Thanksgiving and beyond!

Hey all!
So I hope we have all had a great Thanksgiving! I know I sure did. 
We are now moving into a new liturgical year and the start of the season of Advent.  Advent is a seen of anticipation and convertion.  We are called, as we have read in this week's gospel, to repent from our sinful ways and to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.  Many of the readings that we will hear at Mass throughout this season come from the book of Isaiah.  So, I think it would be beneficial to take a little Advent crash-course through the Book of the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah is actually written by at least 2 authors (we don't know their actual names, so in the blessed name of tradition we will just call them Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 2).  Isaiah 1 writes to an Israelite people who are a school of fish out of water (BTW: Don't forget to feed our fish!).  The Israelites, just as they have throughout the entire history of their people, have fallen out of favor with God and it has landed them in servitude in Babylon.  Consequently, at this time in Israelite history, many of the old tradition are actually put to paper, so whenever someone asks who wrote the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, tell them some rabbi in Babylon.  The important thing to remember is that these people are looking for an identity.  What makes us Israelites so different, and God willing, so much more blessed than the barbaric and pagan Babylonians? These people eat pigs, for cryin' out loud! Well Isaiah 1 tells them all about the attrocious ways we had treated God before He allowed our people to be defeated by the Babylonians (this war took place about 80 years before Isaiah 1 wrote, so few people actually rememberred what had happened, and most of them had been born in Babylon, not their beloved Jerusalem).  Bottom line: the Israelites made some big mistakes that directly broke the covenant with God (reference: the entire Old Testament) and God was punishing them with exile in Babylon.
Enter Isaiah 2.  He writes an Advent poem (Comfort, O comfort ye people of Israel!) which tells them of the end of their suffering at the hands of God.  There time in exile is up, and God will soon be sending a Messiah to return them to Jerusalem. Shortly there after Babylon was destroyed and the Persian king, Cyrus, allowed the nation of Israel to return through the desert to their beloved Zion. 
What is important about the story of the Israelites' exile in Babylon? Do we ever feel like we have lost ourselves because of our failure to uphold our end of the bargain with God (i.e. those moments as we look in the mirror after a nice sequence of sins and do not recognize the person staring back at us)?  Is our preparation for the coming of our savior one of scrambling to make our homes presentable (hurry up and quit lying to your mom and dad), or is one of comfort and at long last a restoration of our identity?  Who is it that can bring us back across the desert and into our long forsaken homes?

Dear Friends,
Today, I would like to write a few thoughts concerning unity. In particular, I would like to ponder and encourage the idea of family unity.

We do not have to look far and wide to see that people are oftentimes living for themselves and abandoning relationships that they have with their spouses, children, parents and siblings. There are many reasons for this state of being. Some people have the false notion that their lives are solely their own and they answer to no one. Other people place a higher value on material goods and "fun time friends" than a good relationship with family. Sometimes, our super busy schedule impedes on time that we might spend in the love and company of our families. Let me assure you, my friends, that this is not the plan that God has for us.

God placed us in our families specifically to grow in love. It is in our families that we begin to learn to love other people and we begin to understand the deep and abiding love that our Father in Heaven has for each one of us. When there is family unity, the members of that family experience a steady flow of love, grace and acceptance. When God is the center of our family and we include him in the daily events of our lives, our families become anchored in His love and we are able to experience His strength, patience and calm even when we are faced with turmoil and tough times.

These thoughts on family unity are all well and good but how can we strengthen and improve the relationships we have with our family members. My friends, we can begin this holy endeavor by turning our hearts and minds toward Christ in prayer. Prayer will bring unity to a family in a swift manner. If a family makes a decision to make family prayer a priority, Christ can bestow many graces and peace to that home.

My friends, choose Christ, today, tomorrow and everyday. He will never abandon you and his love will sustain you even in the most difficult of times. Be Christ for others. Let your love and goodness be the light that brings others to a closer relationship with God.

Peace My Friends,
Anthony

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name…

The words are so familiar, we often rattle them off without even realizing what we are saying. My son is going through preparations for First Communion. As part of the first class, parents were supposed to talk with their child about what the words of the “Our Father” meant. As I began to discuss what each phrase meant, I quickly realized that this was a perfect catalyst for a deeper sharing of what my beliefs really are with my son. We did not get even past the first phrase before the moderator said it was time to move on. After the meeting, my son and I stopped at a gas station and picked out some Skittles for him and a slushy for me. We ate and drank our treats on a park bench as we finished discussing this prayer that our LORD gave us.

In our discussion, one phrase really stood out and summed up the rest of the prayer: “Hallowed be thy name.” To be “hallowed” means to be sacred, to be holy, to be something special. For example, in his address at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln referred to the ground having been “hallowed” or “consecrated” by the soldiers who fought and died there. The “Thy Name” refers to God’s name, YHWH. Even to this day, the Jewish people treat that name, which translates to “I am who am,” with such reverence that they do not even pronounce it, they say “adonai” (LORD) instead. During Jesus’ time, the only time it was allowed to be spoken out loud was on the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year, by the high priest, who would go into the Holy of Holies, (the holiest room in the temple), and whisper it. So the Jewish people treated God’s name with such reverence that only the high priest, (who was hopefully the holiest person), would say it once on the holiest day of the year in the holiest room of the temple, in other words, on the holiest spot on the planet.

So, God’s name is to be kept holy by being treated with reverence. But the questions arise, “By whom?” and “How?” Undoubtedly, we are the ones to keep God’s name holy, so how do we do that? Following the second of the Ten Commandments, “Do not use the LORD’s name in vain,” is a start. We don’t use God’s name to curse someone or something that makes us mad. Think about it, would you like your own name to be used and associated with moments of anger and hatred? Now imagine if you were a being of complete selfless love, (such as God is), having your name be used for hate would be pretty offensive.

However, keeping God’s name holy means more than just not swearing. Every single one of us were told at our Baptism that we have “put on Christ.” Indeed, that is why we are called “Christians,” because we have taken on the name of Christ. If we, ourselves, have taken on the name of Christ, then we also keep God’s name holy by how we act and how we live. The old saying comes to mind: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” If I do something evil, then I am profaning the Christian name, Christ’s name, and in so doing, I am profaning God’s name; I am not keeping it holy! If the ancient Israelites had such a devout respect for God’s name that they only said it once a year in a whisper on the holiest day of the year, on the holiest place on earth, by the holiest person, then those of us who call ourselves by God’s name today need to make sure we are living up to that Name with the same measure of devotion!

So next time you pray the Our Father, ask yourself “Am I keeping God’s Name holy?” Pray it in the morning and ask yourself, “What am I going to do today to make God’s name holy?”

Halloween & All Saints

Halloween is the eve of All Hallows Day, or as we now know it—All Saints Day. All Saints Day celebrates the faithful of every age, culture and walk of life who are now with God. It is a day of glorious rejoicing.

Saints are people who, by their service and love, have extended the love of God to others. The Roman martyrology—the list of the saints officially recognized as such by the church—contains over ten thousand names. And those aren’t only the saints whose names we remember! All Saints’ Day also remembers those holy people whom only God knows.

The American tradition of Halloween ghost and goblin madness comes from Celtic lands, where the spirits of the dead were thought to roam the earth for one night before winter began. To ward off their fear of the supernatural, people sat around huge bonfires, telling stories and sharing the fruits of the harvest. Children were sent round to beg for fuel for the fire. Although the practice of “trick or treating” has its roots in pre Christian Celtic tradition, it could be a mistake to write off the practice as devil worship. In Christ, all things have been made new. And so we dress as ghosts and goblins, or our favorite Saint, to laugh at the devil, who has lost ultimate power over God’s beloved children.

Halloween and the celebrations of All Saints and All Souls, remind us that those who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith, are still members of the family. Let's celebrate our communion and connections that death cannot unravel!

So, how will you celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day? Who will you remember and celebrate?

How Old Are You?

A bus-load of high school students just rolled up to my door at the Helena Food Share Lewis St. Pantry. (check us out! www.helenafoodshare.org or your local food bank at www.greatfallsfoodbank.org)


These students are having a big food drive for our clients - and some of these kids are our clients. Their answers to my questions make it clear that the food bank is a familiar place. (Me: "Where did you wake up this morning?" Student: "On the floor.") In the month of September, we served 1631 people under age 17. About 10% of all the clients we served in September were ages 13 - 18.

How old are you?

Seeing these kids do a food drive makes me think of a guy named Dietrich Bonhoeffer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer Here is a guy who chooses, because of his faith, to work beside the victims of history (Jews in Germany) - much like the food drive students this morning serve the poor (hungry kids in Helena). They walk the walk.


Bonhoeffer had an idea about all this (that relates to Nick's last post...) - "cheap grace" vs. "costly grace" The difference between the two for ole' Dietrich was "vocation" or discipleship.


To put it another way, in Dietrich's words: "Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ."


Like the food drive kids this morning (354 lbs. baby!), like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, like the kid who woke up on the floor: How do you walk the walk?

Building a foundation

Who here likes flow charts? Those are the thingys that make connections between certain ideas or topics, etc. I like 'em.  I think they help me to make sense of the overall interrelatedness of certain things.  They help us to formulate Main Ideas and they help us to focus our attention on those main ideas and the steps we need to take to build a foundation and construct a solid understanding of the topic. 
Ok, let's build a flow chart for our faith.  From what angles do we analyze our Church or our Religion?  We could look at our Church through the lense of Doctrine, or Catechesis as the fancy people like to say.  This is the fundamental principles that, over time, our Church has established to live a good life.  This is where we apply the statement "The Church teaches... blah blah blah."  Another perspective of our Church may be through the lense of Spirituality.  What the blazes is spirituality? Spirituality is connectedness- how do we connect ourselves to our environment, other people, the universe, etc.  Another way we can look at the Church is as part of our Identity. I imagine somewhere on each one of our "lists of lables" that people put on us, or we put on ourselves, the word "Catholic" eventually shows up, or at least "Christian".  Our Church can be viewed as a Body of Individuals while it is also at the same time a single Unit.   Our final lense that I want to look at is Community. This is why most people go to church, to belong to a community, or because you DO belong to a community.  So the first week, when I asked you why you are here, a lot of you said "'cause mom made me come."  
From these four basic lenses or perspectives of our Church, I have built a flow chart (SO cool, I know) to express, basically, how are faith is connected and points us in the direction of where our ultimate focus ought to lie as young Catholics.  So, without further adieu, THE FLOW CHART!!!:

Catechesis
                  >   Morality
Spirituality                                             >   Forgivenss
                  >   Relationship with God                             >   Eucharist
Identity                                                 >   Vocation
                  >   Body of Christ
Community

So what the heck does all of this mean?  Well, that is for us to figure out throughout the rest of the year.  What I see here is an invitation to you, as young Catholics, to worry less about how and why you have messed up, as our Church is typically labeled as a set of rules, But to focus your attention on more dire human needs- Forgiveness and Eucharist.  When we deal with our probelms, we are called to recommit ourselves to God.  This means that if we can learn to focus less on the mistakes we make (easier said than done) and focus more on the forgiving power of the Eucharist (which is the Greek word for "Thanksgiving"), we are better equipped to become more Christ-like. 
Does any of that make any sense?

What I want you to do (high schoolers and contributers) is to reflect on the past 72 hours (that's three days).  Focus on the good things you did to make your community a better place (helping people out, furthering your education to grow into a constructive member of our society, talking with people, being a good friend, brother, sister, son, daughter, etc.).
Now think about your faults (being mean, disrespectful, rude, or apathetic, which means not to care whatsoever, to/about another person).
How many more times did you act in a constructive manner, than a destructive manner, or rather, what percentage of my actions were good actions vs. bad actions?  Does it split 50%-50%? 60%-40%? 70%-30%? 10%-90% (God help you!)?
How do we widen that gap to make our good actions stand out just a little more everyday?

Think about this, pray about this, and comment to this post and tell me why you think we tend to focus more on the bad stuff we do than the good stuff.

Introductions

This seems like a nice way to begin our blogging experiment.  The question I have been kicking around for two years since I first had the idea to make a blog is after it is made, what the devil am I going to talk about?!  Thank God I have a panel of theologians, youth ministers, friends, etc. to help me with that very task!  The first thing I want everyone to do on this here blog is get to know each other.  Edit your profile, look at everyone else's profile, put a picture of yourself on your profile so we all can get to know to whom we are talking.  Then, so I know you there is someone out there reading this other than myself, if you could post a comment to this post that says a bit more about yourself... let's see... why don't you answer the question what program or department in high school did you always want to do but never did, and why?  For example, when Jesus was in high school, he wanted to join a rock band, but was too busy studying analogies for the SATs (The Kingdom is to Mustard Seed as ... is to Faith). 

Happy posting everyone and here's to a new year in youth ministry.  Any questions on how to do something- email Nick.  If I don't know, we can find out together!
O and please don't forget to feed the fish!!!