Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of June 11, 2012

Congratulations to Steve Griesmer

Steve 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

"Acknowledging Parents"

I have a group of friends that I affectionately refer to as “The Young Bucks.” This is a group of four men, all of them at least 12 years younger than me, that invite me along when they get together to grill steaks, play video games, and see the latest superhero movie. They are all married and have children (or are anxiously awaiting the birth of their first child). I don’t get to join in on their activities that often because they like to see the late showing of movies and I have no clue how to play the latest video games, but when I do join in, I am encouraged by their faith, camaraderie, and kindness. I recently received an e-mail from one of the men in the group, inviting us to begin gathering for another reason: to talk about being fathers and share ways we can be men of faith in the lives of our children.
           
More and more I find myself talking with other men about their experiences as fathers. The stories they share both inspire and worry me in terms of the challenges I will face as a father. My daughters are 2 and 4½ (she will correct you if you say 4), and each day I reflect on my successes and shortcomings that day as their dad. I am elated by the constant discoveries they make, I am exhausted by the endless energy they bring into each day, and I am concerned by the obstacles and hurts they will encounter that I cannot prevent. For my wife and me, parenting is the greatest undertaking of our lives. 
          
With Father’s Day being just around the corner, I want to simply acknowledge the importance and sacredness of being a parent. Mothers and fathers face an exhausting and exhilarating roller-coaster ride as they strive to raise healthy, faith-filled, well-rounded children. The reality of our world today is that many Moms and Dads face the added challenge of daily living this vocation as a single parent. As parish and school communities, we need to make every effort to support and assist parents in their role as the primary caregiver and catechist for their children. I encourage you to invite your community to examine the ways in which you can assist parents. Can you make it easier for parents to get their youth involved? Can you offer a time for parents to meet (with child care provided) to discuss their successes and difficulties? Can you find a way to publicly affirm and acknowledge the parents in your community? There are countless things that can both make the life of parents a little easier and acknowledge their importance to the community.
           
On behalf of Saint Mary’s Press, I want to say “thank you” to everyone reading who serves as a parent in the life of a young person. So whether you are biologically or legally a young person’s parent, or you fill that role in another capacity, thank you for loving and worrying about that young person. And on this coming Father’s Day, give an amazing gift to the men and women that have been a parent for you; say thank you and let them know they are loved. I pray that you are having a peaceful summer and, as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

    
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“Dare to Share"
From Family Ideas for Ministry with Young Teens

This strategy invites the families to play a game that can help them gain knowledge about their family members, and identify events, values, and practices that are special to their family.

Suggested Time
30 to 45 minutes

Group Size
This strategy can be done with two to ten family teams of two to three people each.

Special Considerations
Young people whose family members are not present, or other unattached participants, can be assigned the role of game helper. You will need a game director, a judge, a bell ringer, a timekeeper, and a spotlight holder.

Materials Needed
3-by-5-inch index cards, one for each person
pens or pencils
newsprint and a marker
stick-on name tags, one for each person
colored markers
a coin
a lectern or a music stand
a hand bell
a flashlight
a stopwatch, or a watch or clock with a second hand
strips of colored ribbon, approximately 3-by-5 inches, one for each family

Preparation.
Before the meeting make an award for every family by writing, “We dare to share!” on a wide strip of ribbon, about 3-by-5 inches. Place a lectern or a music stand at the front of the room. In front of that arrange two facing rows of three chairs each. And beyond those chairs place a table and chairs facing the front of the room for a judge, a timekeeper, a bell ringer, and a spotlight holder.

Finally, write the following questions on a piece of newsprint and post it where everyone can see it easily:

1. Who is your best friend?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is the most fun you have had on a family vacation or outing?
4. What is an important Christmas tradition that your family enjoys?
5. How does your family celebrate birthdays?
6. What is one way your family prays together?
7. If your parents won $30,000 in a lottery, what would they most likely do with the money?
8. What topic or issue does your family most often argue about?
9. What is the favorite leisure time activity of the teenager or teenagers in your family?
10. What is the favorite leisure time activity of your parent whose birthday is closest to yours?

1. As the participants arrive, invite any unattached teens or extra participants to be game helpers. You will need a game director, a timekeeper, a bell ringer, a judge, and a spotlight holder. Explain their tasks to them, as described below. You may want to recruit another adult to do this briefing because you will need to greet and instruct families as soon as they arrive (see below).

2. Also as people arrive, separate family members and caution them not to talk to one another. Give everyone a 3-by-5-inch index card and a pen or pencil. Invite them to write their name at the top of their card, list the numbers 1 to 10 down the left-hand side, and write the answer to each posted question by its corresponding number.

3. Distribute blank stick-on name tags and colored markers and tell the participants to write the last name of their teen participant in large letters on their name tag and to put it on so that all the other participants can see it easily.

4. While the families are making their name tags, instruct the judge to collect the index cards and stack the cards from each family in a separate pile. (For example, the cards that belong to the Anderson family should be stacked together.) Explain to the judge that his or her role during the game will be to check the responses when a family spokesperson answers the questions.

5. Assemble the large group of families to form an audience for the game. Tell them to sit beyond the judge’s table, facing the front of the room. Encourage them to cheer and applaud when correct responses are given and to moan when incorrect responses are given.

Have the game director invite two families to come forward and sit in the two facing rows of chairs, one family on each side. Then tell the game director to flip a coin to determine which family may begin. Have that family choose a spokesperson and invite her or him to come to the lectern or music stand and prepare to answer the posted questions.

Explain to everyone that teenage spokespeople are to answer the questions as they think their parent or parents answered, and adult spokespeople are to answer the questions as they think their child or children answered. For example, when the game director asks Mrs. Anderson, “How did your child answer the question, Who is your best friend?” and Mrs. Anderson gives the answer that is on her child’s card, as determined by the judge, she is correct, the bell ringer rings the bell, and the Anderson family gains a point. She may continue answering questions, up to five correct responses. If the answer is incorrect or if she takes longer than 10 seconds to answer, then Mrs. Anderson sits down and the other team’s spokesperson comes to the lectern or music stand. The game director resumes the questioning with the question that was missed. Throughout the game the spotlight holder’s task is to shine a flashlight on the spokesperson, and the timekeeper’s role is to monitor the time and signal when 10 seconds have passed.

After both teams have had a chance to answer five questions, tally their points. If one team has a higher score, urge the audience to cheer the winners, and invite the two teams to rejoin the audience. If the score is tied, have the game director continue with the unused questions on the posted list. If the tie is not broken by the end of the list, thank the families, have them rejoin the audience, and continue the game with new players.

6. After all the families have competed, give a “We dare to share!” award to every family and declare that everyone is a winner when they learn to communicate better and when they dare to share.

7. Invite everyone to stand in a circle and close with the following prayer or one you create:

O God, bless these families who are gathered here before you. All the parents want your protection to cover their children like the wings of a mother hen, shielding them from all harm. All the young people want your love to shine through their parents as a model for Christian living. We ask that you grant this protection and this sign of love. May our lives be graced by your presence. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to love and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Alternative Approaches

• Instruct the participants to write each answer on a separate large card or piece of poster board instead of writing all their answers on one 3-by-5-inch card. Tell them to hold up the corresponding card after each question that their family spokesperson answers. This eliminates the role of judge and might make the game more interactive.
  
  
• Instead of using the 3-by-5-inch index cards, have the spokesperson escorted out of the room. Then let the remaining family member or members answer the questions verbally. Bring the spokesperson back into the room to answer the questions as he or she thinks the other people in the family answered them.

• Invite the families to brainstorm a list of more questions and have a tournament You may want to conduct the tournament at another time and finish it with a potluck.
  

Scriptural Connections

• Deut. 4:9–10 (Teach God’s decrees to your children and your children’s children.)
• Prov. 23:22–25 (Children should listen to their parents.)
• Eph. 6:1–4 (Children must honor their parents, and parents must train their children.)
• Col. 3:21 (Parents should not nag, lest their children lose heart.)

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 17, 2012
Matthew 4:26-34

Opening Prayer
In this Sundays Gospel, Mark uses seeds and their growth to speak about faith. Faith is a gift we are given at baptism. It is like a little seed planted within us that is nurtured and matures into an awesome relationship with God and our faith community – the Church.  Let us for hope that will nurture and mature our faith. Amen

Context Connection
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus uses two parables to assist us in understanding the Kingdom of God. The first image Jesus shares is of a farmer who scatters seeds on the ground. He then goes about the normal routine of life while the seeds sprout and grow. The farmer does not fully comprehend what is happening. Then when the grain is ripe, the farmer harvests it. Jesus presents the growth process of the grain as a mystery to the farmer. Faith is a gift that is planted in us at Baptism, and its growth is a mystery just like the plants that grow from the seeds. Like the seeds, our faith is always developing, growing, and becoming fuller. It takes a whole lifetime for faith to grow and mature. There is no way to rush it, just like there is no way the farmer can rush the process of seeds’ spouting, growing, and maturing into ripened grain.

The second parable is about the mustard seed, “the smallest of all the seeds on earth” (4:31), which, when planted, grows into a strong and great shrub that provides a place of shelter and comfort to birds. Jesus shares the image that a very small amount of faith can grow into a strong faith that will be a place of shelter and comfort for others. During our time of growing our faith, Jesus assures us that God will continue to nurture the good within us and never abandon us. It is a process of being on the way, the way to a mature faith. Throughout our lifetime, we live in the tension between faith that has been planted with deep inner-rooted hope of growing into a mature faith and knowing of the fragility of faith and that there are obstacles on the way to a mature faith. We can have hope in the present moment because what is expected is that we are attending to growing our faith. Our faith at the present moment isn’t what it was as a child, but it still isn’t what it will be ten, twenty, or thirty years from now when it has matured some.

Tradition Connection
At the Holy Saturday Vigil, when unbaptized individuals, catechumens, are asked by the celebrant what it is they ask of the Church, their response is faith. The celebrant inquires as to what faith offers, and the catechumens’ response is eternal life. That is what the Church gives to all people who are baptized—faith, new life in Christ, and the promise of eternal life. Faith has as much to do with what has been fulfilled as it does with the hope of what is to come. In Baptism, the individual becomes a full member of the Church but has yet to enter into eternal life, which comes at the end of life. A very important part of faith is having hope in that which is not seen yet.

Throughout the history of faith, people have bore witness to faith in God. A primary witness was Abraham, our father in faith. He believed in God even though he did not understand everything about God.

God had something even greater in store for us than for Abraham, and that was the grace that comes with believing in Jesus. Jesus is the witness of the truth of God the Father as well as the way to commit one’s life to doing the will of God. Jesus showed us the way of entrusting ourselves wholly to God, placing all our faith in God, throughout his life but particularly in his Passion, death, and Resurrection.

Wisdom Connection
Mark wants the Christian community to take to heart, to plant down deeply, Jesus’s words of hope in the Kingdom of God. The ultimate hope for a Christian is the coming of the Kingdom of God, but one must take note that the mystery is unfolding and growing in our midst, even while we are going about the routine things in our lives. This Sunday’s Gospel gives us hope and encouragement in the process of growing in faith. The words Jesus sows are mysteriously undergoing a growth process that continues to move us toward the fullness of God’s Kingdom. The tension that the Christian community has to come to grips with is that we are always living in the in-between time, between the Resurrection of Jesus and his Second Coming. The parables in this Sunday’s Gospel place the Christian in a similar time, between the planting and the harvest.

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, second edition. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997 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.

Copyright © 2009 by Saint Mary's Press, 702 Terrace Heights, Winona, MN 55987-1318, www.smp.org. All rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Thank you.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

June 21 is the memorial for Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of Catholic youth and teenagers. At a young age, he began to teach the Catholic faith to the poor. At the age of eighteen, he became a Jesuit novice. He later ministered to victims of the plague and contracted the disease himself. He died in 1591 at the age of twenty-three.

For more information on Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-aloysius-gonzaga/.