Peace.

Jesus is about to die, and he knows it. So in the Gospel of John we find him giving some final instructions to his disciples, and in verses 32 and 33 he says something startling.

"Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world."

I often find it amazing how true these words ring in our own lives, especially in the days following a retreat. Jesus is telling his disciples that in a while they will be scattered, and that in the world they will have trouble. Not really the best "go-get-'em" talk I've ever heard.

Yet, there is a great comfort in the words of Jesus, isn't there?

Take courage...I've conquered the world.

There is always the Monday morning after that big retreat. You know, the one where you all wear your t-shirts to school, are still on a total energy rush from the weekend (even though you barely slept), and are ready to bring all of your friends to Jesus. And inevitably the same conversation is happening all over the school.

"Rejected? Yea, you are a reject."

"How was being brainwashed in your youth group cult?"

"Why do you have a bible? That's dumb."

And we encounter something we hadn't encountered all weekend - we encounter a very active resistance to our faith. At first, its confusing. I mean, why do people want to put down our faith? Is carrying a bible around school really offending anyone? Is the t-shirt that I'm wearing making a statement that you are so uncomfortable with you need to comment?

It starts to take the energy we had and drain it. It begins to set in that we cannot be on retreat forever. The group of people gathered - from all schools, all social cliques, all different grades, is begin scattered. Its kind of sad. And its upsetting. Jesus - I wasn't expecting this.

That's why its so important to go back to the words of Christ in the Gospel of John. Jesus assures us that this is going to happen. He made it explicitly clear.

In the world you will have trouble.

That means people may make fun of you. Friends may be rude to you. You might get strange looks for carrying your bible. Or wearing your t-shirt. People who don't understand might say you are "brainwashed."

Yes, in the world you will have trouble.

You may lose relationships. You may lose friends. You may feel like snapping at the next person who calls you a "Jesus freak." Or just a "freak" in general.

But, take courage, Jesus has conquered the world.

This is the great promise. Because you know the ending. Right now in your schools, your homes, your jobs it may seem like a battle. Maybe even a battle you feel you are losing. But we don't lose. Christ conquers all, and everyone's ultimate end rests with Him. We are all going to come face to face with Christ at the end of our lives. In fact, many of us will come face to face with Christ many times before that, but behind a veil.

And so will everyone else.

That's why living our faith is so crucial. Because if we don't give in and crumble under the pressure to abandon our faith in Christ, then we can begin to live our lives as they were fully intended to be. And in that moment when we meet Christ unknowingly, we can be ready. We can serve everyone with love, even those who hate us. And we can even convert our oppressors. Everyone is waiting for God. Not everyone realizes it yet. To give up on them is to give up on God's power to work in them.

It's to give up on our ability to love, even in extreme circumstances.

The line that always gets me is that Jesus tells us all this that we may have peace.

In the world you will have trouble...and just so you know, I'm telling you this so you can have peace in me.

Notice that. Jesus tells us this so we don't feel that he pulled a bait and switch on us. He promises abundant life, but not a carefree, whimsical kind of life. The life that Christ promises us may have trouble in it, but he tells us this so we know what to do when it happens.

Find peace in Him.

In the world you will have trouble. I've told you this so you may have peace in me. There is no where else we are going to find peace.

So you may think that if you go back and start partying again you will find peace.

If you join in making fun of people you will find peace.

If you renounce your faith in front of your friends you will find peace.

If you become sexually active again you will find peace.

But you won't.

You can only find peace when you are confronted with trouble if you find it in Jesus. That's the promise. That's why he tells us we are going to run in to trouble - so that we can know what to do. The solution isn't to find comfort in our own lives, but to entrench ourselves more deeply in Jesus - to find our peace in him.

Know that as you confront the world, you may be rejected. But remember, Christ has conquered the world. That means that even your oppressors are being called into a relationship with Him. That means we know how it ends.

And it means to truly find peace in this world of unrest, we must now find it in Christ. And there we find freedom and truly abundant life - life that never tastes true death.

Preparations

The first month and a half of LifeTeen has certainly been exciting - which is strange to say. Not because its been exciting, but because its only been a month and a half. It seems like this has been going on for much longer, and part of that may be due to the retreat that is fast approaching.

And its something we are definitely excited about. On November 20th, 21st, and 22nd, only two months after LifeTeen began this year, 125 teenagers about 20 adults will spend time in prayer, community, and the sacraments at Green Lake Conference Center.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the number.

Not because it looks good for other people or because we can say, "Oh, look at what a great job we are doing!" But because I am astounded that this many teenagers would say "I want to spend a weekend away to work on my relationship with God. Of all the things I could be doing that weekend, I want to do this. This is what is important."

That blows my mind.

It also scares me.

For a brief moment I think that I have to put together something spectacular for these teenagers so they have this life changing weekend and come back as perfect saints. So that on Monday morning they are all at 6:30 am mass before school. And for the rest of the year they go to every LifeNight and bring their friends.

But I realize quickly that it isn't about what I'm going to bring.

God is bringing something way bigger.

Will the teens come back as perfect saints? No. They will still struggle with sin like we all do, and may even fall along the way. But I believe that God is going to lead them all a lot further on their journey to sainthood.

Will some of them go to morning mass? Possibly. Will they all attend every LifeNight and start evangelizing their friends? Who knows?

What I do know is that God has called 125 teenagers to grow deeper in their faith and root their identity more fully in Him. What God's plan is for that I cannot know, but I know it has to be something big.

Way bigger than what I've got planned for the weekend. And so its pretty awesome we all get to be a part of.

So, as we prepare in these last two weeks before the retreat I would invite you to keep us all in your prayers - from the teens who will be attending to the team who will be planning, to the priests who will be administering the sacraments that weekend. We are going to need the prayers - not for it to be a great weekend, but for us to be able to keep up with the great plans God has.

We are looking forward to it.

taking it all in.

The first two weeks were such a huge rush, and now, its time to reflect. A couple of months ago I sat down with Anna as we started to put pen to paper and construct calendars for the upcoming year.

We listed all the retreat dates.

LifeNight dates.

EDGE dates.

Special events.

Important things happening in the high schools.

And bit by bit our year began to take shape before our eyes. And we both noticed something. The first two weeks were packed with a lot of stuff.

Within a two week time span we had our LifeTeen kick off, EDGE kick-off, Confirmation Interviews, and a sophomore retreat at the high school which we planned and hosted. We knew it was going to be crazy. And it was.

By the end of it all we were exhausted, and I found myself after the sophomore retreat in the Eucharistic Chapel before Jesus Christ (falling asleep at times) allowing myself to fall into prayer. Just a quiet prayer.

Because at moments when we are doing ministry, or doing what we love, or doing what we feel God is calling us to do sometimes we can, well, lose God. We struggle to see how it all fit together, why it all makes sense. Why its important.

Even the biggest and happiest moments of our lives can sometimes become lost if we don't see them in the bigger picture, and the only way to do that is by uniting them with Christ. If we don't then they just become

experiences

moments

memories

occasions

lost.

They don't ever become "life." And in my ministry I realized I had started to fall into that same trap. It was becoming "just another kick-off / event / retreat / thing-on-my-to-do-list." So, there in the Chapel I brought those things back to Christ.

And I realized that there is something special going on here. Something bigger than I realize, and the Holy Spirit is moving in ways I cannot comprehend and sometimes cannot keep up with. But I know that I am blessed to be here bearing witness to it, and I am looking forward to this next year.

I hope you are, too.

Off and running.

As the dust settles, the chicken wire and brown paper comes down, and the many empty pizza boxes are counted I have some time to reflect on the past week. It was one of those weeks that opened my eyes to how much I love what I do, and how much I absolutely need the Holy Spirit to do it. I think the Core Team would echo my sentiment. Last night was a fantastic evening - we were able to meet a lot of new teens, and reconnect with a lot of familiar faces. There was a level of excitement among everyone that was contagious, and the night ended with two of our high school juniors giving great testimonies about their faith.

At the end of the night, though, when the dust settles the Spirit was there.

Because it was all good, but none of it means anything if Christ isn't at the center. Which is what made it so cool; we didn't just put together a massive cave (pictures coming soon), practice a skit, and order a bunch of pizzas just for fun. Or just to get teenagers there. Or to be entertaining. We did it because we want to point to something bigger than us, more than we can ever be - and that is Jesus Christ.

Its the reason we put so much time into planning music for the liturgy, and why Fr. Schuster prepared a special homily, why we had teenagers greeting parishioners as they entered, and why the Core Team met to talk about and pray about this first night. Because its about Jesus.

If we lead teenagers to ourselves, then we fail so miserably. Thankfully, we don't have to. We only need to walk with them in their journey towards Christ, because he has called them already.

So after the paper came down, the dumpsters and recycling bins were full, the soda spills were cleaned up and the teens and team all went home I remembered how thankful I was that I can do this ministry, and I was humbled because really it isn't me doing this ministry at all, but a God who is bigger than we could ever be.

I'm already looking forward to next week - I hope you are too.

Becoming a Hero.

When I was in elementary school, my mother gave me the best gift a boy could get. She gave me a cape. Not just any cape – a cape that she had specially made for me that even had my own special symbol on the back. More than the cape she had given me the license to be what I had always wanted to be – a superhero. You know, as an adult, I’ve found many days where I was wishing I could put that cape back on and fight for justice. All I needed was that cape, and a mask. Well, and of course, I’m going to need some superpowers.

I would first have the power to fly – because this would save me a lot of gas. And when you are fighting for justice you really can’t be filling up for gas all the time.

I would want the power to predict the winning lottery numbers for the next week, because being a superhero seems to be an expensive profession with all the crazy gadgets they have – and I’m going to need some funding.

I would want the power to give people right judgment, and the first person I would use it on is Brett Favre, and the second would be the management of the Milwaukee Brewers.

I would have the super power to create food out of dust, so I could feed the hungry.

I would want the power to make a difference in the world, a lasting change, the power to end war, poverty, hatred, violence, and to help heal people’s hearts.

But as I think about it more, I realize that those things are impossible. I can’t fly. I still haven’t been able to predict the correct lottery numbers. Brett Favre is still going to play for the Vikings. More than that though, I realize I can’t be a superhero because I don’t have the power to feed the hungry, heal the hurting, or to change the world. Some days it’s hard enough just to change myself. It seems to be far more difficult to be a hero.

But maybe my thinking is off, after all, a true hero is not self-proclaimed, rather, they are ordinary people who do extraordinary things when they are called on – it is about a moment when it all comes together. Next Sunday at 6:00 PM the LifeTeen Mass and LifeNights begin again at the Waldo Blvd Worship Site. I want to call on all teenagers to realize their heroic potential this year. Often times, we don’t see ourselves as heroes – maybe because the opportunity has never been presented to us to become one. Next Sunday, we offer you the occasion to be a part of something extraordinary when LifeTeen begins. You don’t need to bring your mask and cape, because you won’t need them. God is calling just you. LifeTeen is not just about teenagers, it’s about a whole community. So I call on parents to consider the ways you may be able to support the ministry through our new program “Parent Life,” of which more information will be available next week. Next week at 6:00 pm, LifeTeen Mass begins with a LifeNight to follow. All parishioners are welcome to the Mass, and high school teens in grades 9-12 are invited to come to the LifeNight afterward and find out just how heroic you can be.

It usually starts with one butterfly in my stomach around August 1st, and by the beginning of September I can feel it in full force - LifeTeen is starting. Over the summer we put in a lot of time, effort, and prayer to plan out the coming year. This means everything we feel the Holy Spirit is calling us to do over the year gets about 80% planned by the time the year starts. It can be a bit overwhelming - especially when we discern that the Holy Spirit is calling us to new areas of ministry, and to re-evaluate our existing ministries.

It brings a certain level of excitement and energy to ministry, and as we approach our start date of September 20th, I am very excited. Here are just a few of the great things we are looking forward to this next year:

• The second-semester pilot of the EDGE Middle School Youth Ministry program
• The beginning of our ministry for parents, Parent Life
• Our 2009-2010 LifeTeen Retreat, where we will be joined by Fr. J from LifeTeen International, along with appearances from our own incredible priests Fr. Schuster and Fr. Dan
• Our first ever EDGE Middle School Retreat
• The new Senior and Junior Core Teams for LifeNights and EDGE
• Confirmation at its new time (2:00 pm) in the Fall and Spring
• Anna Schmidt taking over the EDGE Middle School program, and helping run LifeTeen Special Events

Add to that the great LifeNights, EDGE Nights, Confirmation sessions, and open house events we have planned for the year and I am definitely in awe of how the Holy Spirit is moving in our parish. We have had many great individuals come forward to help serve on the LifeTeen and EDGE Core Teams, and are also excited to have five senior interns helping in our office this year.

All of these things are incredible, but none of them are possible without prayer and without God. As we begin this coming LifeTeen year, I would ask that you keep us in your prayers. Without that, we would simply not be able to do our ministry. I look forward to serving you all as Director of Youth Ministry this coming year, and I have no doubt that Jesus Christ truly has blessed us abundantly. In Him may we be found. Just the thought of it gives me butterflies.

Rock in Christ.