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Email a FriendPosted by Nancy Belanger on Monday, Jul 28, 2008 8:22 AM (EDT):
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing that awesome message.
Simple Truths
Remembering all that Jesus can do
Posted by Rachel Balducci in Family on Monday, July 28, 2008 12:01 AM
At the end of Mass yesterday, the congregation was treated to a few brief remarks by the diocesan seminarian who had spent the summer with our parish. After thanking us for the warm welcome these last few weeks, the young man shared about his faith journey, and what happened in his life to lead him to the seminary. He explained that Jesus became very real to him when he was a teenager, and this deepened love sparked something in his life.
“And now,” he said, “I want to invite all the young people to stand up.”
Throughout the church, students from elementary to high school arose.
“Always keep Jesus in the center of your heart,” he told them, “and he will rock your world.”
It was a simple message to the children, but that morning as we sat in our pews, it was an important reminder for young and old. Jesus has so much to offer all of us—he wants to heal us and comfort us, to guide us and to love us. Jesus can indeed rock our world, no matter where we are.
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Posted by Amy on Monday, Jul 28, 2008 9:11 AM (EDT):
I strongly encourage parents to send their teens to a Stuebenville retreat. My girls came back so filled with joy. I am blessed to homeschool these beautiful girls. They went with a group of 50. They are the only homeschooled teens in our group. The entire group was ON FIRE!!! It was such a sight to see. The music and the speakers are fantastic. Teens need a message of hope. They get it at this retreat.
In Christ our Hope,
Amy
Posted by Rachel Balducci on Monday, Jul 28, 2008 9:27 AM (EDT):
Amy,
That very retreat, back when I was a junior in high school, set a spark for me as well.
Posted by J.C. on Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008 10:10 AM (EDT):
There are many things I find problematic, but ultimately I would argue that in order to inspire a life-long personal relationship with and commitment to Jesus, that Jesus can’t be “cool.” I understand the intent. I suppose the idea is to communicate with the young in a language older people think they might better relate to. (This in itself is tricky—“cool” is very elusive; older people trying to use what they think is the latest expression seldom come across as cool to the young!) Anyway, I think you are selling them short when you do this, and in the long run this sort of emotive approach won’t hold them when they encounter difficulties and sin in life and are hard-pressed to find the answer in some sort of “cool Jesus” caricature. If by “rock your world,” you mean Jesus will change your life, He will “heal us and comfort us, ...guide us and ...love us,” then why not say that? The sacrifice of the Mass is just that, the God-given opportunity to disassociate with the banality of the world and participate in the Divine Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is meant to elevate our worldly senses to the sacred, not to associate Jesus and His sacred name with “cool” expressions most of us would actively discourage our children from using, and that are increasingly identified with a world of sin, anway. I know, I know, I can already hear it, lighten up, it’s only an innocent expression. But I just don’t think we should settle for middling regarding the faith of our children; shouldn’t we aim for higher than “cool?”
Posted by Jesus, Please Rock my Children's World!!! on Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008 1:01 PM (EDT):
Our kids are bombarded with information today. The internet, media, other forms of advertisement…Constantly. They have adapted to be very selective about what they hear. You have to interest them right away or they zone out. Jesus is simple. Yes, he is also complex, but there are no complexities that should stand in the way of the simple Jesus. Pure & simple. What is so offensive about Jesus “rocking someone’s world”? It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity to me. He moves mountains. He changes lives. He loves constantly and without pretenses. If that doesn’t “rock your world” nothing will. If my child begins to “get” Jesus because someone spoke to them in a “cool” way…HALLELUJAH!! He will show himself to them through the sacrifice of mass. He will awe them by who he is. But first he must be able to take root in their heart.
Posted by Candice on Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 8:09 AM (EDT):
I agree with Jesus, Please Rock My World whole heartedly!! If there be ANY WAY that the children and youth of TODAY can begin to fathom how awesome Jesus, their Savior is today, then, by all means let them ‘rock their world’ with Jesus! He is a comfort to all who know Him and stay close to Him, and the children and youth of TODAY need that desperately! Let’s not argue about ‘how they learn about their Jesus’! Let’s just teach them in any way possible to ‘know Jesus’! He ‘rocks my world’ and my two son’s, also! They are in their 30’s now, and are not of the young youth anymore, and they would say that Jesus does, in fact, ‘rock their world’! So, yes, J.C., lighten up! It’s a new world! And, it has to be a world with Jesus in it any way we can get it over to EVERYONE!
Posted by J.C. on Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 5:41 PM (EDT):
I’m puzzled. We ALL want our children to experience Jesus radically in their lives. As mothers, that is our one ambition. Semantics aside, we’re all on the same page here. My argument pertains to the approach. Is this superficial, emotional, contemporary VH1 approach the most effective way to attract the youth to God? I would say the empirical evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary. What I’m hearing is something like, “get with the times.” I would think that’s about the last thing we’d want to do. Contemporary mainstream culture is not saving our kids, it’s devouring them. It may be a “new world,” but it’s not a better world. Contemporary culture glamourizes pre-marital sex, drugs, divorce, contraception, abortion, secularism, just to name a few of the biggies that threaten our children’s salvation on a daily basis. We don’t attract the youth to God by offering more of the same; we attract them by offering them the mystery, the sacred, the divine, the reverent, all that Jesus is, and all that the world lacks. Face it, we all know devout Catholic families whose children, for unexplainable reasons, are straying completely. What is happening? I think this approach does not sufficiently catechize the young. It produces shallow roots at best and does not succeed in inoculating them against or preparing them to deal with an increasingly sinful world.
What I think is not being stated here is that it doesn’t matter the language you use, but what you back it up with. Are you making sure that YOU are teaching your children what the Church and yourself believe is the Truth? If you are and you backit up by what you live by, then I believe that is what keeps them from straying from the faith. You can take them to church all you want, but if you do not back it up by living that life, and calling them on to live that life, then (my opinion), that is when the want of leaving occurrs. This seminarian sounds to me like he is on fire for Jesus and our Catholic Faith. There are many Priests out there who have become liberal and stale. At least this young gentleman is calling people on to let Jesus move in there lives. Again, I think the use of particular words here doesn’t really matter.
In His Service,
Heather
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