Being the example God wants you to be

Hello, my name is Joseph Marak and I am a senior at Sacred Heart High School in Salina Kansas.  It is a 2A school with about 50 people in each class, so everyone knows each other. I stay busy during the school year with sports, choir things, and our musical we put on once a year. My faith is a very big part of my busy life.  I have participated in totus tuus and prayer and action throughout my high school career and have grown in my faith over the years as well. I have grown up in a very Catholic family which has helped me a lot in my life so far.

Like I said, my faith is a big part of my life, so I want people to know that about me. Obviously my friends know that I take my faith seriously but I try to make the fact that I love Jesus known to others who do not know me very well, but know who I am. I don't do this by running around yelling I love Jesus and always preaching the gospel to everyone I talk to, but by doing the little things. There are lots of little things you can do that will make a difference in someone's day in a good way. Opening doors for others, talking to the person who annoys everyone at school and does not have very many friends, and just showing kindness in general to everyone is the best thing you can do.

Being an upperclassmen, underclassmen seem to look up to me, along with the other upperclassmen. So doing the little nice things that could make someone's day can affect more than just the person you did something nice for. Lets say I see someone who is down and I go to see what is wrong and try to comfort them and it makes a positive difference in their day and a freshman who looks up to me happens to see the whole thing. So that freshman helps someone who dropped their books and their friend sees them and does something nice for someone else and so on. I unknowingly made a difference in several people's lives all because I cared for someone else. Lets say instead of talking to the person who was down I walked by and pretended like they were not there and the freshman saw this. Later when the person drops their books and the freshman just walks by and that person happens to be late for class and gets a detention. All because I was too cool to ask what was bothering the first person.

Being a good example in Mass and school is important too. If I screw around with my friends during Mass and everyone thinks it is funny, that will lead to a lot of people screwing around in Mass and not having respect for Jesus in the Eucharist. But if I sing in Mass and pay a attention, that might lead an underclassmen to realize that participating in Mass is not as lame as his friends like to tell him it is. Then he may wander what it is that makes me so interested and look more deeply into his faith and realize how awesome it is. Not screwing around in class is important to being a good example as well because it shows the people who look up to you that you have respect for authority and they should too.

So in conclusion, you should always live out your Catholic faith to the best of your abilities because you never know who is watching, and you may not think it, but someone always is. So do good things in Mass and in day to day life and people will notice. Hopefully they will follow your example and deepen their faith and try to make the world a better place.

How To Go From Pride To Humility

Hey Jesus lovers!My name is Samantha Hollerich and I am a Jr. at TCHS in Tipton, Ks. I am excited to get to meet more and more of the youth this year as I begin my first year of participation on the Diocesan Youth Council! I am definitely what you think of when you say “social butterfly”! I participate in just about every sport that i am offered at TCHS since we have a small school count this year with only 22 total students! Being successful is always one of my top priorities but so is maintaining my own humble faith life. I want to encourage you all to work everyday on taking your pride, and turning it into HUMILITY! I hope that with our leadership in the diocese that we can encourage more teens to go out and be fully active in doing God’s work! Pope Francis told the youth at WYD- MAKE A MESS! So when I get messy, I make sure we go all out! Not just a little smudge, we go diving through the mud!

In my life, staying humble can be one of my biggest challenges. Pride is always knocking on my doorstep! I have learned that the pride that you have in you continually tries to pull you away and separate you from the world. Losing friends because you can’t get past the fact that you aren't always going to be on top, is going to be a consequence until you can find within yourself to mature in the sight of HUMILITY.  HUMILITY is being open to the world, and seeing oneself in a much larger context. Humility is closer to reality.

Now here are 4 QUICK AND EASY steps to follow if you wanna be humble within minutes!!...... Oh, just kidding! Humility isn't something that is going to come to you over night, you have to take many months, days, and hours, maybe even years, before you can be satisfied with your own humble self. It will take practice. It is not an easy task. But have confidence in yourself that you can achieve this goal. I have faith in you. 

 You should really start to see yourself as 1 in 7.125 Billion people on this Earth. It takes more than you to make the world go round. We cannot function alone. You have a very unique role here on Earth! Instead of thinking about how what always makes you happy, sacrifice every moment you can to make someone else smile! Go out of your way to show someone a simple act of random kindness! To me, sacrificing has become my new tool to making myself happy. Seeing the smile I can put onto another’s face makes me feel like I am doing the right thing, like I really am loving the way we were taught to love. Many teens these days really try to focus on “being happy”. I see it everyday. They have a sight in their minds of real happiness. For example: Cute boyfriend or Girlfriend, money to spend on cute clothes, or even simply having an iPhone to show off to friends. The key to being happy is none of those, it is to be completely humble of oneself. Once you reach this, you are set.

C. S. Lewis – “Humility is not thinking less of oneself but to think of one’s self less.”

Pope Francis is a prime example of the type of leader you want to be. He leads by humility. Have you ever seen him take all the glory onto himself? Or has he given it to someone who put in just the same if not more effort? My point is, we should seek to lead by encouraging and praising others for their deeds instead of taking the credit for just "coaching". When others see you being God's humble servant, they look and wish to be like that. They see the peacefulness in your heart. If you can be humble and be a leader by example, many more will begin to follow in line. If you ever need someone to look up to, or to compare yourself to, just look to Pope Francis. He is one of the greatest examples of Humility. 

If you consider yourself a leader when it comes to most group activities you are involved with, humility is extremely difficult to maintain! How many times have argued with your peers about a topic that you are being stubborn about, and not even listening to their input or ideas?  How sure are you that everyone else’s ideas are wrong? You do not always have to be right. To me this is the hardest thing for me to accomplish. I love too much to be right all the time and to take credit for great ideas and accomplishments. I have argued with my friends only to leave the conversation angry and feeling like i am in the wrong. This is where i had to learn to step back from my high podium and see that the world doesn't revolve around me. I always ended up going back and apologizing and compromising and it always seemed to be more fun and to work better that way! Who knew?!  To be humble means to be appreciative of other’s opinion. Learn to listen first before you speak. Step back, and be apart of the group and try to be “among” them instead of “on top” of them. I always think that my ideas are the best way to go about things. I assume that I should always take the leadership position, but now seeing how it doesn't work so great, I am helping myself become humble by listening and being thankful that I have others around me with great ideas and gifts to offer! Really be thankful! Respect what others can do for you!

Being humble takes a lot of practice, so you might as well start trying hard now that way it only can get easier! 

The key to humility is to focus less on yourself, and focus more on others and how you relate with them.

A humble heart, will be rewarded with happiness. 
Cant wait to see you all at Convention this year!! Have a blessed year! Stay Humble! :)

"New Year's" Resolutions

My name is Anna Hegarty, and I am from the East Vicariate. I was born and raised in Manhattan and have gone to St. Thomas More Parish all my life. From Kindergarten to 8^th grade, I attended Manhattan Catholic Schools, and freshman year I transitioned to the public high school. The most difficult part was going from my little class of 20, who were practically my second family, to a class of over 400. It was also hard not being able to practice my faith openly every day. But I joined the youth group at St. Thomas More, and found some new friends, along with some old ones too, who I could count on to be good influences to myself and our peers. Going to public schools has also allowed me to find new ways to show my faith in ways without even trying. I love coaching Special Olympics and helping out with the special education kids at my school whenever I can. When I am having a bad day, I can look to them and see God’s love in their smile and know I can count on him to take care of everything.

With a new year, comes those dreaded “New Year’s Resolutions”. Even though we may not express our goals out loud to others, we all have something in mind that we want to accomplish or change in our lives. Some are better than others at following through on their resolutions, and I can tell you from experience, I am not one of the better ones. I always mess up or forget about my goals and then tell myself, “maybe next year”, but I realized it’s called a “new year’s resolution," not because you are supposed to accomplish it on January 1^st, but because we have all year to do it. If you mess up, just start over and try again. It’s just like with our faith, if we mess up or falter, just start again. God doesn’t just want us to give up when it gets hard or when we fail, he wants us to keep going and strive to be the best WE can be.

Hebrews 3:13

"Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today," so that none of you may grow hardened by sin"

Keep Christ in Christmas

            It’s December and you know what that means, Christmas!!! As we all know Christmas was a holiday originated to be a day of giving. Last month was November, and what's usually associated with November? That’s right, Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks to the Lord. However, as years and years go by, the more these two holidays, and other Christian based holidays, are being disregarded for their religious significance.

            Hello y’all (that was not meant to be a stereotypical Kansan slang term, but to be a gender neural salutation (and now you might be wondering why I included this brief explanation, but honestly I don’t know (for the record I use the terms “y’all” and “you guys” interchangeably (I would like to apologize for starting out like this, but I promise I think that this post gets better))))! My name is Corbin Sedlacek, and I represent the East Vicariate all the way in Manhattan (KS). I am 17 years old, and I am junior at Manhattan High School. I am involved with many extracurricular and co-curricular activities; such as NHS (National Honor Society), BPA (Business Professionals of America), Student Council (Student Body Vice President), as well as a few others. And I am very actively involved in Seven Dolor’s CYO and the church as a whole.

            Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a day to give thanks to the Lord for family, friends, opportunities, all the little things we take for granted, and for just about everything else. The day is, usually, filled with family, food, and football (or whatever your family likes to watch or play). The day that follows is almost a complete opposite that we know as Black Friday. Black Friday brings low prices as well as the news stories about people getting trampled, various accidents, and many statistics over the numbers of arrested shoppers. This “holiday” is all about paying the, lowest price for material items. It is bad enough that this day follows a day to give thanks, but Black Friday has been starting closer and closer to midnight. This year, Walmart, and a few other stores, had special Black Friday sales ON Thanksgiving. This is sickening how a day to give thanks is be overlooked by the materialistic society that we live in. Eventually, Black Friday will probably turn into Black Week, and Thanksgiving will be a thing in the past.

            The true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But if you were to ask any little kid “Who does Christmas celebrate?” or “What is Christmas all about?,” the odds them saying “Jesus” for either is very slim. The answers you will most likely hear are “Santa Claus” and “presents.” We all know that Santa is an old man with a white beard who lives in the North Pole with his elves, and they make and deliver toys for all the children in the world. Stories about who Santa really is go back from Saint Nicholas to a Norse god. The modern Santa figure we all know was created by Thomas Nast during the 1880’s and was derived from St. Nicholas. However, some children could care less about Santa and only care about getting presents. But hey, at least Santa is based off of St. Nick right? Our society started materialized Christmas in the 1880’s when St. Nick became Santa Claus, and kids began focusing on what they were going to get as presents. We need to trade receiving for giving, Santa Claus for Jesus Christ, watching holiday special for Mass. We need to return to the true meaning of Christmas which is the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

            It is sickening how both of these holidays are becoming more and more materialized and commercialized when, in reality, we really need to be going back to their Christian roots. I firmly believe that we desperately need more religious values in our society. Although it may sound cliché, we need to remember “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” and to “Keep Christ in Christmas.” 

   

Just Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

 

Hello from the West Vicariate! My name is Olivia Wetter and I’m from Sacred Heart Parish in Colby. I am currently a senior at Colby High School. At school, I’m involved in tennis, band, NHS, StuCo, Cosmic Crayon, and Young Humanitarians. I am also involved in many church activities including CYO. I have been raised Catholic, but I wasn’t until high school that I really started learning about my faith.

    I was confirmed as an eighth grader and when my freshman year rolled around, I decided to continue going to faith formation on Wednesday nights. However, this was really the extent of my faith. I wasn’t really in it and by sophomore year I had stopped going to almost everything. This decision took a toll on my relationship with God. Which means there really wasn’t one. That summer, my friend Morgan convinced me to go to Prayer and Action. Prayer and Action was definitely the turning point in my faith. I saw people who loved God and I wanted that too. I knew I needed to change. My junior year brought me back to my Catholic faith. I made sure to attend Mass, as well as CYO events. We met on Wednesday nights as a small group of junior and senior girls. Along with this close relationship with the other girls, my relationship with God grew stronger too. Now, I am in my senior year of high school and still trying to strengthen that relationship.

    During this last year I rediscovered a story in the third chapter of Daniel in the Bible. The story goes like this: King Nebuchadnezzar built a huge gold statue. He ordered everyone to bow down and worship the statue when music was played. Anyone who disobeyed these orders would immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Now, Daniel had three friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Due to their Jewish beliefs, they refused to bow down to the false idol. The king brought the men before him and told them if they continued to refuse to worship the statue, they would be thrown into the furnace. Then he asked them, “Do you think there is any god that can save you?” (Daniel 15) They answered, “Your Majesty, we will not try to defend ourselves. If the God whom we serve is able to save us from the blazing furnace and from your power, then he will. But even if he doesn’t, Your Majesty may be sure that we will not worship your god, and we will not bow down to the gold statue that you have set up.” (Daniel 16-18) With this statement, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the men be thrown in the furnace.

These guys were incredible!!! They had so much faith in God and because of this faith, they were going to worship Him no matter what happened. They knew God had the power to save them, but even if He didn’t, they would still praise Him. Isn’t that how we need to be? Trusting in God, no matter what circumstances we are in. These men are the perfect example of how we need to live our lives. They led their lives the way God wants us all to. He knows we may face hard times, but He hopes we turn to Him and trust in His plan for us regardless. Personally, I like to turn to this passage when I’m struggling in my life. It helps reassure me that God has a plan and I just need to be patient and trust in that plan. He has a plan for all of us. Whatever may happen, just remember to trust that God will help you through it.

God Bless!

Olivia

Also, if you’d like to find out what happened to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, open your Bible and turn to Daniel 3:19!

Expecting the Unexpected

Hello readers of our Gentle Wisdom blog! I am Mika Ptacek from Ellsworth, KS. I am a senior at Ellsworth High School who participates in tennis and a lot of music activities! I am also a part of St. Bernard's CYO and I represent the East Central Vicariate. As most of you probably don't know me, I will tell you part of how I've come to be the person I am and one of the important lessons I've learned.

I have lived in Ellsworth all of my life and have gone to the same church for all of those 17 years. The crazy part of this though is that I have grown to love this church and our universal church more and more as I've grown older. As a kid, going to church was just something I had to do every Sunday. When I got to middle school though, I finally started to change my tune. I went to Jr. CYO Camp for the first time ever and was exposed to all of those holy people. I had never really thought about what I could do for God. I had always thought of Him as a guardian over my shoulder, someone I didn't really need to think about because they were always there. However, I saw my counselors leading lives full of devotion and love for God and it made me realize something.....I wanted more from life. I wanted what they had.

Sometimes though, we get glimpses of what we have yet to do but are not ready for it. And that is what happened to me. I wasn't quite ready to take the steps I needed to make my leap of faith. However, I didn't just stop growing in my faith. I continued to learn more about our catholic faith in my religion classes and still went to church every Sunday. I took part in all of the church activities and ministries that I could, and I think that is what helped prepare me for the experiences I would gain as a catholic in high school.

Now there are people who have wonderful stories of how they had their specific 'come to Jesus" moments, but I don't really think I am one of them. In fact, the way God revealed Himself to me was not contained in a moment. It was over time, extremely beautiful, and in a way I had not expected. When I became a high schooler, I automatically joined the high school CYO and loved it from the git-go. It was the perfect way for me to practice my faith and meet others who share the same faith. I got to experience CYO convention and meet some of my catholic friends that I have today; people who inspire me and whom I love dearly! I kept going to CYO throughout high school and all the activities involved, but it would take NCYC my junior year for me to finally understand part of the message God had been trying to send me.

As I previously explained, I had learned so much about the catholic faith from the people around me and all the things I had been a part of, but NCYC just blew all that I thought I knew out of the water. I had finally matured enough to understand what the speakers I listened to were talking about, and I started to realize that I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing after all. I realized that I had been sharing my life with God in all the things I did, but I wasn't sharing all of my heart. After reflecting on this for awhile and going to confession, I started new and decided from then on that I was going to step back and let God take the reigns of my life, because let's face it. He has the reigns anyway so why not watch Him work His magic? 

At the next group session in the Lucas Oil Stadium where the whole convention was gathered, I saw how many young catholics were there and thought of all the similar experiences we must have in common and all our experiences that are different. There are people who have had rough lives, who come from nothing, and rose to the occasion and turned their lemons into lemonade. There are people who are blessed specially to be God's handmaids and just don't know it yet. And there are so many more who don't know what's ahead, but what all of these people had in common was that they took the time and spent the money to come to NCYC. They made the extra effort to grow closer to God. I thought of all of this in that one session and realized that each and every one of the people there was inspiring to me. I realized that in opening my heart to God, I was opening my heart to love so much more and appreciate all of the people around me.

After this experience at NCYC, I began to pray more to God and to really participate in celebrating my love for Him in the mass. I got to experience CYO convention as a whole new catholic and I am now experiencing a whole new side of our diocese's youth program as part of the DYC. It's super exciting to spend  more time with my fellow council members and plan things for our diocese's youth!! I know none of this would have been possible if I had kept myself closed off from God. I now see the world with a new set of eyes that have really helped me to continue to grow even more in my faith. I can honestly say my life is so much more rich now that I have taken a step back to let God lead me where He will. (although that is not to say that I don't sometimes try to take back some control hahaha) At the end of the day though, I have learned that part of growing as a person of faith is to let God do what He does best and to understand that you can't always expect the unexpected. God's will will find you when you're ready.

I hope this made sense to you readers and that you continue to grow on your journey towards Christ!

Here's to expecting the unexpected! :)

-MIka

A Call To Serve

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace"  

-1 Peter 4:10

Hi everyone! My name is Matea Gregg and I represent the West Central Vicariate(: I am 17 years old and am a senior at Thomas More Prep Marian Jr Senior High School. I was born and currently live in Hays, KS and go to St. Nicks where I am an active member in our CYO and other church ministries. My family and friends would tell you that I never stop talking, am always smiling, and that I am extremely outgoing! I am involved in SO many clubs and activities at school but to name a few  would be STUCO, Pop Singers, forensics, the plays and musicals, and I am also an ambassador(:

I am a cradle Catholic and have always been involved in my parish, but soon after I started school at TMP, the catholic high school in Hays, I found that I didn't know as much about our faith as I thought. I had just been going through the motions.  I would sit in religion class every Wednesday and not really get a lot out of it.  In church I knew all the prayers and responses and when to sit or stand, but what I didn't know were the important things. I don't think I was doing what God wanted me to do, because I never wanted to share my gifts with others, and was afraid to show my faith. I needed to get excited! I needed to let people know how much I LOVED being Catholic! That was when I realized that maybe I should stop sitting back...I needed to be active and listen and ask questions. There was SO MUCH more to our faith than just going to church every Sunday and I wanted everyone around me to know that.

When CYO started that year I had a new mind set about learning more and getting involved.  We did service projects and other activities throughout the year that I was always more than ready to be a part of. I loved the feeling I got by helping others and found myself volunteering to help out all the time! At school, in my parish, or in the community I was all over it. Over the years I have continued this love for helping others and I received the service award as a Freshman and as a Sophomore. It took that one step of going out of my way to help someone, asking nothing in return to finally realize that what I really need to do to show others our faith..was to help them and share my talents with them!

I think one way we can grow closer to God and the people around us is through acts of service. We know that God wants us to share our time, talent, and treasures so why wouldn't you want to sign up to greet at mass, help your elderly neighbor with their yard, or even help around school. There are SO MANY kinds of service opportunities all around you every day. The feeling that you get from helping people is one that will give you a happiness that you can't get anywhere else. Simply going out of your way for someone will help you grow not only as a person, but also grow more like Christ. 

At TMP we are required to have 10 hours of service every quarter. To me this is as simple as riding a bike because I am involved not only in my church but in my school and community. I know sometimes when I am out doing my part in service there are many people there who are just sitting around waiting for the time to pass. They don't even try to help and are often more of a burden than a help. Taking part in projects and volunteering teaches us many things like how to be compassionate and understanding. I want to briefly touch on the 4 ways you can be involved in service.

One way is in your church. Helping with mass is one of the easiest ways for you to be seen in your parish. If you are like me and have a love for music then you should be up there cantering, playing piano, or helping with the music planning. If you are tone deaf and have no music abilities DON'T WORRY(: You can always be a greeter, an alter server, a reader, or even take up the gifts! There is no reason for us to keep our talents hidden from our parish. Along with helping with the mass you should try to be active in your CYO. You will have the chance to do service projects all year long and even get to meet some new people along the way!

Another way is in your school. You might not think of it as service to help set up for a school dance or with other school activities, but it is! Sharing your time and being a helping hand is most definitely service. It might be the easiest way to serve others because so many of you are probably involved in many activities and clubs. So sign up to help out around school, be a part of fundraisers, or even help your classmates who struggle in a subject that you excel in! Always be looking for a way to make your school a better place(:

        All of my second graders that I helped during Totus Tuus this summer

Next we have your Community. From helping with the food pantry, to mowing your neighbors lawn, or even shoveling off driveways when it snows there are many ways to help out in your community. One simple act of kindness can be service. Open the door for people when you are entering a building, donate clothes to the coat drive, buy angel tree gifts around Christmas, or pick up a piece of trash on the sidewalk! My favorite way to do this kind of service is Prayer and Action! I have gone to P&A 3 years in a row and it is by far my favorite part of the summer. Its an amazing program and I hope that many of you get to be a part of it sometime in your life! Through this kind of service I have learned that the smallest things can make the biggest difference.

 Paining a house during Prayer and Action 

Lastly we have your family. This one is really important. Chores....We all have them don't we? Why not do them without being asked? Or even go above and beyond and do extra just so your parents don't have to do as much! While you're at it you can also help out your grandparents or other family members. Family is forever...make sure they know that you care(: Be there to help if they are asking you to or not!

As I get older I will always be involved in service. Not just because I think it is important, but because it is something I enjoy and look forward to. I hope that I gave you some ideas on how to get involved and be of service to others and hope you learned a little bit about me! I'm not very good at the whole writing thing...BUT hope you all enjoyed my blog and I CAN'T WAIT to see you all at convention(:

 I want to leave you with this quote from Mother Teresa- "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." 

God Bless, go out and share your TIME, TALENT, and TREASURES!

-Matea