as if without further effort)

All that’s required is a “Yes” to the will of God for your life

Or, to use Mary’s response to the Angel of the Lord,  “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

I’m in the middle of a two-week vacation right now. (That statement is accurate in the right now of this posting… I actually wrote this almost twenty days ago, because I knew I was going to be on vacation right now – - how’s that for some circular thought?)

In the past years, my longest vacations were six to eight days, usually averaging three to five…This one is  thirteen. Somewhere along the line recently, I have learned that what makes for a great vacation experience is a planned vacation experience. And I’ve been planning for this bad boy for a while…

I held off buying a book because I knew I wanted to buy it just before climbing on a plane.  I’ve got a trip scheduled along with a side excursion in the middle of my travels.  I’ve been checking local events on the internet for three different regions and been looking i advance as to what movies will be available.  There are more than three meals planned already. There is an advance strategy for Christmas decorating during this time as well as assuring self that planning for the two events that will hot the schedule right out of the gate when I return to the office.

The reality is that I have my next two vacations after this one on my radar as well.  Not full plans, but approximate whens and wheres. Sure, it looks a little type-A-ish for a vacation, but I’m planning to have a series of different and other experiences while vacating my everyday life.  I’m betting that refresh my soul and renew my energies.

When’s your next vacation and what’s your plan?

Our prayer this day, as we enter into a new liturgical year and a renewed way of speaking in liturgy, is based upon the readings of the First Sunday of Advent

Lord, we strive to be attentive to your role in our lives.  We seek to see your face.

We are the work of your hands, may our hands be about your work.

Do let let us wander sleepily from your ways, but would that you meet us doing right.  Do not allow our hearts to harden to the awesomeness of Your wonder.

Might we be watchful and alert for you, O Lord.  Only you know the time, be it in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning when Your fullness will be revealed to us.  We will call upon your name seeking new life in You.

O Lord, you are faithful, bestowing many blessings upon us.  May we be firm in faith until; the end, irreproachable in our continued watchful for you. Rouse your power, O Lord, and come to save us. Return for the sake of your servants,

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Romans 14:6 reminds that

Whoever observes the day, observes it for the Lord. Also whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while whoever abstains, abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God.

We are taking a Thanksgiving blogging break. Thanks to you for your readership, comments, and support. Enjoy your feasts this weekend… and do it for the Lord.

We will be back as we start the new liturgical year on Sunday. Until then, the Lord be with you… and with your Spirit.

With this post, the Catholic YM Blog hits a significant milestone! By our best counting (…feel free to double check our work) this is, the 4,000th post of the blog. Woo-hooo! In our seven-plus years of blogging, I would have never imagined that there would be so much to say about Catholic Youth Ministry and life.

Seriously, if most of the posts over these many months were to average 125 words, (and, if you want to go though the effort of auditing that number, have at it. This post is 125 words, exactly.) that’s over a half-million words posted.

I hope the blog might have been as much of a blessing to you as it has for me.

Join in the celebration, and comment below!

Here’s a reasonably fresh YouTube for you to use to remind young people to be thankful (in season as well as out) for each day given to them.

Psalm  118-23-24 reminds us that

By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.

When Lucy woke in the morning, do you think that she suspected that by the time for her commute home from Euston would have constituted a lovely day?

Each day brings new opportunity and new life. When you wake up in the morning, love, and the sunlight hurts your eyes…

Wake with the trust in the Lord that the world’s alright.

Know that no matter what challenges the day brings, it is the day that the Lord has made and i’s gonna be a lovely day.

Thanks to Jack & Catholicyouthwork.com for the original posting

I began writing this post two weeks ago and probably felt that way for a few weeks before it.

Just a few days in… November has already been a busy month but a month full of good stuff as well. It follows a very full and equally rich season since summer’s World Youth Day.

Departure for NCYC is ten day’s away. A two week vacation is but two weeks away and starts, praise God, TODAY .  Thanksgiving will be followed by a run to Florida to visit my mother and my youngest daughter.

Yet, in this time of in between, I feel as if I am at the end of my rope.

My sleep patterns are out of wack, I’ve had a constant sniffle. Diet and exercise are inconsistent. I’m a little bit of a mess

After an unreasonably long period of time in “power up” mode, I find myself “powering down” towards an extended time away from office and work. The goal is to hang on until the elements of life align to again engage in the steady climb up. 

If you are at your rope’s end, keep on keeping on. Know you are not alone.

Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle us with the fire of your Love.