Last Supper Window

This window is in Holy Family parish in Orlando, FL. The only other time I have seen the vertical orientation of the Last Supper was at the Stations of the Cross in Madrid. Of course, I wore my green Boston Catholic sweatshirt to Holy Mass.

Happy Advent. Prepare!

Languages

Submitted by Joanne Connolly

A few weeks ago, my professor walked into the classroom and began to speak to us. In fluent Chinese. Had this been her Chinese class, I’m sure we all would have expected it, but this was education class. So why was she speaking Chinese? She was doing it on purpose, and making wild hand gestures in hopes that we’d understand her. She was calling out our names, pointing to us, using different inflections...but she was still speaking in Chinese. What was happening? Was she going to do this for the whole hour and fifty minutes?! My class was panicking. I was just sitting back and smiling.

I had just gotten back from Spain, a country where I spoke almost none of the language...and of course in Barcelona, NONE of us spoke their language. But we managed to get by. Through pictures and pointing and gestures and broken Spanglish, we got by.

My professor then left the room and brought back “The English customs agent,” which was just her speaking English. She said she was teaching us that different students may come from different cultures and know different languages, and how hard it is for them to move to America from another country where the teachers are spouting English, expecting them to know it. But they manage to get by. Sometimes it’s like climbing a mountain to get there, but once you start climbing, you don’t want to stop until the top.

The view from Montserrat.

Lead Me Lord

Lead me, Lord, lead me, Lord,

by the light of truth
to seek and to find the narrow way.
Be my way; be my truth;
be my life, my Lord,
and lead me, Lord, today.

John Becker

Upon returning from World Youth Day I discovered my job had been eliminated. In a letter, "Thanks for getting us started." I loved my job. I blogged about losing my job. But I was sure that God must have needs for me elsewhere. That I was to meet up with someone else on some different path... So, patiently I looked again for work.

This week my job starts as a home health aide. I am so excited about the different people I will be meeting. God is good all the time.

Submitted by Patty Hebert

GO TEAM! GO!

Reflection submitted by Paul Willitts

Having had some time to reflect upon my thoughts and experiences of World Youth Day 2011, the first thing that comes to mind is our parish team—“The Dragaroos." We were such a diverse group, spanning 3 generations from high school students, to college students, to young adults, to middle aged adults, to the “old” baby boomers like me. Our daily lives back home differed so much in our work and schools, our schedules, the music we enjoy, our hobbies, and the way we like to dress.

How could our small group of a dozen people bond together as one? It wasn’t just by chance; Jesus and the Holy Spirit sent us all to WYD for a purpose, and we realized it was our faith, our Catholic faith, that was our common bond. As the week progressed in Madrid, we continued to pray and practice our faith in God, in the church, and in the church leaders. We also showed a lot of faith within our own team as we participated in each of the activities; Patty, our blogmeister; David and Paula, the chaperones; Leslee, our fearless leader, and Sean, Jeremy, and Joanne, our young adults, leading the way for our very active youth; Terrence, Matty, Vanessa, and Vandella.

On a much larger scale, I think we realized that the way we interacted in faith and prayer as a small group, two million other Catholics from around the globe came together to practice the same thing. What I brought home with me is that the practice of the Catholic faith, prayer, and persistence are so important in accomplishing goals and continuing to be “good” Catholics. I would like to thank all of our team members for helping to contribute to a very enjoyable and successful pilgrimage and helping me to keep up with the group. I would also like to thank St. George Parish and the parishioners for their continued support of the Dragaroos.

Music, music, music by Joanne Connolly

When Rebecca Black came out with her song “Friday,” everyone was posting it all over facebook. A friend asked me, “Why don’t people post good songs, to give the attention back to talented singers and songwriters?” So starting in around May, that’s what I did. Each day I post a new song on my facebook, and every Sunday I post what I like to call Jesus music. Since October is my favorite month, Oct 2^nd (a Sunday) was one of my favorite Jesus songs, “Here I am to Worship.”



I first learned it at Gospel Road and I loved it then, but I loved it even more when we all sang it at catechesis; hundreds of pilgrims singing one song about one God.

Facebook has a feature that lets you “like” whatever people post. There is a “like” button and a “comment” button. When I post Jesus music, I don’t get a lot of responses. This song got the expected amount of “likes” from my Gospel Road friends and my pilgrim friend Sean. But the first person to “like” my song choice of the day was my boyfriend’s college friend. I was very surprised; usually my only responses on Jesus music are people that go to church with me, or went on Gospel Road with me. But it seems as though I found another who is Firm in the Faith.

(This is another unexpected circumstance that I saw during Stations of the Cross. A girl from Taiwan with a youngin from another country. No worries from the parents, either!)

Saint George World Youth Day

Gets international coverage. World Youth Day is just the beginning.

World Youth Day doesn't end.

It carries forward, as reported by Jeremy Longden

Today on my way home I ran into Father Jeremy and Father Sean at Park Street and we talked about our World Youth Day experiences together from when we got on the train until they got off at Newton Center. They both said that they enjoy their experiences in Spain and look forward to going to Rio.

Editors Note: We numbered over 300 pilgrims from the Boston area. Some friends, some family, mostly strangers at the beginning. Now we are all one, watched over by Our Mother.

Here's looking forward to Rio!