Why retreats?

After being apart of over 40 or so retreats this year, I have found that it is very important for us in our ministry to step back and reflect on why we do the work that we do.

First off, why put on retreats? 

The sole purpose of a Christian retreat is to take time from the busyness of life in order to reconnect with the Lord. As simple as that may sound, I have found that when I am caught up in the busyness of our ministry I can sometimes forget this essential purpose. I can become distracted and look at our retreats as opportunities for us to educate students on our faith and bring them insightful stories, when in reality what is really happening is much more spiritual than that.

What we are really doing is planting seeds of conversion and offering students an opportunity to renew their relationships with Christ, our Lord.

As I reflect on my own experiences on retreat when I was in the student's shoes back in high school, I recall many occurrences when I felt that renewal of reconnecting with God. I always felt a joy and peace afterwards, which always came unexpectedly (because I rarely would go into retreats very enthusiastically). Although I would often times stray away from the spiritual life shortly after, I am so thankful for those opportunities because I truly know that they eventually led me to a deep conversion of heart to our Lord.

It is truly a blessing to see students undergo that same transformation I experienced while I am the one leading them on retreats. This spiritual conversion, which we witness in students, is why we put on retreats and why I look forward to many more to come.

Evangelism Through Holiness

It is easy for the evangelist to get caught up in his/her own work. Constantly analyzing his performance, developing the feeling that if only he works a little harder and a little more and if only he perfects his work, then he will bring more souls to Christ.

But what is missing from this is the truth that the Holy Spirit is the only One Who brings souls to Christ. We are nothing more than vessels for accomplishing the Spirit's desires. It is only by way of grace then, that we can accomplish anything for God.

Jesus tells His disciples in His last discourse to them, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Therefore, it is the increased capacity to retain God's grace that improves our own abilities to go about accomplishing the work of God. And this is why it must always be the foremost priority that the evangelist center his ministry around his personal spiritual growth in Christ, who then gives him the capacity to fulfill the Spirit's mission.

Jesus further says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you, the Spirit of truth" (John 15:15).

I encourage you brothers and sisters in Christ, to seek out God in everything and desire first to have a strong relationship Him. In doing this, He will show His love for you through the gift of grace, to go forth and be His witnesses. Keep in mind, though, this does not mean one can neglect his duties. For it is in genuine love for God that he will seek to do the best that he can in all things relating to God's ministry.

Let's pray for some nice weather!

When I joined SPIRITUS over a year and a half ago, I knew that I would grow a lot spiritually.  I knew that my prayer life would be extended, that I would be going to Mass most days, that I would be going to the sacrament of reconciliation more.  All of these things have definitely happened, but one thing that I was not expecting was to learn more about and fall in love with the many saints that we have in our Church.  I have found so many wonderful friends like Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Vincent DePaul and many more who draw me closer Jesus. 

Today at Mass I learned about St. Scholastica, who is the sister of St. Benedict. She is the founder of the women's branch of Benedictine Monasticism.  One day she met up with her brother and when St. Benedict indicated that it was time for him to leave she asked him to stay he said he had to get back to his monastery. St. Scholastica then put her head on the table and spent some time praying.  Then a wild storm started outside the guest house they were in. St. Benedict asked her what she had done, and she replied with, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen." St. Benedict stayed with her and continued their conversation all night.  Three days later he saw his sisters soul leaving the earth and ascending to heaven. 

St. Scholastica teaches us the power of prayer, may we follow in her footsteps to trust completely in our Holy Father, and of course turn to St. Scholastica as we pray for some warmer weather!

Exploring Wisconsin

Hello from a busy SPIRITUS team! We just finished up Catholic Schools Week which was awesome and we are getting ready for more amazing retreats ahead. There is such joy in doing God's work!

As I've been reflecting more and more on my time here on SPIRITUS, I have come to realize a really cool blessing about the ministry that isn't as noticeable. Since our team travels throughout the state, we get to see so many parts of Wisconsin. I'm from Appleton so I have been a Sconnie for life but to be honest, I haven't seen that much of Wisconsin. I have mostly stayed in my little Appleton bubble that extended to Madison when I went to UW-Madison for college. Even moving to Menasha (which is right next to Appleton) was a new experience for me. I hadn't really ever been to Menasha much growing up even though it was right next door.

Not only do we get to see all sorts of towns and cities of Wisconsin but we also get to visit so many different churches. It is cool to see the various designs and layouts of the parishes and how each has their own uniqueness to them. I love seeing all the stained glass windows, the statues, the tabernacles, and the crucifixes. Wow, I sound like a Catholic nerd! But I love it nonetheless. There are some beautiful churches all over the state and I'm glad I've gotten the opportunity to explore and see more of them over the past year and a half.

I also love to meet all the various priests at these churches. They all bring so much to the Church and I am so thankful to each and every one of them for showing the love of Christ every single day. SPIRITUS has helped me realize how amazing priests are and how lucky we are to have them!

I'm ending this post with all challenge for all you blog readers out there: go out and see the beauty of the churches right in your backyard and pray for all the priests who are leading them!

From Ministry to Life

Hey guys, long time no see! (or long time no "post" in my case...)

BAM. SPIRITUS IS BACK IN ACTION. We have been back in full force since Christmas break, and our ministry for the youth continues onward with more retreats and "Faith on Fires" filling up our weeks and weekends. To describe this second half of ministry, God desires many hearts indeed. Our schedule is a bit busier, but with that comes joy and enthusiasm for doing His work and being able to reach even more students. Coming back from my home among the hills, good ole West Virginia, I'm also excited to work with my teammates again. I'm ready to give and grow in the ways God calls me to in this second half.

Being home for break, I realized something about SPIRITUS. In dedicating nine months of my life to youth evangelization and ministry full time, I noticed I've somewhat succeeded in fulfilling the universal/vocational call for everyone to go out and spread God's love and word. This call is part of the essential mission of the Church, both clergy and laity, to evangelize. I see me living this out not because I am in ministry, but because this ministry has overflowed into my everyday life. Being on SPIRITUS has strengthened my desire and comfortability as an evangelizer, a vocation/call we all have as Christians. My break really attested to this fact on more than one occasion. I'll just share one example here...

My sister a few months back mentioned that this guy we went to high school with was considering becoming Catholic. Hearing his name, I recalled his personality- popular, fun, and very smart. In fact, we were in a philosophy club together for a time. This guy wanted truth and answers. Anyway, apparently he had started to go through RCIA but then had dropped out. Keep in mind that I knew who he was but I didn't really know him personally...

Over Christmas break I saw him at mass one Sunday towards the back. I remember turning toward my siblings and saying, "I really want to talk to this guy. I will talk to him even if he leaves early and I have to kinda rush out with him." (great mentality right?) My brother responded with laughter, "You're going to convert him aren't you."

I didn't convert anyone, nor was that really a goal of mine, but what did happen was this. I found him after mass and just started talking, without any clear idea of how to even start this conversation. I was willing to put myself out there on the line, and in doing so it opened up a door for real conversation about the faith. It seemed like he genuinely appreciated my open invitation for dialogue in the future as a friend. Now, we are facebook friends, so who knows. Maybe there is a conversation in the future.

I share this story not because "I'm doing my job as an evangelizer," but because over break I noticed a change in myself. Doing SPIRITUS and ministry has made me more comfortable sharing the faith. It's a real part of my life that I desire to share with others. What was cool about this incident over break was that I didn't really care so much about how I would appear to this person or what I would say. It just became something I wanted and a natural part of who I am. In the end, SPIRITUS is showing me that no matter where I am at in life or what I'm doing, there will be opportunities to share the love of God. This is what faith is really about- having it impact your life so significantly that not sharing your joy and God's love becomes impossible.

Till next time, God bless! :)

Identity

Ephesians 5:1- Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Every person perceives his life through what he believes his identity is. This view of himself influences his every action. We form our identity through imitation: of other particular people and through conforming to certain norms or philosophies. For example, if your strongest conviction about your identity is that you are a child of God, then you will imitate Christ’s life and conform to His teachings. Certainly for the non-Christian but even for the Christian himself, his identity will not remain fixed throughout his life, but becomes a search born from his experiences. In other words, one’s answer to the question “Who am I?” is challenged by what he’s done and what happens to him.

We need to realize that we are made in God’s image and likeness, which means that we have tremendous value and dignity. We are also made to love and serve God and others as His beloved sons and daughters. This is our identity. Everyone is lovable. Our perception of our identity is influenced by our day to day life. We are not always treated the way we should and our perception of our identity can be distorted. We often get tempted to believe that the way someone has treated us reflects our worth and identity. For example, if someone tells someone that they are a waste of time, then the person could be tempted to believe that they are a waste of time. But, it is really the other person’s failure to realize your value and/or that person wasn’t living in a way that conforms to their nature. We need to deeply realize who we are in Christ and stand firm in the truth.

Secondly, as humans we need to conform and imitate something. If we aren’t trying to conform ourselves to Christ, we probably are trying to conform ourselves to someone else. Of course we don’t do this perfectly and it requires discernment on one own spiritual journey. It is clear that, when someone is in their High School years, they are tempted to conform themselves to what is popular and acceptable. Students may start conforming themselves to what their friends think is cool or to what celebrity they think is cool. Then they start acting like, dressing like, and speaking like that person or persons. The person’s perception of their identity constantly changes according to the fad of the day or the current friends they have. Of course, there are celebrities and friends that are good influences but at the heart of it they really don’t know who they are as God made them. This is fleeting. With the increasing relativism in our culture, especially in regards to identity, it is often thought that there we can just conform ourselves to whatever we want and be happy. So the belief that there isn’t universal human identity is common place. So it is easier to get lost in fads of the day in our culture. On retreats, we help students realize their identity in Christ and on a recent retreat a student shared how he realized the emptiness of constantly changing the view of who he is. I believe he was coming to realize the joy and freedom that comes with having an identity in Christ and God was defiantly already working on him! There isn’t a better time to pray and think about your identity than during the Christmas season. As we celebrate the coming of the Son of God, we can reflect on how we are God’s beloved sons and daughters.

Merry Christmas,

Dennis

Fan Girl Type of Love

Who do you think of first when you read this statement?
When they say his/her name you are the first person everyone thinks of because they know you love him/her so much.

I've come to realize that no matter where I am or who I meet everyone will eventually learn of my love for Gavin DeGraw (a musician for those of you who don't know him). In fact I bet everyone who knows me is laughing and rolling their eyes right now at the fact that I'm actually posting about him. For this reason Gavin would be my answer to that question. I've never been one to shove this "love" down people's throats or force them to like him. Some will and some won't (cough*Eric*cough). But I've realized that simply by being joyful about him and having no boundaries for showing that joy, people who've never even heard of him all of a sudden love him too! At this point I've had multiple of my teammates even ask me to put the CD in without my prompting and they'll get excited for me whenever he's on the radio. (FYI this brings me a ridiculous amounts of joy haha) Bear in mind none of them really knew who he was before I joined the team.

However, while converting people to Gavin fans is absolutely amazing, I've come to realize that this is how it should be with Jesus! We should all have this fan girl/guy type of love for Him, where sharing the excitement that comes with it is just natural and often times hard to contain. In fact, I should be even more excited to tell others about Jesus over Gavin any day. And just like with Gavin, simply sharing this excitement does not mean I'm shoving it down people's throats. This genuine joy is what people are actually going to respond to the most. Simply by acting out of my love for Him with no shame, people will begin to notice and wonder why, which may be the push they need to start taking a personal interest themselves. If we can have this crazy fan type love for someone we've probably never met and know very little about then why wouldn't we have it for the person we are called to have the most intimate relationship with?

So as Christmas and the birth of Jesus approaches we should all be acting as excited (hopefully even more) as if we are in anticipation for a concert with our favorite musician. I'm accepting this challenge. Now the question is, are you?


*Side note* I find a lot of meaning in Gavin's songs that I can connect with my relationship to God. For example this song: "Soldier" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_A4Sy5ZxP0

Community Blessings in the Advent Season

For the average person, it may be hard to grasp what living in community can be like. We all have communities of various kinds in our life, whether it be our family, parish community, friends we hang out with, etc.. However, living in intentional community that is centered on God and serving in a unified mission for Christ is very unique.

I have lived in a community setting for about two years now, and I feel absolutely blessed because of it. I am so blessed to have a spiritual family of brothers and sisters in Christ who I can share my spiritual journey with. Through our ups and downs, God uses us to help each other mold into disciples of His and to share in His mission and the glory of His most Sacred Heart.

As Christmas approaches, SPIRITUS is at the height of its community life. This is a time of reflection and a time of fellowship. Our community has bonded well and I can see God in each and every one of my brothers and sisters. I see the grace God has given them and how he develops them for His mission. And I see how they are able to bless so many souls because they said "yes" to God when He called them to "drop their nets" and follow Him.

Jesus has poured out His Love into our hearts and it overflows into one another. When we are on mission, this love drives us and sustains us. But most importantly, it pours into the hearts of students we meet. There is no greater Christmas gift than to share in God's love and there is no greater honor than to be called disciples of Christ.

The Vineyard we Larborers work in

Praise the Lord! Hey guys; I hope everyone is having a blessed Advent season and that your all feeling pretty prepared for Christmas. Come Lord Jesus!

Last time I posted a blog I talked a little about the diversity and the universality of the Catholic Church of which we are so blessed to be a part of. I'd like to focus a little bit on one of the groups that comprise this big old family we like to call The Body of Christ, that being the American Catholic parish.

Being on the Green Bay team, I do more parish youth ministry as opposed to retreat ministry. Working with Kate Ruth at St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Parish in Green Bay I have learned a lot about the way a parish and its people actually work.

I became Catholic when my parents both converted from non-denominational Protestantism. Coming into the parish setting, I came from a little house church full of recent converts who lived as a really tight knit community. People were constantly praying for one another, discussing Scripture together, worshipping the  Lord sporadically throughout the day, and even so far as going into the street corners of down town Portland, Oregon to preach and talk with anyone who would listen. There is a word for this that my dad was recently telling me all about and that word is koinania. Its a Greek word and it means intimate fellowship.

In Acts 2:42 it says " They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Now this passage is saying that the Christians of the early Church were doing four things as a community those being: being taught by the elders ergo the apostles, breaking of the bread which of course is the Eucharist, to prayer, and to fellowship or koinania.


When my dad was running this house church, which was full to bursting with this special kind of fellowship, he said that there was something...missing. As a Catholic I can see what he was feeling was an absence of the first two aspects of the Priesthood of the Faithful that being being taught by the apostles and most importantly the Eucharist.


Now I'm going to be honest with everyone I do not see a whole lot of fellowship within the Midwest Catholic parish. I mean look at the numbers only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practising. That's crazy! Another rather sobering number 10 percent of Protestants today are ex-Catholic and the majority of them left because "I just didn't feel God there." How can you not feel God?! He made you a tabernacle for His very Body and Blood every time you received Him in the Eucharist! I'll tell you why they don't feel anything, why they leave in search of a relationship with God that they didn't have in the Church of their youth. It is because today the Catholic Church, at least on a parish level, has let slip that intimate fellowship. We have lost koinania.


You guys as Catholic we have two thousand years of teaching! That is ridiculously awesome! Some of the greatest minds of the human race have plumbed the depths of God Almighty and the fruit of that can bring a man to tears it is so beautiful. On top of this the Sacraments that we regularly celebrate were instituted by Jesus Christ, the High Priest, King, and perfect victim Himself! We have so much potential to set the world on fire with the unquenchable flame that rested upon the heads of the apostles and Mary on Pentecost day! 
Brothers and sisters we have the tools; we have to use them! "Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am with them" Matthew 18:20. You guys Jesus said this because He wants us to be a body, a body infused with the eternal life of the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God! Just imagine if we as a community got together and prayed for one another before and after mass. How much more beautiful would the Wedding Feast be! I'm not saying the Eucharistic sacrifice would be any different. God is there as much as He possibly can be, but are we? If you looked to your left during the prayers of the Mass and you saw a guy who's prayers over you not even an hour before had lifted your spirits and helped you overcome some trial wouldn't that make you more engaged in the sacrifice? All I am trying to say is that the closer we draw together as a Body, a living, breathing, Holy Spirit-filled Body then I don't think the Church would be having the problems it has today. At least not in the terrible measure that they are happening. Christianity is not the religion of the individual. It is the life of all the faithful. We are all One Body in Christ and We Will Not Stand Alone. COME LORD JESUS!

Thankful and Joyful

I am so blessed to be able to serve the Lord by bringing the Gospel to the youth at Resurrection Parish and throughout Wisconsin. We had a great retreat last night for the parish. Only 10 high school students came, with many missing due to illness, but I am thankful for those who were there, because it was a truly blessed experience. In four short hours, we experienced God in so many different ways right there with the students. It was awesome!

We also had a great Bible study on Monday night, talking about joy and its role in spreading the Gospel. We also talked about the source of our joy, and how it doesn't depend on things going well in our lives. In fact, it's in the midst of suffering that sometimes God helps us to find our greatest joy. The key is something I heard in the Thanksgiving homily at St. Mary Parish in Menasha... the way to be joyful is to give God thanks for everything, including the difficult stuff. So this Advent season, give thanks and experience joy!