Marshall and Sweet Springs
Holy Cow! 38 slips of paper turned in for 29 names at Marshall and Sweet Springs. A vocation committee and youth group that attended meetings in the midst of an ice storm! Corey Lyon, seminarian from there (Read about him under "meet our seminarians") may just be the first in a long line of seminarians from Marshall and Sweet Springs. Youth who are excited and wanted information about both the pro-life march and ChristPower! Pro-life march information was given to them (if you want it, e-mail me and you will get it) and I told them the ChristPower information was not available yet, but when it was they would receive it. It was a very exciting week there. The junior high students responded well to the interviews and thoroughly enjoyed the Fishers of Men dvd as did the high school youth.
Marshall recntly spent money doing repairs to their school and renovating their church. It is a very attractive church sitting on some very nice grounds. Marshall is unique in that the school is not next to the church; yet it works for them. Marshall also has a group of college students who attend the parish. Hopefully some of them decide to look at the seminary or religious house of formation at some point.
At the parish open forum on vocations, we talked for a while about the importance of service for service sake (Gospel values) beginning in the primary grades. This gets them to live a life of other-centeredness so that the idea of a religious vocation is not so foreign to them when they are in junior high or high school. If we start asking in Junior High or High School to be living a life of other-centeredness but never pushed that in the primary grades, we are too late. What does it mean to be doing service for service sake? When a school has a penny war, have the penny war to raise the funds for some cause -- don't have the penny war so the winning class gets to have a pizza party, a trip to McDonalds or an ice-cream cone. Do it because the money needs to be raised. In other words, remove the external incentives and preach that this is what Jesus would do because these people are also in the Body of Christ. Get the youth to write cards to shut-ins, prisoners, and hospitalized. Have the youth leave the school grounds to go pick up garbage in the ditch, to rake the leaves of an elderly person nearby, to make a lunch for the needy at a nearby place that serves lunch; etc. Get them involved in the lives of those who would benefit from service and then don't give the students an external "me-centered" reward for doing it; do it with an internal "other centered" reward of helping others.
Another question asked during the junior high interviews: "Which is more important to you; money, helping people or being happy in life?" Helping people is the number one answer for almost half of the junior high students. Being happy in life is the other answer. Only twice has "money" been the second choice and never has it been the first choice. Kids want to help others. Kids want to be happy. Finding their true vocation will make them the happiest they can be. Helping people, something they think is important, needs to begin in the primary grades. What ways can you provide service activities to your children, to the primary grades in both PSR and Catholic School?
Marshall recntly spent money doing repairs to their school and renovating their church. It is a very attractive church sitting on some very nice grounds. Marshall is unique in that the school is not next to the church; yet it works for them. Marshall also has a group of college students who attend the parish. Hopefully some of them decide to look at the seminary or religious house of formation at some point.
At the parish open forum on vocations, we talked for a while about the importance of service for service sake (Gospel values) beginning in the primary grades. This gets them to live a life of other-centeredness so that the idea of a religious vocation is not so foreign to them when they are in junior high or high school. If we start asking in Junior High or High School to be living a life of other-centeredness but never pushed that in the primary grades, we are too late. What does it mean to be doing service for service sake? When a school has a penny war, have the penny war to raise the funds for some cause -- don't have the penny war so the winning class gets to have a pizza party, a trip to McDonalds or an ice-cream cone. Do it because the money needs to be raised. In other words, remove the external incentives and preach that this is what Jesus would do because these people are also in the Body of Christ. Get the youth to write cards to shut-ins, prisoners, and hospitalized. Have the youth leave the school grounds to go pick up garbage in the ditch, to rake the leaves of an elderly person nearby, to make a lunch for the needy at a nearby place that serves lunch; etc. Get them involved in the lives of those who would benefit from service and then don't give the students an external "me-centered" reward for doing it; do it with an internal "other centered" reward of helping others.
Another question asked during the junior high interviews: "Which is more important to you; money, helping people or being happy in life?" Helping people is the number one answer for almost half of the junior high students. Being happy in life is the other answer. Only twice has "money" been the second choice and never has it been the first choice. Kids want to help others. Kids want to be happy. Finding their true vocation will make them the happiest they can be. Helping people, something they think is important, needs to begin in the primary grades. What ways can you provide service activities to your children, to the primary grades in both PSR and Catholic School?
posted by Fr. Joe Corel at
9:03 AM
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