"Real" st. joh bosco picture.

January 31, 2007 St. John Bosco (1815-1888)   How cool is this?  This is really St. John's Picture!

St. John Bosco

Our Saint of the Week is St. John (Don) Bosco. I like this saint,
his story reminds me of my friends reactions when I told them that I
was leaving a great, well paying, promising career to be a youth
minister.

John Bosco lived in the latter part of the 19th Century. He was a
priest.
When he was nine years old he started having strange dreams. He
dreamt that the was in the middle of a group of unruly boys. They
were cussing and fighting. Then a man with a face that gleamed like
the sun and who a white mantle came and told John that he would lead
these boys. He would lead them with his gentleness and kindness.

John kept having these dreams. His brothers made fun of him. His
friends thought that he was nuts.
Eventually he had the opportunity to share them with Pope Pius. The
pope immediately knew what John was to do, he was to work with
"wayward" boys.

John spent the remainder of his life doing just that. He worked with
the boys that no one else wanted, that no one else thought was worth
the time. He learned to juggle. He would entice the boys with his
skills and then lead them to mass. Other priests would come to help
him, but get frustrated in a short time, not John. He was determined
to help these young boys grow into men with meaningful and
faithfilled lives.

How often do you remember you dreams? I used to keep a dream
journal. I looked for recurring themes and feelings. (Once when my
sister was on a diet she dreamt that Father was handing out Big Macs
at communion!) Seriously though, dreams can provide clarity to
obscure situations, if you take the time to look deeply. Try keeping
track of your dreams and see what you uncover.

Prayer: St John you reached out to the children that needed help
despite much ridicule and insults.
Help us to reach out to those in need. Help us to me less concerned
with the laughter of others and more concerned with the joy of the Lord.

St. Angela Merici

Hi everyone!  I hope that you are having a warm and cozy day!

There are a lot of options for the saint of the week, this week.

St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul, St. Timothy, St. Titus.and St. Angela Merici.

I have settled on the lesser known and the woman. . . St. Angela Merici.

 

St. Angela Merici lived in the 1500's.  When she was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she suddenly became blind.  Everyone wanted her to turn back, but she went on, choosing to "see" with her heart.

On her way back, her vision returned.  Once home, she began seeing things, that she was previously "blind" to; one of which was the plight of the uneducated women in her home town. The only educated women were nuns and they were not allowed to leave their cloister.  She saw that the old way wasn't working, so she set up a new way. . . She set up a Franciscan community of unmarried women.  They were educated and then, helped the poor.  (It was unheard of for a women to travel alone in those days!).   She said that we needed to help the poor, more that they needed us to help them.  (think about what that means, if you have been to Appalachia, you'll know what that means. . I hope). 

 

St. Angela, too, was a shaker and mover.  She saw what worked and what didn't and went on from there.   Kind of like what we talked about in INTERSECTION today.  Look at your life and see what is working and what isn't, and go from there.  Don't be blind to your shortcomings and the areas in your life that need to be improved.

 

Along these same lines, monday, Jan. 22 is the March for Life.  At our last youth mass, during the homily, Jesse saw my 'ABORTION IS MEAN' pin on my guitar strap and asked me what it meant.

I whispered to him that it meant that a pregnant women could decide that she did not want to have a baby and the doctor would take it out and the baby would of course die.  His jaw fell to the floor.  His eyes bulged.  "you mean a doctor will do that!!"  yes, I said.  'that is so wrong'.  Yes it is, I said.

That is why Father is talking about the prolife march. I told him, Many people from many religious go to Washington to show that they want this law to be changed.  "oh,' he said, "I hope that it works."

So, today, let's pray for the shakers and movers who see the need for a change and are doing something about it.  You can help today too.  Pray for them, and our country.  Educate yourself and others on what it means to be prolife.  (Hint:  it means ALL life, not just babies).  Did you know that our society has been compared to the Aztecs because abortion is considered a human sacrafice?

Gross, but true. 

 

 Don't turn a blind eye here, either.

St. Fabian

January 20 is the feast day of St. Fabian (250 AD)
Honestly, I did not know that there was a St. Fabian. The only
Fabian that I ever heard of was a singer from the 50's. Turns out,
as I checked ITunes, there are quite a few singers named Fabian, but
only one Saint Fabian. Apparently it was time to elect a new pope.
There were several candidates. Fabian wasn't even in the running,
but he just happened to be there. A dove flew in and stopped right
about his head. Everyone saw this, and could not ignore this obvious
sign, so he became Pope. These were hard times for Chrisitianity.
Christians were still persecuted by the Romans. Fabian sent out
bishops to the corners of the known world to evangelize. Fabian led
the church for 14 years before he was martyred by the Roman Emperor
Decius.
In the the catacombs, you can still find the stone that marks his
grave. "Fabian, Bishop, Martyr."
It is broken, but it is still there.

I wonder how many saints there are that we don't know about? I
wonder how many people have literally given their life for our
church, for our faith? In their wildest imaginations they could not
have dreamt about us, but yet here we are, because of them.

There is a line in Hamlet, "to thine own self be true". That is what
Fabian did. He was true to himself and to his God, even in the face
of death. Sometimes we can't even be true to ourselves in the face
that is in the mirror.

Everything that you do effects someone else. Today, start by being
true to yourself, who knows, 1,757 years from now, some teen may
read something inspiring about your life.

saint of the week.

Hey there. . .

Yesterday we celebrate the feast of the Ephiphany.  I kind of like this day.  I guess it is because ephiphany means :  (A-HA!) or that the light bulb goes off.    In other words, it is a sudden manifestation.  In Christian terms it means that Christ was recognized as sSvior and king by the Magi.

 

When I was at world youth day summer before last, I visited the Cathedral in Cologne Germany where the Magi are laid to rest.  A German emperor, many centuries before, sought out their remains (from Persia) and brought them back to honor them.  It was really a magnificent sight. 

While I was there, I thought about what strength and courage these men had to doggedly persue what they believed in.  Imagine if we all did that.   Earlier today I caught part of a DVD that my son was watching.  It was "He changed the World"  it was about Steve Irwin.  Steve had the kind of courage and stength that I am talking about.  So, did Martin Luther King.  So did Mother Teresa.  So did Pope John Paul II.

 

So did Mary, Joseph and the even the shepherds (they left their flocks, which is pretty much a no no) My epiphany this year was this:  I was hurriedly packing away our nativity figures last night and then this occured to me:   As you pack away the Nativity figures, don't pack away thier meaning.  Maybe we should keep them out so that we can remember their model of courage and strength.

 

I think that maybe next year we should plan a road trip on the feast of the Epiphany to Bethlehem, PA.  We could rent a "Caravan" and dress like Magi.  Our theme:  HAVE YOU HAD YOUR EPIPHANY?

 

saint of the week twist

So tonight after youth mass a few of went to dinner. . . .and as we were talking about the new website and the saint of the week someone said, "you are posting the SIN of the week?"

After recieving the himelick for choking on my burger (just kidding) . .  I corrected her.  Not a bad idea though.

For now we will stick to the saints.

jd

saint of the week

Per the request of many of you, I again  be doing the "saint of the week" emails.

If for some reason, you don't want to get this, lemme know.. . otherwise . . . expect to hear from me about once per week.  Some of you parents, please share this with your sons and daughters!

I would welcome your comments.  You can also check this out at our new website. www.stscholasticayouth.org.

 

Why do we study saints?  Cuz they are real people with real lives and real mistakes but they OVER CAME THEM through the help of Christ.  I always say that if you want to know Jesus, get to know the people that knew him and loved him most.  Learn from them.

We do NOT worship saints.  We pray for their guidance.  They are like mapquest on our way to our Father in heaven.  Not one of them would want us to worship them instead of God.  Worship is reserved only for God.

 

So, on to the real work here.

(I just came from the eye doctor and my pupils are the size of marbles, but doing this is easier than trying to read and study my mariology notes!)

 

Today is the feast of Elizabeth Ann Seton.  (January4) and Tommorrow is the Feast of St. John Neumann.  So I guess that this will be saint-s of the week.

They are both American saints, which is cool.  She was a sister of Charity.  He was a bishop. (A redemportis priest)  He was born in Czechoslavia but since there were (get this. . ) TOO MANY PRIESTS, he volunteered to come to America.  Most of his time he lived in New York, but he did live in Pittsburgh for a few years at St. Philomena.  Once caught in a deluge, his feet were soaked. Someone asked him if he wanted to change shoes, he said that the only way that he could change his shoes was to put the left on the right and the right on the left, because he only owned one pair.

During his time in Pittsburgh he wrote a basic catechism.  Interestingly St. John taught himself six languages (think about that the next time you are studying for a french test!) He opened nearly 100 catholic schools.  So, you might guess that he is the patron saint of catholic education.  Yes, that extends to youth ministry!  St. John would want you all well schooled in catholicism, so I hope that he gives his blessing to us at INTERSECTION (NOT INTERSESSION.  INTERCESSION IS A PETITION, INTERSECTION IS WHERE 2 THINGS . . LIKE UH, THE GOSPEL AND YOU, COME TOGETHER).  So you may think it doesn't matter, but it does.

Coincidently, Elizabeth Ann Seton was a nun, (she founded the Sisters of Charity) but only after she was married, had kids and her hubby died.  Imagine being raised by your mom the nun, in  the convent!  Must of worked out cuz many of her kids became religious too.  She converted to catholicism and lost most of her friends and family in the process (so you think you've got it tough when you get teased for coming to youth group!)  She also set up many many Catholic Schools, mostly for the poor and wrote a bunch of books. She said that "women pay particular attention to the particular"  she was referring to the Blessed Mother and her involvement in our lives.

 Interestingly,The lives of these 2 saints overlapped.  They lived fairly near each other. . .I wonder if they ever met?  Probably not.  They were probably busy doing God's work.

I read a quote that said something like, "you never get exhausted from doing God's work, only the other stuff".  Hmmm.

Both of these two saints had a bunch of miracles performed after they died. (which is why they are saints).  They both felt an urgent need to build the future.  They were shakers and movers.  They were trend setters doing what they felt was right.

Are you a shaker and mover?  Can you get other people going?  Let's use their example to start of f the new year.  Be a mover.  Be a trend setter.  Do what you know is right.  Keep your undilated eyes, wide open, let in as much light as you can. Pray for opportunity.  Pray for opportunity to be a shaker.

St. John Neumann and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, we ask for you to guide the youth and youth leadership of St. Scholastica Parish.  Open our minds and hearts to the gospel.  Give us the courage to be more than we are.

Amen.