Be All In

Happy Sunday! Hey guys, I am back for a second season with SPIRITUS, its been a wild, crazy and wonderful adventure thus far. The last 48 hours were such glorious a witness of God's goodness. Saturday morning was spent setting up for Youth Jam (middle school rally) at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Green Bay. Between the hustle and bustle I got to meet some awesome teens (they volunteered to be saints and help traffic the middle schoolers). As we set up the tables, decorations, lunch prep she shared some stories about her favorite saints, shared how she herself is trying to grow in holiness like the saints. Such goodness! Three hours later we headed to celebrate "El Dia De Los Muertos," at the cemetery, why you might be asking. Its a tradition, we celebrate with our deceased loved ones, eat their favorite meals and share our favorite memories, and pray for them. Thanks team for joining me.

I spent Saturday evening with beautiful people, in a beautiful place, with JESUS. I ended up at Encounter just where I needed to be…visited the ONE whom unreservedly is always there. I keeled in silence, tears began to fall, I prayed hard, I asked for forgiveness. But I also thanked HIM for everything HE has given me, all the blessings, the people, the places, the opportunities. I finally went to confession it was so hard to go but so good (you'd think it'd get easier over time haha still gets me every time). It was like coming home. Back to the Jesus, back to this Heavenly family! Sometimes we need that reminder, that we are LOVED, we are FORGIVEN. His love surpasses a multitude of sins, His grace and mercy is endless, His compassion wraps us together. As I sang along with the words I heard the priest words, "Let Him in..." So I ask you that some question, do you let Him in? Fully in? I hope you do, the process is slow but it is so fruitful. I am soo thankful. I needed last night more than I realized, He speaks through silence=LOVE! 

Youth Jam is finally here! Those were my thoughts as I woke up this morning, no joke. Today was just hmm let me see if I can find the words to describe the beauty of today...'AWESOME' that's the word one our youth used to describe this phenomenal event put on by the Green Bay Diocese. Recap of the day: Gathered in gym (about 500 of us, middle schoolers, high school helpers, chaperons and youth ministers). Started off with SFA Band singing 'What does the Fox say.' The youth went wild, so good to see some of them get out of their comfort zones, like the saints. Then Righteous B (keynote speaker) shared stories about his family and how the saints can help us get closer to Heaven. We each have a throne inside of our hearts, we fill it with things: sports, friends, landing the next job, materialism, etc but how many of us take time to make Jesus the only one who sits in the throne of our hearts. He went on to saying the saints made that choice to put Jesus as number 1 in their lives. How we are to go into a deeper and deeper relationship with our Lord, that's what the saint's did. They kept diving in deeper, striving for holiness, imitating them they'll lead us to Heaven. During one of the breakout session we got to hear from Noah (SPIRITUS Teammate) about how prayer helped the saints get closer to Jesus. He spoke about how prayer is just having a conversation with God, letting Him in telling Him how our life is going. In prayer we are to be open and completely vulnerable. After all God/Jesus/Saints are to be our best friends. Oh and I forgot to mention the theme for today was Sainthood: Searching for Holiness. We received the honor of celebrating Mass with Bishop Ricken such a blessing! Some of the things that Bishop said: "Jesus is knocking at the door of your soul, waiting for you to let Him in..." "Even if you were the only person on earth He would die for you." "Be like the saints, be all in...." Jesus Christ surprised me by haha I received communion from the priest that heard confession the night before, I felt my heart almost explode with joy. Such goodness. Ended the day with a concert with Righteous B. It was amazing to see all youth excited about their faith. To put in Bishop's own words, "See you all here, gives me hope..." Seeing so many gives me hope that the next generations to come will BE ALL IN, striving to be saints growing in holiness. Thank you for being the best and making through this long post haha, know that you are all in my prayers!