Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of September 20th, 2010!
Congratulations to Patty Gomez!

Patty will receive a copy of Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers, a $18.95 value.

The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers
by Janet Claussen, Pat Finan, Diana Macalintal, Jerry Shepherd, Susan Stark, Chris Wardwell

Whether middle schoolers encounter this book as part of the Catholic Connections program in faith formation or pick it up out of curiosity, The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers offers great guidance and aims to help young teens learn about all the central aspects of the Catholic faith, including God, revelation, faith, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, liturgy and sacraments, Christian morality and justice, and prayer.

Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers
ISBN: 978-0-88489-994-5, paper, 552 pages

Seeking Your Input
By Steven McGlaun

Before addressing this week’s topic, I would like to ask for your assistance. We are now several weeks into The Servant Leader. I am greatly enjoying the opportunity to reflect with you each week on aspects of our shared ministry with youth, and I am grateful for the positive feedback this newsletter has received. Where I would like your assistance is in shaping the future of The Servant Leader. I am asking for your input on topics you would like to see us address. What challenges do you face in your ministry with which the insights and resources of Saint Mary’s Press might be of assistance? What topics do you and the young people you are in ministry with find particularly engaging and exciting when they come up? What aspect of our faith or your ministry would you like to have additional insight into? I am inviting you to send us your feedback using this link and tell us what you would like to see addressed. Each one of you is a wonderful resource for ministry with young people, and we would like to utilize your knowledge in the development of this newsletter. One of the benefits of a resource like The Servant Leader is that every week we can go in a different direction and delve into a new topic. We ask that you help us chart that direction.

Ministry Mentors
As I mentioned above, one of the greatest resources we have in our ministries is others who share our ministry. With that in mind, the topic this week is how we can be resources for one another in the ministries we share. In the summer of 1993, I took my first position as a full-time parish youth minster. I had very little formal training, minimal experience, and no real clue as to what I had gotten myself into. What I did have was an experienced youth minster at a nearby parish who was a good friend. That first year was not easy (the second and third proved challenging as well), but having the guidance of an experienced youth minister made a huge difference. I do not know the number of times I was on the phone asking for help. When it was time to plan a retreat, she was there to help find a retreat center, line up buses, and plan a schedule. She was also there with insight and compassion when I was faced with helping a youth through a difficult situation. When I had disagreements with the pastor or parents concerning the direction of youth ministry, she was there to offer me support and encouragement to speak up for what was right for the youth. If it were not for her and other experienced youth ministers and DREs, I would have been lost in those early years, and I doubt I would still be working in ministry with youth.

With each new ministry position I moved into, I was fortunate to find someone to serve as my mentor. When I started in campus ministry, I received guidance from an experienced campus minister at another school. When I started at Saint Mary’s Press, I was surrounded by experienced editors and ministers who offered (and continue to offer) guidance and support as I learned the ins and outs of the ministry. I have no doubt that, although I have attended many classes, workshops, and conferences, I have learned the most from other ministers who willingly gave of themselves to help me.

You Are Not Alone
Hopefully each one of you has had a similar experience of mentorship when you started in ministry. No matter where you are in terms of experience working with young people, you can benefit by connecting with others who share your ministry. If you are new to working with youth, seek out those who have years of experience in your ministry. Having a mentor does not mean having to do everything in your ministry just like your mentor. What it does mean is having a valuable resource at hand to assist in discovering your unique approach to ministry. You can begin your search for a mentor in several places. A simple starting point is at neighboring parishes or schools. Who are the ministers with programs you consider to be successful? You can also reach out to ministers who were influential in your life. Think back to the youth minister, teacher, or DRE who helped you when you were a youth and contact them. You can also contact your diocesan youth ministry office and ask for their assistance in setting up a mentorship with an experienced minister.

If you have years of experience in ministry with youth, make yourself available to people who are new to the ministry. One of the challenges new youth ministers, campus ministers, and teachers face is the feeling that they are all alone in their ministry. By simply contacting someone new to the ministry, introducing yourself, and making yourself available if they have questions, you can help a fellow minster feel less alone (you might also consider offering to take them out to lunch). By doing this, not only will you be helping someone new to ministry with young people, you also might discover a valuable resource for your ministry in that person. Someone new to ministry can provide a fresh perspective and new ideas for your ministry.

Power of Peers
If you have ever attended the National Catholic Educational Association Conference or the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry, you know the power of gathering with others who also have committed to sharing the Good News with youth. There is true power in connecting with our peers, in drawing from them strength, encouragement, companionship, and renewal of our love of ministry. Each of you has two tremendous gifts to offer to your peers in ministry: your experiences and your love of young people. I encourage you to embrace the opportunity to connect with others in your ministry, because when we share our gifts and support one another, we strengthen our ministry efforts and are better able to share the love of Christ with the youth we encounter. I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

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The Desire for Insight
From Finding the Calm: Biblical Meditations to Nourish Those Who Nurture Teens

Scripture Passage
My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voices for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures— then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you. It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely. . . Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just.
(Proverbs 2:1–12,20)

Meditation
One of the greatest aches that young people long for—whether we see it or not—is insight and wisdom. They long to find adults and mentors who they can emulate. Sometimes they look for heroes, and oftentimes their expectations are too high. But most of the time, they are looking just for integrity—they want to experience and develop relationships with adults who, at minimum, try. They seek to find something to believe in, adults who do try, with a sense of balance and altruism. They do not need us to have all the answers; they do not ask us to be perfect. They just want to know that, like them, we are trying, and that it is worth the effort.

Prayer
God,

Help me, above all things, to live my life with integrity. Give me an eager heart that yearns and longs for wisdom— your wisdom. Give me a generous heart that lavishly reaches out to do what is right. Give me a patient heart that forgives me when I falter and calms me when I am impatient. If my heart is open to your wisdom, I can truly know insight and come closer to you. Then those who look up to me will not be disappointed.
Show me your way.

Amen.

Questions for Reflection

• When young people see the way I live, what do I think they really see?
• Who were the mentors and heroes that I had when I was young?
• What was it about them that inspired me?

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sepember 26, 2010
Luke 16:19-31

Opening Prayer
Jesus, help us see Lazarus in our world today, and in seeing Lazarus, fill our hearts with compassion that will motivate us to action. Amen.

Context Connection
In examining Sunday's Gospel within the full context of chapter 16, we see in the verses preceding verse 19 that Jesus is addressing the Pharisees. In verse 14 Luke makes a pointed statement about the Pharisees: "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this [a reference to last Sunday's Gospel], and they ridiculed [Jesus]." Jesus's response to the Pharisees' criticism was, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God" (15). This information helps us see the parallel between the Pharisees and the rich man in this Sunday's Gospel.

The parable tells us that the rich man wears expensive clothing of purple and fine linen. At the time of Jesus, royalty wore such clothes. The rich man also holds feasts fit for a king, not just for special occasions, but every day. He is living the good life and has the best of everything. In contrast, the poor man Lazarus is covered with sores and considered unclean according to the Jewish law enforced by the Pharisees. Even dogs come and lick his sores, a sign that he is unclean and unworthy to be a part of the mainline community. It is interesting that the poor man is known by name, but the rich man is nameless. Lazarus lies at the gate of the rich man's palace, hoping to be fed the crumbs that fall from his table. The rich man fails to notice Lazarus because he is caught up in his affluent world. The image of the gate is a metaphor for the potential conversion of the rich man, but the rich man must pass through it to become aware of the world outside his narrow experience. The rich man never goes to the gate, or beyond it, because he is too busy enjoying the good life.

Both men die and Lazarus is "carried away by the angels to be with Abraham" (22). The rich man is buried and then tormented in Hades, or Sheol, as it is called in Hebrew. When the rich man sees Lazarus with Abraham off in the distance, he asks Abraham to "send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue" (24). The rich man, even in death, still does not get it. He remains egotistical, as he had been in life, and demands that Abraham and Lazarus meet his needs. The rich man again misses the opportunity to experience conversion by passing through the gate and becoming aware of the conditions of others around him; in death he still is unable to ask for forgiveness.

Abraham quickly points out the change in status of these two men in the new Kingdom: "Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony" (25). Abraham is also clear about the great chasm that exists between the rich man and Lazarus, a chasm that cannot be traversed. However, the rich man continues to act out of the same mindset and demands that Abraham send Lazarus to warn his brothers. In response, Abraham points out that the rich man's brothers have the same opportunities for conversion that were available to the rich man: "They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them" (29). However, his brothers have obviously chosen not to listen. The rich man makes one more attempt and says his brothers will surely listen to someone who comes back from the dead. Abraham gives the rich man a definitive answer: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" (31). If they have closed their hearts and are not receptive to the ordinary channels of conversion, why would they be open to any extraordinary means?

Tradition Connection
Sunday's Gospel invites us to continue to explore Catholic social teaching with a focus on the poor. "The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2831). Solidarity is a bedrock principle of Catholic social teaching that calls us to see other people or nations as neighbors and as equals. In scriptural terms we are called to see that we are all one body in Christ. Through solidarity the Church insists that we treat each person as Christ. Solidarity calls us into relationship with one another--a relationship that is interdependent and expresses itself through social charity. In this interdependent relationship, we acknowledge we are responsible for the well-being of others and thus work toward building a civilization of love.

Solidarity with those who are poor is fundamental to understanding the charity of which Jesus spoke: "The Church's love for the poor . . . Is a part of her constant tradition" (Catechism, paragraph 2444). The Catechism also tells us that "those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere"1 (paragraph 2448). Unlike the rich man, our tradition calls us to notice the condition of the poor and to do something about it. Just as Lazarus was the gate to conversion for the rich man, our solidarity with the poor people of the world is a gate to conversion in the twenty-first century:

For two thousand years this sentiment has lived and endured in the soul of the Church, impelling souls then and now to the heroic charity of monastic farmers, liberators of slaves, healers of the sick, and messengers of faith, civilization, and science to all generations and all peoples for the sake of creating the social conditions capable of offering to everyone possible a life worthy of man and of a Christian.2 (Catechism, paragraph 1942)

The rich man learned too late that if he had listened to and acted according to the words of Moses and the prophets, he would have passed into the bosom of Abraham at death. As Catholic Christians, we have the teachings of Jesus in addition to these sources of wisdom. Jesus often points out that we shall in the end be judged by how we lived in solidarity with all people: "At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love"3 (Catechism, paragraph 1022).

If you would like to learn more about the present social concerns of the Catholic Church in the United States, go to the bishops' Web site at http://www.usccb.org/sdwp.

Wisdom Connection

In drawing the connection between the Pharisees and the rich man in Sunday's Gospel, Luke points out how easy it is to hide behind laws and social norms that are in conflict with the message of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees, by following the letter of the law, would never have had the opportunity to interact with sick, lame, and poor people because society had labeled those people as unclean. Such people were considered sinners, and, therefore, the Pharisees did not have to give them any attention. Luke, however, cleverly points out that those who are sick and poor are the way to salvation.

As we look at this passage from a contemporary perspective, we could perhaps say the rich man and Lazarus represent the haves and the have-nots in America and in the world today. Are we, who are affluent and living a comfortable life, so focused on our way of life that we do not notice the conditions of those who are poor? Do we, who have much, understand and keep in focus that what we have is a gift from God? For without God we are nothing. In this nothingness--in being totally dependant on God--we can identify with poor, sick, and hungry people and with the victims of various injustices. In reality, we can be in solidarity with all peoples throughout the world. We model Christ today when we recognize this connectedness with all human beings.


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. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, instruction, Libertatis conscientia, 68.
2. Pius XII, Discourse, June 1, 1941.
3. Saint John of the Cross, Dichos 64.

Saint Clare of Assisi

August 11 is the feast day of Saint Clare of Assisi.

Saint Clare serves as a wonderful example of the power of ministry mentors. After hearing Saint Francis of Assisi preach, Clare shared with Francis her desire to live for God. She and Francis became good friends. Eventually Clare entered religious life. She later founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares). Throughout her life Clare remained the spiritual student and good friend to Francis.

For more information about Saint Clare of Assisi, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-clare-of-assisi/