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On the first Tuesday of every month from September through May, TYME OUT is pleased to welcome men of the community who come together for prayer, breakfast, and some spirituality. 

On Tuesday, April 3rd, the men gathered to listen to the words of Father Marty Pable, as he spoke about St. Joseph and how he may have appear to have had it made, living with the two holiest people in the world.  However, upon closer look maybe he did not have it so easy. 

A very interesting topic for Holy Week.  We are almost half way through Holy Week, what have you been reflecting on this week.  The Triduum is almost upon us.  Are you ready to walk that holy journey to Easter?  Hope to see you along the way.

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This weekend I had the privilege to be on an amazing retreat. We had 19 individual retreatants. Individual retreatant simply means that they could not come with their own parish so they are coming by themselves. 3/4ths of them came not knowing anyone and ¼ came with one or two people they knew. As retreat directors and small group leaders, we can only do so much to encourage the retreatants to open up. As I tell every group when they come in, your attitude towards this retreat is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you think the retreat is going to stink … it will. If you come into it with an open heart and mind, I promise you will get something out of it. This group of young retreatants, wowed me. By the end of the retreat, I can absolutely say that I saw a unique part in all of them. Their souls are some of the sweetest and most profound souls I have ever met. To wrap up the retreat we had each retreatant talk about one thing they enjoyed and one thing they will take back with them. These are their profound answers.

I will take with me:

-That you can always retreat back to your faith

-That you don’t have to have someone you know with you, to have a great time

-That you should be able to open up to anyone and to keep being this open about my faith

-To incorporate what I believe into my everyday life

-To remember the great experience. Don’t go into things with a bad attitude because this one turned out good.

-To Facebook all of you.

-To be more comfortable with people.

-What will stay with me for a long time is how you all opened up. Now I’m friends with you.

-How we are all going through the same things. (Although we say we are worried about being confirmed,) Everyone really does want to be confirmed.

-How different people’s faith experiences are and how now I’m able to see God in everything.

-How I made friends and I hope to keep them.

-How I didn’t have to be someone I’m not

-How you’re not going to be able to understand everything right away. God is proud of you for trying your hardest. I honestly forgot I came here alone.

-How at school you see people the same way. I realize you can get to know people deeper … through faith.

-The conversations, they were all very special.

-The idea and fact that you can share these things with anyone and people do care.

-That I need to smile more at people

-The examples set by people in my small group and the leaders. I want to mirror that and strive for that.

-To not be afraid to open up to people you don’t know. You may become really good friends.

-To listen to other people’s faith journeys.

The end of the retreat was full of hugs and laughter. These individuals have touched my heart immensely. It was a blessing that they opened themselves up to me. In two and half days I feel like I could call them my brothers and sisters … through Christ. 
 

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The 7th and 8th grade retreat of St. John, Rubicon, was at Holy Hill, one of the two basilicas of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.  It is a short 5 miles from my house, so there wasn't a long drive involved in that off-site retreat.  I did a Growing up Catholic retreat for these youth and challenged each youth to be a person of character, which is influenced by our Catholic faith. 

By talking about it together they were able to begin to realize that saying you are a Catholic is not enough.  You must act as a person of character.

So how does a person of character who has been raised a Catholic act?  Well, we try to make them think about acting responsibly, with respect, prudence, fairness, justice, self-control, discipline, caring, compassion, faithfulness, honesty, truthfulness, etc.  Does the retreat change their life?  All we can do is give them the message and then it is in God's hands, and actually, I am perfectly comfortable leaving it to God. 

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A small group working in the pews!

For the last 2 years TYME OUT has been taking their programming on the road.  We realized that with the present economic atmosphere, in order to fulfill our mission of providing a retreat experience for all youth, we would need to go to some of the parishes instead of them coming to us.  We are going off site 5 times in the month of March, so we will get to see much of the archdiocese. 

The first weekend of March, I had the opportunity to travel to Mt. Calvary and work with 30, 7th & 8th graders at St. Isidore.  I did a Growing up Catholic retreat with them and explored the characteristics that a person of character needs.  At first they were not sure if they fit the descripton of a person of character, as this picture shows.

However, after a short time they were able to identify how understanding our Catholic faith makes it easier for us to be a person of character.  Of course, there is still work involved but as these charts show with the colorful dots, a person of character is responsible, respectful and faithful.

We ended the day playing some of the Faith-a-thon games which gives us the basis on which to make those decisions which impact our character.  It was a great way to spend a snowy morning.

On March 10th, I will join St. John, Rubicon, at Holy Hill for a similar retreat to the one I did for St. Isidore.  On March 17th, Joe Nettesheim, our Executive Director, will travel to South Milwaukee to lead a Confirmation experience for Divine Mercy parish.  On March18th, Amy Kroll, one of our retreat directors, willl join St. Patrick and Our Lady of Guadalupe at Marquette, for their Confirmation retreat.  On March 19th, Joe and I will go to St. Anthony on the Lake in Pewaukee, and play some of the games for Faith-a-thon with the 6th-8th graders.  On March 31st, Joe will do a Sacrament of Initiation retreat at the Cousins Center for the youth and adults of the RCIA and RCIC progams of all the parishes of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.  We will be on the road and ministering to those we meet.  And, by the way, besides these retreats there are 3 retreats each weekend at TYME OUT going on.  See you somewhere this March.

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A New Year’s Resolution for 2012

I jokingly told a friend that my New Year’s resolution was to be perfect.  In 2012 my temperament, decision-making skills, exercise and eating habits, and of course morality would be appropriate for every situation, and every occasion. My children would receive the proper nurturing and boundaries that would help them grow and thrive.  My staff at work would be provided the encouragement, direction and guidance empowering them to do their jobs in the most productive way. Wouldn’t life be easier if we were perfect?  There would be no need for second-guessing, no apologies and no guilt.  Of course the desire to be perfect may come from the reality that so much of my life has not been perfect.  If only I was cured of the human condition.

Fortunately, it is not necessary to be cured of the human condition.  If our celebration of Christmas should teach us anything, it is that being human is good. It is so good that God became one of us.  As a human being, Jesus experienced everything that we do (except sin).  Jesus would have had emotions, worries, doubts, hopes, and dreams.  Even though he was God, Jesus entered into the full messiness of our human existence—even suffering and death.  In spite of his participation in humanity it has not cured us of our weakness or shortcomings.  In other words, we have not become perfect.  We live in a world that remains broken.   We are surrounded by poverty, violence, addiction, illness and broken relationships.  We are not immune from making poor choices.  The incarnation has not prevented us from being sinful.  Perhaps what we need isn’t perfection, but forgiveness.

The appeal of a New Year’s resolution is that we are given a second chance.  Growing up my parents and Catholic education did a phenomenal job of teaching right from wrong and emphasizing the need to make good decisions.  Unconsciously we were taught that these good decisions would help us earn redemption.  Forgiveness seemed to get second billing.  Needing to be perfect seemed far more important than being forgiven for our mistakes and sinfulness.  Sadly the pursuit for perfection can prevent us from being open to the grace of God.  In fact perfection is arrogant in that it promotes our human status beyond what we are created to be.  Accepting forgiveness begins with humility and standing before God as we are—people created in the image and likeness of God, but also people who need the unmerited grace of God to heal us of our sin and brokenness.  

I am sure that whatever feelings of wanting to be perfect, jokingly or not, is rooted in some poor choices I have made in my life.  The consequences of those actions are complicated and long lasting.  Guilt has a life of its own.  It has the ability to paralyze and impact self-esteem.  Perfection is not the answer –forgiveness is.  Jesus’ life demonstrated a total surrender to God.  If we surrender our lives to God and trust in God’s healing presence, we are delivered from the need to be perfect and we are offered that second chance we seek when making a New Year’s resolution. 

Today we live in a world in which there is little tolerance for mistakes.  We live in a world in which people find reasons to be critical of one another.  As brothers and sisters in Christ perhaps our New Years resolution for 2012 could be to offer forgiveness to one another and to accept God’s forgiveness.  By doing so we will become the embodiment of the incarnation and make the presence of Christ real in our daily lives.  What a wonderful way to make the world a better place.  Happy New Year!     

TAGS     New Years resolution,  perfection,  forgiveness,  Joe Nettesheim

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