Hey guys,

What a crazy week we have been having. I find it literally unbelievable that we have had the last three days off of school. Being a yankee myself, we went to school regardless of the weather. I can honestly say that we probably only had one or two snow days my ENTIRE high school career, and believe me our weather was a hundred times worse.

So all this time out of the office has been different for me. My prayer time was a lot more of MY time, rather than sharing it with a lot of kids or co workers. To be honest it allowed me to look at the way I read scripture and the way I pray in a whole new light. I realized how big a difference there is between praying for yourself and praying with others.

The story of the multiplication of the loaves is a relatively well known if not famous story from scripture. The story of Christ walking to the apostles on water and calling Peter to him is, likewise, just as famous of a story. These two stories follow one another in Matthews account, however, there is another short line stuck in between which is easy for us to look over. “After doing so HE went up on the mountainside by himself to pray. When it was evening he was alone there.” Matthew 14: 23.

This one verse can get lost in between the two grand miracle stories it sits between, but it tells us something very interesting about Christ. He would spend his entire day performing miracles and teaching about His Father, but that was not His prayer. It was not His spirituality. He would still approach God on his own, by himself, to pray. He would still take time for Himself to go and pray.

We too need to make sure that we don’t let our daily routines become our spirituality. Youth group twice a week is not a prayer life. Mass every Sunday (maybe for some of you) is not a scripture study. For me it means that leading this activities does not constitute my own prayer life, just as participating in them doesn’t constitute yours. We need to spend our own time in prayer. We need to come before Christ. No breaks. No snow days. No excuses. Pray with Christ this week to the Father and read the scriptures. Even though we weren’t able to meet it is still important for you to take that time for yourself.

Becca and I will be praying for you this week.

God Bless,

Dominick

Hey guys,

This week we suffered the loss of one of our own, Jill Lawler.  Jill was a parent of one of my students at Bishop McGuinness and she was a passionately faithful woman, someone who devoted herself to the spiritual life of the school. She spent countless hours in prayer for our school, and even served as a guardian of the Eucharist during adoration so that we could offer adoration once a week to our students. Her death is a terrible loss for us, but also a tremendous gain for Christ.

1 Corinthians 15: 54 tells us, “when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’”.  This is a beautiful passage describing the Christian view of death, and how we should respond to it.  Death is a sadness that we all will have to suffer through, both through our own death and the passing of those we love. It is a part of the condition we are born into because of our sin. But because we have faith, because we believe, we can also approach death with HOPE.

During the mass we Catholics proclaim that “dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life”. This is the great mystery of our faith. Defeating death by succumbing to it. Gaining life by living. Truly living. How do WE truly live?

Mrs. Lawler truly lived. She spent her days reading scripture, praying, and simply loving those around her.  She, too, participates with Christ in destroying death because she lived her life for God. She, too, shall participate with Christ in new life becuase she truly lived.  She was perishable, yet she put on Christ, the imperishable; she was mortal, and has now put on immortality. And now death has no victory.

Say a prayer this week for your mother. God loves you,
Dominick

Hey guys,

Check out this amazing song by Matt Maher, I’m sure you will love it.

Hey Guys,

Well 2010 is here, and times they are a changing. I have officially been alive for 4 decades, which is really kind of scary.

We have a lot of really exciting things coming up for youth ministry over the next couple of months so GET PUMPED. We have a ski trip in just a few weeks, a men’s retreat in February, and lots of great youth group nights in between.

Most importantly is some updates to the website. We are hoping this will be a site that you guys can contribute to, check daily, and hopefully grow to be a useful tool for your faith and your life.

Remember guys, the most important thing is that GOD loves you. Don’t ever forget that. I can’t wait to see you all on Sunday, and we will talk more about what is going on then. You guys have a good weekend and GOD BLESS,

Dominick

Hey guys,

Are you getting excited? Christmas is only 9 days away! Here comes Santa Claus here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus lane!!! Not that any of us know what Santa Claus lane is anyways but oh well….More importantly here comes our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!! WHAT WHAT!!! That’s right my friends, he is on his way.

Of course, he is already here for us but advent is the time that we look back an appreciate what it would be like to anticipate a coming savior. Christ is already here with us, but for thousands of years people lived without knowing who Jesus was and what he wanted for us. Life is hard enough just trying to follow the example Jesus set for us, let alone trying to live a good life without an example.

Christ is here for you. In the end of Matthew Jesus told his disciples “Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).  Behold, Jesus Christ, the Lord of all of heaven and earth, is with you always. He is here for you.  He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you have been bad or good.  But there is a lot more on the line than presents or coal. Eternal happiness is what you have in store for you.  Remember Jesus has already chosen you, your life is about showing Jesus that you choose him.

Choose Jesus this holiday season. He is waiting for you and he loves you a lot more than some fat old elf who creepily sneaks into your house in the middle of the night.

Ad Jesum per Mariam,

Dominick

Hey guys,

As I sit down to write this post, I find myself distracted by the thousands of different things that fly through our minds during the holiday season. When are the leftovers from thanksgiving going to go bad? Who do I still have to get Christmas presents for? Am I going to get what I asked for? Do I have my travel plans set for Christmas? Are my parents going to make us get up early for mass this year or can I convince them to let us go to the Christmas eve mass? Is everything ready school-wise for Christmas break?

Tis the season to be jolly. Sometimes it seems like it would be more accurate to say tis the season to be busy. And when we get caught up in all the business, we sometimes forget what the season is for.  Now, I don’t want you to think this is going to be some public service announcement standard holiday message of “don’t get caught up in the commercialism”, though that message is important it is one that we have all heard before and have heard thousands of times. No, I want to focus on somethings else.

Christ was a giver. He lowered himself to be born in a stable amongst animals only praised by shepherds. The greatest king the world has ever known. The greatest ruler we would ever see. The prophesied savior of the world. He was given no grand entrace, he humbled himself to the service of others.

I want to share a story with you about a local student who heard of a refugee family who joined their parish community in Greensboro.  The family had nothing.  The student asked that for his 16th birthday his friends would bring presents for this family and he was able to give each of the seven children their own toys and $200 to the father. This was the single greatest act of kindness the entire family had ever known. This was their HOLYday.

Be Christ to the world this holiday season. Celebrate Christmas by being Christ for others. And remember, the most important thing is that God loves you.

Dominick

Hey guys,

This years Ski Trip will be held on Saturday, February 6th, 2010.  We will be joining with other Catholic Churches in the Triad for one giant trip, so it is going to be a great chance to make friends and meet a lot of new people and share your faith with those around you. We will be heading to Winterplace ski resort in West Virginia and the trip will be leaving at 5:00a.m. and returning at 9:30p.m. The cost of the trip is:

$135 for skiers ($15 off if you bring your own equipment)
$105 for snowboarders
$17 optional cost for lessons

You must also bring money for breakfast and a bag lunch.  This trip is going to be a blast and I hope we will see you all out there. We will need to have you signed up with a $40 non-refundable deposit by our youth group meeting on Wednesday, December 3rd in order to reserve a spot for you on the trip. I hope that you will all be able to make it.  Some scholarship money is available.

Please feel free to give me a call with any questions you might have. 404.2421

Dominick

Hey guys,

Thanks to all of you who came out to last nights Going Deeper Retreat Reunion.  The night was a blast and it was great to have all those of you who do not normally join us for our youth group meetings.

Last night we talked a lot (in between pizza and slo-mo ninja) about prayer.  Prayer is so absolutely essential to our continued faith in Jesus. Prayer is a whole hearted faith response to God.  Notice we don’t just mean sitting down and praying an Our Father, but that our everyday life should be lived as a prayer. Whatever you do, do it for God.

St. Paul told us that we should “pray at all times”.  St. Paul meant by this that we need to live everything we do in prayer.  However, we also need at times to be praying intentionally. We need to sit down and spend some  time with God, just like we would a friend. Find out how you pray best, through song, traditional prayers, just speaking to God, meditation, whatever it is. Figure out what works for you and do it. Do it everyday.

I will continue to pray for all of you. Please continue to pray for me. See you at our meeitngs this week,

Dominick

Praise be to GOD!!! This weekend was amazing.  God’s grace and mercy and compassion was soooo aparent this weekend and we give him all the honor and glory for making it one of the best weekends of our lives.  Now we just have to figure out how to keep that faith alive for the rest of the time!

There are two sure-fire ways keep the faith alive: prayer and scripture.  These two beautiful gifts from our loving savior have been keeping the faith alive for 2,000 years! I heard a speaker once say, “If your head hits the pillow and you realize you haven’t cracked open the Lord’s book yet today, then get your butt out of bed and do it!”  He is absolutely right.  Pray everyday. Read scripture everyday.

Reading scripture and praying are the ways we talk to God, and without talking to Him we can forget Him.  Think about it in terms of one of your close friends, if you don’t spend time with them, talk to them, laugh with them, basically LIVE with them, that friendship will eventually dwindle and die out.  Don’t let that happen to your friend Jesus.  Get to know Him more everyday.  Laugh with Him, talk to Him, spend time with Him in mass and reading scripture, LIVE WITH JESUS.

I will be praying for you guys all week, and I can’t wait for this Sunday’s youth group meeting as we will be having the Going Deeper Retreat Fall 2009 reunion!!!  Come out at 6:30pm on Sunday night and we will have free pizza and drinks, fun, friendship, prayer, and the opportunity to recap the first week back to the UNREAL world.  Come see everyone again, lean on your community for support, and keep alive that feeling of love for Jesus Christ.

God bless you all,

Dominick

Hey guys,

I know you were all bummed out when the service project was rained out to beautify the Marian garden next to the Church, but you are in luck because we have rescheduled the service project for Saturday, October 17th at 8a.m.

I’m sure you will notice the later hour for the start time, one fortunate side of pushing the service project back was that we will be able to start later in the morning.  It should take us about 2-3 hours to complete all the work as long as we get plenty of people to help, so put on your work shoes and bring out a rake and shovel and come prepared to work for a few hours.  It should be a lot of fun and a great opportunity to give something back to the Church.

God Bless,

Dominick