The other day I was strolling through Publix, my favorite place to be alone and think. I couldn’t help but reflect on the EXPOSURE Outing last weekend. The more I do ministry the more I find that Truth, which by definition is conformity to reality, is a universal desire in the hearts of the brothers. If men desire truth, why would they want to conform to the illusion that 8 figure salaries, prestige and power is the sole purpose of their lives? Answer: they don’t.

Key the FRATERNUS TWEO. I thought I had God’s plans pegged for this last weekend. Brian Butler, leader of Dumb Ox Productions and an integral part of the content presentation at the retreat, stood in front of the brothers on Saturday morning and stated “Don’t even pretend that you know what God has in store for you this weekend. I don’t know what God has planned, but you know you don’t know either.” He was speaking to me. My ability to look into the future is limited to a best guess scenario three seconds ahead, a limited ability for sure. I had NO idea what God had in store for us and I prayed for openness.

After Benediction on Saturday the leaders were asked to sit in the back of the room in prayer teams. Ryan (A CPT from St. Augustine) and I sat alone for a little while, unsure if we were even seen. The last brother that sat with us asked us what we were there for. I explained that we could pray or talk, whatever he wanted. He went with Option D (all of the above) and asked that we pray before talking. He explained he was there to pray and talk with us about purity.

After we prayed he explained that he felt that no one took his concerns about impurity seriously. He wanted to live a life of purity, he knew what was wrong, but he was sick of his requests for advice being answered with Press Response Answers, “Being pure isn’t easy, you’re young, don’t sweat it. Go and do 10 pushups next time the forces of hell are after you.” He was begging for us to be with him and be honest. It’s funny that he asked for the Truth but he didn’t ask us to tell him what he wanted to hear. When we are held captive by sin it’s rarely the same.

Ryan and I shared our testomonies. “With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well.” 1 Thessalonians 2:8. The Devil is as predictable as horrible weather in Cleveland, trying to separate this young man from his brothers, bind him in shame. After we spoke Truth to his struggles, he walked away with confidence in his identity from the Father. He now knows that he IS a man, his identity not defined by his past actions.

Pray away prayer warriors, the Devil is losing his foothold.

God Bless

KWess

Though it’s been in the works for a while now, yesterday, for the first time, I went to soccer practice at the local Catholic high school.

It was quite a feeling as I walked out there.  Because I had spent the morning as a substitute teacher at the middle school, I wasn’t exactly dressed for the event.  I wondered what kind of impression I would make in my slacks, button down shirt, and loafers walking out onto a field of cleats and shin guards (though Jason will tell me to never feel bad about being well dressed).  It was a long walk from the parking lot out to the soccer field, so I had plenty of time for nervousness to build as I slowly approached the cluster of soccer players stretching on the pitch.  I silently said a prayer as I fended off the temptation to simply turn and walk away.

The coach was unmistakable.  Short and stocky, his compact frame made him look as if he could break me in half without even trying.  From his buzz cut flat-top hair down to his cleats, he was every inch the soccer coach.  He greeted me kindly and introduced me to his players, allowing me to stammer through a half-rehearsed and entirely awkward hello.

As the group finished stretching, they broke up into smaller clusters and began doing exercises under the direction of the coach.  Two of the guys were injured, so thankfully I had some company on the sidelines instead of having to watch alone.  The guys were really nice, and we chatted during the first portion of practice.  The water break was my only good opportunity to introduce myself and talk to players individually, and frankly, I was really pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was toward me.  I had no idea what to expect, but the guys were all really polite and conversational.  That remained with me as we returned for the second half of practice, and later as I made the long walk alone to my car.  I’m really excited about being able to spend some time with these guys, and I’m really looking forward to their games, which coincidentally are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

More soccer stories to come.

Rush

I had a FRATERNUS Missionary point something out to me that I would like to share before he has a chance to blog.

As many of you know, we had a TWEO last weekend.

Oh?  You don’t know what a TWEO is?  Well, its a Territory Wide EXPOSURE Outing of course.  Also known as boys from all over North Florida getting together in one place as FRATERNUS brothers.  Fires, speakers, Sacraments, Sacramentals, food, games that make you sore, frisbees, footballs, knives, brotherhood.  If it sounds awesome, that’s because it is awesome.

Anyway, the actual subject is the beauty of masculine freedom that I experienced last weekend.  Last weekends TWEO was full of familiar retreat elaments: talks, mass, confession, etc - but one of the greatest elements was that of the brotherhood amongst the boys as they were given free reign for a huge portion of the weekend.  Often times, boys are very limited at these things due to packed and regimented schedules.  We of course had our schedules, but we scheduled unscheduled free time.

What did the boys do with that free time?  Well, they played, wrestled, jumped in the lake, widdeled, and some of them even prayed the Rosary together.  They were allowed to be what they are at any FRATERNUS event: brothers.  It’s difficult to express why this was so touching to me, but to see the boys away from the pains and stress of the social rollercoasters back home and just be outside with genuine smiles stretching their faces was quite satisfying.  And then to see the adult Captains doing the same - as brothers and not soulless supervises - was truly a sight for sore eyes - and I have very sore eyes.  Sore from seeing the pain inflicted by a culture not unfriendly to Christianity but unfriendly to life to the full.  From conception to death, and even there, our culture is draining and exhausting to anyone seeking to be fully human.  The freedom of the weekend led not only to genuine and organically created fun, but to true and unrestrained worship of God.

One boy was afraid to jump in to the water because of what was possibly in it - stingrays and alligators.  After I explained that there was nothing to fear (noting that those two species don’t exactly swim in the same pond) the smile on his face as he plunged into the cold water was even refreshing to me.  He had never had the fears of the water removed because he had never had the chance to jump in a lake.  And the same goes for the boys that experienced the joy of brotherhood.  We wordlessly explained that plunging into brotherhood founded in Christ is as refreshing to a tired soul as that cold water was to a sore and overheated body.

I can’t wait until next year.

J. Michael Craig

Before jumping on a small fleet of tour buses together, I interviewed Michael W. Smith over the phone several weeks ago. When asked about the third and final leg of the “New Hallelujah” tour which began last week with Matt Maher, he responded, “We’re pretty excited about the tour obviously. I’ve become a ‘Matt fan’ from his songwriting. We sing his songs at our church, and we’re very, very excited about his new album. When we first started talking about putting this tour together, Matt was at the top of our list.”

The Holy Spirit is bringing about a great work of unity among Christians. The culture has rarely been darker, rivaling the centuries of paganism around the time of Christ. Most especially through prayer, the Church has an opportunity to come together like never before.

During the Greenville, SC show last Friday night, Smitty gave one of his classic “mini-sermons” towards the end of the concert. With Matt on stage, he began to speak of society’s exhaustion with the whole idea of religion and how Christians must begin living out the faith more than talking about it in the 21st century. Much to my amazement, Smitty then acknowledged Matt in front of the several thousand people present. He nodded to him and said, “There’s a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, and Matt knows it well. ‘Preach the Gospel always and if necessary, use words.’”

When we know who we are in Christ, everything falls into place. When we are confident in being beloved sons and daughters, the fruits spill forth abundantly. Once we understand the Father’s heart, the rest is history.

After spending four days on the road with Michael W. Smith, Matt Maher, Meredith Andrews, and Phil Stacey (think American Idol) as a FRATERNUS missionary, I could not be more impressed with their witness to the truth of the Gospel. Everyday, I saw them engaging in deep conversations about the fullness of our faith, challenging each another yet always loving each other as brothers and sisters. This is authentic ecumenism – built on natural, human friendship and always directed towards conversion.

In many ways, Nashville is a true center of Christian culture and has great potential for bringing about unity among our separated brethren. “There is something very strategic about this city, about Nashville,” Michael shared. “There’s a lot of people who have gravitated here and moved here. There’s people singing Michael W. Smith, Paul Baloche, and Matt Maher songs in China, and it’s all spilling out of this little place called Nashville, TN. I think there’s something special about that. I believe that this music that we do really has the ability to change the world.”

When asked about his hopes for the tour, Michael answered, “I’ve got prayers for a lot of things to happen on this tour, that people’s lives will be changed, that they will know the Father heart of God. In the end, I just want to love well. I want to commit everything I do to the Lord. It’s all a gift from Him. If you’re secure in knowing who you are, that you’re a son of the living God and that God’s crazy about you, your identity crisis is solved. More than anything, I just hope that people know that the Lord just wants to be their Daddy. His grace is enough. He absolutely is crazy about you. He thinks about you all the time. He’s the perfect Daddy, and He just wants to hang out with you.”

In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “Human life is a relationship, and the basic relationship is with the Creator. A world emptied of God, a world that has forgotten God, loses life and falls into a culture of death.” We must unite under this banner of the Father’s love and trust that conversion will follow. Everything must begin with divine charity. Then, and only then, will the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ on the night before His Passion become a reality: “And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:22).

May this become our prayer, that divisions would be healed by authentic love. May we entrust ourselves to Mary, Queen of all hearts and Mother of the Church.

And may the new hallelujah arise.

As Jason noted, not all of the Missionaries school visits go so well.  There is generally a glory story or two from each trip.  Sometimes you have to look harder than others.  Real hard.  Like staring-so-hard-you-go-crosseyed hard.  Anywho, I wanted to share a not so glorious moment that is hilarious because it shows the level to which these boys will go to “drag us down.”

Kevin and I have just finished another rousing session with the first class of 8th grade boys from Trinity.  It was pretty warm in the sun for the last hour and my throat was parched, so I decide to follow the boys into the classroom building to get a sip of water from the water fountain just inside the door.  I notice a 6th grader come down the stairs, eyes barely visible above the mound of books in his hands.  I say hello to Buddy*, to which I get the warm reply of a cold shoulder as he swoops in front of me for a drink.

A little background on Buddy - he’s the “cool kid” in the 6th grade.  We first met at a back-to-school night, where his efforts to make me feel unwanted began.  His detest for Kevin and I has only increased the more his friends come to enjoy “the FRATERNUS guys” being at school and especially when they call us over to their lunch table to sit with them.  In fact, 3 of his closest friends are newly initiated FRATERNUS brothers.  While most of the other boys at Trinity have embraced us, Buddy is dead set on trying to drive us away.

Back to the story…I notice as Buddy leans in to get a refreshing drink of water that balanced delicately on top of his books is a silver pencil case.  While he’s enjoying the clean, crisp Tallahassee water, the pencil case starts to slide dangerously close to the edge, teetering for a moment or two before finally falling to the floor.  As it hits the ground, the top comes off sending pencils and pens flying.  Buddy starts to clean up the writing utensils and a couple of his classmates join in.  I decide to do my part, being the virtuous Missionary I am, and pick up the lone pencil that fell at my feet.  After he has all the other pens and pencils returned safely to the case, I tap Buddy on the shoulder to hand him his missing pencil to which he responds, “That’s not my pencil!”  With that he turns around without another word, or care for the pencil, and marches off to class.

While not all of our encounters with the boys at the schools would not qualify as a blog-worthy glory story, some of the not so great moments provide much needed comedic relief.  My hope is you can share in my hearty laughter over Buddy’s attempts to drag us down.  And please keep praying for the Missionaries because school visits may be the most intimidating part of our job.

B-Rad

*Buddy’s real name has been changed to protect his identity.

I just want to say thank you to all those faith bloggers, prayer teams and donors. While the staff and volunteers may be laboring in the field, your faithfulness really is an essential part to this whole thing. Really.

I mean I can try with all I have, but I can not make conversion or relationships. Even if one is to work 18hr days, one God makes those things happen.

This is all a mystery to me, we are just trying to stay out of the way.

Pray for us!

T$

In the spring of 2008, Vandy+Catholic (Vanderbilt University’s community of college-aged Catholics, also known as the Community of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati) brought in Matt Maher and ADORE Ministries for a night of worship and adoration at Rocketown, a coffee shop, concert venue, and skatepark begun by Michael W. Smith in downtown Nashville. The day before the tour stopped in Music City, Vanderbilt’s chaplain and I walked around the well-known venue with their program director, choosing which room would become the Blessed Sacrament chapel for a day and walking through the Eucharistic procession. I remember feeling the excitement in the air as we talked about the Real Presence making His way through Rocketown for the first time in history.

On our way out, I asked Fr. Baker if he had ever seen the skatepark attached to the concert venue. After learning that he had not, I led him up a flight of stairs, opened the doors to Sixth Avenue, and found myself standing before Michael W. Smith himself and a room full of Rocketown benefactors. It is important to make a note at this point in my story. As a freshman in high school, I “discovered” Christian music while on a fall retreat with my youth group. Up until that point, Styx was the closest thing to CCM I had ever heard. In the midst of a profound deepening of conversion, I fell in love with everyone from Steven Curtis Chapman to dc Talk. Later that year, my mom gave me a MWS album for Easter. By the time I had graduated from high school, I owned every album and concert VHS ever released by this godfather of Christian music.

And I do not pretend to be proud of this fact.

As the years progressed and my love for the Church deepened, I would often long for the conversion of many of these artists, hoping that they, too, would one day know the fullness of truth and beauty entrusted to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Upon seeing Smitty with that room full of benefactors two springs ago, I was asked to explain ADORE Ministries and give them a brief background on Matt Maher. All of the sudden, I felt the pressure of the moment and an intense desire to represent the Catholic faith with with great love and humble transparency. What happened next will be forever etched in my memory.

I lost my cool immediately. My knees began to shake visibly, I could not complete full sentences (much less get out verbs and adjectives), and I literally forgot how to breathe. Finally, after 30 seconds of pure humiliation, I apologized and announced, “Please forgive me. I’m just a big Michael W. Smith fan.” Laughter followed, and a very humble (though embarassed, at least on my behalf) Michael W. Smith walked over to shake my hand.

This week, I begin work with Matt Maher on the “New Hallelujah” tour with Michael W. Smith, Meredith Andrews, and Phil Stacey. I’ll be on the road every other week for a few days at a time, helping keep Matt’s schedule which includes nightly meet and greets. At these gatherings of Catholic faithful, we will have the famous FRATERNUS “F” set up next to a table with all of our flyers. The FRATERNUS fire will continue to spread all over the country. Please pray for me, as some great connections will be made as south as Orlando and as north as New York City.

And follow along. I’ll be keeping you updated on Twitter, and hopefully I will learn how to act normal around my high school hero - www.twitter.com/JamesPMitchell.

Today is the feast of St. Isaac Jogues.  Did you know that he came from France, preached to the indians in what is now New York, the indians chewed off his fingers (so he couldn’t say mass), he went back to France to ask if he could celebrate with his remaining fingers, and then….

He went back to the indians who chewed off his fingers.  They eventually killed him which is why he is a martyr.

On that note, I want to thank our missionaries for their devotion to returning to schools where they are not always received well (to put it lightly).  They might not be getting fingers chewed off, but they do experience some abuse for the sake of the Faith.  This blog usually tells the bright side of things, but as the missionaries’ supervisor, I can tell you that its not all "glory stories" out there.  Do you remember what it felt like in middle and high school when kids were mean to you and said horrible things for no other reason than to drag you down?  Well, going back as an adult doesn’t make it any easier.  In fact, in some ways its harder because you’re there willingly to love them - and then they try to drag you down.

So today I just want to say thank you to the missionaries.  Thank you for going back in the schools even after the rough days - you know the ones.  Thank you for your willingness to take the Gospel to one of the most difficult mission territories - youth culture.  I notice.  A lot of people notice, but more don’t.  I can assure you that a great cloud of witnesses see your efforts and are cheering you on.  Your reward is in heaven.

Jason Craig

Jude 1:24-25: “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord…”

What exactly is he running from? 

      This prevalent question resounded in my head as I watched a little boy stand at the edge of the ocean.  To completely paint the picture - he had the cutest, roundest, little boy belly, wet blonde hair stuck to his head and a whimsical smile shining.  I could tell he was on top of the world.  I smiled as I watched him hurl shells into the water.  As the waves returned to his tiny feet he turned racing to dryer shore as if he was playing the fiercest game of chicken ever known to man.  

      The revelation is each time after he ran, he returned for more. Picking up shells, throwing them into the abyss and running.  After several times of this same procedure he finally gained the courage to surrender.  He picked up some sandy shells, instead of running he allowed the water to gush up and over his feet all the way up to his waist.  This time, as he flailed his arms into the air he stood his ground, dug into the wet sand and began throwing fistfuls of sand repeatedly into the ocean.  I thought, each time the little boy ran he tip-toed back to the edge but the time he stood his ground,  he was free and full of joy.

      He was free to be exactly who God created him to be in that moment.  He could have cared less about anything going on around him.  He was daring the ocean to play back as he threw bits and pieces into the unknown, he clearly believed in his cause, so much so that I was enticed. 

      I love what made this boy come alive.  To stand in freedom doesn’t mean we stand on idols, fame or fortune.  Freedom is to unleash the goodness that is naturally created within; to overcome the fear. The grasping for identity, acceptance and searching for our own sense of truth is binding and fearful due to unnatural expectations. Who am I and am I running from this challenge that races to my feet?  Our identity is defined in those moments of standing at the shore and deciding to run or confront.

      “This is Your Life” is the theme of our upcoming retreat.  Each identity will be challenged to be seen as Jesus Christ sees.  Pray for us! 

Emily

Field Assistant, St. Augustine Headquarters

I recently “sucked it in” and sat in a desk made for an eighth grader, in an eight grade classroom, full of eigth graders. It reminded me of…well, nothing. I can’t say I ever experienced this growing up. When Brad was having his lunch money forcibly taken from him in his childhood, I was home, sponging up a grade A education (although I didn’t often get A’s…I’m still sorry about that Mom). I was there on wednesday to hear Fr. Chris explain Adoration to the 8th graders at Trinity.

Although Fr. Chris spoke with the first class of 8th graders, Brad and I still met with the second class per usual. I admired their honesty. One of them explained that going to mass weekly is definitely pushing it. He felt he went too often to truly appreciate what happens and that he needed to go less. ”Nay. There is more going on right now that we can explain in the 2 minutes until your next class, but we will explain what is happening next week.”

They wanted to know what is the source of true happiness to which we reply (it’s their favorite) “What do YOU think the answer is to true happiness?” Everyone shared their answer, the range was from money to family to money, money, money. Some said something about God but wasn’t sure. When they asked us, Brad and I explained the importance of our relationship with God and how seeking His will will merit true happiness.

“Ok…but that sounds kinda boring” an 8th grader chimes in. I was so happy, they’ve come to the point that they can talk with us, just talk. Of course, this was in the same conversation as them thinking a weekly attendance policy at Mass is pushing it. The overwhelming feeling of boredom they can’t explain will soon be answered with Truth, it’s so awesome to see the development in these guys.

So for those that ask me “When are you gonna get a real job?” I can always look to what I do and ask “Is there anything more real than this?”

God Bless

KWess