WOW GOD!!

My daughter and wife are helping with Vacation Bible Camp (VBC) this week and the catch phrase this year is "Wow God" because the theme is about how God made us all and loves us all.    I like the phrase this year,  Wow God,  as that is what I always think when I think about creation and all the intricacies of everything.    It is a wonder that God created all that is on Earth,  the animals,  the oceans, the trees and of  course, us, the humans.     Wow God,  you are so good.   Let us be remindful of that everyday and give thanks to God for making you and making me and making the world for us to see.  

Great new book, "The American Catholic Almanac"

   My wife gave me a great book for Christmas, "The American Catholic Almanac".  It has one Catholic story for each day of
the year with the date being important to the story.  Here is
a description of the book:

  Brian Burch and Emily Stimpson have put together a page-a-day history of 365 inspiring stories celebrating the historic contributions of American men and women who have been shaped by their Catholic faith.

It is a great little book and I love reading about the Catholic heroes that are in the book,  most of them not known to most
American Catholics.  In fact, for the January 3rd entry,  the story is about Bishop John Hughes, who died on January 3rd, 1864.  He was very influential in fighting for the Catholic faith in America especially for the Irish immigrants (he was one himself being born in Ireland and coming to America when he was 20).  Funny story of his life is that he tried to be a seminarian when he came but was refused and so he instead became a gardener for St. Elizabeth Seton and her seminary there in Maryland.  Eventually, he was allowed to go to the seminary and became a priest and eventually a bishop. 

Another great story is he bought land as a bishop in uptown Manhattan where there was not much around and decided to build a huge cathedral there. People thought he was crazy to build it so far away but now today it is right in the middle of Manhattan, St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

The book has a lot of stories like this, it also has stories of catholic villians (called rogues by the book) that have shaped American Catholicism for bad and for good (people stood up against some of them).  These stories are interesting but I prefer the stories about the Catholic heroes like Bishop Hughes. 

Great homily from visiting priest and parish priest

We had a visiting priest at our parish last week and he gave a great homily about the Trinity. His point was that "three" points to true love. Just as Man A finds woman B and create child C, there is God the Father working with God the son and God the Holy Spirit. I thought this was great and I had never heard it that way before, but after an internet search, I found most of the priest's homily on a homily web site. Here is some of that homily from the web:


True love requires three partners. You remember the old saying "Two is company, three is a crowd." The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd. Taking an example from the human condition we see that when a man A is in love he looks for a woman B so that together they can produce a baby C. Father, mother and child — love when it becomes complete becomes a trinity. Over and above that, each one of us becomes fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with others. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Then we discover that the I-and-I principle preached by Bob Marley and practised by the society at large leaves much to be desired. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt rather an I-and-God-and-neighbour principle. I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people. May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of selfishness in our lives and to live in love of God and of neighbour.

Also, I went to Mass on Memorial day and the priest did a great job connecting Jesus' and Mary's sacrifice and the sacrifice that the men and women in our military did for our freedom, their lives. Jesus died for our freedom, freedom from sin and the devil. Mary gave up her normal life to be the mother of God, a very big sacrifice if you think about it especially after she realizes that Jesus will die for us all. We all need to remember the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers and thank them by praying for all the soldiers who have recently died for us, that they will have a short purgatory and final stop in heaven. But we also need to remember that Jesus and Mary call all of us to sacrifice our lives to be one with God and to show true love to all - the three way love of God - I - neighbor from Sunday's homily.

My daughter's bible play performances were a hit!

My oldest daughter has just finished her latest acting performances. Our parish put on a bible adventures musical performance over the weekend and my daughter was in all 3 short plays. The 3 plays were "The bible in 15 minutes", "two by two" (story of Noah), and "Moses and his journey to the promised land". All 3 were done very well especially the first one which is narrated by two performers and mimed by 4 performers - who act as bible characters from Adam and Eve to John the Evangelist and many others in between. It is done by Melinda Cousins, you can google her and find the play - it is online. Our church is blessed to have a retired musical director who has been willing the last 4 years to spend numerous hours for 4 months getting the kids prepared for a big musical performance - the last two plays were Narnia the Musical and Godspell Jr. The bible plays were great because they reminded us of all the bible characters and their role in God's plan for us - whether it was showing the build up to Jesus in the Bible in 15 Minutes or the rainbow promise in "Two by Two" or the passover story of Moses that prefigures Jesus and his sacrifice for us so we can get to the Promised Land - Heaven. We are in the middle of Lent and it is good to focus on the sacrifices of Jesus for us, so we can sacrifice (not for Jesus, but for others so we can be like Jesus).
I was and am very proud of my daughter and her performance. I am amazed at her talent in drama since I am very shy and would have a hard time doing that (would get too nervous, I am a ham and that is probably what my daughter has picked up, but I do that in small crowds). I remember trying to act in school and I either messed up the timing of my lines or got too frustrated with criticism from the director. We each have our talents and strengths and we need to find them and use them for the greater glory of God. I did help quite a bit behind the scenes for the show so I feel I was a help in that regard.

God bless you all this Lenten season and the upcoming Easter season. I would encourage all of you to participate in any lenten activities in your parish - even if you don't want to, a little sacrifice won't hurt you and your attendance will definitely encourage the people running these activities. Our parish dropped our Friday Lenten soup suppers because the attendance was bad and I am sad about that, it was a good sacrifice to have soup instead of a big meal and to do it with others.

Updates from Eric

I haven't posted anything in a while because I got burned out trying to publish interesting things. Also, I wanted to have comments open but kept on getting SPAM comments, so I am now moderating comments. I have two interesting things I have done lately to blog about:

1) My daughter's Catholic youth group were given tickets to see Chris Tomlin in concert in Fresno, a 3 hour drive from San Jose on a Saturday and my wife and I decided that I should be a chaperone to make sure my daughter would be safe there. The donor also paid for a nice bus to bring us there (it even had a bathroom, though I used it on the way back and it is a little scary in there with the bus bouncing up and down and sideways). The concert was awesome, Chris Tomlin is a great Christian singer/performer/songwriter and the concert was in a small old theater and we were in the balcony and the whole balcony was moving up and down because of the people dancing and clapping. Chris is famous for his praise and worship songs and it was great to see a whole theater full of Christians praising God and Jesus. Our parish has LifeTeen and they play his music a lot, I talked with the Lifeteen music director and he says that Chris Tomlin is one of his favorite Christian musician - and of course the Life Teen music director was at the concert with us. My daughter loved the concert too and I tried to give her and her friends some space but she enjoyed being there with her dad.

2) My same daughter's Catholic school always has a All Saints day Saints parade and Mass on Nov. 1st and this year the school got so big that they had to rent out a nearby community theater to have the Mass. It must have been strange for people driving around there to see a parade of kids dressed up as all types of religious men and women ( there was quite a few priests, bishops and nuns marching in the parade). I think it is great that the school has them dress up in Saints costumes and not halloween costumes (her school doesn't recognize halloween while my other daughter's Catholic school has a halloween parade and carnival and then a Mass on Nov. 1st for All Saints day.

I hope to blog soon on the Pope's new encyclical that should be coming out today. I pray that I don't get too convicted of things I do in my life (or don't do) as like with the last encyclical on Love. Have a blessed Advent everyone and let us all try not to get too wrapped (pun intended) up in the crazy Christmas hysteria during our time of advent - waiting and watching for Jesus to come ( and come again in glory).

Silly Eric facts

I was tagged last July to do one of those blogger lists things and I didn't even realize it until I googled my blog page and found that Shannon had tagged me -
So since I was tagged, I will do the list - 5 silly facts about yourself

1. I love Martial Arts movies and TV shows, Kung Fu - The TV show is still my favorite, but I love Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung and the Iron Monkey. I think Kung Fu was a very Catholic type of show, Caine almost never used his Martial Arts training for evil and he was always there to help out the "little guy" whether it was another chinese person or a poor woman being forced to sell her land.

2. Live and Let Die is still my favorite Bond movie and I think it is because it was the first one I saw or the first one that came out at the theaters that I saw. I love the boat chase scene in that one and I love the song. The movie isn't very Catholic except that Bond of course beats the bad guys, good triumph over evil.

3. I am very competitive on the highway, I will always speed up to my maximum speed limit for a street if given the opportunity and I will pass slower cars if they do not let me get to my max speed. I once told my family that the 3 lanes on the freeway really have three different speed limits, right hand lane is 55, middle lane is 65 and fast lane is 75 - but that is when the speed limit was 55. I am trying to be less competitive on the road but it is hard but I know Jesus would want me to be more courteous.

4. I act like a kid whenever I see snow (which isn't often since I live in San Jose now) - whenever I have been to the snow (Lake Tahoe and such), I always want to find a sled run or make one and spend some time sled riding. One time I was at Tahoe, there was a big pile of snow that had become solid, so I built an igloo - or tried to at least, I don't think I quite could fit into it at my age, I was 32 at the time. I guess this fact is because I live in Upstate New York during the blizzards of 1970s when I was 8 - 13 years of age, so I had plenty of snow at the prime sledding ages and also plenty of hills to sled down also.

5. I have a hard time remembering Catholic prayers, especially long ones, but if someone else is saying them with me, I can remember each phrase with only one syllable. Examples of this are the creeds and the Hail Holy Queen prayer of the rosary. Star Spangled Banner is the same way for me. Not sure why I don't have these prayers memorized so well I can just ramble them off.

I will not be tagging any since this list is pretty old by now. If anyone wants to do it, feel free.

Walk for Life San Francisco Jan. 20, 2007

I did the Walk for Life in San Francisco on Saturday (my daughter and I walked at the first one in 2005) and I was very happy to see such a big group of walkers from all over the West Coast. I got there by bus this year and I have to say that is definitely the way to go - the seats were comfortable, I didn't have to fight the San Fran traffic or try to find a parking spot anywhere in San Francisco. We said a rosary on the way up and got dropped off right at the rally point at the beginning of the walk. I wanted to find the EWTN stage as I heard they were going to be broadcasting live and wanted to see that - I found out the stage was in the perfect spot to see the speakers also so I stayed there and lo and behold after seeing the EWTN coverage, I saw myself about 4 times behind Fr. Mary Francis when he was talking with the guests they had (I had a red shirt on and a green jacket if anyone is interested :) The speakers were very good especially Fr. Frank Pavone and the minister who has been to the Walk every year so far. Surprisingly, my daughters' teacher received a pro-life award at the beginning of the rally.

Right before the speakers ended, I walked around to find my friends who brought their 4 kids with them. I had walked with them in the 2005 Walk also. Just like last time, they tell us to start and there was a big bottleneck and we waited 20 minutes before we got onto the Embarcadero. The one bonus of this Walk is that the route they picked is very beautiful and also goes by most of the big San Francisco sites, like the Ferry building, Coit Tower, Pier 39, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli Square, Ft. Mason and at the end - a beautiful view of the Golden Gate bridge. The weather this year was perfect, sunny and calm, I took both of my jackets off (you can never tell what the weather will be in San Francisco - if it was windy, it would be downright cold) and walked without them for the whole time. There were a lot less Pro-choice counter protesters this year than there was in 2005 - I heard the big pro-choice groups decided not to organize protests this year.

There were lot more pro-life walkers this year definitely, I bet there was at least 20,ooo walkers this year. One thing I noticed was that there were lot less confrontations between pro-lifers and pro-choicers this year which is good, because the Walk is suppose to be a silent prayerful walk to demonstrate our opposition to abortion, not our opposition to pro-choicers. I was glad to see a lot of priests, seminarians and religious sisters on the walk this year - unfortunately, the protesters would spot them and say mean things to them (which I won't repeat here). The end of the walk was different, a different route was taken in which we stayed on the roads all the way into the Marina Green which is the end of the Walk. In 2005, we walked on a path and then thru the grass to get to the Green. Also, near Pier 39, they had the walkers walk in the middle of the road in the trolley section so we were further from the sidewalk there - which was different than 2005 - I guess they wanted us to be more separated from the crowd of tourists and protesters.

At the end of the walk, I got some food there and then walked to my bus and then we drove home (the traffic trying to get out of San Fran was bad, it must have taken us 30 minutes to drive 10 miles on Van Ness Avenue). One other thing about the bus is I got to see some other San Fran landmarks on the drive there and back, namely AT&T park where the Giants play, the Bay Bridge, the opera house, and symphony hall - I forgot to look across the street to see City Hall. As you can tell, I love the sites of San Francisco, but not the traffic or the parking. And I saw all this without having to climb any of the big hills :)

I pray that these walks and marches will change the hearts of people or at least make them think more about what abortions does to our society. We don't need abortions in this country, there are plenty of people looking to adopt and we also need to be more careful and abstain until marriage.

Charismatic Sunday - that is what it should have been called

Yesterday should have been called Charismatic Sunday due to the second reading being the list of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit - the ones that are emphasized by the Charismatic Renewal. I belong to a Charismatic Renewal prayer group and I just love it when the Church uses the Corinthians readings so I can tell people that yes, the Church still believes in these gifts. It was funny though that two priests who were giving homilies today - both talked about how we are given gifts from God but they didn't say the gifts were the charismatic gifts like speaking in tongues or interpretations of tongues, they talked about healing (specifically how forgiving is part of healing) and talked about music and speaking in public (I went to two Masses today due to a baptism of a friend's baby and the end of retreat Mass for my daughter and the middle schoolers that went). I went to the prayer meeting today and we had a Charismatic Renewal speaker who reminded us that Pope John Paul II was very open to the Charismatic Renewal as was the US Catholic Bishops who wrote a paper called "Grace for a new Springtime". These gifts of the Holy Spirit are still available to all who are open to them. God bless.

Symbolism in Narnia the musical is thought-provoking

My duaghter just performed in the play, Narnia, a musical based on the book, The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. It was done by kids at my parish church and it was very good. One thing that stood out for me was that the play was written to have the professor, Father Christmas and Aslan done by the same actor - this is symbolism that is thought-provoking. All three characters are great role models, the professor for taking the kids in, Father Christmas for being generous and giving gifts, and of course, Aslan for what he does (don't want to spoil the story for anyone). It seems like it is saying that we can't be Aslan but we can be the same as him by doing Christian acts of charity (what you do for the least of my brothers, you do unto me). I also like the fact that the leader of the children is named Peter - Christ gives the keys to the kingdom to Peter and Aslan gives the kingdom of Narnia to Peter also - a very good Catholic imagery. It was a very nice commentary on Catholic teachings done in an entertaining way. It would be great to have more of these types of productions.

White Feast instead of Halloween

I have seen a couple of articles about the new initiative in the country of Chile to discourage Trick or treating on Halloween and replace it with a new tradition of the White Feast. The White Feast incorporates the custom of kids going door to door but instead of dressing up as evil beings like witches and vampires, the kids dress up as positive characters and then say "Sweets for Graces" instead of "trick or treat". Then, because it wouldn't be good for the kids to get anything for nothing, the kids would give a grace when receiving the treat - a grace could be a short speech, a short skit, a drawing, a clean joke or prayer. I really like this new tradition and would love to see this come to America. I think one way it may work is if the people that approve of this new custom put out some special symbol on their door so that parents just looking for White Feast households can spot them quickly, I was thinking a white ribbon on the door would be good. These White Feast households would give treats to both trick or treaters and Sweets for Graces in the beginning as the transition takes hold. Hopefully some influential organizations will put out the call to start this tradition in the USA. Now all we need to do is come up with a new tradition for the adults who are the ones who have spoiled Halloween with their indulgent and hedonistic celebrations and with their over the top decorations that glorify evil and fear.
Here is a news link to EWTN on the White feast

The rich man's Gospel reading seen in a new light

At the prayer meeting I went to last week ( oct. 15th) - we were contemplating the Gospel reading of the day, the one where the rich man came to Jesus and said he followed all the commandments but still wanted to know what else he should do - and Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and follow him. We got some revelations at that prayer meeting that what Jesus was really asking the man was to empty himself of all his cares and struggles and "idols" (since the man went away sad because of his many possessions, we can say that he was caught up in materialism and was filled with the need to have stuff and use stuff), it wasn't really riches that were the problem, it was the fact that his riches were crowding out God. So Jesus asked him to remove the riches that were crowding out God and follow Jesus, who would fill his heart with love of God, not love of riches. We all need to examine ourselves and see what crowds Jesus out of our lives, is it materialism, is it lust, fame, power, hatred, anger, jealousy or bitterness?? We need to ask Jesus to forgive us for crowding him out and ask him back into our hearts, to live for Jesus not for other reasons. We can live out the commandments but if our minds and hearts are on other things other than Jesus, we are not living a Christian life and we are not receiving the gifts that Jesus can give us.

Went to a great Catholic play last night, Viva Cristo Rey

I went to see a Catholic play last night, Viva Cristo Rey, the Story of Fr. Miguel Pro. It was very good - it shows the bravery of not only Blessed Miguel Pro during the Mexican period of Anti-Catholic persecution of the early 20th Century but also the bravery of his relatives and all the Catholic lay people that helped hid the priests and keep the Catholic faith alive in Mexico during this terrible time. The group putting this play on is called Quo Vadis and they have done numerous plays on not so famous saints and Catholic heroes such as Pearl of York, St. Margaret of Castello and others.
Here is a link to the play's web page - Viva Cristo Rey
I saw the last performance of the play ( it was only shown 11 times over 3 weekends). The play focused on Fr. Miguel's time in Mexico right before he was killed by the firing squad for being a Catholic priest in a country where religious worship was illegal. Blessed Miguel Pro is a favorite of Northern California also because he lived in Los Gatos, California (near San Jose ) for a short time because of the Mexican persecution.
Blessed Miguel Pro needs only one more miracle to help him be canonized a Catholic Saint. We can all pray for that.

Here is another great web site that has numerous references to Blessed Miguel Pro:
Blessed Miguel Pro's home page

2996 tribute to Gerard (Jerry) Nevins

Gerard T. Nevins

This is a tribute to Gerard Nevins, a Rescue FDNY Fire Fighter and a Catholic man who died on Sept. 11, 2001 in one of the World Trade Center buildings. He was 46 years old. This tribute is part of the 2996 project to honor every Person who died due to the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Gerard Nevins, called Jerry by his friends and family, was an outstanding and highly decorated fire fighter, he had just recently won the Firemen of the year award and was part of the elite Rescue 1 team. As Jerry would say to those who asked, "Firemen rescue people, Rescue Firemen rescue Firemen".

He was married to Marie for 20 years and father to Daniel and Andrew, who were 7 years old and 5 years old at the time of his death. He was a wonderful husband and father who lived in the country, Campbell Hall, NY, with his family. He owned a small farm in the back of this country house and raised pigs, goats and chickens and sold fresh eggs. He was also a great Godfather to Eddie and enjoyed spending time with his extended family.

He was fun-loving and had a mischievous humor that attracted people to him. He had many friends as was evident at the packed church for his memorial at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Washingtonville on Oct. 6, 2001. Nearly 1000 people attended the service.

He was one of 5 firemen who were killed that 9/11 day from the Washingtonville area and there is a monument to the Washingtonville 5 in the middle of town. He had always wanted to be a firemen and especially wanted to work for the NYC fire department just like his hero and dad, Patrick Nevins, did for many years. Patrick Nevins also died early in life at age 43. He worked hard and was always learning about firefighting and that led to his reaching the elite Rescue 1 team. He always thought of helping first as a firefighter, in fact, he was off-duty waiting for his replacement when the alarms went off for the WTC attacks and he went to do his duty as a FDNY firemen.

So I pay tribute to a true American Hero, Jerry Nevins. Pray for us in heaven, Jerry, that we may be courageous as you and do the right things for our family, our friends and our country.

Here are the links I used to find information on Jerry Nevins:

Fallen Brothers Community

The Times Herald-Record article about his service

Proud to be an American

Legacy.com remembrance


Check out more tributes at the 2996 website by clickin here

Two examples of Catholic Youth in action

I found two examples of Catholic Youth in action in the United States. The first one is an article about the Crossroads walk - a pro-life pilgrimage across the United States. It publicizes the dedication these college age students have for the pro-life message. 3 groups of college kids walk across the country. Inspired by Pope John Paul II and a speech he gave at World Youth Day in Denver, they are being the feet of Christ and are the face of the pro-life movement in the Church. Here is one part about the response of people to these youth:

Sarah Gallaher, a Franciscan University student from Arvin, Calif., was one of the northern walkers. "People honk, smile and wave. Some share their stories with us," she was quoted as saying by The Bakersfield Californian. "We've had some negative responses, but it's been 95 percent positive. America is pro-life -- we just need more people to stand up and say so."


The other example of Youth in action is the All School Liturgy that happened in Fort Worth, Texas last Wednesday. They expected 6,000 Catholic students from 19 schools to get together for a Mass to celebrate the new school year. This is a great example of bringing the massive numbers of Catholics together to worship together and fellowship. Here is one mother's reflection on the All School Liturgy:

Michelle Meekins of Fort Worth, whose two daughters attend St. Andrew Catholic School in Fort Worth, said she is looking forward to accompanying students to the event.
"When we have weekly Mass at St. Andrew and have 800 students stand up, hold hands and say the Lord's Prayer, it's very powerful," she said. "You see them do that and you think, 'We're all on the same road.' I'm not a teary person, but that brings tears to my eyes. And I'm looking forward to doing that on a larger scale."

Pope Benedict's wisdom about the needs of parish and youth

I was directed by Amy Welborn's blog to a blog entry in Papa Ratzinger Forum that translated the Pope's talk with Italian priests. There are some great words of wisdom about parishes and about youth ministry. In this excerpt, he was asked about an integrated model of parish life where the laity works with the priests and here he sums ups his answer:

Now let me go on to the second aspect of parish ministry, which concerns both the workers as well as the work they do. The parish priest obviously cannot do everything! That is impossible. He cannot be a 'solo player' who does everything, but he needs other pastoral workers. Today, I think, whether through the new movements or through Catholic Action or through the new communities, we have workers who should be collaborators with the parish in an integrated ministry. It is important for this integrated ministry that other pastoral workers should not only be 'activated' but should be integrated into the work of the parish.

The parish priest must not only "do" but also "delegate." Those who work with him must learn to truly integrate themselves in the common tasks of the parish as well as in the auto-transcendence of the parish itself in a double sense: first, that the parishes collaborate within the diocese, because the Bishop is their common pastor and can help coordinate their tasks; and second, in that they are really working for all men, and should seek to bring the Christian message even to agnostics and to persons who are in search. And this is the third level about which we have spoken earlier rather diffusely.

The occasions I have indicated give us the chance to meet and to say missionary words to those who rarely go to church, and those who have little or no faith. Above all, these new pastoral workers and Catholic lay professionals should be able to bring the word of God even into those circles which are usually inaccessible to the parish priest. Coordinated by our Bishops, let us seek to integrate these different sectors of pastoral work, to activate the different pastoral workers in the common task: on the one hand, to strengthen the faith of believers who constitute a great treasure, and on the other hand, to bring the message of the faith to all those who are seeking with a sincere heart a satisfactory answer to their existential questions.

What an amazing answer. The laity and the priest working together with the Bishop at the lead to do the work of God through deeds and words. Yes, the laity if embolden by the Bishops and priests can get to areas that the clergy would have a hard time getting to and that is our work places, our non-church
going neighbors and family members. I know that my pastor encourages lay people to do God's work and to preach the Gospel to all we encounter - not so sure about the diocesan level action in this regard. Let us pray that the Bishop can encourage more of this and to have people from all parishes working together and not separately where we burn out by overdoing and get disappointed in the low numbers at work in our lone parish.

Youth Ministry
The Pope has similar words to say for the youth. The priest in charge of Youth Ministry asks Pope Benedict these questions:

How can it be possible for a priest today to show a preferential attitude for the youth in an already overcrowded pastoral agenda? How can we serve young people on the basis of their values instead of 'using' them for our own purposes?

Here is the Pope's response. I want to say right off that this has been my idea also in both Youth ministry and Young Adult Ministry, it is hard to get any traction with the Youth in the small numbers at a parish, but getting the youth together in the diocese and we have a force to be reckoned with and a size that will even convince the most skeptical teen. The pope answers:

I think that in this matter precisely is where we must exercise an integrated ministry because not every parish priest really has the time to occupy himself enough with young people. So we need a ministry that transcends the limits of the parish and even the limits of the priest's work. A ministry that of necessity must involve many workers. It seems to me that, under the coordination of the Bishop, a way should be found, on the one hand, to integrate the youth into the parish, so that they can be the ferment for parochial life; and on the other hand, to find extra-parochial persons who can work with them. Both should go together.

t must be suggested to our youth that they can integrate themselves into the life of the diocese, not only in parish work but in other contexts which ultimately point them back to their parishes. One must favor all initiatives in this direction. I think that the concept and experience of volunteer work is very important. Young people should not be left merely to indulging their diversions, but they should be given tasks in which they see that they are needed, in which they have a sense of doing something good for others. If they feel this impulse to do something good for humanity, for someone, for a group, then they will have a reason to involve themselves and will even find their own positive way of getting involved, their own expression of the Christian ethic. It is very important that they find tasks that need their involvement, that enable them to render positive service inspired by Christ's love, so that they themselves will look for the sources they can draw on to find the strength and the commitment for these services.

Another worthwhile experience for them are prayer groups, in which they learn to listen to the Word of God, to learn the Word of God precisely in their situation as young people, and to enter into contact with God. This means they should learn to take part in the common forms of prayer, the Liturgy, which initially may seem quite inaccessible to them. It would be useful to have classes in liturgy, which they can attend. This way they will learn that the Word of God seeks us out and speaks to us today even after so long a time [since Christ lived on earth], that we bring the fruits of the earth and our work to the Lord and we find them transformed into gifts of God, that we speak like children to our Father and in turn, we receive the gift of Himself. We receive the mission of going forth into the world with the gift of His Presence.

At the same time, it is useful to have special occasions during which the young people can present themselves in performance. I heard that recently here in Albano, there was a theatrical presentation on the life of St. Francis. To be involved in something like this means to enter into the person of St. Francis, into his time, and therefore, to widen one's own personality. This is just an example, and perhaps rather singular. It could be an occasion to educate oneself further, to appreciate the context of Christian tradition, to reawaken the thirst to know better what sources this saint drew from.

I agree with the Pope's ideas, we need to get the Youth involved and we don't have the resources in most parishes to do it right, it needs to be handled at a
diocesan level , at least with the main leadership, then the Parish Youth Ministers can just be funnelers to lead them to the diocese in regards to doing volunteer work, to get together for prayer and to do christian performances. I was just talking with another lay minister about this a few weeks ago, he was advocating a diocesan-wide evangelization work with the youth and young adults to get them to a deeper and more personal relationship with Jesus and I said that is great, but there is also a need for smaller parish groups to be catechists to the youth and young adults so they can learn their faith that can go along with the relationship with Jesus. This is exactly what the Pope is suggesting here also, the need for parochial youth ministry and also for diocesan level youth ministry. This can be done, it justs needs the right type of leaders that are on fire for the Lord and are open to God's graces and can surround themselves with workers that will handle all the nuts and bolts that these types of programs demand - one person can not do this all by themselves, not a parish youth minister and not a diocesan Youth Ministry leader. I pray that these words of the Pope may go out to all the dioceses in the world and that the bishops will act on them and enkindle the youth. It will keep alive the future leaders of the Church at an earlier age and will spark vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Long live Papa Ben.