Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of February 21, 2011!
Congratulations to Aisling Hanna!

Aisling will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, a a $18.95 value.

Help youth understand the meaning of Christian prayer. Introduce them to traditional and devotional prayers of the Church, as well as to contemporary styles and methods. Assist youth in developing the habit of daily prayer. This all-in-one resource for prayer forms was specially written for teens, in the PRAY IT! STUDY IT! LIVE IT!® model, like The Catholic Youth Bible® and The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth. It is the most expansive prayer book for teens. But The Catholic Youth Prayer Book does more than teach about prayer. It helps teens become prayerful people.

The Catholic Youth Prayer Book
ISBN: 978-0-88489-559-6, paper, 232 pages

Positive Additions, Not Painful Deletions

Believe it or not, Ash Wednesday is in seventeen days. With this in mind, I would like to draw from a reflection I originally wrote in 2004 for the Saint Mary’s Press E-news (updated and expanded for The Servant Leader). This week’s reflection looks at one of the practices common during Lent and provides a suggestion for how we can make this practice a more meaningful and life-giving experience for both us and the young people with which we are in ministry.

As we approach Lent, it is common to witness the undertaking of a second round of New Year’s resolutions. I recall numerous youth, every year, proclaiming a day or two before Lent, "I’m giving up caffeine for Lent" or "I’m giving up chocolate for Lent." Although their hearts are in the right place, these efforts are often misguided and end with a spree of caffeine and chocolate on Easter morning that leaves the young person wallowing in an unnaturally acute state of awareness.

Instead, we can use the opportunity Lent presents and the willingness of our youth in order to challenge them to make a change in their lives that can be real and lasting. This often takes the form of adding to, rather than subtracting from, what they are doing. What could be the effect on your class of adding five more minutes of prayer with Scripture at the start of class? What could be the outcome of offering a weekly Rosary prayer experience for your youth? What could be the result of challenging your youth to lead their families in grace before dinner each night? Positive additions are easier to maintain than painful deletions. Help your young people make a positive change over Lent, and the lasting outcome will amaze you.

The trick, however, to making this work is for you to model the change. As a person who works with young people, can you make a Lenten commitment to lead and model positive life changes for the youth you are blessed to work with? What could be the outcome if we all did this?

Lent is a blessed season filled with opportunities for growth, both for us and for the young people we encounter. This year we can each make a commitment to add something to our lives that will bring us closer to God, and we can challenge our youth to do the same. As always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Lent: Change of Heart: A Guided Reflection on the Theme of Change
From Ministry Ideas for Celebrating Lent and Easter with Teens, Families, and Parishes

Overview

In this activity the participants are invited to reflect on their attitudes and responses to situations in their life and decide if they need to make a change during the season of Lent. As part of this guided reflection, each person will knead a lump of clay, eventually forming it into a heart shape. The heart will become a Lenten reminder of the need to be open to the hand of God molding us to become the persons we were intended to be. This activity can be used at the beginning of the Lenten season as a way to encourage the participants to use the season as a time to change and grow or it could be used as a lead in to a Reconciliation service.

Suggested Time
30 to 45 minutes

Preparation
Gather the following items:
- a recording of reflective instrumental music
- a cassette or CD player
- red modeling clay, enough so that each participant can have a piece that is about one inch in diameter
- fine-tip permanent markers, one for each participant
- thin ribbon or jute, one six-inch piece for each participant
- pencils, one for each participant
- THE CATHOLIC YOUTH BIBLE or another Bible
- a bowl of water (optional)
- paper towels (optional)

Just before the session, open the packages of modeling clay and break off a piece for each person. Leave the clay in the package or place in plastic bags, otherwise it will begin to harden.

Procedure
1. Gather the participants in a circle. When they are settled, begin playing reflective music. Invite them to quiet themselves inside and out and acknowledge that they are in the presence of God. This process may take a few minutes. The music should play softly throughout the whole prayer service.

Explain to the participants that during the Lenten season we are asked to take a look at our lives, to see where we may need improvement, where we may need to soften our hard edges and open ourselves to God’s touch in our lives. We are asked during this season to have a change of heart.

2. Pass around the modeling clay and direct the participants to take a piece, hold it in the palm of their hand, and look at it silently. Wait until everyone is quiet before continuing with the reflection.

3. Lead the participants through the following meditation, pausing for a few seconds at the ellipses:

The Bible contains many references to clay:

- Human beings were formed from clay (Genesis 2:7).
- Isaiah says God is a master potter and compares us to clay pots formed by God (Isaiah 64:7).
- Jesus cured a blind man with a mixture of clay and spittle (Mark 8:23).

We can do some beautiful things with clay. We can make jewelry, vases, plates, mugs, bowls, and much more. A lump of clay is full of possibilities, but it needs help transforming from a hard lump to a thing of beauty. . . .

We are sometimes like the lumps of clay that we hold in our hands. We are hardened by what we see going on around us. We are caught up in our own importance, and we sometimes forget to care about others. . . . Like a lump of clay, we are sometimes hard and contained. We forget that people around us have feelings and needs. We need to be reminded that there are people who are suffering.

Have the participants begin gently kneading the clay with their fingers in the palm of their hand, slowly and deliberately. You may need to demonstrate the motion.

Once you start kneading the clay you warm it with your hands. It then becomes easier to work with. The more you knead it, the more pliable it becomes. It is easier to work with and easier to shape. . . .

When we turn away from sin and let God be our personal potter, we become pliable in God’s hands and open to a change of heart. The more we focus on other people, the more aware we become of God’s place in our life. . . . The more open to change we are, the more we will be able to know God’s love. . . .

Listen to the words of the Psalmist:

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken
spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Psalm 51:3–6,11–14,17)

Do you want to come to God with a clean heart and a new spirit? Think about some ways you need to change your heart. What attitudes and behaviors are keeping you from being the person God wants you to be?

Pause for a few minutes.

4. Direct the participants to form their softened lump of clay into the shape of a heart. Distribute the permanent markers. On one side of the heart they should write the first initial of their first name. On the other side they should write the phrase Psalm 51.

Then give each person one piece of ribbon or jute and make pencils available. Explain that they should put a hole through the top of the heart with a pencil, then string through the ribbon or jute, and tie a knot. Before finishing the reflection, ask the participants the following:

- Why is it so hard for us to change our attitudes and behavior?
- What do we need to do before we make any changes?

Invite a few participants to share their responses.

5. Have the participants hold their heart in the palm of their hand while you read the following prayer. Invite them to respond to each invocation, "Create a clean heart in me, O Lord."

When I am tempted to close my eyes and ears to others’ needs . . .
All. Create a clean heart in me, O Lord.
When I am tempted to do what I know is wrong . . .
All. Create a clean heart in me, O Lord.
When I am tempted to follow the crowd even when I know it is wrong . . .
All. Create a clean heart in me, O Lord.
Lord, open my eyes, ears, hands, and heart that I may always remember that you are the potter and I am your clay.
All. Amen.

6. You may want to have a bowl of water available and some paper towels to allow the participants to wash their hands. While they are doing so, remind them that not only have they had a change of heart but they must keep their heart clean and free from sin. Suggest that they take the heart home and hang it in a place where they will see it every day. It will serve as a reminder that at all times—but especially during Lent—God calls each of us to a change of heart.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 27, 2011
Matthew 6:24–34

Opening Prayer

Jesus, in your Gospel today, you challenge us to examine our priorities and recognize that true freedom and happiness can be found only in you.

We pray that your Holy Spirit will strengthen us so that we may place our trust fully in you and live the lives to which you call us. Amen.

Context Connection
This Sunday’s Gospel proposes a no-win situation: "No one can serve two masters" (6:24). At the time of Jesus, there may have been a situation when a father willed a slave to two of his sons. It would have created an impossible situation for the slave. How was he to equitably serve two different families? Jesus acknowledges this dilemma: "For a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other" (6:24). According to Jesus’s wisdom, it is impossible to serve two masters. Then Jesus compares serving God and wealth as the same kind of dilemma: "You cannot serve God and wealth" (6:24). In the following verses, Jesus offers the believer freedom from the slavery of wealth that has its accompanying worries. When freed from the worry that comes with wealth, an individual is free to love completely, to have a grateful heart exclusively directed to God, and to devote time to values that are long lasting, the values of the Kingdom of heaven.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink" (6:25), for life is more than these things. Jesus asks his audience to consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and how God cares for them completely. Are not human beings in God’s eye far more important than these and will God not care for you? Does worry accomplish anything? "Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?" (6:27). Gentiles (unbelievers) preoccupy themselves by worrying about such things as what they will wear or what they will eat. Believers trust in God. "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (6:33). God will never abandon you. With faith firmly rooted in God and the providence of God, the believer can be about being present in the now. Matthew ends chapter six with this wisdom for us: "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today" (6:34).

Tradition Connection
Only God the Father knows how to sustain creation, for it was fashioned out of the love of God. Isaiah tells us that God can never forget, for God has carved our name in the palm of his hand (see Isaiah 49:16). God will never abandon the creation created in love but will give existence and meaning to all things.

Jesus assures us that if we believe in the providence of God the Father, we have no reason to be anxious in this world. God the Father knows what is good for us and wants us to be well cared for. For Jesus, the best way is to first seek the Kingdom of heaven; then all other matters will follow.

Anxiety is neither helpful nor necessary. It robs us of faith and confidence in God’s help, and it saps our energy for doing good. Jesus admonishes his followers to put away anxiety and preoccupation with material things and instead seek first the things of God—God’s Kingdom and righteousness. Anxiety robs the heart of trust in the mercy and goodness of God and in God’s loving care for us. God knows our needs even before we ask, and God gives generously to those who trust in him.

God’s love embraces everyone, even those who have rejected God and decided to serve wealth. Jesus re-extends the invitation to everyone to be poor in spirit so they can inherit the Kingdom of heaven. Trust in God is the consolation for those who have chosen to serve God (see CCC, number 2547).

Wisdom Connection
For Matthew, the disciple of Jesus could achieve authentic righteousness only through a heart that has the correct priorities and that is exclusively directed toward God. There is no room to serve two masters, God and wealth. At some time, the individual will have to choose. Matthew sees the option of choosing God to be the only way to have true freedom. By choosing wealth, an individual may have many things and many worries that accompany it. Trusting in God completely is the way of freedom. God the Father in heaven knows all that we need, and God will provide. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." In this prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on God.

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.

Saint Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz

February 26 is the memorial for Saint Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz.

Saint Paula was born in Spain in 1799. When she was still young, her father died, and she worked with her mother to help raise her four siblings. From this experience she became aware of the lack of access girls had to a quality education. At the age of thirty, Saint Paula, with a friend, opened a school for girls to provide both a quality education and spiritual direction. After establishing two more schools, Saint Paula then founded the Daughters of Mary (Pious School Sisters) to help staff and manage the schools. Over the course of her life, she personally founded seven schools and inspired and helped with the founding of four other schools.

For more information about Saint Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-paula-of-saint-joseph-of-calasanz/.