News - December 2012 RSS Feed

I love Christmas. The degree of excitement that consumes me around this time of year comes really close to an overload, but that's ok. It’s just so much joy that my soul has trouble managing it. I love everything about Christmas: the giving of gifts, the traditions, the holiday movies, the music,  the lights on the houses, the smell of the tree, the wonder and innocence, the Christmas story…  the list goes on and on. But what I think I love most about Christmas is the way that God moves so beautifully and powerfully through this season, if you stop to look for it, that is.

So last week at Journey (our high school youth program) we talked about the Paschal Mystery, and how Jesus offered for us the Paschal sacrifice so that we could be with God for all of eternity. This upcoming week, we are going to be talking about the Passion and Resurrection of Christ (Merry Christmas?). As I was preparing for both of these topics, I felt the overwhelming feeling of God’s love, and let’s be honest, who could possibly read the Passion of Christ and not see the love of God. I took this to my personal prayer time, and I cannot express how happy I was.

As I was writing this entry, actually when I was trying to find a title, it occurred to me that this could be the beginning of a series of posts on essential components to youth formation. No matter what you call it, the ministry of Catechising The Church has essential components that you cannot (or should not) do without. Yes, the USCCB has done this already, but it might be fun to see how the ideas are borne out in real ministries.