Interesting

In a recent article from Youth Worker magazine, Henri Nouwen pops up several times. Now as a huge fan of his, I'm not surprised that others appreciate his wisdom and grace. What does surprise me is these are not Catholics and how frequently various people brought his book, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, to the discussion on leadership training and spirituality.

Check out the article "Best of the Best."There are some great ideas and resources to check up on. They cross over from youth to young adult ministries, including campus ministry.

And check out whatever Henri Nouwen writings you can get your hands on.

Pause for Technical Difficulties

I decided the old design was far too difficult to read. This one isn't perfect, but it suits me and is easier on the eyes (I think). If you have suggestions, let me know. Hopefully with a normal day off (is there such a thing?) tomorrow, I will post more on the conference. Though I do plan on spending some of the day with my sewing machine and a bit of time on the sofa with Gracie and West Wing on the TV.

Welcome to the Conference

My apologies to anyone expecting a next day delivery on the second installment of the 10th Youth Forum thoughts from yours truly. My week was quickly consumed with the administrative headache of determining flights to Bolivia for our summer service trip and finding enough teenagers to help with baby sitting for a special event tomorrow. Neither are nailed down, but at this moment, I cannot do anything more.

To open the Forum Cardnal Rylko had a short welcome for us. He introduced the basic topic of the conference - love and relationships. Much of what he said gleaned from the words of Pope John Paul II.

He quoted Pope John Paul II, "Tell me what your love is and i will tell you who you are."

Here in the U.S. we use the words love and hate quite flippantly. Many times prior to leaving for the Forum I uttered the words, "I love gelato." I was of course duly excited to taste this particular favorite food in Italy. Of course, I know that I don't truly love the frozen confection. I very much like it and will willing walk through the better part of Rome in an effort to find my favorite gelateria (Google "Della Palma Rome" and you'll see why). However, I know that the word love is much more than a partiality for gelato.

The difficulty arises for those that do not create that distinction. Lust, admiration, dependency, desire to not be alone, or a passing fancy are often misinterpreted as love in our society. I see this with both the youth and the young adults that I interact with each day.

In his introduction, the Cardinal made the point that love is not a question of being but of becoming. This has given me much to reflect on since Rome. It also makes me think of my mother. Her wisdom about marriage comes in brief, but wise statements she has made over the years. She once said to me that you're going to change, it is a fact of life, marriage is deciding to change together instead of changing apart. When love is approached as a state of being or simply 'being in love' it offers an impression of stasis. Yet, we know from experience that life is anything but permanent and immobile. How can we expect love to be unchanging when all around us, and indeed we ourselves change?

In his closing, Cardinal Rylko said that it is worthwhile to live as builders of a civilization of love. No small task. Yet, the Gospels provide us with the building blocks of how to do that. From the simplest statements of forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and healing we find the steps to take.

My challenge to you today is, where will you place a brick to build a civilization of love today?

Recovery & Processing

No, I'm not going to start a dissertation on the Marshall Plan. The title does sum up how I am attempting to get through the 10th Youth Forum hosted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and Holy Week.

I understand why the Council chose the week prior to Holy Week, Palm Sunday is World Youth Day. However, as a person employed in a parish, that is a rough time to be gone.

Despite it all, the forum was an incredible experience. I will be breaking it apart in the next several days. Here are a few snippets of information:

• 230 delegates
• 92 countries
• 33 international movements
• Some countries represented: Moldova, Croatia, Russia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia, Palestinian Territories, Myanmar, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Madagascar, Zambia, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan, Rwanda, Australia, Ireland, Chad, Uruguay, El Salvador, and more.
• Our days began by 8 am and continued strong at least until dinner at 8 pm
• Cappuccino from machines in Italy will beat out 97% of US coffee house coffees, hands down
• Bran flakes no longer cut it, I want a croissant with that chocolate filling!

Tomorrow I'll start in on sharing some thoughts from the various sessions.

A Little Bit More

While this month is the typical business of Lent - parish mission, Living Way of the Cross rehearsals, special youth groups, additional small groups - a few more things have popped up on the radar.

I realized that on June 30 I will have completed 7 years here. That means this fall will be year 8. Given that I think in 4s (courtesy of the high school ministry), this carries some significance for me. I need to look at how things are going here. I sense there are places where I have allowed myself to get into a rut. This isn't inherently bad, but there are so many great resources and ideas out there to work with. Thus once I get through some things in the coming two-three months, I plan on spending June and July really examining the ministries, youth and young adult, with the leadership teams to see what we can do.

Also, I was given the great honor of going to the Pontifical Council for the Laity's 10th annual youth forum. This is adding to the general insanity as I need to work ahead of the game quite a bit so that the ministries can run smoothly while I am gone despite it being busier than usual.

Speaking of which, I have several emails about Way of the Cross rehearsals to get out, so it is time to sign off.

And the survey says...

Young Adults "Less Religious," Not Necessarily "More Secular"

This article from USA Today probably doesn't surprise any of us. It does give a few stats from a recent Pew survey you may be interested in.

The timing on this article is good on my end. Saturday I give three workshops on young adult ministry training for our diocese. This is the sort of thing that is helpful for our 'who are young adults' workshop.

Another Confession

Well, actually two.

1. I love free stuff. Utterly love it. I also fall prey periodically to the buy this and you'll get all this free thing. But when it is just something gratis, even better.

2. I love Bibles. There are so many different kinds.

Guess what this post is about - yup, free Bibles.

First off, while it wasn't really free, I rediscovered the Catholic Women's Study Bible. I needed something to use for my daily prayer. This is a great resource for me. The variety of writers for the reflections is great and keeps me interested and gives me fresh perspectives. A friend had her copy on the youth retreat (lucky girl not only volunteers for another church's youth ministry but her good friend is a youth minister). That got me thinking I should get a copy. As her cover was a red and orange cover, it did not look familiar. Luckily I was going through my book cases on Monday and ran across my paperback copy which is blue and purple.

Second, I got a copy of World Vision's Poverty & Justice Bible. I ordered it, but it wasn't too pricy on Amazon. I haven't really gone through it yet, but there are some interesting parts of it that I will likely pull for reflections when we cover social justice issues or are preparing prayers for our service trips.

What I am most excited about is the free copy of the new edition of St. Mary Press' Catholic Youth Bible. I've been a fan of their youth Bible for some time. This one is great in my opinion. There are more articles and reflections. The charts and graphs are great to help the visual learners with biblical literacy issues. My only mild dislike is the switch to the use of green. I preferred the purple, but that's just me. The content, lay-out, and overall product is great. I look forward to giving this to the kids in our high school RCIA program and slowly replacing the older Bibles as they need replacement.