Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of October 18, 2010!
Congratulations to Anne Eikenberg!

Anne will receive a copy of Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics, a $20.95 value.

As the title suggests, Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics highlights what happens throughout salvation history between God and humanity. God breaks through and connects with human history, thereby establishing a relationship with humanity.

Using the Good News translation, Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics was created for young people leaving childhood and entering adolescence. Its ten special features were created to help make the Bible easier for young people to read and understand.

They will learn about the great people of the Bible, and will see how God has been breaking through in human history and connecting with humanity for thousands of years. Most important, they will discover, in the Bible, how God's messages to key people of faith have meaning for life today.

Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics
ISBN: 978-0-88489-862-7, paper, 1,968 pages

Training Youth Retreat Leaders, Part Two
By Steven McGlaun

Last week we started discussing building and training a youth retreat team as servant leaders. For part two of our discussion, we will address training your retreat team, including other adults in the retreat process, and building continuity with your retreat team.

Training a Youth Retreat Team
Once you have established your expectations, called together your team, and defined roles, it is important that you provide the team with the needed direction and training to succeed. Training your team has two components. First, you need to train your team to be servant leaders. Helping your team embrace their role as servant leaders begins with helping them to see that the retreat is not about them, it is about the participants. Of course, the hope is that the team will enjoy and grow spiritually from the retreat, but their first priority is to play their parts in making sure the participants have a positive retreat experience. The way to do this is by modeling servant leadership. Can your team look at how you are leading the retreat and other aspects of your ministry and see the love of Christ? Can they see that you believe people are more important than things? You can also make it a point to stress with the team, each time they gather, that their role is one of servant for the retreat participants. Have the team articulate what being a "servant" on the retreat will look like. Continually return to this vision with the team.

Second, your team needs to be trained to fulfill their specific tasks. In the "Make It Happen" feature this week, we have provided a resource from Ministry Resources for Youth Leadership Development that can assist you in training youth to give witness talks. For every task you are inviting a youth to take on, you need to provide direction and training. If your team is planning a liturgy, you need to train them in planning a liturgy. If you team is coordinating icebreakers, you need to train the team in the principles of icebreakers (I made it a point to spend time with the team, working on what it means to be physically and emotionally safe in the icebreakers we include in a retreat). We will devote entire future issues of The Servant Leader to liturgy planning with youth, icebreakers, and peer ministry.

Involving Other Adults in the Retreat
Inviting members of your community to servant leadership should not be limited to only young people. We can also reach out to other adults to participate in retreats. Beyond their role as chaperones, explore ways you can enlist other adults to help with the various parts of the retreat. Following are a few ways you can do this:

Pair adults with youth to plan and lead various parts of the retreat. Look for adult volunteers who can help your retreat team plan icebreakers, coordinate liturgies, and plan the numerous other retreat components.

Pair each student giving a talk on the retreat with an adult who will help the student shape and prepare her or his talk.

Invite a few adults to give talks on the retreat. It can be a moving moment for students to hear their favorite physics teacher share about her faith.

Have adults paired with youth who are leading small groups so you have an adult present in each group to contribute and step in if needed.

No matter how involved you have other adults in the planning, I encourage you to personally review and walk through each step of the retreat with the team. This is especially important for young people who are giving talks on the retreat. I always made it a point to have a youth who was giving a talk turn in a written copy of the talk to me well before the retreat. Additionally, students giving talks had to go through it once with me and once more with the team before the retreat. Remember, as much as we empower a retreat team to be servant leaders and lead the retreat, we still have the ultimate responsibility for the success and safety of the retreat.

One Retreat and Beyond
One of the benefits of investing time and energy in developing youth retreat leaders as servant leaders is the opportunity to build continuity with your team. Once young people have been trained and have gained experience in leading various aspects of a retreat, they can assist in the training and mentoring of other youth. Your team can take a leadership role in the recruiting of new team members, in the creation of future team training, and in the development of retreat themes and schedules. By giving youth, once properly formed, a more active and visible leadership role in the retreat ministry, we can develop servant leaders who possess a sense of ownership for the success of the retreat program.

The development of youth retreat leaders as servant leaders is a process that takes time. Just as we cannot fully explore the topics addressed in last week’s and this week’s Servant Leader in two articles, building a youth retreat team imbued with a spirit of servant leadership cannot happen overnight. As you move through each step, you and those you are in ministry with will continue to gain valuable experience that will strengthen your retreat program. As always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Giving a Witness Talk
From Ministry Resources for Youth Leadership Development

Giving a Witness Talk

Overview
Witness talks can be used any time or place where sharing a faith journey could be a valuable experience. Adults, young adults, or young people can give witness talks. This session helps those who are giving a witness talk to prepare, and offers suggestions about what to include, as well as helpful hints for making the talk meaningful.

Outcomes
_ The participants will learn how to prepare for and give a good witness
talk.
_ The participants will reflect on the importance of sharing their faith
journey.

Core Session:
Giving a Witness Talk (40 minutes)
Preparation
Gather the following items:
❑ three sheets of blank paper
❑ pens or pencils
❑ Catholic Youth Bibles or other Bibles, one for every four participants
❑ newsprint and markers
❑ one copy of resource 9, "Scripture Reflections," cut apart as scored
❑ copies of handout 33, "Developing and Giving Your Witness Talk," one for each participant

Scripture Reflections (15 minutes)
1. Begin with the following comments:

We have gathered to discuss the steps involved in preparing a witness talk.

The sharing of faith stories has a long history in our Church, and has played a meaningful role in the faith development of youth and adults throughout the centuries. The Bible, in part, is a witness story, and God continues to reveal himself to us within our own lives.

We are going to start by looking at a few stories from the Bible to learn

how to give witness, and why it is important.

2. Form three small groups. Give each group one of the Scripture passages and its reflection questions, from resource 9, and a Bible for every four participants. (If the number of people in this session is small, all the participants can work on the Scripture passages together—which will take longer—or you can choose one or two passages for the whole group to work on together.)

Ask each group to select a recorder, and provide each recorder with a sheet of blank paper and a pen or pencil. Direct each small group to read its assigned Scripture passage and to discuss the two questions that accompany it. Instruct the recorder in each small group to take notes. Give the groups about 7 minutes to read and discuss.

3. Ask the recorder from each group to report what was learned about witness talks from the Scripture passages. Add the following points and connect them with the participants’ comments:

Acts 26:1–23. The three movements in Paul’s witness parallel current witness talks. Witness talks usually include sharing about the time before faith played a meaningful role in a person’s life, then how faith came to be important in a new way, and finally how life is different because of faith.

John 4:4–42. People giving witness talks make themselves familiar to those listening, are willing to listen to others’ stories, share the Good News, and offer hope for the future (regardless of someone’s past).

2 Cor. 4:5–10. Sharing faith can be risky; however, Paul tells us it is not our own power that will make us good at sharing faith, but God’s.

4. Offer the following comments:

All witness talks should tell a story about God.

Credible witnesses attempt to invite listeners to enter into their lives and welcome listeners to share their own stories of faith.

If we trust, God will allow our words and thoughts to be about the Good News.

What Makes a Good Witness Talk? (10 minutes)
1. (If the majority of the participants have not heard a witness talk, skip this step and begin with step 2.) Direct the participants to find a partner—someone who is not from the group they worked with in the preceding activity, "Scripture Reflections." Instruct the participants to do this:

Share with your partner about a great witness talk you have heard.

Explain what made it meaningful to you.

Give the participants about 5 minutes to share.

2. Gather the participants back into a large group. Record the answers to the following question on newsprint:

What is something specific that was shared during a witness talk that made it meaningful to you?

For groups who have not heard a witness talk, ask:

What makes someone a good storyteller?

When someone talks about faith or religion, what makes it meaningful to you?

3. Summarize the participants’ comments and add or emphasize the following points:

A witness talk touches different people differently. The goal is to do the best job of telling your story and trust that God will do the rest.

We can learn from the good things others do, but we cannot borrow their lives and stories. God is working in each of us, so we should concentrate our efforts on communicating the story of God in our lives.

How to Develop and Give a Witness Talk (15 minutes)
1. Distribute handout 33. Review the handout with the participants, spending about 3 minutes on each section. If the participants have limited experience with witness talks, add stories or personal experiences, if possible, to animate the points. If the participants have had experience either giving or hearing witness talks, invite them to add their own stories and experiences.

2. Encourage the participants to ask questions and to share insights,
fears, and comments.

Developing and Giving Your Witness Talk

Preparing
A good witness talk requires preparation. People who look like they are talking without benefit of notes or preparation are usually the most prepared. Most often, people take weeks to prepare, giving themselves time to think, pray, write, practice, get feedback, rewrite, and practice again. The following ideas can help you before you ever start the process of writing:

Know your subject matter. Whether or not you have been given an outline or reflection questions to help you prepare, be sure to find out the following information:

What is the main theme of the talk?

What are three specific secondary themes or focuses that need to be addressed?

Do you need to tie the talk to a specific focus of the event at which you will give it?

What will the participants be doing before and after the talk?

Do you need to tie the talk into those activities?

Know how long you have. The best witness talk is fifteen to twenty minutes long. You will have to make some good choices about what you will say and what you will not say.

If necessary, do some research. If you have been asked to talk about something that goes beyond your own experience, consult others, read books or articles, search the Internet, and so on. For instance, if you have been asked to talk about Jesus and your relationship with him, you might want to read one of the Gospels so that you are familiar with the historical Jesus when you are preparing.

Reflect on the main theme. Ask and answer questions related to the theme that come to your mind. Write down ideas and questions. Talk with others about your ideas. Pray! Tell God what you are thinking about and spend some time in silence to allow God to communicate with you. Let your ideas, prayers, and thoughts germinate for a while before you begin to write.

Consider an analogy. You might begin with something like, "My faith life has been like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly because . . ." If you use an analogy, make sure that it helps tell your story in a meaningful way and does not distract you. For example, if you use the caterpillar analogy, talk about life as a caterpillar, when and why you went into a cocoon state, what happened in that state to make you different, and what life is like as a butterfly. If you cannot easily do that, the analogy does not work for you, so either find a new analogy or do not use one.

Consider a scene from a movie or the lyrics of a song. You can use a clip from a movie or a recording of a song, as long as it communicates what you want to say as well as or better than you could yourself. Also consider making your point by just referencing a movie scene or speaking the lyrics of a song.

There is no need to shock people. Although some people have a "hitbottom" experience that brings them to God, most come to experience God in the little things of life and through everyday experiences. Give an honest talk about your own experience, whatever that may be.

Writing
Take the time to write out your talk. That will help you find the right stories, the right details, and the images to communicate what you want. By writing it out, you can practice aloud, time your talk, and share it with others for comments and feedback. In writing your talk, remember the following points:

Focus on a few things. If you try to say everything, you often end up saying too much, and people get lost in your words.

Personal witness is the flesh of your talk, but you also need a skeleton. Make sure you achieve a good balance between the ideas you want to communicate (the skeleton) and the stories that bring it to life (the flesh).

Use specific examples from your own life. Use only the necessary details to convey your message and make your point. Do not lose the message in the unnecessary details of a story.

Plan your witness so that it flows smoothly from one point to another in a logical order.

You can use quotations, Scripture passages, songs, and other resources when speaking, but make sure the majority of the talk comes from you.

Do your best to witness to your faith without being preachy or giving the impression that you have it all together.

Write as though you are telling a story to a friend.

Practicing
Practice your talk, and allow others to give you feedback. A story that you think is clear might need more details to make sense to someone else.
Feedback will help you give the best possible witness talk and will help ensure that you will be understood by others.

Whenever possible, the program team for the event at which you will be speaking should listen to your witness talk and provide feedback. You should then have the opportunity to make changes and receive additional feedback.
By taking time to practice with the program team, you can ensure that you have something valuable to share, and the program team can be sure the talk matches the other program elements. If this type of support is not available from the program team, find someone you trust and ask that person to work with you in preparing and practicing your talk.

Getting Ready
The final step before giving your talk is to get yourself, your notes, and your other materials ready.

Pray often. When you are practicing, when you are thinking about your talk, and in the moments before giving it, pray often. If possible, ask someone to pray with you before giving your talk.

Write down your key points. Most witness talks are not read. When you have practiced your talk enough times for it to be very familiar, write the key points (in words or sentences) on index cards. Some people can just write reminders of the flow from one story or idea to the next; others need an outline to work from. Remember that you may be nervous, so write down enough to remind you of what you wanted to say next, in case you forget.

Prepare any outside resources you are using. Mark the page in a book, cue a song or a movie, have visuals handy, and so on.

Talking
When giving your talk, keep these hints in mind:

Talk to the group in a relaxed and informal way. Remember that your task is to talk to and with people, not at them.

Look at everyone and try to talk to each individual.

Be yourself—as relaxed and natural as you can be.

Allow your personality to come through—use your favorite phrases, laugh at your own stories, let people see the real you.

Have confidence in yourself and in the witness that you have to share with others.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 24, 2010
Luke 18:9-14

Opening Prayer
Jesus, thank you for showing us the importance of prayer in our Christian lives through the example of prayer you set in your own life. Help us to always be persistent in our prayer. Amen.

Context Connection
The Gospel opens with a wake-up call for disciples throughout history: "[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt" (18:9). Jesus often confronts self-righteousness in the Gospels because he found it to be a sinister enemy of authentic spirituality. Without a doubt, this parable is directed at those who are self-righteous. Jesus uses the Pharisee as the stereotype of the sinful person and the tax collector as the stereotype of the good person.

The Pharisee prays in thanksgiving to God: "God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector" (18:11). He tries to make himself appear righteous in the sight of God by reminding God of all the things that other sinful people do--including the tax collector--just in case God had not noticed. As the Pharisee says this, you get the sense that he is looking over his shoulder with contempt at the tax collector. You can almost hear him say, "What nerve! Who does this tax collector think he is anyway?" One author has called this "prayer with peripheral vision." It is as if the Pharisee is taking on God's role as judge.

The Pharisee continues his prayer, "I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income" (18:12). There is no doubt that the Pharisee prays with gratitude for his healthy spiritual state. True, the Pharisee fasts twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, for the good of the nation of Israel. We have no reason to doubt that the Pharisee tithes the required amount. The sad tragedy is that the Pharisee does not understand that the flawed nature of his heart corrupts his prayer. He is in reality deceiving himself because he does not have an honest understanding of himself. The Pharisee looks upon himself not as a servant of God but as one who deserves God's blessings and attention for a job well done. Another name for this is pride.

When the tax collector approaches God in prayer, he does it with full consciousness of his sinfulness: "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'" (18:13). His actions are utterly simple and truthful. The tax collector, who understands that he does not deserve God's attention because of anything he has done, trusts that God--in spite of the tax collector's deficiencies--will hear his prayer. Through his prayer, the tax collector shows his dependence on God and his willingness to allow God's grace to operate in his life. Another name for this is humility.

Jesus ends the parable with these words: "I tell you, this man [the tax collector] went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted" (18:14). Jesus's conclusion to the parable is shocking. The observant Pharisee goes home unjustified because of the flawed intentions of his heart, whereas the sinful tax collector goes home justified because of the humility of his heart. The Jewish audience hearing this parable would have expected the reverse to be true. The Pharisee would be justified because he is wealthy. Wealth was believed to be the reward given by God to those who are good. Those hearing this parable would have thought the Pharisee had a right to be proud of his many blessings. The tax collector, on the other hand, is dishonest and cheats people and would not deserve God's blessing. However, this parable asks us to remember Jesus's words from Luke 14:11: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Tradition Connection
The Gospels for the past two Sundays have emphasized the importance of praying to God and persevering at prayer. This Sunday's Gospel challenges us to know the intentions of our hearts when we pray. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:
"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.'1 But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or 'out of the depths' of a humble and contrite heart?" (Catechism, paragraph 2559)

Prayer generates from our longing to know the heart of God. Prayer helps us discover that the deep thirst within us can only be quenched by God. Used throughout the Psalms is a common image representing our spiritual life: the parched earth longing for refreshing rains. Prayer is like rain to our spiritual life. It brings forth new birth and nourishes past growth:

The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him. (Catechism, paragraph 2560)

Luke is telling us in Sunday's passage that we pray from our heart. The Scriptures often say that it is the heart that prays. Therefore, when our heart is near to God, our prayers are life-giving, and when our heart is distant from God, it is difficult to nurture our spiritual lives through prayer. As Jesus lets us see the hearts of both the Pharisee and the tax collector to reveal whose prayer was sincere, we also need to ask Jesus to help us see our own heart in truth and humility:

The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant. (Catechism, paragraph 2563)

In prayer, we recognize the covenantal relationship that we were graced with in Baptism. Our hearts' desire as children of God is to be in communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine wrote that "our heart is restless until it rests in you [God]"4 (Catechism, paragraph 30). It is in prayer that our hearts come to rest in God--enveloped in the loving embrace of our triune God. "Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him" (Catechism, paragraph 2565).

One prayer, rooted in our tradition and taken from the words of the tax collector, is known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"5 (Catechism, paragraph 2616). This prayer, repeated continuously, is a way to focus and to prepare our hearts--to be humble before God in prayer.

Wisdom Connection
Observing that both men in this parable are at prayer is important. For Luke, prayer is not an optional component of Christian piety. It is essential. Prayer is not carried out to demonstrate one's relationship with God--prayer is our relationship with God. The way we pray, then, reveals the kind of relationship we have with God. If prayer is self-aggrandizement, as in the case of the Pharisee, then God is unable to bestow the gift of righteousness because possession and gift cancel each other out.

Luke encourages disciples of Jesus Christ to approach prayer in the way that the tax collector did--in truth and simplicity. Prayer, as an essential component of Christian piety, must be humble. Humility in prayer prepares our hearts to receive God's transforming grace--transforming prayer into action.

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. Saint John Damascene, De fide orth. 3, 24: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1857-1866), 94, 1089C.
2. Psalm 130:1.
3. Cf. Saint Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus 64, 4: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina (Paris: 1841-1855), 40, 56.
4. Saint Augustine, Confessions 1, 1, 1: J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina (Paris: 1841-1855), 32, 659-661.
5. Matthew 9:27; Mark 10:48.

Blessed Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa

October 18 is the memorial for Blessed Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa.

Both were young Ugandans who converted to Catholicism. Following their conversion they began catechizing others. When they were ordered by local chiefs to stop their evangelical efforts, they refused and were martyred.

For more information on Blessed Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saintd95.htm and http://saints.sqpn.com/saintjff.htm