Catholic Teens 10-10-06

Hey All—

This prayer card was passed on to me:
No Time
I knelt to pray, but not for long,
I had too much to do,
Must hurry off and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

And so I said a hurried prayer,
Jumped up from off my knees;
My Christian duty now was done,
My soul could be at ease.

All through the day I had no time
To speak a word of cheer,
No time to speak of Christ to friends
They’d laugh at me, I feared.

No time, no time, too much to do—
That was my constant cry;
No time to give to those in need—
At last ‘twas time to die.

And when before the Lord I came,
I stood with downcast eyes,
Within His hands He held a Book.
It was the “Book of Life.”

God looked into His Book and said,
“Your name I cannot find,
I once was going to write it down,
But never found the time.”
-Copyright Fratelli Bonella-Italy

Quite a striking little poem.

Now there are all sorts of ways one can argue, cajole, or try to persuade someone to go to Mass every Sunday.

Yet, on a certain level it all boils down to: God said to do it. So do it. Period. End of Debate. Ever try arguing with God? It doesn’t work too well. As someone wisely commented, “they’re not the 10 Recommendations.”


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Question O' The Week:

How do you talk to a Protestant about "Being Saved"?
-The Catholic teaching (and the teaching for the past 2000 years) is that “being saved” that is getting to Heaven…is a lifelong process. It is the choice every day to follow God as opposed to one’s own desires or the various temptations of the world. We start “being saved” at our Baptism, when we are made “children of God.” To the extent that we live that out the rest of our life…we are continually “being saved.”

Now Protestants..that is those Christians who aren’t Catholic tend to have a different understanding of this. It’s complicated further by the fact that their view depends on which branch of protestant they are. For instance, someone who goes to Woodlands or any non-denominational church will have a different view then someone who’s a Lutheran. So the first step, once you understand what the Catholic teaching is, is to find out where they are at—what they believe.

Then you can engage them. And I’ll write more about that next week J

*Note---I’m running low on questions…so send them on in.
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Intentions:
-For the girls from St. Peter's on their Confirmation Retreat this weekend.
-For our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
-For peace in the world and an end to terrorism.
-In thanksgiving for Fr. Dennis Worzella’s recovery and return!
-For a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
-For persecuted Christians.

-For all the other intentions you hold in your hearts, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
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Announcements:

The Youth Group, Generation JPII:.
The next meeting is Sunday night, October 15th 6-8PM. We’ll be talking about Modesty & Chastity—anybody think those aren’t needed today?! Mark your calendars!
Look for meetings to be held the 1st & 3rd Sunday of each month

God bless you!
Phil Lawson

For more information on St. Peters check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com

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