Salvation Is an Adventure

Families are being pulled in many different directions these days. It seems as though there is not much time to spend together with each other as a family. Couple that with the fact that family values just do not exist any more in main stream media outlets like television and movies, it has become incredibly difficult to make families a priority.


Our culture, our very society is being torn apart and at the heart of the dismantling of our society is an attack on families. Lent provides an awesome opportunity to renew the family. In renewing and rebuilding the family, we will renew and rebuild the Church, and society.

Allow me to digress for a moment...Many people think that the story of Noah’s Ark in the bible is all about saving the animals from the destruction of humanity. What is the story of Noah’s Ark really about? It’s about God calling on the family to renew and rebuild the earth—Noah, his wife, and their sons.

We are in need of a renewal. Our society needs to be rebuilt and renewed. Who is God going to call on this time? The same people that he used in the story of Noah—the family.

Take time this Lent to look seriously at your family. Do you truly make family a priority? Do you spend time with your children and spouse without the distractions of the television, internet, or any other electronic device? Do you talk to your children or spouse? I mean really talk to them—not just asking what’s for dinner or what they did at school, but how they feel, what they struggle with, what brings them joy?

Being a father of five, I understand how difficult it is to carve time out of our busy schedules to make family a priority. But I also understand how important families are. The Church also understands the importance of family. Blessed John Paul II said “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live”. If the family continues to deteriorate and move down the path that it is currently on, then the nation and world will deteriorate and continue down that same path.

So, what can you do? The first thing is to rearrange priorities if necessary. Here’s how I try to arrange my priorities (I’m not always successful, but I try):

1. My relationship with God

2. My relationship with my spouse

3. My relationship with my children

4. Everything else.

Like I said, this is not easy. But it is necessary. Christ didn't come into the world to make it easy. He never said that carrying the crosses we are to bear would be easy. But he does give us the wisdom, understanding, and courage to do what he calls us to do. The Holy Spirit will guide any family that opens their hearts to the will of the Father.

Lent is a time for renewal of the family. Pray with your children. Pray with your spouse. And be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your families to bring about that renewal that is necessary in our society. We, as families, are called to do today what Noah and his family did centuries ago.

When I found out about my good friend Shane Kapler writing a new book I was very excited! I had read Shane's first book, The God Who Is Love, when it came out. Tending the Temple: 365 Days of Spiritual and Physical Devotions is a devotional put together by Shane, Kevin Vost (Fit for Eternal Life), and Peggy Bowes (The Rosary Workout). This book provides a spiritual devotion for every day of the year. What is amazing about this devotional is that the authors were able to find a saint or a feast for every single day of the year! I have never seen a saint devotional before that had an entry for every day of the year. The well known and popular saints, like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Rose of Lima are represented as well as lesser known saints, like Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and his wife Blessed Maria Corsini-Quattrocchi, who in 2001 became the first married couple to be beatified together! Our Catholic faith is rich with wonderful saints, feasts, and holy men and women and this book provides an opportunity to learn more about them and discover new ones that we may have never heard of before.

In addition to providing us with spiritual food to enrich our lives, the book provides a unique second set of devotions--physical devotions. Each day the authors give the readers advice and suggestions to take what was learned about the saints and carry it out in some sort of action. It may be an exercise to assist the reader in becoming physically fit or it may be advice on how to live a life of holiness.

Learning about the saints of our Church means nothing unless you carry what you learn out in action. Tending the Temple provides us with an opportunity to not only learn about the saints but also gives us advice on how to take what we learn and carry out into some sort of action in our lives.

Working as a full-time youth minister (and for the Church) I interact with a wide range of people. I interact with the teens in my program. I interact with their parents and other parents. I interact with other youth ministers in the diocese. I even interact with the older, retired parishioners of the parishes I serve. It seems as though everyone has a comment or opinion about what I do (sometimes both!). I get everything from "Wow! That must be hard work" to "Well, at least its a job". One comment I never expected to get, particularly from other youth ministers, is "They can't handle that."

This comment really bothers me. I've heard it a few times, mostly centering around an idea that I have that I'm sharing with other youth ministers. I share an idea, one that I believe will ignite the fire of the Holy Spirit in the youth or deepen their understanding of their faith, and the response is "they can't handle that." These comments are coming from the same youth ministers who fill their meetings with games, skits, and activities. Not that there is anything wrong with these things (I use games and activities in my meetings, too), but to think that a high school youth cannot handle being challenged in his faith is bothersome.

When I first became a youth minister, I attended a workshop that suggested the idea (among others) that most Catholic adults are walking around with the faith of a 4th or 5th grader. It was suggested that most Catholic adults do not have a mature faith. I ask why? Why don't most adults have a mature faith? I think that a big part of that is the fact that most catechists, youth ministers, priests, or anyone who works with youth in the Church have the mindset that "they can't handle that."

When I started high school, my parish was without a youth ministry program. When I became interested in my faith the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I was invited to a youth ministry program that was not a part of my parish. I joined and loved it. It was a thriving, Spirit-filled program that drew about 20-30 teens every week, even though it met on Wednesdays, when most of us had sports, homework, and other commitments. Shortly after I started attending that program, my parish hired a youth minister. I was excited about it and jumped on board to be a part of a program and to take a leadership role. The program was a miserable failure. It never got off the ground and never drew more than a half-dozen teens to the weekly meetings.

What was the difference between the two? For one thing, the thriving program was established and had been running for many years. It's hard to start a youth ministry program from scratch. I know. I've done it. But I think the greatest difference was the approach to the program. The thriving and active program (the one I joined first) challenged us teens. The adults running the program would not accept mediocrity, would not accept that there were certain things about our faith that we couldn't handle. The other program, the one at my own parish, filled the teens time with movies, games, and food. (Again, there is nothing wrong with movies, games, and food, but if that is all your program is about, you're missing the point).


We need to be challenged. All of us, young and old, need to be challenged. It is through being challenged, being stretched, that we are able to grow. If we live lives of mediocrity, never being challenged in anything, then we will never grow. We will never grow mentally. We will never grow emotionally. We will never grow spiritually.

"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16)

I attended a meeting the other day. It was a gathering of the heads of the different ministries for one of the two parishes I work for. The focus of the meeting was to present--and brainstorm--ideas on how we can, as a parish, increase participation in the different ministries of service that the parish currently has. We are looking for a way to increase the stewardship of time and talent in the parish. A lot of good ideas were discussed. We discussed having a ministry fair, a "Ministry Sunday" once a month where one of the ministries of the parish is highlighted, ministry nights for the parents of the Early Childhood Center and Religious Education, and many other good ideas. At the end of the meeting some time was set aside, as with all discussions about stewardship, for a discussion on money. Overall, it was a productive meeting. We came up with many ideas to try to increase the participation of time, talent, and, of course, treasure from the parishioners of the parish.

As I was sitting there, listening to what the parish stewardship committee head was presenting, I started thinking that we have it all backwards--that we, as a Church in the U.S. (not just this parish, but many parishes) oftentimes have it backwards. There is such a focus on service and on social justice--almost too much of a focus. Don't get me wrong. It is important to serve. There are many wonderful ministries at the parishes I work for, and all parishes, that do great work at supporting the church, it's parishioners, and those in the community around the parish. We need that. It is a necessary, and important, part of our Catholic faith. But, we have it backwards. We focus so much on service that we forget something very important. We are, first and foremost, a community of faith. We are so busy nurturing the corporal needs of our parishes and communities that we oftentimes neglect the spiritual needs.

We are losing Catholics. Many are leaving the Catholic Church to go to other Christian churches. Some just stop going to church altogether. I believe that most lost Catholics still sit in our pews, coming back week after week to fulfill their Sunday obligation. We can talk until we are blue in the face, coming up with idea after idea on how to get these lost Catholics to participate with more time, talent, and treasure. We can put on the greatest festival that money can buy to try to highlight the different ministries and increase participation in those ministries. But those lost Catholics, the ones that are filling up our pews week after week, won't participate. They won't participate because they don't care.

Why don't they care? They don't care because they are not engaged in their faith. They don't understand the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus. They don't understand how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. They have no passion for their faith.

People give to their passions. They give of their time. They give of their talent. They give of their treasure. Look at a parent who has a child with autism. That parent becomes passionate about the cause for finding a cure for autism. Or a husband who lost his wife to breast cancer. He becomes passionate about the fight to find a cure. These people are passionate about these causes because they are personally affected by them. If we, as a Church, take time to nurture a personal faith relationship with Christ then Catholics will give of their time, talent, and yes, treasure.

In addition to not caring because they are not engaged in their faith, there is another reason why these lost Catholics don't give of their time, talent, and treasure. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that about 40% of Catholics filling the pews across the U.S. are walking around with empty cups. They have nothing to give. Another 50% of Catholics have half full cups. They have a little bit to give but are unwilling to give anything for fear of losing what little they have.

I have found in my own job of serving the youth of two parishes that if I have a half full cup or an empty cup that I am ineffective as a youth minister. I cannot give to the youth what I do not have. Unless I have an overflowing cup, I cannot be a good servant to anyone--my wife, my kids, or the parishes I serve.

How does one obtain an overflowing cup? There is only one way to fill a cup to overflowing, and that is through a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Unless and until we spend time every day with Jesus in prayer and dialogue we will never fill our cups.

I said earlier that we, as a Church in the U.S., oftentimes have it backwards. Instead of focusing on service, instead of focusing on increasing participation in these ministries of service, we need to first focus on faith formation. We need to help these lost Catholics in the pews to understand their faith. Remember, it was not until the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the upper room that they were able to go out and serve. The same holds true for the Church today. We need to invite the Holy Spirit to descend upon our parishes through providing opportunities for faith formation for all ages--youth and adult. When we invite the Spirit into our churches then, and only then, will we be empowered to give of our time, talent, and treasure. We will engage the disengaged. We will find the lost Catholics.

It's been 2 1/2 years since I started this blog. I originally started it as a way to reach out to the teens in my youth group outside of our weekly meetings. With 9,600 visits and 13,500 page views, my meager expectations for this blog have been blown away. With the help of Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Mark Shea, the Archbold brothers, and others, none of whom I have ever met, I have had hits from every state in the union and 100 other countries.(Thank you for your support.) I've been blessed by writing this blog. I've been blessed by those that have followed my stream of consciousness. I've been blessed by those who cared enough to leave a comment. I've been blessed most of all by the journey this adventure of salvation has led me down. I have learned a lot. I've learned a lot about myself. I have grown in my faith. What started out as an opportunity to transform the lives of the teens I work with, this blog ended up transforming my life. I am a much stronger Catholic as a result of putting "pen to paper" my thoughts, feelings and faith.

With that being said, I'm running out of steam. I've been neglecting my blog somewhat over the past couple of months. Part of this neglect is due to the busyness of my life. Between increased work responsibilities, cub scouts with my son, and other family commitments, I haven't had much time to write. I've also committed to being a regular contributor to Catholic Dads, writing a weekly feature called A Father's Faith. I've been debating in my mind for weeks whether or not I should just stop writing this blog altogether. I've decided what to do.

I'm not going to give up this venture completely. I just don't feel that I can walk away from this labor of love and not look back. Going forward, I will write only when I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit, instead of (as I have done in the past) trying to find something to write at least once a week. I may go weeks, or months, between posts. But I'm still here. I will poke my head in from time to time when the Spirit moves me to write something. I know I may lose followers without the constant activity on my blog, but I don't care. I don't write for them. I write what God wants me to write and when He wants me to write it.

If you want to get in my head on a regular basis, you can always visit me every Friday over at Catholic Dads.

I wrote this review of In Conversation with God, Vol. 3 for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, your source for Baptism Gifts and First Communion Gifts. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.
Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases.
I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.

Has something ever happened to you that scared the living daylights out of you? Have you ever been consumed by something that you heard, read, or saw that really frightened you? For me, one of the most frightening things that has ever happened to me was when I was in college and got into a horrible car accident where I drove my car under the bed of an 18 wheeler flat-bed truck.That moment, that brush with death, was incredibly frightening for me. First of all, I thought I was going to die. In fact, eye witnesses to the accident said that they expected to pull a dead body out of the car. Furthermore, after I realized I didn't die (I actually walked away from it virtually unharmed) I was faced with the fact that I was 10 hours from home, in the midst of a nasty snow storm, and without a way to get home. I was scared. I was REEEAAALLLY scared. It was probably the most frightening thing I have gone through in my life....until today.

Today, I read something that frightened me even more than that car accident:

 On the day we die, I believe that the God of love gives us what we love the most.

~Fr. Larry Richards

 What an incredibly frightening thing to think about. Not the death part...the part about God giving us what we love most when we die. What do I love the most? When I look at my sinfulness, and the root of that sin, I find that what I love the most is......ME. I'm scared to spend eternity with nothing but me. It's not that I think that I'm such a horrible person that no one would want to spend eternity with me. My wife seems to like me. Whether or not she would want to spend eternity with me I'm not so sure about (I certainly hope so!) But for me to spend eternity with nothing but myself and my own selfish desires is another story. Here on earth, I can see glimpses of God's love for me despite my selfishness. And that gives me hope. It gives me comfort. But to spend eternity without even a glimpse of God's love is a miserable thought. It scares me to think that I am choosing, right now, in this life, what God is going to give me for eternity. What scares me even more is that I am not choosing to love God. Instead, I'm choosing to love myself and my selfish desires. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with loving yourself. But when that self-love becomes selfish-love it turns into sin. As a result, I love sin more than I love God. That love of sin will lead me straight to hell.

But it's not too late. As of the writing of this blog post I still have a pulse. I'm still breathing. I have the opportunity to change my mind about what, or who, I love the most. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me the strength of will to choose to love God above all else.