What a fantastic day!  A small group of teens gathered to explore God’s abiding love, and their call to be a wave of God’s love and mercy to others.  We were together at Pyramid Lake, a beautiful part of God’s creation not too far from home.  Above, we are meditating on the ‘porch’ over the lake.  As we journeyed with Peter to find we too are given chances to see ‘Yes, of course I love you Lord,” we could truly hear the water, feel the breeze and sense the Presence.

We are looking forward to doing the same next fall.  This was really great.

WOW- What a great weekend.  I am not sure where to start.  Perhaps with morning “rap” prayer that was both impromptu and amazingly beautiful, or with Reconciliation, where Father, much to his surprise, heard the Confessions of more than 20 people and took such time and care with them that he was there 2 hours longer than expected.  Or maybe I should start with the peer leaders, like Mike, CJ, Taylor and Jeremy who truly let the teens dig deep to reflect, or walking a labyrinth late at night the moon as a guide by the lake, or guided meditation, or Night Prayer that was both new and Spirit Driven.  Spirit Driven.  That is where I will start, because that sums up the weekend.  God’s Spirit truly working and alive in ALL who were gathered this weekend, showing us truly that Christ is our Light and He SHINES in our Young Church!!!

    Silver Bay was beautiful and a bonfire was a nice addition to the weekend

So we did it. We met with a parish staff and reflected on our Amazing God. Borrowing from the inspiration of Sr. Kitty, we explored our Amazing God through the mysteries of our lives. We used the mysteries of the Rosary, and shared where God has been present to us with Amazing Love in our moments of Sorrow, Joy and Illumination.

I think overall, the reflection time was nice. The sharing was heartfelt and wonderful. I appreciate your prayers as we developed this.

Last week was more Amazing God, as we were asked to submit one of our retreats for publication. We shall see. Upon reflecting about how this came about- we asked a friend how to be added in the publication, we get an email back from the editor saying “We need a retreat… yesterday” to find it will be published this fall- can ONLY be our Amazing God at work.

The hard work begins this weekend as we prepare for next weekend’s Christ our Light Retreat. We will certainly keep our blog updated about that.

Prayers on your journey…

The diocese of Albany has a new initiative- Amazing God.  Three years, divided by the Trinity.  I think it is a very encouraging and interesting initiative. 

While wondering this week how this might impact some of our programming, I receive an email asking us to do a staff retreat on Amazing God and implementing that initiative in the parish.  I am not sure if ‘retreat’ and ’staff implimentation’ really go together, so I am praying about how we would give a staff reflection time AND in-service time.  It has brought me to reflect on past adult programming we have done.

Having attempted ’staff retreat’ in school ministry, I find it a challenge.  It is not really a challenge in presenting, it is more a challenge of participant mindset.  In school ministry, the teachers’ mindset was very resistant for the most part.  Their minds were everywhere but on retreat- papers to grade, classes to plan, programs to learn about.  Often they would come to the retreat with their plan books and grade books.  That is not a mindset easy to shift into prayerful reflection.  I even attempted to write a retreat based on using their plan-books.  If you cannot stop them from bringing them, then show them how to pray with them.  I think it went pretty well.  So, I think the challenge for this parish, to both be renewed and have some ideas to renew their parish with Amazing God will have to have a similar bent.  They are coming with their ‘plan book’ and ‘to do list’  how do we pray our way through that so we don’t lose sight of our Amazing God when we are in the weeds?

Prayers as we develop this further would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes for our song to win, “NCYC Theme Song 2011″

Although we did not win the contest, I did have an opportunity to work with a couple of the folks from our music ministry at St. Mary’s in Clinton Heights.  It was a neat experience. 

Thanks for your prayer and support,

Chris.

PS Here’s the song:      we_are_called_5-27

Stamped Labyrinth

Over 70 Jr. High Youth from all over the Albany diocese got together this week to celebrate our Amazing God.  I was on the committee AND sending our children, so it was a labor of love.  Chris also spent the day, lead prayer and praise and presented a workshop on Music/Media as prayer.  In the afternoon, we had service projects.  Above, you will see the Labyrinth we built- using a pattern of a 7 circuit Labyrinth, drawn in blue crayon (not a wise choice) then stamp painted with ragged t-shirts by 15 participants on Wednesday.  Amazing- 1 hour to draw and 20 minutes to paint.  One young man painted his feet to indicate the entrance (in red at the bottom).  We talked about a labyrinth as prayer.  This will be used at the Albany Sr. High Rally this fall.

Now we need to complete ours!  We are also building a labyrinth to bring on retreat with us this coming year.  After borrowing one from RPI regularly, we decided it was time to build our own.

We are trying something a little different this fall.  We are offering a Confirmation Retreat that ANYONE can register for.  We are hosting it at beautiful Pyramid Life Center, a real gem in our Diocese that is sadly under used. 

The Confirmation retreat is called Tsunami of the Spirit, a retreat focusing on our gifts, the gifts of the Spirit and being a wave of God’s love to others.  We are excited to be offering this OCt. 2, 2010 and hope to see you there!

Registration and more information- click here

We pray that you all are having a prayerful and restful summer, and if that is not the case, that you feel the guiding hand of God in all you are doing.

Peace-

Beth and Chris

Beth and I facilitated another confirmation retreat this past weekend in Round Lake.

I began to ponder some questions on reflecting on this particular retreat.  Is confirmation simply individuals “confirming” their belief in God and the Church or is it God conferring a deeper sense of God’s self to us?  An offering, a invitation, a reality, waiting to be opened, waiting to be realized?

Carthage Confirmation: 4/25/2010

Beth and I are recently back from yet another confirmation retreat.  This one was unique in the sense that we were back in the Ogdensburg Diocese.  Secondly, the group was mainly 7^th and 8^th graders.  The confirmandi were awesome!  They seem to be one of the best prepared groups that I have ever encountered.  I believe that is based on two factors, the confirmandi’s  receptivity and the dedication of their teachers and catechists. 

It was a great pleasure to work with and pray with a couple of my former teachers, Sr. Mary Rita and Sr. Annunciata.  As junior high students, we sometimes do not appreciate the great prayers and patience we are afforded.  As an adult I look at these two women of great faith and love with gratitude for both of them.

Peace,

Beth and Chris

Christ has no body on earth but yours

No hands but yours.  No feet but yours.

Yours are the feet with which He goes

About doing good

And yours are the hands He

is to bless people now

-Theresa of Avila

What a wonderful opportunity to share faith with 63 teens from our former Diocese in Ogdensburg.

The group of teens was awesome!!  We talked about the walls, the obstacles in our society which attempt to lessen the simple fact that we are made in the image and likeness of our God, Abba!

As confirmation candidates, we talked about how to overcome those walls, no matter how difficult and seemingly impossible.  For as the Gospel of Luke says, “Nothing is impossible with God.”  (Luke 1:37)

Thanks for an awesome day.

Hands and Feet

This time last week, we were coming off a stretch of many retreats.  The last in the stretch was St. Edward the Confessor in Clifton Park.  It was the 3rd in a series of retreats for their very large Confirmation program.  Fran came and helped us out.  She is AWESOME! 

It was really great to be able to share with them some new ways of prayer, like a labyrinth borrowed from Alice H.  It was also the first time we used a guided meditation that the Holy Spirit would not leaveme alone until I wrote.  It was really cool and in the end, the participant’s favorite part of the day.

This past week we have been looking at the upcoming retreats in Hudson/Stuyvesant Falls and this coming weekend in Plattsburgh.  We are excited at the directions the Spirit seems to be taking things. 

Now, partially rested and renewed, we jump into this coming week. 

A friend emailed me this quote and I am finding it a guide post for me right now:

“In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is a continual prayer.”  -Wesley

I was praying this morning about a retreat we have this Saturday at St. Edward’s in Clifton Park.  St. Ed’s is a HUGE parish, and this is the third retreat on the same topic we are offering for them this year, enabling all 125 confirmandi to attend, but have manageable group sizes.

At the same time, I read an email I sent to a friend.  I meant to say “I am praying for you” and what I typed was “I am prayer for you.”  She wrote back, “You *are* prayer for me, thank you.”  So while praying about these kids in Clifton Park, and what the Spirit wants them to have the opportunity to experience, I am reflecting on ‘being prayer’ and how, as a Eucharistic community, we are called to *be* prayer for each other.

Prayer defined is “communicating with God,”  what if we took St. Francis’ desire to make his life a prayer one step further, that all we are becomes prayer, that all we are becomes talking to and listening to God?  How does that change the way I live?  Interact?  love?  disagree?  How does that cause conversion?  What language am I using as I pray?  And how do I encourage others on their journey, on their *being* prayer?

Much to reflect on, with the added dimension that this will probably change the plan for the retreat.  Ah well.  The Spirit doesn’t work on my time table… never has….  which is good, as mine is not perfect, but God’s is.

I admit it, Chris and I really look forward to looking at evaluations.  We like to see if what we thought ‘worked’ did.  We like to see if our ‘read’ of the group is fairly accurate.  There are times we say “no surprises there” and there are times someone drops something unexpected on us. 

We didn’t do evaluations with the 6-8 grades at Blessed Sacrament.  It seemed too much like ’school’ and not retreat to us.  These young people needed work on team building and self-esteem.  ”School” stuff from us just didn’t seem appropriate- almost like they would be graded on their experience.  So today, when we got a package in the mail from them, we were taken aback.

In the package were 70ish thank you letters.  Although all followed the same basic formula “thank you for… I liked…. I will use…..” each one was personal and reflective and a gift.  Each one is a blessing.

Here are some excerpts:

“People tell me all the time to think before I act, but the way you explained it and acted it out made it make way more sense.  I really liked the way you were teaching us by using things we could relate to.”

“I thought the retreat was cool.  I just wanted to say thanks.”

“I learned from pulse that if you react too soon, you can’t take it back. Just like at home.”

“I know we are different but we are one Body.  That is my favorite part.”

“You helped me see that I can have an impact.”

“The wall showed me that I can overcome anything life throws at me.”

“This experience with you guys was great.  It really brought us together.”

We were invited to return to Immaculate Heart of Mary in Watervliet yesterday to once again share faith with their Confirmandi.  Last year, they were a really fun group.  This year, they were a really AWESOME group. 

At the beginning of the retreat, we asked the teens on a scale of 1 to 10, how open were they to having a positive experience on the retreat.  They ALL indicated they were feeling positive.  Now we know on paper that makes sense, but to have a group of 25 teens who are open to the Spirit on retreat, even a mandated retreat, is such a HUGE difference.  We were able to truly dig in and share with each other.  They told us about struggling with prejudice and prayer and we told them about God and Love and their importance.  They even put up with Chris’ pumpkin parachute

We really want to give them a big THANK YOU, for many reasons.  What an amazing community to keep sharing such awesome teens with us, what awesome teens to be open and honest about the journey.

So with gratitude, we sit.

Peace-

Beth and Chris

That was the theme for our most recent retreat yesterday.  We had the fortunate opportunity to work with 55, extremely active and positive junior high students from Blessed Sacrament School in Albany. 

The retreat focused on treating others the same, without partiality or prejudice.  We are all made in the image and likeness of God, who loves us all equally.  As we strive to live that out in our daily lives, we suggested positive concrete and constructive ways to deal with bullying, rumors; helping to foster friendships and a cohesive environment at school.

A wonderfully exciting experience.

Peace,

Chris and Beth

We were fortunate to facilitate a retreat for the Seton Parish Nursing staff.  Working in the medical profession, I realize what a profound impact you can have on another person’s life, sometimes at the cost of our own physical, mental, psychological and spiritual health though. 

It was wonderful to share faith with such a dedicated and faith-filled group of medical professionals.  I found the wisdom of their sharing, reflective of the deep spiritual life they nourish in an attempt to help those in need.     

I am working on this cybersafety email follow-up for parents.  I want to see if I link it in our blog, the ‘emailing’ will be visible.

Here Goes:

The title doesn’t do it justice.  NCYC Rocks!!

I have never been in a stadium with over 22,000 people with the same goals and the same faith base.   What an awesome experience.  The most impressive part of the conference for me was Benediction Friday morning.  Over 22,000 people respectful, pray-filled, worshiping the same God.  I can barely get my six kids to do that.  I believe it is a testament to the gift of Christ among and within us over the weekend.

Thanks to all who attended our “What About Now” discernement track.

Pictures to follow.

Pease,

Chris and Beth Carlin

www.living-hope-ministries.com

The more we do retreats with teens, the more I am CONVINCED that what they crave the most is quiet time with God.  We did a retreat this past weekend with 50 teens at St. Edwards.  We had three wonderful peer leaders and we talked about God, the movement of the Spirit and the gifts they are over the course of the day.  At one point, I had 30 in the chapel and we were meditating.  You could hear the light bulbs humming it was so quiet in there.  When we finished, they asked if we could do it again.  So we prayed Lectio Divina.  And when we were at the end of the day, a group asked me if we could meditate again.  Now, it is entirely possible that some of them liked the concept of nap time, I would argue that was true of at least 5 of them, but the majority liked the inner time with God, the restfulness of His presence, the peace He left with them for the journey.  The disciples went to Jesus and asked “Teach us to pray” and I believe we need to do the same with our young people, so they too can hear the voice of God calling in their hearts.

Also want to mention the wonderful peer leaders from AHN who are working to provide four retreats this year for their fellow students.  I am priviledged to be working with them again.

Much to do.  Families sharing faith about Creed this weekend, new Youth ministers being trained and next week, 21,000 Catholic teens getting together to praise God.  We are truly blessed to be included in all these things and more.

peace-

beth

So this weekend and last weekend we meet with teens and parents at St. Henry’s.  It was a real blessing to explore sexuality one weekend and then be able to follow-up on other topics, like boundaries and communication this weekend. 

It was WONDERFUL watching teens share and parents listen in an environment where they could all safely hear “you are valued and important, your thoughts are valued and important.”  The parents really supported the teens in their sharing about difficult (hypothetical) situations and we really appreciate the opportunity to facilitate that sharing and be present for it.

In the end, teens wanted to hear more about prayer, always a wonderful thing.  I guess after realizing mom and dad care to listen, God must care to listen too!

Amen

The Jr. High kids in Hudson grappled with the concept that ’sex’ is not only an action word.  We had a wonderful day sharing faith and fun.  The day would have been very incomplete without the help of FABULOUS peer leaders: Missy, John, Maria, George, Casey, Bri and Julie.  They really made the whole expereince amazing. 

Unfortunately for me, Chris video recorded the beginning of the retreat which he is trying to upload to the sexuality page on the main site.  Just revenge for his location on our home page I suppose.

Peace and prayers to all

Beth

We are feeling blessed that our friends at Holy Names have asked us to come back and present their class retreats this year.  With a new school President and many other changes, we have been keeping our friends there in our prayers continually.

As we looked at October and November, we realized we are presenting a lot of Sexuality programs.  Apparently sex is a hot topic!  Certainly, it is a topic not everyone likes to talk about, but the families come and talk and really find some avenues for future discussion.

We received our background clearance from NCYC yesterday.  I had to chuckle, it is good news that neither Chris nor myself is on a terrorist watch list!  All chuckling aside, it is so very important that these checks are done for the safety of our youth.  So now we are all cleared up and praying about the discernment session we will facilitate.  Some prayers our way would be greatly appreciated as we prepare for that.

-Beth

This past Monday we were at OLM/SFD parish in Latham/Colonie to meet with parents and teens to discuss topics around sexuality. Although the turnout was DOUBLE the response to the parish (hence why we set up in an ‘intimate’ space that suddenly became overcrowded), and we were scurrying for enough supplies, the message that we are wonderfully and beautifully made was given to DOUBLE the number of people originally supposed!!

Parents seemed to appreciate both the discussion of issues and the internet safety pieces that were done. The teens seemed to really enjoy the time to discuss issues by gender without parents. Meditation was appreciated by many of the teens.

A reminder that there are free internet filters and contracts on our main website.

When we asked participants what one word would they use to describe the experience and why, these are some of their answers:

Parents:

Eye-opening- sometimes as parents we forget how important it is to communicate with teens. I forget how much more teens are exposed to.

Surprising- it was not what I expected. It was a pleasant surprise.

Fun- I think you did a great job of keeping it fun for kids and parents for open communication

Teens:

Honest because you were honest with us and we need to be honest with our heart

Relaxing and helpful because you had good information and life lessons

The issue that concerned us the most was the idea that 15 year olds can be in a ’serious’ relationship. What defines that? How do they know? What implications does that have for how they live?

Certainly things to think on and families to pray for!

-Beth

Meet this morning with a group of amazing young people at St. Mary’s in Hudson.  We talked about right to life.  And even though we talked at length about abortion and the rights of the unborn, we also started to explore human trafficking, addiction, death penalty and many other issues that effect LIFE.  God created us for so much, in His image and likeness.  What are we doing as a society settling for surviving???  Life is meant to be lived for us to thrive.

So this morning, I thank those young people for sharing their journey a bit with me.  And I pray for all those in survivor mode, that they learn to value the LIFE God has given them so they can thrive in His dream for them.

-beth

Yesterday we had the extreme pleasure of ministering with the students at Seton Catholic Central in Plattsburgh.  We started with our first key-note together, and then spent the day talking about discernment and transitions with the Seniors.  RPI was kind enough to lend us their Labyrinth for the day and the students were open to trying many different prayer types and discernment strategies.

Overall, it was a day filled with prayer, fun and laughter.

Please keep us and the confirmandi we will minister to this weekend in your prayers as we begin another round of retreats; that the Spirit will touch the hearts of the participant.

Peace,

Chris and Beth

We are just getting home from the New England Convocation for Catechetical Leadership.  Wow! What an event.  Traveling around to the various dioceses, it’s awesome to see the Spirit of God working in the lives of the faithful; those who hear his call and without hesitation, answer it, to feed the Body of Christ. 

It was great to run into some old friends as well.

Peace,

Beth and Chris

If you have loved, you have seen God’s face, if you have hoped, you have heard the voice of God, and if you have had faith, you have steped bodly into God’s arms which is the purpose of your life.