Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Catholic Teens 9-25-07

Hey All—

A few of our young people attend Steubenville University. One of the programs Steubenville offers is a semester of study in Europe, with the opportunity to travel and participate in pilgrimages. Jennifer recently wrote, describing her experience on pilgrimage in the former Yugoslavia. I think her reflection is worth passing on:
”There was also this huge hill withthe stations on it. The path was very rocky. These were huge rocks. Atthe top there is a huge white cross and we prayed there and sang somepraise and worship. Very awesome experience. You could see mountains inthe distance and the city below. To know that God loves us more than themountains that are so breathtaking and huge was a great feeling.We also visited this place where 30 priests were killed from thecommunist in 1945. We had mass in the church there and they explainedthat the communists told them to deny their faith or die. One by onethey went up to the crucifix kissed it and said, "you are my king and myGod." (or something like that) then one by one they were led outside andshot and then dragged to a cave outside and burned. Some of them werenot dead from the gunshot. It was a time to reflect on how hard thatwould be to do that and how amazing these men's faith were.We also visited a place where a priest talked to us. He was the priestof the children who received the messages and Mary actually appeared tohim once. The communists tried to make him say that the children werewrong and b/c he wouldn't they took him to jail for 1 1/2 years and hewas beat. He really pushed us to be better Catholics and live the faithand love people more. Not just to learn the faith but to believe it inour hearts. Pretty powerful”

Pretty amazing stuff. I hope some of you get to take advantage of these opportunities in the future. If nothing else, be inspired by the courage described above—and appreciate the freedom we have to believe in God today in America.
Note also, that this stuff still happens. In the tiny country of Belarus, formerly run by the Communists, all foreign-born priests have been ordered to leave the country. Pray for the people of Belarus.

==================================================Intentions:

-For the students preparing for Confirmation.
-For those who are persecuted for their faith.
-For the Catholic Church in Belarus.
-For young people to be open to God’s Call in their lives.
-For peace in the world and an end to terrorism.
-For all the other intentions you hold in your hearts, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.




Announcements:

DTS High School Group! Plans are underway to begin an area-wide High School DTS group. (As some of you know, we’ve had a successful college-age group for about 6+ years now.) Now it’s your turn to get in on the fun!

Jeff Leslie, the new youth minister at St. Bronislava is taking a group of teens and adults down to the Madison area to observe a DTS group. After that, the plan is to start one here. The trip to St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff is scheduled for Wednesday night, Oct. 24th. Leaving at 445pm returning at 1115pm. Transportation is free and there are only a handful of spots left. If you’d like to go email me or call Jeff at 341-6706.
For more information on DTS go to www.DeadTheologiansSociety.com

You’ll be hearing more about this group in the near future!

Vocations: Come & See Days for girls in Grades 7-10 at Mater Redemptoris Convent in LaCrosse (awesome group of sisters!) Sept. 28th-30th and Nov. 30th-Dec. 2nd. For info contact Sr. Stephania at snewell@dioceseoflacrosse.com


*************************************************************************************

God bless you!
Phil Lawson

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

Catholic Teens is a weekly email from Phil Lawson to Catholic Teenagers. To receive these weekly reflections, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com. On the other hand, if you’d like to be removed from this list, please send an email indicating that.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home