Lately, I feel like I’m walking down a dark path and I stop and yell out to see if someone can direct me.  I know someone is there willing to, but I can’t quite make out where they are telling me to go.  So, I keep walking down the path I’m sure is the right one and in a short while, I yell out again to see if the person I know is out there somewhere can tell me the way, but I end up with the same result.  That pretty much sums up my spiritual life these days.  I know someone’s there trying to tell me where I should go next, but I can’t quite make out what they are saying.

As I’ve reflected on this feeling, not really one if despair, but more of confused longing, I keep focusing on something I read a couple of years back in the Guide for Catechist, which was issued in 1993 by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.  It states, “To help catechists in their spiritual life, spiritual direction should be made available” (#22) and “… spiritual direction is very important, as it touches the depths of a person’s soul and helps open it to God’s grace” (#28).  Additionally, as I’ve read other blogs, such as Joe Paprocki’s Catechist’s Journey, he has mentioned once or twice about the benefits of spiritual direction, even for the laity.  I also have recalled a news piece a few years back where the Holy Father himself encouraged everyone to seek spiritual direction.

This is a journey that I have contemplated taking from time to time.  I’ve given myself the excuses that I don’t have time, or that a potential director’s time would be better spent on someone else, that this is not for me, etc.  And those times that I’ve brushed aside all those excuses, I’ve faced apprehension, intimidation and at times, downright fear of the process.  That smells like attachment to me, and not in any good sense.

So, enough is enough.  It has become quite clear to me that I am being called to find a companion to help guide me down the path and to help me interpret what that voice, God’s voice, is actually guiding me to do.  I’ve been fortunate to find a number of resources to help prepare me for this journey.  Sites like Catholic Spiritual Direction have been extremely eye opening.  A number of other bloggers like Fr. Charles Sammons from a minor friar and Becky Eldredge from Everything Is Holy Now have inspired me through some of their blog posts and comments to take this very important next step in my spiritual journey.  As a final step in preparing to begin the process, I’ve also discovered and have been reading “Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within” by Thomas Dubay, S.M. on the Catholic Spiritual Direction site.  I’m almost done with reading the book and it has proven to be a wonderful resource!!  I would highly recommend it to anyone who is considering finding a spiritual director.

My initial meeting with my new director is tomorrow.  I have mixed feelings of excitement and apprehension, but I am committed to this process  and am looking forward to seeing where God is leading me next in my spiritual journey.  Please pray for me as I take this next step down the path unknown with the Lord.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

As I look forward to the new year, I have been trying to set some goals for myself.  One thing I’ve been considering doing for some time now is to read the Bible completely.  It can easily be a daunting task when you look at the thickness of the book itself, but there is no doubt as to the value one can obtain from reading all of salvation history in Holy Scripture.

As I’ve considered how to best tackle the undertaking, I’ve come across a number of suggestions on how to read through the Bible.  The approach I’ve settled on is to read the Bible in one year.  Many of the one year plans I’ve seen are based on the Protestant Bible, but I did come across a document from an organization called The Coming Home Network International.  They have a plan to not only read the Bible in a year, but the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well.

I’ve taken their plan schedule and also built it into a spreadsheet format that allows me to keep track of my progress right on my iPad as I use my Bible app and a CCC link right off of that device.  I can read my daily reading from anywhere, and if I miss a day along the way, it’s very easy to catch right back up.  For those interested in the plan, below are links to the original PDF as well as my spreadsheet versions. I would suggest that one always looks at the PDF first, even if they want to use the spreadsheets because the PDF contains some additional guidance where the spreadsheets are exclusively the listing of the daily readings.

Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year
– Original PDF Format
– Excel Spreadsheet Format
– Open Document Spreadsheet Format

I’m looking forward to my own personal growth as I read through the Bible fully, along with the Catechism and I know it will absolutely help in my catechetical ministries.  I hope it can be helpful to all of you as well.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

This retreat was completely structured around Advent with a focus on the word “come”. It gave me a new appreciation for the meaning of the season. It began with a reading from the Song of Songs 3:1-4. This passage speaks about searching for God, and when he is found, bringing him into the deepest, most private place in the house. We then had a silent meditation around our readiness to bring Christ into the deepest, most private place in our hearts, in our souls. Am I ready? What’s holding me back?  That was followed by a discussion that Jesus wants all of us, not just the perfect parts and that we need to remember that we need to bring everything, including the good and the bad, to God.  He wants us all!

Do you have any sense of how much the Church uses the word “come” in its prayers during the season of Advent? The Liturgy of the Hours uses the response, “Come, Lord Jesus”. Various antiphons, readings and Alleluia versus of the Masses throughout Advent all ask our the Lord to come. Just look at the O Antiphons for a perfect example of the Church, as the bride, asking her bridegroom, Jesus, to come. What a great image!!

Lastly, we focused on part of the nativity narrative from Luke (Luke 2:1-14). We had another terrific period of silent prayer to meditate on the scripture passage. Silence is underrated, by the way. What a wonderful opportunity to put oneself there with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. From the journey to Bethlehem, to the birth and the message of the angel to the shepherds, it gave me an opportunity to appreciate what people must have felt, not only emotionally, but physically as well.

In between all of that we had Mass, opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, lunch with friends and a sharing circle to round the day off. I’m so glad I went. The Lord spoke to me in a very special way at the retreat, not only through Fr. Matt and the other participants, but directly when in silent prayer. He knew what I needed (no surprise there) and showed me the way, not only for my ministry, but for me as well. I really need to make time to go on retreat more often, or at least find more opportunities for silent prayer during my day. Did I mention that science is definitely underrated?

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

Last time, I mentioned that I was trying to begin a Youth Ministry group in our parish.  That has really taken up quite a bit of time.  The original core group of adults had a very different view of youth ministry than I did.  That being said, I tried to be accommodating because if it’s one thing I learned over the years, it’s that I do not have all the answers.  Well, the two other adults decided to leave the program and that left me having to do everything.  The good news is that I get to structure the group in a way I think best balances faith and social activities; the bad news is that it is all me at this point, which I think limits how much we can do.  I’m praying and asking for more help, but we’ll see what happens there.

As I mentioned, Religious Education is pretty challenging this year.  I have a group of 9th graders, and about a third of the class is made up of members of a local high school’s freshmen football team.  Additionally, two thirds of the class are boys that know and feed off of each other.  Discipline is a challenge and they seem so disconnected from their faith that they just don’t get the curriculum from this year.  I’m going to talk to my CRE about the possibility of changing the content for next year.  While I love the idea of going through the Mass in detail, there are some basic things these students seem to be missing, which significantly limits how much they can get out of the material.  Can you say “blank stares”?

Anyway, I’ve recieved some great feedback over the last few years on my blog and encouragement to keep it up.  I’ve also gotten a lot out of posting and reading the comments some of my readers leave, so I’m not ready to give this up.  I truly hope to have more content to offer going forward, but I also recognize that I’ve said that before and have then fallen off the face of the blogosphere.  I ask for your patience and forgiveness as I try to get back in a routine that will allow me to share with all of you again.

Until next time (which I hope will be much sooner than last time), keep sharing the faith.

Moving to a sitting position from her original laying position, she eyed me the entire time as I took out the trash barrel.  As I returned to where she was, she seemed to be significantly more friendly.  She was a bit dirty, which told me she had been outside for a while.  I also noticed that she had a collar and that it had a somewhat dated Dog License from a town about 10 miles away.  As I was looking at her collar, she offered me a paw and then the other to follow.  I began to wonder how she ended up at my back deck.  I went ahead and got her some water, which was really all I had to offer her at the time.  I had to take my daughter to school and my wife to work, so I left her on the deck with the water.

As I drove my wife to work, we talked about what we should do with our new visitor.  We agreed that I would call the town that issued her license to see if they could give me owner information.  I know that dogs are very much a part of one’s family and someone might be quite sad that this dog was missing.  We agreed that we would care for her until we could find her owners.  On the way back home, I took a detour to the supermarket and bought some dog food, a bowl and a leash.  When I got back home though, she was gone; off on her travels to who-knows-where, I guess.

As I thought about this experience, it reminded me of one of the initial lessons in our 6th Grade Religious Education Curriculum — Stewardship.  In Gen 1:28 we see that God has given us responsibility over His creation.  He has an expectation that we will responsibly use what he has given us to meet our needs and to care for what He has created.  Sometimes, you don’t know in what way you might be called to take action as a steward.  It can be fighting to save a rain forest, it can be defending the right to life, or it can even be helping a dog that unexpectedly shows up at your back door.  To be honest, I was a little sad that she was gone when I returned home, with the water still where I left it.  I hope I did my part in caring for one of God’s creatures, but I think this was God’s way of reminding me that I have a responsibility to care for what he puts on my path to knowing, loving and serving Him.

On a side note, this reminded me of one of my favorite videos.  I include it below in the hopes that it makes you smile.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

Real life.  It’s an unpredictable thing.  Things pop up that you don’t expect.  Your free time begins to dry up.  You put things on the back burner.  You get busier and those things never get moved back to the front.

That’s sort of what happened to me.  Family life got hectic.  Projects at work went into a ridiculous level of overdrive.  Religious Education continued at a steady pace but still required a good amount of prep time.  And then there is Youth Ministry.

Yep, that’s right, Youth Ministry.  I am helping start up a youth ministry at our parish.  I don’t think I could have ever anticipated how much work would need to go into building a youth ministry from the ground up — training, idea generation, comprehensive structure, volunteer needs, budgeting (or lack thereof), activity coordination, marketing, dealing with varied opinions on what this ministry should look like, coordinating with other parish ministries — I’m sure I left something out.

I have not given up on blogging.  It is a great vehicle to share my joys and let out my frustration.  I have to rejigger my time and figure it all out, but I definitely want to get blogging its due time.  If you are still reading here, please stay tuned and activitry should kick back in at some regular intervals soon.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

On Sunday night, St. Patrick’s Parish in Stoneham, Mass. hosted Jason for a talk. They invited neighboring parishes and my CRE extended me a coveted seat. Jason’s topic was “Romance without Regret”. Yes, Jason is a chastity speaker. And my thoughts can be summed up in one word … WOW!

When Jason speaks, he weaves the message of chastity with a little comedy, some facts, some real-life examples and  some powerful, personal stories as well.  He touches on every aspect of love and human sexuality, in a clear yet loving way.  He presumes nothing, is not judgmental and recognizes that this is not a perfect world; so he addresses even the most difficult things that can and have happened to people, but in a gentle yet clear way.  He defines the difference between “love” and “lust” in a way a teen cannot only understand, but can directly relate to as well.

If you think that I’m being a little vague in my comments, that is intentional.  First, I cannot do his talk justice.  The power with which he delivered this message and the resulting energy in that church was amazing.  These are teens that often challenge what they hear from the church (which can be a good thing), but they got what Jason said.  They simply got it!  We’ve already gotten feedback from parents  on how their teens have reacted (positively) to what they heard!  Second, I don’t want to take away from what you can experience from hearing Jason’s talk.

Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Carlos, how am I going to listen to Jason?”.  My response would be, “Virtually, of course!”  I highly encourage you to check out his website (http://www.chastity.com) and his YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/jasonevert).  Under the Chastity playlist, you can view one of his “Romance without Regret” talks (broken into 9 parts) as well as many others.  Better yet, get him to your parish or a parish near you.

Very inspiring, Jason!  Thank you!

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

There was a lot of good information offered throughout the day, with much of the focus being around media literacy.  The overreaching message that I got from the workshop was that this form of communication is not a fad.  Whether you “love” it, “hate” it or have a “love/hate” relationship with it, is here to stay and we must embrace it.  Also, this means of communication is a game changer.  It is interactive.  It must respect open communication.  Everyone wants to have a say and if you make it one directional, you will have very little, if any impact on the world.

This seems very different from how we traditionally think of communication from the Church.  The Church preaches from the ambo, it teaches the Truth as given to us by Jesus Christ and as revealed by the Holy Spirit.  This stuff isn’t up for discussion, is it?  Unbeknownst to most, the Church’s official position on its presence within the world of media is to be an active listener, not simply and authoritative teacher.  This is contradictory of the perception, but that position places the Church in a good position to participate effectively in the use of these tools.  It listens and responds with the Truth.

I think many would comment that the Church has been slow to embrace some of the tools available in the new media space, but through the leadership of the Venerable Pope John Paul II and the current leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the Church is making great strides.  This must continue through the embracing of these technologies at the parish level.  As was made clear at the workshop, to be effective, the use of these tools must allow the opportunity for dialogue.  Pastors and catechist must listen first and teach as a follow up to that listening.  I don’t think the average parishioner is used to that, nor are many of the pastors and catechists out there; but I think our youth are definitely ready to engage us with the hope of learning and better understanding.  We need to engage them in a way that shows that we respect them, their concerns and their methods of communicating and learning.  Bishop Herzog said in his comments, “If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.”  We don’t have to change the message, only how we deliver it.  We must go to them, not expect them to come to us.

Thank you Sr. Helena and Sr. Anne for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us!  I, for one, have been given a deeper understanding of the importance of using these tools effectively.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!