DCYC was AMAZING!

This past weekend, 52 students and adults from Good Shepherd attended the Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference DCYC.  After the weekend, the students were asked to reflect on three questions:

·         How did you fill before the weekend?

·         How did you fill after the weekend?

·         What part of the weekend makes you want to go back?

Read their amazing responses!

Desiree-

·       Before the weekend I felt:  so excited! I knew it would be a great fun and spiritually filled weekend!:D this was my 3rd year. I was too excited that I couldn't sleep the day before; Knowing that there is going to be singing and dancing just for the Lord!!

·       After the weekend I felt: soooo HOT!;) because last weekend... The speakers talked about their lives and how they were changed by God. The music we sang, helped me sing out loud even though I don't have such a great voice! And all the amazing dances and hand gestures we did to praise the Lord. Those all helped IGNITE my heart. It made me feel so much closer to the Lord!

·       The part of the weekend that makes me want to go back is: making new friends, the dance on Saturday night, the cool workshops, praising and worshiping the lord through the songs, and dancing the Catholic dance!! I also loved the feel of the soft beds and pillows. The speakers were also very inspirational!!!:) I remember thinking next year I should invite: some of my friends that love the Lord! And r interested to give up their weekend just to praise Him!  

Niccolo-

·       Before the weekend I felt: great but I also felt like I was missing something. A little more connection with God maybe?

·       After the weekend I felt: ON FIRE! Awesome and more connected with God like He is my best friend.

·       The part of the weekend that makes me want to go back is: The Key Note speakers were awesome, funny, but they send out a clear message. DJ Bill Lage is just as awesome and the music he plays is great! ~Niccolo

Ashton-

·       Before the weekend I felt: I felt that I had a great connection with Christ during Mass and WNL, but that connection seemed to slip away a little once I left church.

·        After the weekend I felt: I now feel that I have so many other Catholic youth to draw support from. I am so pumped to go out and spread the word of Christ because I learned the most from kids just like me while I was at DCYC.

·       The part of the weekend that makes me want to go back is: Everything! All I can remember thinking while I was at the convention is that I never wanted to leave. The speakers, friends, crazy dances, and everything in between were incredible.

Senior Campout 2012

It is mid-July in Texas with temperatures soaring to over 100 degrees in the shade and what do our seniors and recent high school grads agree to do?  Go on a campout!  Heat aside, the teens and adults had a great time.  They swam, played Frisbee, sang and had a great time getting to know one another better.  Here are a few quotes from the students that we thought we would share:

“It was incredible to see the bonds form so quickly and deeply between the upcoming seniors who will be the leaders of our youth program next year!  Their enthusiasm and openness was truly inspiring!”  Frances

“It was fun to smile all night long!” Matt

“The event gave me a whole new perspective of everything and everyone around me.”  Tyler

“It was wonderful to get to see the Holy Spirit working so strongly through our up and coming seniors!  They have a great desire to grow God’s Church, and a great willingness to form life- long friendships designed around expanding their faith.”   Johnny

Changed forever, but still love peanut butter and jelly.

After traveling to Honduras on the Mission Trip for Good Shepherd, I realized that although we live far from the mountains of the Trade School in Campamento, Honduras, we are close in spirit. We are more alike than different. They may prefer tortilla and mantaquilla to peanut butter and jelly but we are more similar than different.  Parents there want the same things that we parents want here in the US…to provide the best that we can for our children.

The kindness and generosity that the Hondurans showed us by a mere smile and hug would knock your socks off. It’s like no experience I have ever had. They have next to nothing and yet, they are smiling, singing, and clearly happy. They cling tightly to the Word of God, the blessings of the Mass and Eucharist (which in some remote locations in the mountains they receive only once a year with the visiting priest), the love of family and friends. It’s life at its most basic. The way it’s supposed to be. We should all look to our brothers and sisters in Honduras as an example. They have it right.

It is through the giving hearts of so many at Good Shepherd that Nelson Rodriguez is able to continue the work of educating the students at the Trade School. It is an inspiring place. One that will stay with me for the duration of my life.    ~Laurie

Making a Difference

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "send me!" Isaiah – 6:8

Recently, eight Good Shepherd parishioners went to Honduras to work with the staff and students of the Instituto Tecnico Fray Casimiro Cypher Trade School in Campamento. 

Two of their reflections:

On June 18th I returned to Honduras for the second time. I enjoyed every second of the time I spent there and the experience has moved me in a way that is difficult to explain. I saw children that had been abandoned at birth, and I saw entire families living in a tent composed of rags and towels. These instances of absolute poverty touched me, but what touched me the most was the Trade School children’s happiness, their eagerness to learn, and their love for others. Every time any one of our missioners smiled at a child a bigger smile was created in return, a smile that seemed to say a thousand thank yous. These smiles made an unforgettable experience that fostered a drive within me to make a difference.   I will always look back on that week, as an inspiration to better the world. I hope I will someday return in the future.  -Chris

As always when we go to Honduras, everyone there was so grateful for the time that we spent with them. The people we visited always found special ways to make us feel so welcome.  Using material developed by Mark Knox, our group did a reflection in the evenings while we were there.  Subjects included “Called to be Christians” and “Judging Others”. The consensus of our group as we departed Honduras was that while we are privileged to live in the United States, we are blessed to have the opportunity to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. -Bob

The Sky's the Limit-Everything is Possible with God

I have done many things in my life but V.B.S is probably my favorite. Every time I go I feel closer to God. You get to meet new people every year. You also get to grow closer to God and Jesus in a way other than going to church. I have been going to V.B.S for 5 years and I can’t wait to go again next year because I will get to help the little kids discover their spiritual connection to God.

AliceAnn – 4^th Grader

Saturday evening at the Baccalaureate Mass Good Shepherd was pleased to announce the 10 recipients of both the Women’s Group Scholarships and the Kathy Albert Memorial Scholarships.  Here is a small snippet from Taylor’s Scholarship application for the Kathy Albert Memorial Scholarship…

“In the fall, I plan to attend Oklahoma State University to earn a degree in Education.  This part of my scholarship application is bittersweet.  You see, I had a third grade teacher that made a huge impact on my life.  As I sat in her class, she reminded me of my own mom and gave me a sense of security. She was firm, patient, kind, encouraging and most of all loving. She expected the best out of all of us. She exemplified everything that made me feel secure, safe and now in hindsight, all that I would like to be.  The greatest blessing is that this teacher and I also shared the same Catholic Faith, so I felt an extra special connection with her. She was and remains to this day, a big part of my life.  Her name was Kathy Albert.” 

Making Connections

            Graduates of 2012, I congratulate all of you for your High School academic and extracurricular achievements that have brought you to commencement.  The pain is over and you can breathe—at least for now: no more rushing to class, taking exams, writing papers and  working in the lab.  You have run the race, achieved your goal and earned your diploma.  This is your day and our culture is pointing you toward the good life ahead.  But before you pursue the good life, how did you get where you are today?  Who paved the way for you?  The         celebrities of our day would have us believe that they have or they themselves are the answer.  To give credit, there have been good examples and even some heroes.  Consider how Steve Jobs has touched our lives in the 21^st century.  What an impact his innovations have made to change our present world and will, no doubt, continue doing so despite his passing as well as our passing from this world?  I can already imagine the day when neither I nor my computer will ever save any hard copies of anything I own.  It will all be out there somewhere in the “cloud.”  We will be retrieving all of our data from the network of the virtual world.  People like Steve Jobs had passion and changed our world.  He had the creativity to connect things and now we are all, at least, digitally connected. 

But before we all get lost in the virtual world of the cloud, we have all made other connections with the ordinary people who have become extraordinary heroes in our lives?  In the years of learning since your birth and your formal education, I submit to you that it is our    parents, our teachers and friends who have kept us well connected.  Parents certainly have endured burdens to offer you the shelter of their maturity, their wisdom and their labor.  Teachers who refused to give up on you, but tried one thing after another in a warm and caring way to unlock your desire for learning.  Friends have formed your social network and emotional bonds that provided you with a balance between work and fun.  And, I am sure there have been many others whose influence have urged you to go beyond yourself and to imagine yourselves as better, more compassionate and more thoughtful.  All these resulting accomplishments are yours, but the work to get there is by no means yours alone.  It is now the time for you to connect whatever you have learned from the work of these heroes to your own unique works.  And, in this way the next generation will come to know your particular gifts that were born from the common legacy of your life.

You, and we, and all who came before us, are   indebted to the ordinary heroes who helped us to carve out the milestones of our lives.  Through their work joined to our own we can each discover the passion in our own lives.  Do what you love to do and you can change the world for the better.  Dedicate yourselves to the things that are worthwhile—achievements that require sacrifice and pain and heartache and risk and, yes, sometimes, failure.  For your work to endure, desire what is good, be inspired by what is true and beautiful, and expand your spiritual strength.  Listen to the heroes who have truly cared for you.  Get enough sleep at the appropriate times, eat healthy, be honest with yourself, evaluate whether your goals are achievable and what effort is required.  Balance work, sports activities and social events.  Making connections from our past learning to our future hopes bring us into a community of companions who share our journey.  Making connections with new pilgrims along the way can enrich our lives and foster creativity.  As we reach out beyond ourselves in an ever expanding   community of work, study and service to others, we will also discover our own personal limitations.  Mutual relationships in community offer us what we need to be more than we can become by ourselves alone.  In making these connections with others we are formed and informed into a greater human being. 

But it does not end there.  Making connections stretches us beyond our reach in this world of space and time.  No matter how spiritual we as human beings can become by making connections on this earth, we must never lose sight of the bigger vision.  Wherever your lives take you, none of us is ever complete without making connections to another universe outside of our space and time world.  Community can both hurt and heal us.  We humans cannot fix everything.  Ultimately, there are questions that do not have answers and problems that  cannot be solved.  Our search in making connections must also take us beyond the limits of our human community into a universe of mystery. 

We all need to be connected with the absolute mystery of God.  There is yet another cloud much earlier than the internet cloud of the 21^st century.  The Hebrew Scriptures speak of it as a “column of cloud.”   By means of this cloud the presence of the divine preceded and showed a pilgrim people the way to their destination.  It reminds us even today that the God of every age is guiding us.   Faith in God is our connection beyond the limitations of humanistic spiritualism.  In your search for the good life, remain connected to God who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Graduates of 2012, my sincere congratulations to all of you and I wish you the blessings of a bright future as you continue “Making Connections!”