Getting to Know Mary!

     It has been such a great blessing learning to pray with Mary through the rosary and consecration over the past year. It is said the best way to get to know Jesus is through the one who loves Him and knows Him best, His mother. Mary is a model for all of us with her great yes to God at the annunciation, even though she did not know all that would be included. She is gentle but shows amazing strength in seeing her most beloved son suffer on the cross. It has been such a blessing as well to help the youth come to know Mary more. She is the most perfect example of a mother and the more we grow close to her, the more we can see her as our mother too! One of the most grace filled moments on the past few months on SPIRITUS was during a middle school lock-in at my youth ministry parish. We had 2 AM adoration and the high school leadership team lead about 25 middle schoolers in the rosary. It is said every time we say a Hail Mary, it is like giving our Blessed Mother a rose. Well, she received loads of roses that night!


     -Brianna Trifiletti

Merry Christmas!

     Here at SPIRITUS, we have Christmas break to go home and spend time with our families. I am grateful to be able to see my family for the first time since this past summer. I know that they (and my dog) miss me very much. At the same time, I can't help but think about those who have no family. Those that don't have a home to go back to. I am very fortunate to have these wonderful gifts that I often take for granted, and I desire to be appreciative of them. Most importantly, however, is the gift of Christ Himself. I strive to maintain a focus on our Lord Jesus throughout the entire year, but this is a special season in which I am especially attentive to the wonderful gift of my savior who came to earth. Thank you Jesus, for coming to us through Mary your mother. May we never lose sight of You, the greatest gift that could ever be given. What gift can I give to Jesus this year on His birthday? What gift does He desire to give to me? Come, Holy Spirit! Prepare our hearts to receive the infant Jesus!

     -Gabriel Ogle

Green Bay Youth Conference

On December 4th, 2016 I was blessed with the opportunity to bring 5 high school students from Saint Mary Greenville’s Parish to the Green Bay Youth Conference -- a diocesan conference in which over 900 youth were in attendance. This conference allowed for the students to connect and create friendships with other students in the area and learn more about living out their faith in their everyday life. The day included praise and worship, breakout sessions, Mass with Father Peter Mitchell, Adoration with Bishop David Ricken, and Confession. As a previous attendee of youth conferences during my years in high school, it was an eye opening experience to plan and attend a youth conference as a youth minister. From inviting students to finding transportation for the students, the journey of planning to attend a youth conference brought both joys and challenges. However, I am extremely thankful for getting to experience all that it takes to lead students from a parish to a youth conference as a youth minister.

Photo By: Dioceses of Green Bay

(Left to Right) Ashley, Sarah, and Carolyn are parishioners at Saint Mary’s Greenville and in attendance at the Green Bay Youth Conference on December 4th, 2016.

-Anna Haiar

Love the One

Sometimes I find myself seeking to do the will of God in really big ways. Recently though, God has been revealing His will to me in a very different way. I have found God asking me not to love Tens of Thousands all at once, but to love my brother or sister right in front of me. In order to assist me in this endeavor, God has shared this prayer with me: “Lord write on my heart today the name of one person I will meet today in need of your love and show me how to love them as You desire.” What grace this prayer is, an invitation to trust God more, for it asks me to rely on God’s plan of love, not my own. It invites me to live out this simple message, “Jesus I trust in you”

-Zachery Feldker

The Best Advent Ever!

“Make this the best Advent ever!”  For a number of years I have heard this phrase come out the mouths of numerous people, namely Catholic-motivational speakers and priests.  After hearing that phrase I am normally thinking something along the lines of “yeah that is an awesome idea!, I am going to make this my best Advent ever!.”  Usually parishes are helpful in this category and pass out a million of those little blue books or they have a little mountain of  Magnificat Advent Companions so perfectly aligned on a table in the gathering area of the church.  These books are great helpers and in the past I have used the daily reflections to guide my spiritual life, but I always found myself feeling as if there is more that I can do (or not do) to truly “make this the best Advent ever.”  So I am stuck with the question “what can I do?”  if one  thinks about that question too long you find that Advent has passed and it was the more like the most mediocre Advent ever. If I may propose though that one should start with the question “what is Advent celebrating?”, we are looking expectantly towards the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, first in history as a baby being born in Bethlehem, but also we look towards the second coming. As I was reflecting on Advent, the desire to encounter Christ like it was the first time I ever had was on my heart.  Christ makes all things new, and it starts with our relationship with Him.  When Christmas comes I want to experience the joy that Mary and Joseph had when they looked upon that new born child as He lay in a manger, not because of the gifts I get from friends or family, but joy from the ultimate gift of God becoming man to save me and bring me His love personally.  So back comes this question “What should I do in Advent?” Well I do not have an answer for you, but for me it starts with more prayer and from that flows acts of love done because I have been so loved by God that I want to not be able to help loving ALL those around me. I pray that this Advent season all people can prepare a new place in their hearts for our Lord that with that be filled with peace and love.  Pax.  

-Mike Picard

A Dose of Reality

A few months into our mission year, and I was about due for a strong dose of reality.

Now, often times when we think of the phrase, “a dose of reality”, we relate it to a strong, jolting wake up call that pulls us out of a daydream and an overly optimistic unreality. But that’s not what happened to me at all. It’s not as if I’ve been living with my head in the clouds, expecting to perfectly reach the heart of every young person I meet with the love of Jesus. On the contrary, I have been very aware of the reality these teenagers are facing; the divorce of their parents, being bullied at school, losing a loved one to cancer, struggling with the pressures of perfectionism, trying to live up to the unreasonable expectations of this world, or collapsing beneath additional pressures of lust, drugs and alcohol. These are the stories we hear frequently on SPIRITUS, and they certainly have a way of really getting to you and making you feel like the task of restoring faith, hope and love are impossible in such a broken world. Sure, hope can be seen in the hearts of the teens who realize their thirst for God, and even more so in those who are willing to do something about quenching that thirst, but the pain we encounter still wears on us.

For me, a dose of reality came not by realizing more of the pain and suffering of the mission, but by the glorious splendor the mission provides when we persevere. One of the local parishes was gracious enough to host Treasures of the Church, an evangelization ministry in which Fr. Tom brings 150 relics out for veneration, and those of us who were not on retreat where able to attend. Being able to walk around the room surrounded by the bones and remains of so many saints was breathtaking, and I was surprised by the amount of grace and peace I felt just by being there. I’ve been to numerous reliquaries in Rome, and their effect on me was passing. But this time around I was uniquely struck by what I was finally able to put into words as ‘a strong dose of reality’. The saints are so real, and their stories are so raw. Martyrs, mothers, popes, apostles, preachers, servants, laity - holiness is possible in all stages of life, including after death. The profound reality that these holy men and women are actively apart of this mission of evangelization in union with me reached me to my core, and praise be to God, this strong dosage was certainly what I needed.

The grace that was given to me was the realization that yes, our mission is hard and overwhelming. We can’t do it alone. But, praise be to God, we don’t have to. The saints join us in our mission, and through their intercession and the mercy of God, we cannot and will not fail. And that is the truth of the Body of Christ, a truth that is just as real as our sufferings.

A photo of the relic of my patroness, St. Mary Magdalene

-Ashley Lange

Thanksgiving

     At this time of the year it can be so easy to get caught up in the chaos and commercialism of our modern culture. Being on SPIRITUS has been such an amazing gift for me because I am surrounded by people who live in the present, who remain focused on Jesus Christ no matter what life throws at them. My team mates have helped me to stay grounded in the truth that I am a child of God, that I am created to share the light of Christ. We celebrated this holiday with each other by having a team dinner, during which we went around the table saying what we are thankful for, how we appreciate the gifts God has given us. It was so nice to recognize the abundance of blessings we have received throughout the first few months of the mission year. I invite you and your family to do the same. How much joy we receive when we take notice of all the wonderful things God provides us with!

From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

     -Gabriel Ogle

Good Music!

Coming from a farm in small-town Minnesota, I was raised on good ole’ country music. Everything from Hank Williams and Johnny Cash to my more currently developed tastes of Dierks Bentley, Jon Pardi, and George Strait. I pride myself on being able to name the artist and song title to almost every song on the station. There’s nothing better than singing to a new hit with the windows rolled down.  I didn’t think lyrics had much significance on me until my first week on SPIRITUS. We all climbed in the cars to head to our first mass together. What came out of the speakers was my first big wake-up call. Christian contemporary. There I was, sitting amongst these beautiful strangers (we’d just met an hour earlier) all singing along & I’d never heard of it. Song after song, I soon realized no one would be changing it to 100.1 Big Country anytime soon. Woah. Nine months, I thought to myself “can I do this”? Little did I know, this genre switch(foot) was just one of many alterations I would encounter in the upcoming days and weeks. Expanding on this genre switch out, no longer am I filling my heart with songs revolving around subjects like beer and back roads, allowing them to subconsciously desensitize me to the repercussions of mixing Jack Daniels and Jesus. Now songs like Priceless (King and Country) and At the Table (Josh Garrels) are filtering into my heart and I have no reservations believing in the lyrics or belting them out in the hallway. Mind you, this journey is far from over. I don’t plan to switch over completely anytime soon (not all country has bad connotations attached to it), but I am learning to appreciate new flavors of music, music that aligns with my morals, and embrace this part of being a missionary.

-Elizabeth Senkyr

Hugs!

I really like hugs. I know that not everyone likes hugs and I can respect that. I know that boundaries are important and I support that. But I like hugs a lot. I remember last year praying about it once or twice saying, "God, I'd like to be somewhere where I get more hugs." Now I'm at Spiritus and I get a couple dozen hugs every day.


God's been showering me with a lot of blessings here at Spiritus. One of my favorites is this simple opportunity for so many hugs.

God bless!

-Peter Schmidt

Little Moments

SPIRITUS provides many opportunities for the team to grow in Christ. Perhaps my favorite moments though, are the seemingly little ones. For example on one of our days off a few of us went to the Manderfield’s Bakery. We talked, laughed, and grew together. My favorite part of this outing was seeing a grandfather and his granddaughter come in and sit down with pastries. Watching them interact filled me with such joy and made me contemplate the love our Father has for us. On another occasion part of the team drove back from a small retreat in the rain. When we got back some of us danced barefooted in the rain. Thankfully, no one caught a cold after this adventure, but a sense of God’s love and joy was present. These and many more moments have shown me that God’s love can truly be found all around us. However, some of the best little moments are those spent in front of the tabernacle. We are blessed to have a chapel inside of Mount Tabor Center. Here one can always find a peaceful escape to remember what is truly important, which is God’s everlasting love for us. These seemingly small moments have helped me grow so much in my faith. I will forever be thankful for the time spent with SPIRITUS, igniting and growing in the faith.

-Gemma Cowan