Bated Breath

By yesterday morning I knew what I had to do though I loathed to do it. Obviously we cannot venture forth to Honduras for our service trip as planned. I am waiting to hear from International Samaritan to hear what our alternative options might be. They indicated that Guatemala City may work out near or on those same travel dates.

Truly never thought that a military coup in Central America would be such a consideration for me in the ministry in Michigan.

A Monumental Oh-Oh

Those in the field are well versed in improvisation, crisis management, and usually no small amount of first aid. I think we may have finally hit the moment that is the limit of my ability to work with the situation - military coup.

Yup, a military coup in the country where I am set to travel to with a group of youth and young adults for a mission trip. With just a month to go, we're carefully watching the news in Honduras wondering whether we will be able to make our trip.

Please keep the country, its people, and the many ministries that strive to help the Hondurans in your prayers.

Roller Coasters and Sunblock

Tomorrow we venture forth into the wilds of Cedar Point. Sunblock (SPF 50), hat, water bottle, lip balm, and rain jacket (rained at 7 pm the last 5 years straight), permission slips, health forms, and of course my cell phone are all packed and ready to go.

Then I get a long weekend in Wisconsin with my family and friends. Gracie the Dog is looking forward to a road trip and some quality time with her slightly overworked human.

So it begins

Tonight we have the official start (for me at least) of the World Youth Day 2011 preparations. A group of staff, young adults, teens, and parents will gather to choose our itinerary for travel. Some we can rule out due to cost. My bet is that the group will pick the pre-trip package that will take us to Rome & Assisi. I am completely okay with that. I love both the locations and am familiar enough with them that I can find my way through the cities' thoroughfares without great difficulty.

It is a bit surreal though to already be working so much on this trip. We are still 40 days from the Honduras trip, but is as if it had already happened. Like I often note, given how much preparation is required in this job, you have to really fight to experience the moment. As it is, I have my WYD 2008 green bag with liturgy guides from the last four WYDs to share with one of our music directors.

Expect to hear much more on this. Likely some more of my Law's and Necessary Items will soon be listed. As it is - never venture forth without duct tape, band aids, and candy!

Charity

Last night was a fanstastic discussion in our young adult group on Charity. We talked about aspects taht related to public policy, health care, our own lives, and ultimately (of course) where charity is in our faith and own lives.

Two things stood out to me, both as an individual and looking at our group. The Catechism says: Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. (Paragraph 1822)

How simple is that?

Oh, and then there's this: Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. (From paragraph 1889)

Now the difficult part comes in living these in our daily lives. It is so simple. Love others not because of themselves or ourselves, but because of God. Respect them and their rights. Nowhere does it say you have to like them. Unfortunately there are people on this earth who are difficult, if not seemingly impossible to like. However, we are still called to love them.

Respect others. Respect their rights. Love them for love of God. Simple. Now making this a constant in my life and ministry.

Mixed News

The news is mixed. Here it is:

The bad: According to separate reports from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the American Religious Identification Survey, fewer Americans now call themselves Catholic, and those who do aren’t attending church or praying as often as they used to.

The good news: The Catholics who remain, church leaders will tell you, are far more devoted and involved — particularly young adults.

For the rest, see Young Adults Lead Catholic Charge.

Formation

Formation is one of those things that you can never think about too much - formation of yourself, formation of your leadership, formation of the teens, formation of the parish. Part of that meeting I had a couple days ago was talking about how we can form teens to really search out their calling, their vocation in life and to have the tools to follow that call. Not an easy task - unless any of you readers have the Foolproof Guide to Following One's Calling? No, ok.

What we'll be doing is trying to find ways to work this into all aspects of the ministry. I also hope to begin offering a mentoring program. We'll start first with our leadership team. Then once that has the major kinks ironed out, we'll move on to the broader teen group. Until we reach the point of implementation, I will be combing through everything I've got on discipleship, vocation, prayer, leadership...well, basically everything I can get my hands on. Ideas anyone?