Thursday, May 31, 2012

Theology of the Body interview in Portuguese

Here is an interview (dubbed in Portuguese) for Ecclesia, kind of the Portuguese EWTN, with Peter Colosi while he was here. Unfortunately they use the term "Natural methods of contraception", which is incorrect because if it's natural it's not contraception. But hey, this is still pretty new in Portugal! 
(link: http://agencia.ecclesia.pt/cgi-bin/minhaecclesia.pl?v=3166)


Here on Youtube, it goes from 3:20 to 8:00...




 
Also, here is an article about one of the conferences he gave at a local parish:

...All in preparation for the IV International Theology of the Body Symposium in Fatima from June 13-16, 2013! Woohoo! 

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Peter Colosi at the Seminary of Caparide

I've posted Peter Colosi's conference at the Catholic University of Lisbon, but here is another talk (the same one, but adapted to seminarians) at the Seminary of Caparide, this time with Portuguese translation: 




Also, here is my post at IgnitumToday this month called "Widowhood: Dating for Eternity": http://www.ignitumtoday.com/2012/05/30/widowhood-dating-for-eternity/

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In communion

Peter Colosi left Portugal yesterday morning. And our little group, which had been rushing him from one conference to the next during an intense week, was very sad to see him go. This weekend was so beautiful and I was so happy not only to spend it with Peter, but also with my friends that are part of the group. It was so special knowing my friend was in tune with my feelings and that another would say "Juuuulie" when I was being a little mean to a person I have a hard time getting along with. It was amazing to laugh together at the same kind of humor. It was especially amazing to pray alongside each other at the most beautiful Pentecost vigil and feel totally in communion. I had no idea such an amazing convent existed in Portugal, much less so close to Lisbon! 

The pictures are of Peter and a priest arriving by bike for lunch, us at Portinho de Arrabida beach, the simplest yet most beautiful dinner prepared for us by the Monjas de Belem (that live in Setubal), Pentecost Vigil with these incredible sisters and Pope John Paul II's statue at Igreja da Encarnacao in downtown Lisbon. 



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Seminarians and little shepherd friends

This week has been really emotionally charged for me. Important things have been happening... like Theology of the Body in Portugal!... and that's important not only for Portugal but for me. It's hard to let go and enjoy the roller coaster ride, with its highs and lows. 

I love these pictures of seminarians crowding around Peter Colosi after he gave a conference on Theology of the Body at their seminary in Caparide last night. No one asked questions during the question and answer time... which is always my favorite part of conferences!... but then they all wanted to talk to him afterwards. 

I also love the pictures of a beautiful birthday cake one of my "little shepherd" friends surprised my other "little shepherd" friend with today on her birthday. In the cafeteria of my old university. It was a special cake for a super special person and I really do hope her year is extra blessed. 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Theology of the Body introduction conference

Peter Colosi, PhD (peterjcolosi.com) is in Lisbon for a week helping organize the IV International Theology of the Body Symposium (tobinternationalsymposia.com). The Catholic University of Lisbon (my alma mater!) agreed to invite him for a conference there, that took place this past Monday evening. My favorite quote from the facebook event page was "finally, there is something like this at the university!" And I really think it was very important. A lot of people came, they sat on the floor and stood by the door, and they were all different ages and different types of people. Here is the video... it's an hour and a half, but it's so worth it. And you get to see yours truly presenting! :)


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Jump start

This was possibly one of the most intense, electrifying, fast-paced, surprising, nerve-wracking yet amazing weekends ever. For several reasons... but one of them is just a lot of things happened! A confirmation, Lisbon's March for Life (more on that later), my sister's birthday, my first Theology of the Body talk with my boyfriend to a parish youth group, a dinner to plan the IV International Theology of the Body Symposium and a Theology of the Body conference at the Catholic University of Lisbon to prepare it! (more on that later too)

Thankfully, the weekend started off on the right foot, with sacraments and friends. And that DEFINITELY was what made the difference! 

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Ascension Sunday


They only see us by João César das Neves

The day after Christ ascended into Heaven, some had gathered in a house. Thomas, laughing to himself, said: "This Church thing, that the Lord told us to build, can't work!"
Magdalene, who was close, asked, surprised: "Why do you say that?" He answered: "Well don't you see? He left and we stayed. People come to us looking for God, but they'll only see us. He could've stayed here or left, at least, some angels. Instead, he only left us. This just can't work." And he laughed again. 
Magdalene asked: "If you really think it won't work, why are you so pleased?" Thomas laughed and answered: "I didn't say it's not going to work. I said it can't work. Don't you see that this idea to leave us alone is exactly proof that the Church can only be His idea?! It's so typical that the Lord would want to show Himself through us, and not directly. The Church can't work. It will work, because it's not only us here alone. He's also here, as He said. But no one sees him. Except through us."
You're right!" said Magdalene. "Only the Lord would think of making His kingdom through us. Imagine how many people will look for God and desire to come to Him, but refuse the Church, because they only see us. We're not God. There will be many who believe in Christ, but don't believe in His Church, because it's composed of men. And they won't understand that we never wanted things to be like this. He wanted it. I feel sorry for them, because I understand them well. I understand that they not like me or you. But they forget that, in the Church, it's not me or you that count, but the Lord. Only he who loves the Lord very much can understand the Church, because the Church is Him."
Thomas continued: "Because of this they will disdain us and persecute us. There will be those that disdain us for being poetical and idealists, like John, and those that will attack us for being pragmatic and efficient, like Matthew. They'll criticize us for being expansive like Phillip, or serious like Bartholomew, for being strict like James or tolerant like Peter, involved in politics, like Simon, our uninterested in the world, like Andrew. Some will persecute the Church for being poor and living with the poor, and other will acuse it because some of us are rich, like Joseph of Arrhythmia, or influential, like Nicodemus. They'll criticize us for not knowing how to use money well to help the poor and, on the other hand, they'll criticize us for managing it too carefully. In so much of this criticism there will be truth, because what you see of the Church is us. Some will even persecute us in the name of the Most High. Remember what the Lord said: "They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour - is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. (John 16:2)" "Don't forget that there are those that will condemn us precisely because of the arguments and injustices among us," said Magdalene. "If we had fights while the Lord was here, like that time we wanted to know who would be the greatest, there will certainly be many arguments and fights in the future. We're human, the same as everyone else. The only difference is that we bring in our unworthy hands an unimaginable treasure. He left us this treasure, but he didn't leave us guards nor safe. Just us and the treasure."
John, that had followed the conversation in silence, intervened to say: "We're here like the Mother of our Lord, Mary was, pregant in that small house lost in Galilee."
They were silent. 
It was John who spoke again: "What I'm most disappointed about is that many will think that the Church is only an attitude and moral rules, of loving your neighbor and helping the poor. Many that will join us, some with very good intentions, will think that."
Bartholomew was startled and asked: "Do you really think that's possible? But the Lord spoke so clearly when he said we'd have to 'be born again' and have a 'new life'. Do you really think it's possible that someone can belong to the Church only to live their old life better?! How could they understand the Lord's words?"
John smiled sadly and answered: "Many will say that the 'new life' is a metaphor that the Lord used to mean being good, helping the poor and social change. They won't understand that that isn't a new life, but one of the signs of a new life that we have in the Lord. It's the most visible and important sign, but it won't mean anything if we aren't born again, everyday, in Christ. Many of the struggles Mary Magdalene talked about will come from this. This was the sin that killed Him."You're right", answered Bartholomew. "That was Judas's worst sin: thinking that the Lord came just to bring justice to the world, help society and help the poor. And if Jusdas, that spoke so many times to the Lord and lived with us for so long, committed that sin, many others will do the same." Bartholomew lowered his head and was silent. 
Magdalene said: "There will be those who will measure the Church's success in numbers, beause she will also have that type of success. But that doesn't matter. How can you measure light by the number of lightbulbs, because what matters is the Sun."
At that moment Peter cam in. He brought with him a bag with some fish, bread and wine for their meal. Magdalene and Thomas got up to help him and she explained what they had been talking about. 
Peter, laughing, asked if that wasn't just another one of Thomas's subtleties, that he'd never understand. 
Thomas replied: "I have unlimited trust in the Lord. My doubts are only about our strength and capacity to follow Him."
Magdalene asked Peter: "But you turst in our capaticy, don't you Peter?" At that moment a rooster crowed. 
Peter smiled, sat down at the table and said, calmly: 
I don't trust our strength even one bit. In that, I have even more doubts than Thomas. What I have is so much trust in the Lord that I think He can build His Church even with our total incapacity to understand Him and follow Him."


Só nos vêem a nós
João César das Neves DN, 5 de Abril de 1999

No dia seguinte a Cristo ter subido ao Céu, estavam alguns reunidos numa casa. Tomé, rindo baixinho, afirmou: "Isto da Igreja, que o Senhor disse para construirmos, não pode funcionar!"
Madalena, que estava perto, perguntou-lhe surpreendida: "Porque dizes isso?" Ele respondeu: "Então não vês? Ele foi-se e nós ficámos. As pessoas vêm ter connosco à procura de Deus, mas só nos vêem a nós. Ele podia ter ficado cá ou ter deixado, ao menos, alguns anjos. Em vez disso, deixou-nos só a nós. Isto não pode mesmo funcionar." E Tomé deu outra gargalhada.
Madalena perguntou-lhe: "Se achas mesmo que não vai funcionar, porque estás tão satisfeito?" Tomé riu de novo e respondeu: "Eu não disse que não vai funcionar. Disse que não pode funcionar. Não vês que esta ideia de nos deixar sozinhos é mesmo a prova de que a Igreja só pode ser uma ideia d'Ele?! É tão típico do Senhor querer mostrar-se através de nós, e não directamente. A Igreja não pode funcionar. Vai funcionar, porque não estamos cá só nós. Ele também cá está, como disse. Mas a Ele ninguém o vê. A não ser através de nós."
"Tens razão!", disse Madalena. "Só o Senhor se lembraria de fazer o seu reino através de nós. Quantas pessoas andarão à procura de Deus e desejarão vir até Ele, mas recusarão a Igreja, porque só nos vêem a nós. Nós não somos Deus. Haverá muitos que acreditarão em Cristo, mas não acreditaram na sua Igreja, por ser feita de homens. E não perceberão que nós nunca quereríamos que as coisas fossem assim. Foi Ele que quis. Tenho tanta pena deles, porque os compreendo bem. Percebo que não gostem de mim ou de ti. Mas eles esquecem que, na Igreja, não sou eu ou tu que contamos, mas o Senhor. Só quem ama muito o Senhor pode compreender a Igreja, porque a Igreja é Ele."
Tomé continuou: "Por isso nos hão-de desprezar e perseguir. Haverá os que nos desprezarão por sermos poéticos e idealistas, como João, e os que nos atacarão por sermos pragmáticos e eficientes, como Mateus. Hão-de criticar-nos por sermos expansivos como Filipe, ou sérios como Bartolomeu, por sermos rígidos como Tiago ou tolerantes como Pedro, envolvidos na política, como Simão, ou desinteressados do mundo, como André. Alguns perseguirão a Igreja por ser pobre e viver com os pobres, outros acusar-nos-ão por alguns de nós sermos ricos, como José de Arimateia, ou poderosos, como Nicodemos. Hão-de censurar-nos por não sabermos usar bem o dinheiro para ajudar os pobres e, pelo contrário, hão-de censurar-nos por o administrarmos com excessivo cuidado. E em tantas dessas críticas haverá verdade, porque o que se vê da Igreja somos só nós. Alguns até nos perseguirão em nome do Altíssimo. Lembra-te do que o Senhor disse: "Virá a hora em que qualquer um que vos tirar a vida julgará estar a prestar um serviço a Deus" (Jo 16,2)." "E não te esqueças daqueles que, justamente, nos vão condenar pelas lutas e injustiças entre nós", disse Madalena. "Se tivemos discórdias enquanto o Senhor cá estava, como daquela vez em que queriam saber quem era o maior, haverá certamente muitas discussões e lutas no futuro. Somos humanos, iguais aos outros. A única diferença é que trazemos nas nossas mãos indignas um tesouro inimaginável. Ele deixou-nos o tesouro, mas não nos deixou nem guardas nem o cofre. Além do tesouro, só cá estamos nós."
João, que tinha seguido a conversa calado, interveio para dizer: "Estamos como a Mãe do Senhor, Maria, grávida naquela pequena casa perdida da Galileia."
Fez-se um silêncio.
Foi João quem voltou a falar: "Os que mais lamento são os muitos que irão pensar que a Igreja é apenas uma atitude e regras de moral, de amor ao próximo e ajuda aos pobres. Muitos dos que se irão juntar a nós, alguns muito bem-intencionados, serão desses."
Bartolomeu deu um salto e perguntou:
"Achas mesmo possível isso? Mas o Senhor foi tão claro quando disse que teríamos de "nascer de novo" e ter uma "vida nova". Achas mesmo possível que alguém pertença à Igreja apenas para viver melhor a vida antiga?! Como poderão eles entender estas palavras do Senhor?"
João sorriu tristemente e respondeu:
"Muitos dirão que a "vida nova" é uma metáfora do Senhor para significar apenas a bondade, a ajuda aos pobres e a mudança social. Pensarão que viver com Cristo é só para depois de morto e dedicar-se-ão a tratar bem das coisas daqui. Não percebem que isso é, não a vida nova, mas um dos sinais da vida nova que temos no Senhor. É o sinal mais visível e importante, mas que nada significa se não nascermos de novo, todos os dias, em Cristo. Muitas das lutas de que Maria Madalena falou virão disto. Este foi o pecado que O matou." "Tens razão", respondeu Bartolomeu. "Esse foi o pior pecado de Judas Iscariotes: pensar que o Senhor vinha só implantar a justiça no mundo, melhorar a sociedade e ajudar os pobres. E se Judas, que falou tantas vezes com o Senhor e viveu tanto tempo connosco, cometeu esse pecado, muitos outros hão-de fazê-lo também." Bartolomeu baixou a cabeça e ficou silencioso.
Madalena disse: "Haverá os que medirão o sucesso da Igreja em números, porque ela também terá desse sucesso. Mas esse não interessa. Como não se mede a luz pelo número de lâmpadas, porque o que conta é o Sol."
Nesse momento entrou Pedro. Trazia um saco com algum peixe, pão e vinho para a refeição. Madalena e Tomé levantaram-se para o ajudar e ela explicou-lhe do que falavam.
Pedro, rindo, perguntou se isso não era mais uma das subtilezas de Tomé, que ele nunca percebia.
Tomé respondeu: "Eu tenho uma confiança ilimitada no Senhor. As minhas dúvidas vêm só da minha falta de confiança nas nossas forças e na nossa capacidade de O seguir."
Madalena perguntou a Pedro: "Mas tu tens confiança nas nossas capacidades, não tens Pedro?" Nesse momento ouviu-se um galo.
Pedro sorriu, sentou-se à mesa e disse, calmamente:
Não tenho nem um bocadinho de confiança nas nossas forças. Nisso, tenho ainda mais dúvidas que Tomé. O que eu tenho é tanta confiança no Senhor que acho que Ele consegue fazer a Sua Igreja mesmo que com a nossa total incapacidade de O compreender e de O seguir."

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The beach at night + Fatima on Fox


This is a picture of the Cascais beach at midnight. I went for coffee with my coworkers and I loved seeing people enjoying the summery weather and the couples just watching the waves. And below is a quote my friend sent me, that is exactly the kind of encouragement I am needing now. 



Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. 
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. 
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. 
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own,; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.
    Reinhold Niebuhr - The Irony of American History (1952)


Nada que valha realmente a pena fazer pode ser conseguido na duração da nossa vida; por isso, só a esperança nos salva.
Nada que seja verdadeiro ou belo ou bom faz totalmente sentido no contexto da história; por isso, só a fé nos salva.
Nada que possamos fazer, por mais virtuoso que seja, podemos conseguir sozinhos; por isso, é o amor que nos salva.
Lembremo-nos, então, que às vezes, é necessário discernir aquilo que realmente interessa e que os frutos do nosso trabalho podem não ser visíveis por muitos e muitos anos.



Plus, did you see Our Lady of Fatima featured on FOX News?


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Embroidery at Gulbenkian

Yesterday I spent a wonderful morning with my friend at the Gulbenkian park in Lisbon. We finished learning our embroidery stitches and we're ready to start projects! It felt like graduation or when I finished my thesis. I love accomplishing little things. I also love having friends with the same hobbies as I do, even though I love friends of all kinds.  


Monday, May 14, 2012

Basil and bike-rides

This Saturday was the first Saturday in a long, long time... actually, I don't know if it's ever happened!... when I didn't make plans with anyone. I just let the day happen. It included some studying: I'm trying to translate my thesis, even though that went on for about 30 minutes until my goldfish attention span was over. Thankfully it also included getting my bike out for the first bike-ride of the year, using my new basil plant to make the most delicious margherita pizza ever (using the best dough recipe ever here), a date at a Portuguese coffee shop, a date at the MOVIE THEATER (also a first in a long, long time) and a date at the beach Sunday morning. Seriously weekend, why must you end?


Friday, May 11, 2012

I have called you friends

This week's Sunday, Sunday, Sunday podcast:



  • The saying goes that God puts certain people in your family because that's the only way you'd love them. 
  • The Holy Spirit is the life and the breath of the Church. 
  • God loves the prostitute on the corner in Rome as much as he loves the Pope in the Vatican. 
  • That doesn't mean that we can't let God down, but He loves us perfectly. 
  • We don't love other people because of what we get out of the relationship...
  • Christ loved the person crucifying Him as much as He loved the apostle at the foot of the cross. 
Taize Friendship Icon
"
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father."
Jo 15:15

Happy weekend!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Wildflowers and homemade peanut butter

Coffe with an awesome friend and fellow blogger, a lunch date at a Chinese restaurant that is full of Chinese people (the only one I've seen like that...), a field of wildflowers near my job and homemade peanut butter... which I made in TWO minutes. I have discovered the beautiful world of homemade nut butters. Plus I was able to say no and stay home quite a bit. 

It's been a good week...


Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton





G.K. Chesterton's book Orthodoxy was the first I read by him and it was amazing. It was little hard to get through for me, more essay-like than story-like, but if you have the perseverance it is SO worth it. I liked his writing even MORE than C.S. Lewis. It was more direct, clearer and a little more humorous. The way he described his culture of the time still applies exactly to the culture of our time: relativism, skepticism, worshipping the "god within". And he really will convince you that there is a wonderful adventure waiting where you'd least expect it!



Here are some of my favorite quotes:
If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat. (Chapter II, The Maniac)

The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as the sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that the has a touch of the madman. But the materialis's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simple and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts. (Chapter II...)

Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of to-day) free also to believe in them. (Chapter II...)

At any street corner we meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosphers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own. Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. The meed do inherit the earth; but the modern skeptics are too meek to even claim their inheritance. It is exactly this intellectual helplessness which is our second problem. (Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought)

Religious authority has often, doubtless, been oppressive or unreasonable; just as every legal system (and especially our present one) has been callous and full of a cruel apathy. It is rational to attack the police; nay, it is glorious. But the modern critics of religious authority are like men who should attack the police without ever having heard of burglars. For there is a great and possible peril to the human mind: a peril as practical as burglary. Against it religious authority was reared, rightly or wrongly, as a barrier. And against it something certainly must be reared as a barrier, if our race is to avoid ruin. (Chapter III...)

We have found all the questions that can be found. It is time we gave up looking for questions and began looking for answers. (Ch III...)

Liberalism has been degraded into liberality. Men have tried to turn "revolutionize" from a transitive to an intransitive verb. The Jacobin could tell you not only the system he would rebel against, but (what was more important) the system he would not rebel against, the system he would trust. But the new rebel is a Skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. (Ch III...)

In short, the democratic faith is this: that the most terribly important things must be left to ordinary men themselves - the mating of the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state. This is democracy; and in this I have always believed. (Chapter IV, The Ethics of Elfland)

And it seemed to me that existence was itself so very eccentric a legacy that I could not complain of not understanding the limitations of the vision when I did not understand the vision they limited. The frame was not stranger than the picture. (Ch IV...)

I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller. (Ch IV...)

Fourth, that the proper form of thanks to it is some form of humility and restraint: we should thank God for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them. (Ch IV...)

Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her. (Chapter V, The Flag of the World)

Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; any one who knows any one from the Highter Thought Center knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. (Ch V...)

And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild. (Chapter VI, The Paradoxes of Christianity)

The instinct of the Pagain empire would have said, "You shall all be Roman citizens, and grow alike; let the German grow less slow and reverent; the Frenchmen less experimental and swift." But the instince of Christian Europe says, "Let the German remain slow and reverent, that the Frenchman may the more safely be swift and experimental. We will make an equipoise out of these excesses. The absurdity called Germany shall correct the insanity called France." (Ch VI...) 

The man of the nineteenth century did not disbelieve in the Resurrection because his liberal Christianity allowed him to doubt it. He disbelieved in it because his very strict materialism did not allow him to believe it. (Chapter VIII, The Romance of Orthodoxy)

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Tea and music

When I can get off the computer and out of bed... and off the couch, I do really awesome things like practice piano on my new keyboard while drinking tea. The problem is getting off the computer and out of bed and off the couch. My orchid is once again losing its flowers. It blooms twice a year, which is pretty cool. 


Monday, May 07, 2012

Fatima Jovem 2012

What's it like being in Fatima with 2,800 young people from parish youth groups all over Portugal? Aside from the organization of the event only letting us sleep 4 hours (locking us out of our rooms and making us go to really loud events...ah!)... it was wonderful. It's an annual event called "Fatima Jovem" and we got to stay together as a parish, go on a scavenger hunt through the lesser-known places in Fatima where there are lots of olive trees and participate in the rosary, candle-lit procession and other great things at the sanctuary. I got to be with really, really special people from my youth group and with an amazing man like whom there is no other. What an incredible journey we've been on... together, with the youth group and with GOD!... since four years ago when I invited him to help out with the youth group and he said yes.