Monday, March 22, 2004
i met Him all weekend long
spent the weekend up in big bear with the sacred heart sisters. glenn and i volunteered to help with a confirmation retreat. not too hard to see God in that kind of environment. but some were surprising too.
some highlights:
~ napping on a rock surrounded by snow, a light breeze, sunshine... and a ton of kids running around having a snowball fight in the distance
~ i gave a talk on the sacrament of reconciliation. i suck at talks, but this group was small (13 kids) and it was not so bad. i used the word extrapolate and glenn gave me constructive criticism afterward, saying not to use big words to the kids... or was it for him?
~ playing a game that required me to run back and forth (i don't work out!). by the end of the game, the kids were just straight pulling me, while my chest heaved up and down desperate for some oxygen!
~ the kids were nervous about confessing and the "worst" kids ended up volunteering to go last. they were quite reluctant about it actually and the sisters had to explain why the blessing they receive afterward is so much greater than the fear of it. in the end, they went! and both cried. i think it really touched them. it was especially touching to see joey wiping off tears afterward. it seemed like he had a lot weighing down his heart.
~ glenn's noisemaking and joey's cracking up because of it... at the most inappropriate time of the weekend. but sister jennifer was very good at not condemning. she was very kind about it actually.
~ talking to the girls in the evening about their faith and answering their questions. i knew the answers surprisingly!
~ bacon for breakfast!
~ gifts of the holy spirit talk... there's one called reverence. it talks of reverence to the Father and being able to defend Him and always standing up for Him. i extrapolated it to the important people in my life. glenn always says, i'm supposed to be on his side, but never am. i'm going to work on that. i will revere him too.
~ the best part was during the closing exercise. we were to answer the following questions:
what did you learn about God or what thought did you reinforce?
where did you see God this weekend?
joey had a friend who passed away a year ago and he has never dreamt of him at all. joey explained that he was not religious at all and wasn't really sure there was a God when he died. he was also the kind of kid who was just always dirty. joey went on to say that throughout the retreat and the past 2 years of confirmation, he still really wasn't very convinced that there is a God. and saturday night, joey dreamt of his friend. his friend was all cleaned up, healthy, and his friend told him, joey, i'm okay now. don't worry about me. and joey, He's real. He really is. and joey said he woke up laughing. he said, i learned this weekend, that He's real. He really is. he was tearing up as he was explaining all this and it was really beautiful to see someone's faith formation becoming so real. i cried too. it was beautiful.
we went up there to serve, to nourish other people's faith, to share our stories to help strengthen other kids. we came away with ourselves being nourished as well. we heard other's stories and strengthened our faith. you really do receive all that you give. and even more. luvulord!
some highlights:
~ napping on a rock surrounded by snow, a light breeze, sunshine... and a ton of kids running around having a snowball fight in the distance
~ i gave a talk on the sacrament of reconciliation. i suck at talks, but this group was small (13 kids) and it was not so bad. i used the word extrapolate and glenn gave me constructive criticism afterward, saying not to use big words to the kids... or was it for him?
~ playing a game that required me to run back and forth (i don't work out!). by the end of the game, the kids were just straight pulling me, while my chest heaved up and down desperate for some oxygen!
~ the kids were nervous about confessing and the "worst" kids ended up volunteering to go last. they were quite reluctant about it actually and the sisters had to explain why the blessing they receive afterward is so much greater than the fear of it. in the end, they went! and both cried. i think it really touched them. it was especially touching to see joey wiping off tears afterward. it seemed like he had a lot weighing down his heart.
~ glenn's noisemaking and joey's cracking up because of it... at the most inappropriate time of the weekend. but sister jennifer was very good at not condemning. she was very kind about it actually.
~ talking to the girls in the evening about their faith and answering their questions. i knew the answers surprisingly!
~ bacon for breakfast!
~ gifts of the holy spirit talk... there's one called reverence. it talks of reverence to the Father and being able to defend Him and always standing up for Him. i extrapolated it to the important people in my life. glenn always says, i'm supposed to be on his side, but never am. i'm going to work on that. i will revere him too.
~ the best part was during the closing exercise. we were to answer the following questions:
what did you learn about God or what thought did you reinforce?
where did you see God this weekend?
joey had a friend who passed away a year ago and he has never dreamt of him at all. joey explained that he was not religious at all and wasn't really sure there was a God when he died. he was also the kind of kid who was just always dirty. joey went on to say that throughout the retreat and the past 2 years of confirmation, he still really wasn't very convinced that there is a God. and saturday night, joey dreamt of his friend. his friend was all cleaned up, healthy, and his friend told him, joey, i'm okay now. don't worry about me. and joey, He's real. He really is. and joey said he woke up laughing. he said, i learned this weekend, that He's real. He really is. he was tearing up as he was explaining all this and it was really beautiful to see someone's faith formation becoming so real. i cried too. it was beautiful.
we went up there to serve, to nourish other people's faith, to share our stories to help strengthen other kids. we came away with ourselves being nourished as well. we heard other's stories and strengthened our faith. you really do receive all that you give. and even more. luvulord!
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
