Retreat recap

The Theology of the Body for Teens retreat came to a close yesterday afternoon. It never ceases to be amazing to watch dozens of teens line up for confession, praise the Lord during Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and join their voices together in prayer. It also never ceases to be amazing to watch six junior core members of Kenosis speak to their peers with confidence, grace, enthusiasm and authenticity about the way God has transformed their lives. And it will always be a gift to work with young adults who are beautifully present to the teens by giving up an entire weekend to lead small groups and witness to God's love.

Thank you for the prayers.

Please continue prayers for the TOB retreat. We end at 3 pm today! It has been a blessed weekend.

Happy feast of Bl. Chiara "Luce" Badano!

Our wonderful patroness of Kenosis, Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano's feast day is today. If you haven't heard of this 19 year old saint, who died in 1990, then you will want to read about her holiness in the everyday.

"I've realized that if we could constantly keep our soul open and ready for everything, how many signs God would send us. I have also understood how many times God passes next to us and we do not realize it ... Young people are the future. I cannot run anymore, but I'd like to pass them my torch, like at the Olympic games. The youth have one life to live, and we should spend it as best we can." -- Bl. Chiara

Prayers please

It's time for another TOB for Teens retreat. That means we need your prayers! This weekend, a full house of 26 teens, 6 junior core members and 6 adults will embark on an adventure of growing closer to God through learning about Theology of the Body.

It's the sort of event that is impossible without prayer. So if you are able, please offer a prayer or two for all of us this weekend. Thank you!

If you haven't seen this joyful smile already ...

"Why facebook is the devil"

This is a brilliant, thought-provoking reflection on the influence of facebook and social networking sites on experience. Marc Barnes has plenty of thoughts to share in "Why Facebook is the Devil."

After all, is that not dying to the present moment – moving on from it? Is a man thinking about the future not but a ghost, dwelling neither here nor there? When you’re in a group of friends and something insightful or funny is said, phones are whipped out and passionate mutters of “Tweet-worthy” are heard all around, everyone has removed themselves from the present moment and thrust their experience out to the world to be validated.

Thought Experiment: If you Facebooked/tweeted/blogged/shared the greatest moment of your life and no one ‘liked’ it, would you think less of the moment? Would you think less of your friends? Is either option any good? Is ‘liking’ something on Facebook actually ‘liking’ it, or is it usually validating that it exists, i.e. “Yes, you did say/post that.”?

That’s not at all to say things shouldn’t be shared, but we share them like words on a tombstone, brief summations of the life of the thing – that really amount to its death. Why? Because as soon as we move from the event to the status update, when we give the event a small conglomerate of signs and symbols that by their nature as words cannot fully describe – hence, “you had to be there” – we make our events small, and then we are done with them. We try and make ourselves, in some strange way, the victors of that moment. Our experience has been wrestled into submission by our adjectives.

It is definitely worth reading, which you can do here.

Remembering Michael

So often we overlook the reality of life of a miscarried child. Sarah Babbs has a beautiful reflection of the way in which she and her husband have been impacted by their little son, Michael, who died before his birth.

Confusion, as the ultrasound tech leaves to get the doctor. Hushed voices on the other side of the door. Poking and prodding. No tell-tale “thump,thump,thump,thump”, the sweetest sound you’ll ever hear. We never heard it. Condolences all around. The pregnancy stopped progressing at 8 weeks. “So sorry for your loss.” “You can try again soon, you are so young.” “A blessing in disguise.” Disgust. Pain. “Why God? Haven’t you taken enough?”

Tears. Sedation. Surgery. Recovery. No medication for the ache inside, for the aching of an empty womb.

A caring priest pours prayer, power, and oil of healing on our heads. “You are parents.” “The vocation of parenthood is to welcome souls that will glorify God in Heaven. He’s already there. Mission accomplished.” “Give him a name, a name you can call him, and remember.”

Michael John. “Who is like God? and God is generous.” He gives and takes away. Blessed be His name.

This month, our first baby, our little one in Heaven, would have turned two.

Read it all here.