Journal: How did you live out last week's Gospel message? What was tough? What was rewarding?

I have a friend who never gives up on people. I met her while going to college in California and she has always inspired me with her love for and patience with teenagers. She has worked for some time now in Chicago's inner city and even let homeless former teens recovering from some difficult family situations live with her while they put their lives back together. Some of those kids had lived tough lives and had done some bad things, but my friend was always able to see their potential and, regardless of the mistakes they had made, worked hard to help them develop it.
That's the point of Jesus' fig tree parable. God is the patient gardener, advising the landowner against cutting down the tree. He promises to fertilize it. Give it time, he says. It just needs a little help.
It's nice to know that's how God deals with us. Too often I give up on people. I think they can't change. Or, I look at how hard it is for me to change sinful habits and I want to give up on myself. During those times, Penance and Reconciliation with a priest I trust can be good for me. The sacrament reminds me about God's patience with me and God's willingness to "fertilize" me so that I can grow. God fertilizes us through prayer, Mass, service, and friends with similar values. Penance and Reconciliation also reminds me to show God's mercy to others. Finally, it often reminds me that I can fertilize the lives of others by listening and caring about them without judgment, as well as by challenging their behavior lovingly when they are on the wrong track.
Lent is a good time to add some fertilizer to your life. And celebrating Penance and Reconciliation can be a great gardening technique.

Journal: How could an honest conversation about your life with a priest or another Christian adult minister help you to grow and help you to help others grow? Why is it so hard at times to see your potential, even while others may easily see it?

Journal: How did you live out last week's Gospel message? What was tough? What was rewarding?

It happens pretty regularly at the end of powerful youth-group prayer gatherings and retreats: No one wants to leave. So many times teens have told me how sad they feel about having to go back to the real world.
Peter feels the same way in this week's Gospel. The Transfiguration baffles many people. But just think of it this way. Jesus and his closes friends go up on a mountain and pray, and during their prayer, they realize the importance of Jesus and his mission. They connect his mission to historic religious leaders like Moses and Elijah. They feel God's presence. Peter wants to stay.
But maybe the most important part of the story is the end. They go back down the mountain and head toward Jerusalem, where their insights will change how they live in the real world. We know how the story ends.
Here's the lesson for us. Our prayer life isn't for us. It is for our journey in the world, where God call us to live the Kingdom's values. That doesn't mean prayer shouldn't comfort us when we struggle with personal problems. It should. But youth-group gatherings, retreats, and personal quiet time with Jesus must also turn our focus toward friends and family who need our support, poor people who need our compassion, and society's injustices that need our activism. Our prayer life should help us be Christ's presence to all people-from the people in our schools to the people in faraway lands. If our prayer life doesn't do this, then prayer is little more than an escape from reality.
Lent is a good time to evaluate your prayer and worship life. Is it an escape or a fueling station for your journey as a disciple?

Journal: What prayer or worship experience has challenged you and strengthened you to make a Christian decision in the real world?

Journal: How did you live out last week's Gospel message? What was tough? What was rewarding?

I have been amazed at some stories about millionaire executives who swindle their companies to get even richer. How could money be so tempting, especially to rich people? Riches have just never tempted me.
But I face other temptations. I ask God daily for strength because I am tempted daily to sin in ways that hurt others and hold me back from being everything I can be.
The Gospel this week shows Jesus struggling with temptation. A born leader, he was tempted to abuse his power. Many people in Israel were waiting for a messiah - a word we understand as savior - to lead a violent revolt against Rome. But he knew God called him to greater things.
How about you? Each person faces different temptations. What tempts you to be selfish and tempts you away from doing great things for God? Lent is the time to explore that question in your soul, to see where you've surrendered to temptation and where you need God's strength to resist those temptations.
Here's an idea: List your six greatest temptations and then reflect on one each week during Lent. Remember times you gave in. Remember times you resisted. Brainstorm ways to avoid the particular temptation you're focusing on. Look at what the Bible says about it. Ask God for the vision to see the temptation clearly the next time you face it and for the strength to resist it.
Lent is a good time to evaluate your prayer and worship life. Is it an escape or a fueling station for your journey as a disciple?

Journal: When has giving in to a temptation hurt you? How does giving in to a temptation keep you from being the person you think God wants you to be?

Confirmation I and II:
February 14, 2010: The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Read the Gospel: Lk 6:17,20-26

Journal: How did you live out last week's Gospel message? What was tough? What was rewarding?

One of the biggest challenges I face in working with high school students is to never play favorites. It's tough. I'm human. So naturally I like some students more than others. But I work hard to avoid giving certain students special rights or doing special favors for particular students.
God sees things differently. And Luke's Gospel this week tells us who God's favorites are: the people who are poor, who mourn, and who face persecution for doing the right thing. Sure, God loves everyone equally, but the Scriptures show time and again that God's actions favor the powerless and people who suffer. We know that because God continually sends people-like Moses and Jesus-to help them.
Blessed in this Gospel means "favored." Jesus tells his disciples that God is working to construct a world that favors the powerless. God' Reign will change things so that the people on the bottom will have what they need. That's bad news, he sways, to people who abuse power, don't share wealth, or cause others pain.
Jesus favored people without power by hanging out with them, eating with them, and challenging customs that caused them to suffer. We need to take our cue from him by giving people who suffer the highest priority in our lives. We show God's favor to those who are powerless by serving them, learning from them, and mourn by comforting them. By doing these things, we also show people who abuse power, horde power, or hurt others that it's time to change.

Journal: Who inspires you by how they favor poor people or those who mourn? What might you change your life to be more like this person(s)?

Confirmation I and II:
February 7, 2010: The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Read the Gospel: Lk 5:1-11

Journal: How did you live out last week's Gospel message? What was tough? What was rewarding?

I've read about Christians who worked hard to prevent the United States-Iraq war. Before the war, they split their time between the 2 countries, helping people there and trying to convince people here to avoid war. When the war started, some stayed in Iraq, where they comforted people during bombing raids and then peacefully welcomed U.S, troops when they arrived.
When I think of those people, I feel like Peter in this week's Gospel-humbled and awed. They showed me that God still inspires people to heroically reshape this world into God's Kingdom. I want God to work like this through me too.
That's the point of Luke's story this week. Peter, James and John had fished all night without success. They were frustrated. They lowered their nets one more time to humor Jesus. You know the rest. Inspired by Jesus' power, they dropped everything and followed him.
Like Peter, we can get tired and frustrated, especially hearing the bad news in the world. But God is working miracles each day. We need only to look around. Keep your eyes open for people doing good things, big and small, in your family, school, or community. Let those examples show you God's love for the world. Let them remind you that you can work miracles too.
Then drop everything and follow the Master who calls us to be fishers of people.

Journal: Who do you know that shows God's love and power through acts of kindness, courage, or charity? How might you follow his/her example? Reflect on your life. Can you think of specific times when you were awed by God's power as he guided you in performing specific acts of kindness, courage and/or charity? What act did you accomplish that you thought was not possible?

Don't Let Rejection Defeat You
Christianity is risky business.
Remember last week's Gospel? Jesus announced his life's mission in his home synagogue. The story continues this week when he tells his neighbors that he can't work miracles for them because their minds are closed to his message. That spurs them to attack.
Sometimes we minimize the risks that come with a Christian life. This Gospel warns us not to. When we follow Jesus' lifestyle we likely will face rejection. Sometimes that rejection even comes from the people who know us best. I know some teens that have had conflicts with friends because they stopped some sinful, but popular, behavior-like getting drunk. I know teens that have served the poor and then face conflicts because they defended the poor when friends or family called poor people lazy bums. And I know other teens who have lost friends because they stood up for and took pro-active actions for those who cannot speak for themselves, like the unborn.
Rejection hurts, whether you are young or old. It really hurts when people you care about put you down when you are just trying to do something good. It can tempt you to just make yourself fit in and walk away from Jesus' message.
That's why Christians need support from one another. Talk with other Christians when you face rejection. Call a friend. See an adult minister. Most Christians have faced rejection too and will want to help you through it.
It's also important to pray for strength and comfort when you face rejection. Remember, the person listening to your prayers was once rejected by the people of his own hometown.

Journal: When have you faced rejection for making a Christian decision, and how did you deal with it? Reflecting on it now, would you have dealt with it differently? How? Be specific.