SPIRITUS Team 2010 - Impact

My heart was really drawn to SPIRITUS and I knew these 9 months would be a chance for me to say "thank you" to the diocese of Green Bay, my home diocese from which I received the gift of Baptism and the gift of my Catholic faith.  These past 9 months have brought about many unexpected blessings--from new friendships to a new confidence about my gifts-- and it has also introduced me to some challenging reflections.  I can't get over how much of a battle it is to minister to youth--how indifferent and ignorant so many are--and how there is always someone who needs me to fight for them and to pray.  I can't get over how much prayer changes everything.  When we pray for people, their lives change.  Through SPIRITUS I have begun to learn what it means to serve, to give, to rest, and ultimately what it means to be human.  The time spent on the team has helped me to see that we can encounter again and again our own tiredness, weakness, fragility, and incapacity, and yet find that God's strength enters this scene of our brokenness and brings about a strength and power that is not from us.  It is this strength which has enabled us to carry out, in obedience, our ministry.
-- Emily Pogue

Often when people do ministry, others applaud them for giving up their lives.  I did not give up anything to be here that would compare to what I gained.  SPIRITUS is a gift, not a sacrifice.  I have been immensely blessed.  SPIRITUS is a beautiful opportunity to see God at work in and through me, and in and through my team.  Whatever good we may accomplish is accomplished by God with our cooperation, and He blesses us by allowing us to work with Him.  SPIRITUS helped me learn more about myself, when I thought I knew it all!  It showed me how much I need God, how much I can still grow, and what I am truly called to, which is love.  I am called to love others with the same love God shows me, every day.  When I return to Minnesota, I won't be wearing my SPIRITUS black and khaki, but with the help of our Father's grace, I will still be living my call to love.
-- Marissa Evans

SPIRITUS has been a tremendous gift to me that will continue to unwrap for years to come.  In the last nine months, I have discovered its intimate union with our Lord’s heart.  It is a beautiful patchwork made up of many different people, each with very different backgrounds and very different personalities, but sewn together with the very same mission, to bring souls to Christ.  The Lord uses each of us, as imperfect as we are, to bring the message of His perfect love to the youth.  Drawing from His sacred heart, we are given the grace to serve in the evangelization mission of the Church.  Students encounter God in and through SPIRITUS and I am eternally grateful for having had the opportunity to serve!
-- Erin Schuessler

After quitting my sales/management position to join SPIRITUS, I felt a huge spiritual gap between selling furniture and saving souls, but I realized God wanted to give me as much grace as possible in order to make that transition.  SPIRITUS allowed me to become open to God’s grace and to embrace the call of Evangelization which can be summed up in a couple of ways: First, the discipline of a daily routine, centered around prayer and the sacraments, have re-paid numerous dividends in my spiritual life; second, being able to work with different kids all the time opened my mind to different ways of communicating and reaching out to multiple crowds.  Overall, my experience with SPIRITUS has boosted my own spiritual life along with increasing a desire for other people to know God.   This is why I will be back again to serve with SPIRITUS next year.
-- Mark Rose

Learning How to Love
Among the many blessings, challenges and graces of the past nine months, this is for me one of the most profound. SPIRITUS has given me the opportunity to love and experience love in so many beautiful ways. Through serving youth, through sacrifice, through the generosity of others, through simply being in God's Presence and letting Him love me... And it has been such a privilege for me to experience being a witness of God's simply by our presence and our willingness to give, and persevere through, nine months of service. Some of the most uplifting moments for me have been the unexpected encounters with people at the library, the Subway, the plasma center! ...  people in the community who are inspired and filled with hope through the love of God in us. I still have much to learn about love, and lots of growing to do. It is true that the closer we grow to God, the more we realize how much we really need Him! Praise God for humility! And that He loves us, weaknesses and all! Praise God for SPIRITUS, and this year of service and growth. Praise God that I am still learning how to love!
-- Katie Kolega

I came to SPIRITUS knowing only one thing: Divine Providence seemed to lead me to the program and that I had to follow.  This became apparent to me when I arrived in Green Bay on August 14th, 2010 and sat with Eden Foord at St. Brendan's Pub for lunch.  I suddenly had this realization that I was supposed to be here and despite many things, this realization never left me.  The impact of this program upon my life has been quite significant.  For now, I wish to state that increased self-confidence, improved public speaking abilities and the development of interpersonal social skills have been significant milestones for me.  For the students we saw, SPIRITUS has had many different effects one of which was to save the life of a retreatant.  This person now is dedicating their life to Christ and His Church.  I saw a demonstration of this that brought tears to my eyes and I thanked God for this conversion.  As the 2010-2011 SPIRITUS team members go their separate ways, we remain united in Christ and by the bonds that were formed during our time together.  Our experience will last a lifetime and I am grateful for this opportunity.
-- Kevin J. Symonds

My SPIRITUS “odyssey” so to say has been a delightful and exhilarating episode. For one reason, I like new challenges and so moving to Wisconsin from Baltimore was definitely going to orchestrate before me challenges ranging from meeting new people to adaptation to the frigid bone-chilling winter temperatures of the Midwest. However, I trusted in divine providence; I courageously gave myself to Him. It’s been such an experience I wouldn’t have envisaged when I was accepted to be on the team initially. At the point of my acceptance on the team, all that lingered and filtered through my mind was nothing close to the reality of my actual experience thus far. For me, Mount Tabor environment is conducive for a healthy human flourishing. The warm reception and acceptance that is readily available to me from the Director down the pecking order of the hierarchy at Mount Tabor, including all my SPIRITUS team members have fostered and kindled within me the presence of Christian love that we are all called to tend. I feel a sense of acceptance and appreciation of who I am and what I can offer.
-- Paul Nomsule

Here At the End of All Things....

After nine months of committing ourselves to God through the SPIRITUS program, team two has officially disbanded.

Here at the end of all things, there is a lot of sadness as we say goodbye to our comrades-at-arms, but we take hope in being together once more in heaven and for all eternity.

As to where we are going, I am happy to say that a "SPIRITUS Alumni" page has been established to keep people informed of how alumni are doing.

Meanwhile, below are some photos from the end of the year:

1) The team's last retreat was in Milwaukee and afterwards they went to a local park to hang-out:

They then stopped off at St. Stanislaus in Milwaukee where they prayed Vespers and took a group photo in the side chapel.

Afterwards, it was dinnertime and the team decided to have a tailgate party.  Paul and Erin had a lot of fun.

Doesn't Erin look slightly Anime in this photo?

2) On May 21st, the team had its end of the year luncheon, Mass and then party:

It was also the day before Erin's 24th birthday so at the luncheon, she received a cake.

The team and their family/guests also got to watch the movie during the luncheon.  The above is an abbreviated version of the ending credits.

For the audience's listening pleasure, Taylor & Sam Foord sang a piece from Phantom of the Opera before the movie was shown.

Then after moving to Mass at St. Bernadette's, there was another cake!!

The team received a certificate at the Mass...

...and a blessing from Fr. Don Zuleger.

PAH-TAY at the Center!  Marissa and her brother Bryce start swing-dancing!

From L-R: Marissa's Aunt, Mother, Father; Mark's Mom and Jenny Kampa (from team one).

From L-R: Jenny Kampa, Lisa Preizner, Mark and his Father.

The team was also able to have one last hurrah with the Teen Disciples!

 3) The final get-together was at Sunrise restaurant for Brunch in Appleton on May 22nd:

After brunch, everyone meets outside for final plans.

Then came the final goodbye at the Center.  The camera was officially returned by that point and so ended the official documenting of SPIRITUS team two.

It has been a blessing to serve on SPIRITUS. 

Thank you to all of our family, friends, staff, administration and benefactors!

-Kevin

Inadvertent Advertising

SPIRITUS got some inadvertent advertising today over on Catholic Lane dot com.

Take a look at the photo of Matt Maher & I!

-Kevin

Sneak Peek 3

SPIRITUS has its last Confirmation retreat tomorrow. I do not know if there will be enough time to post the third sneak peek so I am presenting it to you now.

Today is also the team's final day off. I've spent most of it putting the last major pieces of the video together. I am happy to say that the sacrifice is worth it and am quite glad I paced myself over the past 3 weeks or so. No less than 8 hours have gone into the ending credits alone.

BTW, Marissa, great job on the previous post!

I go now back to the cave that is my room.

-Kevin

Loving the Littles...and the bigger ones too

Peace to you, bloggers! God love you!

We've done a few 5th grade retreats lately, and one of the schools recently sent us thank you notes. Here's one awesome one from a 5th grader:

"Dear Spiritus,
Thank you so much for letting us come and learn about God. Before this retreat I used to wonder is there really a Jesus and God? Is God always with me? Now I know there is a God and Jesus, and God is always with me no matter what.
Thank you so much Spiritus."

Amazing, right? God is really working in these retreats, whether we recognize it in the moment or not!

I also had a good moment in a recent small group. I asked them how a relationship with God would change their lives. One boy said, "I would probably try to help my friend more." I asked him what he meant by that, and he told me that his friend's parents were not there for him, and he just felt alone and unsupported. I guess the guy figured out that knowing God is knowing love. I profoundly saw the love of our Father in that answer.

O man, two weeks left...less. God still has much in store for us. Praise the Lord for all that He has done, all the love He has poured out on us, and for the grace to SEE HIM!

Marissa

Video Teaser 2

Dear Friends & Family,

I am quite pleased to say that after a very late night/early morning video editing session, the Introduction to the video looks very promising. 

As promised, here is this week's SPIRITUS "End-of-Year" video teaser:

It is a menu screen and the audio is the actual file used on this menu screen...at least as of right now. 

Can you figure out who intones the prayer?  What will next week's teaser hold? 

Stay tuned!

-Kevin

Blog Update

I would like to bring attention to an update made to our "SPIRITUS Home Base" blog page.  A letter from the Holy See has been added.

The photo was not altered in its context but it has been cropped and a small stain at the top was edited-out.

The letter bears the watermark of the Secretariat of State, which can be seen in the photo, albeit darkly.

-Kevin

It's Coming...

The end of the year video is IN PRODUCTION!!!

The media committee of SPIRITUS has gone through an initial, and favorable, review of the video. I am happy to say that the essential structure is done and all that remains is fine-tuning and the addition of May's photos when they become available.

For those who cannot wait, I will be issuing one "sneak peek" every week. For this week, here is a little something upon which to feast your eyes:



I look forward to tantalizing you over the next couple of weeks.

The video will be shown during the luncheon on May 21st.

-Kevin