To Prospective Applicants [Or: Family and Brokenness]

Good day.
Today I would like to address you who are considering joining SPIRITUS in the coming year.

Perhaps you've heard that SPIRITUS is a "retreat youth evangelization team" based out of Menasha, Wisconsin. That we put on about one hundred fifty retreats over the last nine months. That we reached about 6,000 young people this year. That we live in community. We work in community. We eat in community. We pray in community... We do a lot of stuff in community.

To some extent, I don't know what else to tell you. As you may have been told already, "you just have to come and experience it to find out what it's like."

But I want to tell you, for me personally, it's been a rollercoaster. I don't think we would gain anything by pretending that every moment of every day has been a bed of roses. It's been difficult. In other jobs, you work for 8 hours a day, then you go home to your dog or other people. But we live with each other and often spend upwards of 15 hours a day together.

We intimately know each other's weaknesses and faults; each other's quirks, pet peeves, and habits; in a word, we know each other's brokenness. And sometimes I want nothing more than to go to my own room and get away from the family.


But that’s what it is: a family. In the midst of the frustrations and conflict, there is always a sense of family. In the last nine months, each of us has grown immensely as persons. In the words of my spiritual director, I have learned so much about myself because of the difficulties of living in this family – and thank God! Because of this family, I am a better man than I was a year ago. I am wiser, stronger, and OH so much humbler because of what I have learned about myself and my faults which have been made very clear to me. I have a family who I know will always be here for me, who for nine months has become my blood, and who has called me to a higher standard, held me accountable to that standard, and sometimes even dragged me when I didn't want to live up to that standard.

SPIRITUS is my family. “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18) St. Paul is referring to the glory of heaven, but it’s also our temporal lives.
Yes, SPIRITUS was hard. I was hard-hearted. Jealous. Angry. Prideful. Even hateful… But my family loves me, and the difficulties we have all faced in this time are absolutely nothing compared to the beauty and glory - the family - that we have received.

If you’re on the fence, I cannot urge you enough. Sign up now. It will be hard and there will be times you will want to quit. But it couldn’t be more worth it.

Sam
spiritussam@gmail.com
facebook.com/theafrosam

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

This week SPIRITUS had the privilege of spending some time with Byzantine monks by going to Holy Resurrection Monastery in Saint Nazianz. First, we learned about the history of the Eastern Catholic Churches from Abbot Nicholas. During the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. Rome was the capital of the west and the town of Byzantium, which was later called Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) was the capital of the east. Catholics in the east, like St. John Chrysostom, developed their own liturgies that reflected the culture of the eastern empire. Eastern Catholics still participate in the Divine Liturgy today, or Eucharistic celebration. The Divine Liturgy is part of the many Eastern Rites and there are 24 Rites in the Catholic Church (23 Eastern Rites and 1 Latin Rite which we use as Roman Catholics). The Rite used at the monastery is the Byzantine Rite.

Our time at the monastery fell during the Octave of Easter, so we celebrated Easter during the Divine Liturgy. During the liturgy several times the Abbot cried out “Christ is Risen” and we replied “Indeed he is risen!” We also chanted Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” while stomping on the ground. I loved the repetition of these two phrases becauses it made me reflect on the joy of Christ’s resurrection. Through the liturgy, I developed a more profound appreciation that Christ died for me, that he conquered sin and death, and wants me to be with Him in Heaven. This form of worship helped me enter into the joy of Easter, the joy I will carry on in my last month of ministry in SPIRITUS and beyond.

The Divine Liturgy also emphasizes worshipping God with our entire bodies. We processed around the worship space and the Abbot used incense and bells around various icons of the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus, the resurrection, and another of Jesus. Before each icon I bowed and then kissed the image. During the liturgy we also touched the ground before making the sign of the cross. For communion we bent our knees, tilted our heads back, and received the Eucharist from a spoon. This experience gave me a deep appreciation for the diversity of culture found within the Catholic Church. Even though some elements of the liturgy were different, the Gospel was proclaimed and we participated in the Eucharist. I hope I’ll have another opportunity to go back to the monastery for the Divine Liturgy, but for now I’ll continue to appreciate the beauty of the Latin Rite.

exult, I SAID EXULT!

     Holy week is awesome! So, as you may know SPIRITUS receives formation every Thursday; either through Cor Iesu or private formation sessions. The line up for formation this year has been incredible! We have been so blessed to receive formation from some priests who are on fire for the Lord, some awesome lay people, we even had a two hour formation session with Bishop David Ricken himself! His secretaries do not even get that much private time with him! One of the priests we are so blessed to receive formation from is Father Peter Mitchell, currently assigned to Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville (go there!). With him we have covered spiritual warfare and how Our Lady totally just wins, Divine Mercy, and the Mass. So now that you have that background I can talk a little bit about Holy Week 2015, which was totally awesome! Long story short, I spent most of my time at Saint Mary the Immaculate in Greenville. On Holy Thursday we had an awesome Mass (you could not find any empty seat) followed by a Eucharistic Procession to the gymnasium, followed by a youth night shindig at Father Peter's (complete with Ice cream, dancing, and tiki torches), followed by adoration until midnight. Good Friday started with Liturgy of the Hours, followed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, followed by four hours in prayer, followed by Mass. Then came the pinnacle; the Easter Vigil. This year was my second time attending the Easter Vigil and let me just say, if you have never been, GO! Out of all the Masses I have ever been to in my short twenty years of life, this Easter Vigil took the cake as far as intensity goes. First, the fire was an actual bonfire and Father almost lit himself on fire trying to light the Easter Candle. We did seven Old Testament readings with a responsorial psalm and prayer for each one (woo salvation history!), then of course the Epistle, Gospel, and Homily were all ridiculously amazing, so we pretty much had the whole kitten kaboodle as far as the Liturgy of the Word goes. Then came the Baptismal Liturgy, I do not think I will ever forget this. The presence of God was so intense, the entire Church seemed to be shaking with the glory of God; I remember feeling like I had no idea what was going on but that whatever it was, it was awesome! Then the pinnacle of the pinnacle, I received the Eucharist, and everything was right with the world. All the times that I was frustrated and challenged in Lent were worth it, if only for this moment. The words of the Exsultet describe the experience of the Easter Vigil Mass at Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville to a T; "Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King's triumph! Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness. Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lightning of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples." - The Exsultet: The Proclamation Of Easter
       How does this relate to SPIRITUS? Well, I had the greatest Holy Week of my life so far, and if it was not for the formation I have been so blessed to receive through SPIRITUS I would (probably) never have ended up at Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville. Holy Week would probably still have been awesome, because I mean, it's Holy Week; but it was so providential that I wound up in Greenville with my family for Easter 2015, it was something we all needed desperately. Praise the Lord for the Catholic Church, for the Resurrection, for on fire priests, and for SPIRITUS! Viva Cristo Rey!

Practicing the Presence

One of my favorite parts about being on the Spiritus team is receiving weekly formation about different aspects of our faith. A couple weeks ago we had the opportunity to spend some time with Bishop Ricken and we learned about practicing the presence of of God. This concept involves being aware of God’s ever loving presence in our everyday lives, and seeing Him in the present moment. This type of prayer allows us to pray without ceasing and to offer up our entire day as a prayer to God. I think sometimes I fall into the temptation that I can only pray if I’m in the chapel or at Mass. By practicing the presence of God, I can pray anywhere. I am more easily able to see Jesus in my teammates, the students I serve, and in the simple tasks of each day.

Bishop Ricken also talked about the Jesus prayer. You pray it by saying “Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” It can be simplified to “Jesus have mercy on me” or you can change it to whatever suits your needs like “Jesus I love you” or “Jesus thank you”.  There is no right or wrong way to pray the Jesus prayer. The Bishop had us sit in silence for about seven minutes, and repeat the prayer meditatively. This prayer has allowed me to become more receptive to Jesus’ great love for me. A lot of times I talk to students who say they are too busy to pray. By teaching them about practicing the presence of God and the Jesus prayer, I hope they will be able to integrate prayer into their everyday lives. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, check out The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, the basis for Bishop Ricken's talk.