Incarnate Word

To be honest, I dreamed about a place like this when I was young. A place filled with people who wanted to love Jesus, who accepted me for who I was, who wanted the best for me, and thought that being holy was something to be admired.



A youth group.



Growing up in the middle of Kansas, I always wanted a community of people who loved Jesus and were less than my mother's age....although I love my mom, and her best friend...they are so wonderful, and I want to be just like them. As a sixteen year old, it was difficult to relate to their state in life as married women, to mine, as a single young person.



It was like when your big sister got a Barbie for her birthday...you knew someone who had exactly what you wanted, but you didn't have it, and you couldn't really go to the store and get it either. I had awesome opportunities to glimpse at what community life was, and yet, never had the community myself.



My college, the fantastic one and only Franciscan University of Steubenville, changed everything. I had community, people to challenge me, people to love me for who I was, people who loved Jesus and wanted more people to love Jesus. It was so wonderful!!

While attending, I always thought that I couldn't "handle" youth ministry....until I spent a summer at St. Mary's in Hudson, Ohio. They know how to love. And they loved me to pieces. I wanted to be a better person, I wanted to love the way they loved, I wanted to learn about Theology of the Body, I wanted to be even more holy...and stay there forever.


God had bigger plans....he brought me to a similar community in St. Louis - the Church of the Incarnate Word. Praise God. Let me just tell you these teens know how to love Jesus, and they know how to love me. They really are changing the world, and I have so much faith that they will change their families, change St. Louis, the United States, and the World. They've got it.

I wanted to share from time to time what I'm really passionate about - youth ministry - and things we do to get our teens to come to Mass, to come to a "Lifenight." Then, hopefully, I'll tell you what worked and didn't work with our teens. Maybe this can work in your youth group, maybe it won't...but you can decide!

This weekend we would love your prayers as we welcome the "new freshmen" into our high school program. These young people just graduated eighth grade and now have the opportunity to come on a retreat to discover what Incarnate Word is all about. I love that we get to spend the entire summer with them - loving them, inviting them on retreats, getting to know their names, their high schools, their personalities!! The retreat is called "T4" for Timothy 4, a chapter in the bible that speaks directly to the young people. To be specific; 1 Tim 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." How awesome that we welcome teens with this in mind. "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young!" Doesn't it just remind you of Pope John Paul II's call to youth? "Be not afraid!" Honestly, I don't get to be the biggest part of this retreat because the high school teens themselves lead the retreat - they give the talks, lead the small groups, etc. It's great to see them in the leadership position!!

Thanks for your prayers and have a delightful weekend!!