Break Time!

The past several weeks of my life have been pretty crazy. Not only do I work a part-time job in addition to my full time job as a youth minister, but my ministry job has been seemingly non-stop for the past month or so. Between Confirmation, graduation Mass, meetings (more than usual!), coordinating the Matthew Kelly speaking event at my parish (see www.dynamiccatholic.com or www.matthewkelly.org for more about Matthew), I have barely had time to breathe, much less do anything else. And then Memorial Day weekend came. A time to slow down, relax, and spend time with family. Yet, this weekend was anything but slow.

Friday night was the start of it all. It was the night Matthew came to speak. This is something I have been anticipating and preparing for for months. I've been wanting to get him to come ever since I read his book, Rediscovering Catholicism. If you haven't read this book, you need to!  Matthew's message is one that needs to be heard in parishes across the U.S. It was an amazing event. It was spiritually refreshing and good to hear his message. Unfortunately, I did not take the time to allow it to sink in. This weekend was the peak of busyness in my busy month. It was spent either working in the yard or working my part-time job.

In the midst of the craziness of my life, I've forgotten several things. First of all, I've forgotten to pray...or rather I've chosen to not take the time to pray. I thought about prayer often, but rarely did I stop to spend time in prayer with my Lord. I didn't pick up my Bible. I didn't read any other spiritual book. I consumed myself with distractions, telling myself I'll get to prayer later. As a result of neglecting to maintain my relationship with God, I have forgotten to maintain and nurture my relationship with my wife and children. The result of all of this has not been pretty. I've lost sight of my passion and purpose in life.

 Summer break is here. I'm done with my weekly youth group meetings until September. I'm still meeting with the teens this summer, but I'm taking a much needed 3 week break. And when I do start meeting with them over the summer, it is going to be much less intense than during the school year. I need to take this short break to regroup and refocus. Matthew said on Friday night that our lives change when our habits change. I need to change my habits. I need to make a habit of nurturing my relationship with God. I need to spend time with Him every day. I need to make a habit of nurturing my relationship with my spouse and my children. I need to slow down the pace of my life and focus on what is really important: My God and my family.

What about you? Do you need to slow down? Do you need to refocus? Do you need to change your habits? Do you need to change your life? Take time out today to think about these questions. Think about where your focus is. Is that focus going to lead you to heaven, or is it just keeping you busy in the moment? I know that my focus has been keeping me busy, but has not been leading me to heaven. Make the changes in your habits that are necessary to change your life. Find good habits to replace the bad ones. Start by making prayer a habit. Start today. I am.

Give Until It Hurts

If you could change anything about the world, what would you change? Why? Let's face it, the world is in desperate need of change. The world is a mess. There is violence everywhere. Sexual promiscuity and deviancy is accepted, even encouraged. We have greedy heads of industry and even greedier politicians. Whether you see it or not, death is surrounding all of us through abortion, assisted suicide, and other forms of murder. We need change.

But how can you, how can I, change the world. We may think, I'm just one person, I can't change anything. We may feel that the powers that have made this world such a mess cannot be overcome. We have a very difficult road ahead of us if we truly want to change the world, if we truly want to bring the principals of Christian love back into this world. But we have to begin somewhere.

So, where do we begin? Do we begin with abortion? Do we begin with the culture of sex? Do we overhaul corporations and the government to remove the greed from them? All lofty goals and worthy causes, but they are too big for us to handle. Where do we begin, then? I think that in order to answer that question, we need to look at how we got here. Matthew Kelly, in  Rediscovering Catholicism says that: "The world is this way because of people like you and me. Our thoughts, words, actions, and inaction have all contributed to create the world today."


Do you want to change the world? Start by changing yourself. We all--all of us, you and me--have contributed to the despair that our culture is currently in. We do this through placing things ahead of people. We do this by putting our selfish desires ahead of everything else. We want to live comfortable lives. We don't want to suffer or sacrifice anything in our lives. I'm a victim of this, too! We all are.

If you want to change the world, give of yourself. Give of yourself without thought of what's in it for you. Give your love, give your time, give your possessions, give your food, give your money. Let go of what you want. Sacrifice everything. Don't just give until you feel better. Give until it hurts.

These is a very difficult challenge. It is a very scary prospect to give it all, to give until it hurts. I don't know if I can do it. But it's what Christ did. He didn't stop giving until he felt better about Himself. He gave until it hurt. And the pain He endured is far greater than the pain we will endure.

Catholic Speaker Month--Matthew Kelly

When I heard that Matthew Warner over at Fallible Blogma wanted to create a "Catholic Speaker Month" movement to feature Catholic speakers across the blogosphere, I jumped on it. I thought it was a fantastic idea to get the word out about all of the wonderful Catholic speakers that our country has to offer. And if you are a regular reader of my blog, you can probably guess who I picked (since I quote him often)--Matthew Kelly.

As a note of disclosure--I haven't heard Matthew Kelly speak...yet, but I'm working on it. However that wasn't a requirement to feature a Catholic speaker. The whole idea is to get the word out about them. I am familiar with him, though, having read his book Rediscovering Catholicism. This is a fantastic book about the Catholic faith, and if you haven't read it yet, I suggest picking up a copy of it. This is such a great book that I am using it as a part of my high school youth ministry curriculum.

But this is not a post about featuring the best Catholic authors (maybe Matthew Warner could do that next), it's a post about the best Catholic speakers. First a little bio, taken from www.matthewkelly.org,

Matthew Kelly was born in Sydney, Australia, on July 12, 1973. Over the past ten years more than three million people in fifty countries have attended his talks, seminars, and retreats. Against the backdrop of his travel to fifty countries, millions more have been touched by his writings and appearances on radio and television programs.

Both as a speaker and as an author, Kelly possesses a powerful ability to combine the ageless tool of storytelling with a profound understanding of today's culture and the common yearnings of the human heart. As a result he captures our imaginations and helps us to see the challenges and opportunities of our everyday lives in a new light. With a keen sense of humor and heartwarming charm, Kelly seems to effortlessly elevate and energize people to pursue the highest values of the human spirit and become "the-best-version-of-themselves."

I know several people who have seen Matthew Kelly speak, and every one of them say that he is a wonderful speaker and full of life. He is passionate about his mission and delivers his message in a way that draws people in and gets them as excited and passionate as he is.

Matthew Kelly speaks on a range of topics but most often he centers on the idea of encouraging people to"become the best-version-of-themselves". When I first heard him talk about this idea in Rediscovering Catholicism, I thought that it was a little "self-helpish". (I have no respect for the self-help industry, as it seems to be trying to convince people that they can improve themselves without the help of anyone else--including the grace of God) However, after reading further, I discovered that Matthew Kelly believes (and I agree!) that the way that we all can become the best version of ourselves is through our faith in Christ, and that the Catholic Church holds the Love and the Truths that allow us to become the best version of ourselves.

Matthew Kelly is a wonderful and passionate speaker and author. If you have the opportunity to hear him speak, either live or on CD, or read one of his books, I strongly encourage you to do so.

By the way....If you are a Catholic blogger yourself, there are still speakers available. Head on over to fallibleblogma.com today and pick one out, even if you don't know any of them! The whole idea behind this is to get the word out about Catholic speakers.

Want to Deepen Your Faith--Try This...

I've mentioned several times in my blogs that I'm a big fan of Matthew Kelly's book "Rediscovering Catholicism." One of the things he discusses in his book is the importance of spiritual reading. He even goes so far as to say:

"We could...dream up of all types of elaborate adult education programs, but my proposal is that we encourage Catholic adults to read good spiritual books."

Catholics are leaving the Church in droves because they don't agree with certain teachings. But these Catholics that are leaving the Church don't understand WHY the Church takes the stance it does. We can do whatever we can to try to get them to stay or come back but they will never understand it fully unless they discover it themselves. Encouraging spiritual reading will give all Catholics (not just the fallen away) the opportunity to discover the fullness of our faith on our own. If all of us would just take the time to read why the Church teaches what it does we will gain a better understanding of the beauty of the truth the Church is bestowing on us.

Likewise, if good, faithful Catholics immerse themselves in spiritual reading--even if it's only 15 minutes a day--then they will deepen their faith and grow closer to Christ. I have tried this Lent to spend time each day doing some spiritual reading and I am already feeling the difference. So my challenge to all who read this is to spend time each day reading something spiritual. It will change your life!

What Are You Thinking?

I was deeply affected by something I read the other day in Matthew Kelly's book Rediscovering Catholicism. It was just one small sentence, but it impacted me tremendously. Here it is:

"The actions of your life are determined by your last most dominant thought."

Take a moment and reflect on it. Read it two or three times and really discern what it is saying to you.

I first read this sentence about a week and a half ago. It has been with me ever since, almost haunting me. I can't stop thinking about it and the implications of it. What are my thoughts? Do they really influence my actions and if so, how?

Our thoughts do indeed affect our actions. It is impossible for them to not. We need to make an effort to limit the influences on our thoughts. We are hammered by over 17,000 images, words, and influences every day. These influences are mostly media related--television, internet, music, magazines, etc. Every time we listen to something, see something, or read something it enters into our thought processes. We can't avoid it. So, the question that remains, what are your most DOMINANT thoughts? Are your most dominant thoughts those of the media with their secular biases, or are your most dominant thoughts those of a Christian worldview? What we can control is which thoughts dominate our minds. If we fill ourselves with the love of Christ and enter into a relationship with Him, then He will dominate our thoughts. I've been trying to allow Christ to dominate my thoughts over the past week and I can already feel a difference in my life.