And the joy of the Lord keeps flowing!!!

Hello Everyone!! It has been awhile since I wrote on my blog! I have much to tell all of you!!
FATHER TONY!! The triumphant return of Father Tony to Red Deer Catholic Schools was a huge success!! Everyone welcomed him with open arms to talk about seeing Jesus in everyone-even the person you would least expect to walk through the gates of heaven one day. He also reminded us to Remember where you came from and Don't be Stupid.
My husband and I had to go to Calgary monday morning to pick him up at his hotel. I was super nervous. (I had seen Father Tony in the L.A. Catholic Congress, and he was pretty outspoken and awesome, and FAMOUS!!!!) So, needless to say, I was excited but nervous for him to be driven in my little cavilier when this man owns a Jaguar.
We got to his hotel, and to our surprise, he was pretty friendly and easy to talk to. We brought him to Camille Catholic Middle School to speak first to all the grade 9's in the divison. He had them laughing and thinking, especially when Father Tony said, there are 2 places you can go when you die-Heaven or Hell, and if you don't want to be a saint you go to hell. Haha!

John-Paul-the St. Dominic's Youth Minister and I along with the faith coordinator from the school board took Father Tony out for lunch. To my surprise, he wanted "real food", not vietnamese, not chinese. This man wanted a burger! He loves mcdonalds!!

So during lunch we chatted with him about the importance of youth ministry in the school system, and he was completely encouraging John-Paul and I with our jobs. That youth ministry is what a catholic school is all about. That's what makes it unique from a public school. He even said and I quote-"You know, if you are in a catholic school, you teach religion first-you are a minister of faith to the students first-then a teacher second. If you don't like that, then there are plenty of public schools that will take you in no problem."
Words of wisdom from Father Tony!

Anyhow, Father Tony-went to Rocky Mountain House Tuesday, and returned to Red Deer Tuesday night for a beautiful mass at St. Mary's. He then came to Notre Dame Wednesday to speak to the students and my Super Team led the school in a song, and had the opportunity to eat lunch with Father Tony and visit him. What an amazing week....but it doesn't stop there!!

That Wednesday evening-18 Super Team members from Notre Dame Highschool participated in a leadership retreat along with St. Dominic's from Rocky. The Sylvan Lake parish-Our Lady of Assumption, welcomed us with open arms. From Wednesday to Sunday to retreat away from reality, away from noise, away from distraction and away from the influences of the world.

James 2:19-20
You believe that there is one God. You do well. But the demons also believe, and they tremble greatly. So then, are you willing to understand, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

The retreat started with a talk from Carl Fakely on his conversion to becoming a christian catholic, and then as a follow up-a student shared her story of last year's retreat and how it dramatically changed her life. She shared that she realized that Jesus died for "her", and that we can't take that for granted. She had everyone crying. It was a beautiful start.

As the retreat went on with games and sessions-including a session on Gossip and judging others, and that judging someone also means you judge Christ-because all of us were created by God, and are made in his image and likeness.

I cannot describe to you the transformations that took place this past weekend. Friday night was a beautiful Taize prayer and praise night-praying together our thanks to God, as well as our prayer intentions. Saturday was a day of sillence-for the most part! Trying to get 40 teenagers to be quiet was super hard. Although, the afternoon was spent watching the Passion and then having silent prayer, a silent dinner, and then reconciliation talk, examination of Conscience, Adoration and confession. It was a beautiful night.

The students shared today as we finished up our retreat what experiences they enjoyed and could take home. Confession! That was huge! For some-they hadn't been to confession for a long time, and just felt so good and so ready to take on the world. They signed a covenant to truely follow through on their faith journey in the school, community and parishes.

I believe that it is these kinds of experiences that truely change the lives of our young people. I belive that they need to be unplugged from the world, undistracted from the world, to hear the voice of God within them. I believe that as youth ministry in the catholic school system grows, this is essential to allowing our students to have that catholic voice-that is heard, to have their actions seen by their peers, to have the support from one another to keep going when it's tough.

These students had to miss 2 days of school for this retreat-and although that was a hard thing to do-I believe we needed that time. A weekend would not have been enough. You know, it's funny how students can miss school for football, for dance, for a field trip, for a drama presentation, but when it comes to a retreat that fundamentally is crucial for the student's soul it's not understood? We can get scholarships for school that will get us into college or university, but what about the tools we need to actually go to heaven when we die? I'm not saying that we should all just be on retreat all the time, cause just like Jesus, we can't stay on the mountain top praying, we have to go out into the world to spread the gospel-but we need to take this time to help our young people find Christ, and bring him back to our Catholic Schools. Why wouldn't we? We're called a Catholic School for a reason.

We must not just believe-we must act on our faith-and these students I pray, after this weekend, will do just that!! Please my brothers and sisters in christ, Pray for our students in the school to continue to grow and share the light of Christ!!