Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of July 3, 2009!
Congratulations to Angie Cantu!

Angie Cantu will receive a copy of the Send Your Spirit: Praying for Our Teens, a $5.95 value.

Sometimes the right words aren't easy to find when you're talking to a teen. Send Your Spirit offers prayers to supply words when your own may seem insufficient or incoherent. Easily adaptable to various situations, these prayers touch on the key themes and issues in teenage life and include a passage from the Bible to focus attention on God and inspire, challenge, and comfort teens. Send Your Spirit will help adults draw closer to the teenagers in their lives by helping them communicate with God and provide a way to hear God's voice.

Look Inside: You can find an online sampler of Send Your Spirit on the SMP Web catalog. Search for "Send Your Spirit," or use this link to go to the product description, http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=5016. Then use the "look inside" button next to the cover image to see the table of contents, the introduction, and the first chapter, "The Wisdom We Need."

Send Your Spirit: Praying for Our Teens
by Carl Koch
ISBN 978-0-88489-568-8, paper, 160 pages, $5.95 http://www.smp.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=5016

Mid-Summer Prayer for Teens
by Brian Singer-Towns

Can you believe that we are half way through the summer? This is a good time (it is always a good time!) to remember the young people God has entrusted to our care. This prayer is adapted from the Saint Mary’s Press book, Send Your Spirit: Praying for Our Teens.

In your holy presence, God, I offer you praise and thanks. As the Scriptures tell us: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit." (1 Thess 5:16-19)

And so, Holy One, I do rejoice and thank you for the young people in my life and for all the hopes and fears, frustrations and successes that come from sharing life with a teenager. May I never stifle their spirit, but nourish it and help it grow. Send your Spirit to flood our soul with light and hope and love. Praise and thanks to you, God of glory.

Year for Priests

Pope Benedict XVI declared June 19, 2009 to June 19, 2010 to be the "Year for Priests." The theme for this yearlong celebration is "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests." If you plan on integrating the "Year for Priests" into any part of your ministry with young people this year, you can find a short list of links containing information, prayer services, activity ideas, and more at http://www.smp.org/linkslist.cfm?category=33.

You may also be interested in Priests: An Inside Look, by Rev. John P. Mack, Jr. In this book from the Vocations series, Father Mack reflects on his call to ordained life. He describes the requirements, opportunities, work, rewards, and challenges of priesthood. The following is an excerpt from the introduction:

Writing about the priesthood vocation gives me pause to reflect on my own vocation in the God-given favor of ordained priesthood. My voice and the voices of the other priests in this book speak in heartfelt hope that our stories may stir into faith and action the heart of readers who may be searching for their own calling. Our stories are unique, but they provide a glimpse of the great variety that is Roman Catholic priesthood and the diversity that is the church itself.