Youth Group

As you may or may not know, my ministry for postulancy is working with the high school youth group at St. Francis parish in Milwaukee. Tonight was our third meeting. Each week we get at least one or two more kids coming. God has been good. We started our first meeting with 4 and now we are up about 8. So we have already doubled just within 3 weeks! Our first two meetings were just socials to hang out and get to know each other. Luckily the weather has been great each night we have it so we have a bonfire and cookout out in the courtyard of what used to be the old monastery. One of the high school guys introduced us to a great new version of making S'mores. You basically instead of putting the marshmellow and chocolate on graham crackers, use 2 keebler m&m cookies. It is sooooo good! So tonight since our last two nights were mostly socials, I decided to start mixing it up a little. I knew from asking them, that the kids really dont know what adoration is or understand the mass and the Eucharist. So tonight I started from the beginning talking about relationships in general which leads into relationship with God which will eventually lead into the Eucharist and adoration. Well tonight I wanted to get the point across that just like when you start a friendship with someone, to get to know them you have to spend time with them the same is with God. You have to spend time with Him. So I asked the question, How do you know Jesus is God? I wanted to drive home the point is that you know He is God because you spend time with Him and you get to know Him and He becomes very real to you as you spend time with Him. Well when I asked the question I got a response I was not expecting. The kids didn't even know Jesus is God. So in the best and most simplistic way I could I tried to explain the Trinity to them. I ended up using St. Patrick's 3 leaf clover model. lol. But what was amazing was that even though they didnt realize Jesus is God, God to them is very much real. As we talked about relationships they really opened up about how some of them have never had a relationship with one parent or the other. Or how friends have stabbed them in the back and feel like they can't trust anyone. So I asked, does that reflect your relationship with God in a negative sense? The answer was an overwhelming NO! "God is what keeps us going." "He's the one person we can talk to." It was a very eye opening experience and I am truly blessed to be here with these kids and learn from them as I hope they also learn from me. Please keep the group in your prayers as we continue to grow.

Peace and all good,
Jason

Transitus and Solemnity of our holy father Francis

It has been a very busy yet blessed weekend for us as Capuchins and for the entire Franciscan community world wide. Last night, Sunday Oct 3rd, we celebrated the night that our holy father Francis, passed from this world to the heavenly Father. All of us postulants and our director, Fr. Bill, went to Chicago to take part in the Transitus celebrations with our post novitiate houses there. One of the other postulants and I actually traveled down to Chicago on Saturday ahead of everyone else. The relic of St. John Bosco was in Chicago Saturday night and since he is the patron saint of youth and I work a lot with youth ministry I wanted to be able to go and venerate the relic. Which I did but thats a whole seperate story. Sunday night we began the Transitus at 7pm in the living room of the friary. There were probably about 30 friars, friends and affiliates of the community present. It was a packed house to say the least. It consists of 8 different "stations" recalling the story of Francis' death. After each reading we sang Christ be our light, which with over 30 people singing it, it was just beautiful. After the 7th station we processed to the chapel with the paschal candle and insense to do the last station which is Francis' death. Before he died he asked that bread be brought so that it would be broken and shared and so likewise we broke bread together as a rememberance of this final action of Francis. It was truly a very beautiful service. And as with any Capuchin event we had a big social afterwards with lots of good food. It was time spent as community, as brothers and sisters.

And so now today, Monday Oct 4th we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Francis. It is a solemnity for the Franciscan family world wide, but in the world wide Church it is only celebrated as a memorial. Very unfortunate I think. lol. Since it was our major feast day we got to sleep in and have morning prayer and mass start at 8 instead of 7. A whole hour! During the homily part of the mass Fr. Bill asked each of us, both professed and postulants, what it was that first drew us to St. Francis. It was interesting to hear the different stories from the rest of the community. My reason was this. Growing up as a kid who was living in a divorce situation and not always getting along with my parents, Francis always appealed to me as a kid. Because Francis did not have the best relationship with his family. They didnt understand why he was doing the things that he did. And as I grew up and when I started getting very involved in my faith and started going to morning mass before school started I always felt like I was not understood for doing what I was doing. And this is what started things, but it grew into much more than that. I was so attracted, as a kid and teenager who had very little peace or hope in his life at the time, to this man from Assisi who seemed to bring peace and hope with him wherever he went. He brought the peace and love and hope of God into the lives of many people who would not have received it otherwise. And hearing of this man who was able to do this I found myself wanting to do the same thing. And it's why I am so passionate about youth ministry because so many teens and young people in general are going through the same thing I went through. They have lost hope. They feel unloved, they feel alone, and they feel no one cares. Because I have been there I know the pain that comes from it and like Francis I hope that God can use me to bring His hope and love back into the lives of others. I just had a very powerful experience last week, and I wont give to many details, but he is a very good friend of mine who lives in the area and he experienced this loss of hope and feeling loved. And as I went to be with him and help him through it I came to see that this is in fact why I am where I am now, with the Capuchins. This is why I want to be a priest. It was a very profound experience. I thought to myself it was only 6 years ago when I was in his position and two of my friends were in the position I was that night. And it was because God sent people into my life who brought back that hope and that love that I am still here today. And now here I am giving back what I had received only 6 years ago. There is nothing more powerful to me than that. And I just had the peace in my heart that said this is where God wants me and this is the work God wants me to do. I only hope that He gives me the strength to do it. Becuase it is not an easy thing to see people you care about in so much pain. I thank God for my past, painful as it was, because without it I would not be the man I am today and I would not be here with the Capuchins giving back what I have been so blessed to receive. Happy Solemnity of St. Francis to you all. May the peace, love and spirit of Francis be with each one of you this day. God Bless.

Peace and all good,
Jason

Dominican Province of St. Joseph | Ryan Briscoe (22 years old) Blog | op-stjoseph.org

Dominican Province of St. Joseph Ryan Briscoe (22 years old) Blog op-stjoseph.org


Ryan has been a friend of mine since grade school. Now he is Br. Patrick Mary. I'm just jealous he got a habit before me. lol. I'm very proud of him and I know he will be a great Dominican!

Who Do You Say I Am?

"Who do the crowds say that I am?" These words are spoken by Christ in the Gospel passage from today found in the Gospel of Luke. He poses this question to His disciples while they were in solitude, away from the hectic crowds and other distractions. They responded with answers such as well "some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others say one of the ancient prophets who has arisen from the dead." He responds, "But who do you say that I am?" Wow! What a question! Who do you say that I am? Who is Christ to us in the midst of such a busy and materialistic world that tells us in a very subverted way that the center and focus of our lives, which should be Christ, needs to be how popular we are, how wealthy we are, how successful we are? Who is Christ for us? I have to be honest in saying that I don't fully know who Christ is for me. I mean I can say with certainty that He is God's son sent to this earth out of love for us so that we may be given the opportunity for salvation. But on a personal level do I know Christ? Fr. Larry Richards, a very popular speaker these days, always says something that I think is very profound. He says, "You can know everything there is to know about Jesus, the Church, the doctrines, and still not KNOW who Jesus is." The word know here does not pertain to an intellectual knowledge of something, but an understanding of the very essence of something, in this case someone, Jesus Christ. To know someone on a personal level. To have a relationship with that person. In reality to feel at one with that person. Everyone has friends. So how do you get to become friends? You spend time with that person Fr. Richards says. There are some people who become more like brothers or sisters than friends. A close bond is created where you just enjoy being with each other. Really to fully know someone can't even be described in terms. But it is found deep within ones self. Like the relationships we develop with each other we also develop our relationship with Jesus in the same way. We spend time with Him. We open ourselves up fully to Him. And tell Him whats on our mind. But a friendship, and any relationship is a two way street. We must also listen to what Christ has to say to us. And this I think is the most challenging part for me and probably for a lot of people. One of the great things about being in religious life is there is set times to pray. There is structure. But we are also asked to have at least an hour outside of that time in our own private silent meditation. That is when you get to know Christ. When you just let yourself 'be'. I find this very difficult though. There is so much that rushes through my mind that I get distracted very easily and it's hard to focus. But that is something I must work on. If I want to be able to answer the question Jesus asks in the Gospel I must first learn to be still and know that He is God. I must open myself up to Him. I must spend time with Him. Such a challenge. But also such a blessing, because from this challenge will come strength and a deeper relationship with my Lord and my God.



Peace and all Good,

Jason

From Suffering to Wholeness

Today the Church celebrated one of the greatest and most well know Capuchin saints. Saint Padre Pio. Throughout the day though, even before we had the mass which this was discussed at during the homily, something kept running through my mind. A thought that I kept reflecting on, which I find myself doing a lot since entering postulancy. The thought was this. One of the greatest realizations that we can have as human beings and as Christians, is the fact that we are imperfect...we are sinful...we are broken. We have all messed up in life. We have all fallen into a life of sin whatever that may be, and because of that sin we have been broken. We all struggle with something in life. Whether it's divorce, or other family issues, loneliness, depression, drugs, alcohol, you name it someone has been through it. And all of this builds on us as people. Yet despite our imperfections, despite our sinfulness, and despite our brokenness we must realize that no matter what we are and always will be the beloved sons and daughters of a God who created us in His very image and Whose likeness we strive to perfect each and every day of our lives. From our greatest imperfection comes our greatest strength and because of our brokenness we become wholy holy. It is only in being broken and knowing the pain that comes from that, that we can better understand the suffering of others and have not only a greater sense of compassion and mercy for them but also because of our own pain and emptiness we are better able to help others and to reach out to them.

It was interesting that I was thinking about this throughout the day because at mass celebrating the memorial of Padre Pio this very issue was brought up in the homily. Because of the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ) that Padre Pio received and lived with throughout his life he had to deal with a great deal of pain. Physically. But he was also often persecuted and was even silenced by the Church for things that just were not true about him. This also brought him much emotional pain. All the pain that this holy man suffered, he turned into a deep love for people and becuase of this love he helped countless numbers of people. During his life numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and even more so after his death. His great suffering, and his great brokenness before the crucified Christ brought forth great love and compassion for God's people. He is truly a model for us all. Padre Pio...Pray for us! Below is a link to a clip from a movie about Padre Pio. The end is very powerful.

Peace and all Good,
Jason

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dOq3EzkASA&feature=player_embedded

Feast of St. Matthew

Who are the poor? For some reason this question has been on my mind a lot lately. And I don't even really know why. But the Gospel for the Feast of St. Matthew today I think touched a bit on this question. And you may find yourselves asking why? There is no mention of the poor in the Gospel today. It instead tells the story of Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector to follow after Him. It then tells how many tax collectors and sinners came to sit and eat with Jesus. Now first of all we know that generally speaking tax collectors were pretty wealthy people. They usually took from the people more than what was required so that they could line their own pockets (sounds pretty similar to things going on today.) You see this also in the story of Zacchaeus, another tax collector, who climbed a tree so that he may see Jesus. So again why when talking about the rich do I ask the question, who are the poor? It is simple. Who is more poor? The man who has nothing, knows he has nothing, and goes and asks for help, or the man who has everything he could ever imagine, thinks he is happy, yet has a constant desire for more things and does not realize his own emptiness? I would dare to argue that it is the rich person who doesn't even realize his own emptiness, that is the one who is most poor. Coming from a postulant with the Capuchin Franciscans whose main mission is to care for the poor this must sound pretty crazy. But is it really? Over and over again we constantly see Christ reaching out to those in authority, those with power, and those with many possessions, such as the rich young man who was challenged by Christ to go sell all he had and give the money to the poor and follow after Him. Yet he walked away sad because he had many possessions. Christ rarely called the poor or the sick to conversion because they already had great faith. Hence why they were healed. But he did continuously reach out to the rich and the powerful so that they would have a conversion experience. St. Matthew is one of the few wealthy people in the Gospels that hears His word and responds positively to it. Yes we must always care for the poor. That is the Gospel message. But We must also reach out to those in power, and with wealth and authority as Christ did and pray for a conversion experience. It is so easy in our society, especially for young people, to get too caught up in the things of this world and forget what it is we are really called to do. I think now days so much emphasis is put on school, work, sports, so on and so forth that we lose sight of the one and only thing that really matters. And that is our relationship with God. I do not mean to say that these other things are not important, because they are, but there needs to be a priority and that priority starts with the conversion of our own heart, mind, and soul every day so that we are led deeper into a relationship with Christ. May we be more like St. Matthew who made this a priority in his life, and less like the rich young man, who having everything walked away from Christ sad and unfulfilled because he was afraid to give up what he had for that relationship with Christ.

Peace and all good things,
Jason

St. Francis Youth Ministry

It is often said that in community, everything is shared. Well this week I unfortunately found out that this also pertains to illness. I am currently about the 7th guy in the house to come down with a really nasty cold. It has been picking us off one by one since we all moved in about a month ago now. When I was still going to college I could just sleep in and skip classes if I was sick. Not anymore. I still have to get up at 6:20 am for morning prayer followed by mass which is then followed by class at 9 and then off to ministry around 12. I unfortunately noticed a huge difference in how I acted today and it wasn't for the better which was unfortunate because I had a meeting with two high school upper classmen who want to start a Jr. High youth group at the parish. I was looking forward to this meeting since last week and finally it got here and I felt like crap. lol. It was still a great meeting though. We came up with when we wanted to start it and how often it will be. As of now it will be every other Tuesday. I think the best part about this is that it was these two teens who came to Fr. Mike, the pastor, and asked if they could start this up. They were the ones who initiated it. How awesome is that? As Pope John Paul II often said, "the youth are not the future of the Church. They are the Church." It was amazing to me that two high school students would show this kind of initiative. Especially with everything else going on in their lives right now. They are both active leaders in their schools. One of which I believe is class president. I was blown away by the energy and dedication they have going toward starting this new program. These are the kind of kids that give us hope as a Church. I am truly blessed to be a part of it. Also this Wednesday will be the first high school youth group meeting. It's going to just be a nice night of cooking out on the grill, playing some games and getting to know eachother. Please pray that it goes well.

Peace and all good things,
Jason