Helias in the morning; Sedalia in the evening

September 1, 2009, Bishop Gaydos was main celebrant at the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit at Helias High School. About 10 priests and approximately 832 students joined him along with many faculty and staff of Helias high school. The choir did a great job in leading the school in song; thanks to the fine work of the person who put the words on the projector, many mouths could be seen moving to their lips to the words. Hard to tell how many were actually singing, but it is an improvement from say 4 years ago. Bishop gave a fine homily and everyone seemed very upbeat at the first all-school mass of the year. I pray they have a good school year and draw closer to the Lord who leads them to himself through the frequent reception of the sacraments and much personal prayer. Hopefully many of the Helias students will be with me in prayer on September 9 at the Pastoral Center when we come together for a Holy Hour. Tomorrow, I return to Helias for my dual role as director of vocations and youth ministry. I have been praying about the presentation and think I have a direction for the conversation.

Today, I found out Fr. Shetler joins us on the vocation committee. How exciting! He certainly will bring a lot of wisdom and energy to our committee. God bless you Father! You're in my prayers; welcome to the adventure.

Also, I continued to work on more of the "unfinished" activities on the webpage.

Then, it was time to go to Sedalia for youth leader meeting of the deanery. A good discussion about all sorts of things: Life-Teen, Life-Teen core training, ND Vision, Steubenville conferences, CHRISTpower, Pro-life March, the Hispanic Youth Gathering this Saturday in Marshall, seminarians, and more. after dinner at Ryan's (can they please put more starch items on their menu and make it a little cooler in there; 65 degrees is so hot?) The company was great as well as our conversation.

Now, it is time to return to my new home of Eldon Rectory. Today I pray for all those who have made a Cursillo in our diocese and those who will make one soon. I also pray for those who have made CHIRP and those who will be participating in "Why Catholic." Please join me in prayer for these folks.