I'm far behind in my blog posts in order to catch people up.
The last weekend in January we celebrated St Don Bosco's feast day! His feast day is Jan 31st which fell on a Sunday this year. We had our annual Don Bosco festival which is a 3 day event (Fri, Sat, Sun) in order to celebrate it. I was put in charge of organizing a group rosary outside in the outdoor altar that was finished being built the day before the event. It went beautifully and I had 5 CCD children lead the Rosary for the crowd of about 50 people. At the beginning of each mystery the children and parents brought up roses and placed them at the feet of a statue of Mary that I put on the side of the altar. Then we had Mass in the gymnasium with close to 800 people in attendance. It was wild. Afterwards, and also the day before we had carnival games set up for the children to play at and my job was to run the jumpy houses. It was fun.
At the same time though I helped a Salesian Brother run the discernment weekend for 2 young men who wanted to learn more about the Salesian life. I was a bit disappointed that it would mean missing part of the festival but in the end I realized God used me for something greater. That because I said "yes" to God by co-leading the discernment weekend I was able to allow God to use me to help form these two young men into the men God wants them to be. It really hit me in prayer that perhaps I said something or a lot of things to these two young men that will stick with them their entire lives or will have helped them make some next step in their life. And then God will use them wherever they end up to change other people's lives. Now I mean this is no arrogant way, I may have said nothing edifying for them at all, but rather, it was humbling to know that God was using me for something greater than jumping on a jumpy house for a few hours.
Moving right along the beginning of February approached. We had to get ready for the next big event on Feb 19 and 20. It was the annual Tampa Bay Pro-Life Youth Rally. This time I was in charge of planning the liturgy (the Mass) that would take place in the gym. It was a daunting task seeing how I don't even know the names of all the objects the priest uses during the Mass. But over the course of those twenty days or so, with the help of others, I figured it all out. I was working on it right up until the event started Feb 19th. It was stressful, but in the end I'm grateful. I'm grateful because I learned so much about the Mass. I'm grateful because I now appreciate a lot more people who do this because I realize how much work it is to plan something like that. I'm grateful because I was able to accomplish a big project like that and see the results. I'm grateful because it went (smoothly for the most part.) It was definitely worth it!
To my surprise I was also asked to do a talk with my new mission partner, Taylor. Somebody just decided that her and I should do one because the couldn't find another good speaker. Surprise! So Taylor and I gave a talk on Pro-Life Saints and how our listeners are called to be and can be pro-life saints too. We gave the talk twice (1 talk one day and 1 talk the next day). I think that's the first time I gave a talk in front of about 100 people. I think it went really well.
Days before the Rally my parents came to visit! I was looking forward to it! It was a good time! They got to see all the people I work and live with and they got to see the property and work I do. Then we went to the state fair, saw manatees, walked the beach and went out to eat. It was very nice to have them come and stay with me.
So from January to February its been crazy busy down here for quite awhile doing all sorts of great things. Continue to pray for me and those I encounter and see everyday while I am down here!
Sunday, March 13, 2016
March for Life
Hello friends!
It's been a good while since I have written a blog post:
It's been a busy last couple of months with major annual events going on.
I was in Washington DC for the March for Life back in January as one of six chaperones for 10 of the young people down here. (For those who don't know what the March for Life is visit marchforlife.org for more details)
We left on the 21st of January and our plane landed there later that evening. That evening it was bitter cold in DC. We went out to eat and returned back to the hotel and prayed a rosary together and went to bed.
The next day, January 22nd, is the day that abortion was made legal in the United States. So this was the day of the March. First we started off with Mass in one of the local churches. But what was extremely cool about this is that all of the groups who traveled from Florida were present at this Mass. Floridian Mass in DC! And after Mass there were plenty of delicious donuts and hot chocolate to go around! Next we went over to where the rallying was taking place. And it was super cold out there again that day too. After the rallying we marched out to the Supreme Court.
It was forecasted that DC was supposed to get slammed with a blizzard the day of the March, but to our surprise there were still thousands of people present at the March. It started to snow just as we began marching and in the end (spoiler alert) it wasn't a blizzard; just a big snowstorm. I think the forecasted blizzard kept pro-abortion protesters at home that day; because I didn't see any. Perhaps the snow was a gift from God this year.
By the end of the March we were all freezing and there was a lot of snow everywhere so we returned to the hotel. The youth minister had planned on us visiting things like the Washington Monument, the Arlington Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum and other such places that day and the next couple days that we spent in DC. But because of the snow, the metro was shut down, the side streets were closed and businesses were shutting down early. Therefore, our plans were thrown out the window. In addition, our flights were canceled and rescheduled a day later.
But you know what? All of this was okay. We may have been stuck in our hotel for the next couple of days but we made due with what was given to us. Most of the youth from St Petersburg Diocese (Tampa is included in there) were staying at this hotel. Therefore, many of the kids at this hotel have hardly been around snow. So of course they were outside playing in it! And what came across as humorous to me was how these high schoolers didn't have any concept of what snow is like. Here they are in their sneakers trudging through the snow banks instead of the shoveled sidewalks saying "Oh this is fun!" not realizing that in a couple of minutes their shoes and socks are going to be extremely cold and wet. Or when they would shove snow in each other's faces for fun not realizing how cold their face is going to be for the rest of the day. Or how much it hurts or how cold it is to throw snow or snowballs at one another! Oh the joy all of this was!
So did we get to do what we wanted to do? No. But instead we played in the snow for a couple of days and spent some quality time with one another which fostered new or stronger relationships. We also celebrated Mass in the hotel, prayed the rosary and shared spiritual insights with one another.
By the way, my hotel roommate is a young guy who I believe shall be joining the Salesians of Don Bosco in the fall. Praise God that I had the chance to get to know him a lot more on this trip. In short, he is a man striving for holiness. Please pray for this guy, my friend, in his discernment towards the Salesians.
In summary, this trip was another concrete example of the Salesian idea of faith and fun going together.
It's been a good while since I have written a blog post:
It's been a busy last couple of months with major annual events going on.
I was in Washington DC for the March for Life back in January as one of six chaperones for 10 of the young people down here. (For those who don't know what the March for Life is visit marchforlife.org for more details)
We left on the 21st of January and our plane landed there later that evening. That evening it was bitter cold in DC. We went out to eat and returned back to the hotel and prayed a rosary together and went to bed.
The next day, January 22nd, is the day that abortion was made legal in the United States. So this was the day of the March. First we started off with Mass in one of the local churches. But what was extremely cool about this is that all of the groups who traveled from Florida were present at this Mass. Floridian Mass in DC! And after Mass there were plenty of delicious donuts and hot chocolate to go around! Next we went over to where the rallying was taking place. And it was super cold out there again that day too. After the rallying we marched out to the Supreme Court.
It was forecasted that DC was supposed to get slammed with a blizzard the day of the March, but to our surprise there were still thousands of people present at the March. It started to snow just as we began marching and in the end (spoiler alert) it wasn't a blizzard; just a big snowstorm. I think the forecasted blizzard kept pro-abortion protesters at home that day; because I didn't see any. Perhaps the snow was a gift from God this year.
By the end of the March we were all freezing and there was a lot of snow everywhere so we returned to the hotel. The youth minister had planned on us visiting things like the Washington Monument, the Arlington Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum and other such places that day and the next couple days that we spent in DC. But because of the snow, the metro was shut down, the side streets were closed and businesses were shutting down early. Therefore, our plans were thrown out the window. In addition, our flights were canceled and rescheduled a day later.
But you know what? All of this was okay. We may have been stuck in our hotel for the next couple of days but we made due with what was given to us. Most of the youth from St Petersburg Diocese (Tampa is included in there) were staying at this hotel. Therefore, many of the kids at this hotel have hardly been around snow. So of course they were outside playing in it! And what came across as humorous to me was how these high schoolers didn't have any concept of what snow is like. Here they are in their sneakers trudging through the snow banks instead of the shoveled sidewalks saying "Oh this is fun!" not realizing that in a couple of minutes their shoes and socks are going to be extremely cold and wet. Or when they would shove snow in each other's faces for fun not realizing how cold their face is going to be for the rest of the day. Or how much it hurts or how cold it is to throw snow or snowballs at one another! Oh the joy all of this was!
So did we get to do what we wanted to do? No. But instead we played in the snow for a couple of days and spent some quality time with one another which fostered new or stronger relationships. We also celebrated Mass in the hotel, prayed the rosary and shared spiritual insights with one another.
By the way, my hotel roommate is a young guy who I believe shall be joining the Salesians of Don Bosco in the fall. Praise God that I had the chance to get to know him a lot more on this trip. In short, he is a man striving for holiness. Please pray for this guy, my friend, in his discernment towards the Salesians.
In summary, this trip was another concrete example of the Salesian idea of faith and fun going together.
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