You Can Do it...Jesus Can Help
Just to update my previous post about American gymnast Shawn Johnson…the young athlete won her first gold medal in the final gymnastic event yesterday…the balance beam finals. Congratulations to this great young woman for all her hard work it clearly paid off. With one gold medal and three silvers, I’d say Shawn Johnson had a pretty successful Olympic games. Keep working hard Shawn and most importantly…keep that amazing smile!!!
This week all eyes around the world have been fixed upon the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. I truly love the Olympic games for a number of reasons…you get to see some very random sporting events that you don’t get to see everyday (swimming, shotput, volleyball, etc.), the most intense athletic competition that you’ll ever see, but most of all I love seeing how much these great athletes love competing for their country. One athlete that I can see this most evident in is American gymnast Shawn Johnson. At only 16 years of age, this is her first Olympic games and she is clearly enjoying every second of it. Although Shawn has been able to keep up with the world’s best gymnasts with a total of 3 silver medals up to this point, she has not let this fierce competition consume her. In my eyes, she has epitomized sportsmanship thusfar in the olympics, as she is always seen smiling, cheering, and even hugging her toughest rivals from other nations after their routines. I was watching her yesterday as her gold medal in the floor excercise just barely slipped away and I saw the smile on her face and the look in her eyes and just couldn’t help but think…this girl is really having the time of her life here at the olympics. THAT is what the olympic games are all about…representing your country and enjoying the moment.
So basically Shawn Johnson has been able to not get so caught up in the fierce competition of one of the most popular olympic events, and still have the time of her life. If you watch her at the olympics you can tell that she is enjoying every second of the experience. I think we can all learn a very important lesson from this 16 year old gymnast from Iowa. I think at times we can all get too caught up in whats going on around us that we stop enjoying whats going on in our lives. Maybe its that big test you have to pass, or some financial troubles, or maybe the stress of planning a wedding. Oftentimes things that require a great deal of attention can make us forget how much fun life can be and can stop us from smiling. Never forget how amazing life is and how much fun it can be!!! If Shawn Johnson can not let the fierce Olympic competition get her down, than why should anything in our lives do that. Take one look at Shawn’s awesome smile and remember life rocks, keep smiling!
At the above link, we can see an amazing story that brought such a smile to my face when I first read it. Chase Hilgenbrinck, a professional soccer player with the New England Revolution, decided to retire from the game in order to join the seminary and study to become a priest. You can read his story at the link I posted above, but I want to talk a little bit about why I think this story is so truly amazing…even though this man may not play a more prominent sport in America, like baseball or football, and he’s not even a top notch MLS player like David Beckham or Landon Donovan, Chase still made a very difficult and honorable decision in choosing to leave professional soccer behind him as he pursues a vocation as a Catholic Priest. This is possibly the most counter-cultural move that anybody can make. Think about it…our culture teaches that money and fame are two of the most important things in life. Our culture seems to also put professional athletes on a pedestal, making them seem like celebrities, or even superheroes sometimes. Chase Hilgenbrinck decided to leave all that behind because he knows nothing the American Society as a whole can offer us will ever make him as happy as would serving God for the rest of his life. It is a truly honorable and amazing thing that this man did. Saying YES to God is a very, very difficult thing, and needing to say goodbye to a sport you know and love professionally makes it even harder. Congratulations Chase on making this great step in your life. Lets all pray for him!!!
Yesterday was the 4th of July…the day we celebrate our independance from Great Britain. We are a free nation because of the Revolutionary War, and are not held back by the rules and regulations. This is truly a wonderful and great thing.
I went to mass yesterday at Camp Echo Bay with the 7-9th graders, and Fr Pat began talking about independence day and quizzing the children about the history of American Independence. I couldn’t help but think that this was going to be another one of those homilies that has nothing to do with religion, like the one I usually hear at my parish on New Years. However, Fr Pat gave a beautiful homily about how each and every time we celebrate the mass we are celebrating an independence day. We are actually celebrating our independence from sin, which was made possible because of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, he freed us from our sins, making it possible that we can live with Him in heaven forever.
Happy Independence Day, both from England and from sin, to all!!
I was thinking long and hard about something to blog about while I’m watching the movie Air Bud with my sister. Then the basketball coach said something that really struck me. It was the beginning of the game and the coach says “What’s the most important word” and the team responed “Teamwork.” Now to us Christians the most important word is obviously “Jesus” but the value of teamwork cannot be underestimated. It isn’t just important to a group of kids playing basketball…it’s very important for us to remember the value of teamwork if we are going to make the most of our lives.
Teamwork makes everything easier. Whether its doing your homework, mowing the lawn, cleaning your room, planning a retreat, volunteering at a soup kitchen, or getting though the tough times in life, being able to work as a part of a team always leaves you better off than working alone does. When working as a part of a team not only will your work always get done faster, but you will also do a better job at whatever it is you are doing because you have more time to focus on details and you will be enjoying your work more since you will have someone to share your time with. Working as a team in life makes everything more enjoyable. For example, cleaning your room by yourself is to most people a very boring chore. However, if you clean your room with your sibling, close friend, etc. the time spent with your partner becomes so much fun that you completely forget how boring cleaning your room is.
Don’t try to get through life by yourself. We all need teammates to help make life more enjoyable and easier. I know I wouldn’t have been able to get through my four years of high school if it wasn’t for my friends. We were a great team and got through every challenge that life through our way. Stick close to your teammates and you’ll love life just as much as I have.
This past Saturday I graduated from High School. It just seems so crazy that four amazing years have come to an end. They say that your years at high school are oftentimes the best four years of your life and thusfar in my life I can definitely say that is true. It really is the littlest things about Salesian that I will miss the most. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the big events like the LRs, England Trip, etc. but the little things like hanging out in guidance after school, those long walks up to the cafeteria in the rain laughing at all the kids who run through the puddles and get all wet, Fr Pat yelling at me for forgetting to update the Don Bosco Thought of the Day every single morning in AM Salesian, the list goes on and on. It’s these little everyday events that happen at Salesian that we sometimes take for granted that I know I will miss the most.
Salesian has changed me in more ways than anyone will ever know. I know I grew so much as a person, though I also know I have a lot more growing to do. Salesian gave me more amazing friends than I could possibly imagine, and I love them with all my heart. Many people will tell you that graduation is very bittersweet, which is exactly how I feel. It is very exciting to be moving on in life but at the same time I know I will miss Salesian very much. I remember after the graduation ceremony I took pictures with all my friends then after a little while I turned around and everyone was gone. The whole thing ended very abruptly. Kinda crazy, I still can’t believe its over.
So this is it, the phase of my life at Salesian High School is complete. It was an amazing four years and I have no regrets whatsoever. I wonder what the next phase of life has in store for me?
Tonight was the induction mass at our school for the new members of the Friends of Savio, which is a club at Salesian High School. Basically, we try to take the life of St. Dominic Savio and use it to help us learn what it takes to become a saint. Here is a little bit of what we can learn from St. Dominic Savio…
St. Dominic Savio died as a young boy, 15 years old, and was a student of St. Don Bosco. Dominic Savio decided that he had one goal in life and that was to become a saint, no matter what it took. Dominic went to such lengths as sleeping on rocks instead of pillows and depriving himself of food because he thought depriving himself of such “luxuries” would help him earn a place in heaven. One day Don Bosco noticed this and told Dominic he was totally wrong. You don’t have to sleep on rocks or starve yourself to be a saint. At that point Don Bosco gave Dominic Savio a simple formula of how to become a saint…
1) Be Cheerful. Always stay cheerful even when life tries to get you down. The devil HATES it when we are cheerful because when we are smiling we aren’t thinking about doing anything immoral. It’s alot easier to go through life with a smile so saints must always stay cheerful even when it can be very difficult.
2) Do Your Duties. When it’s time for homework devote yourself 100% to that homework. When it’s time to do chores make sure you get them done right away. When it’s time to play football, make sure you do it and do it well. This sounds so easy but can be very difficult. A saint does what he is supposed to do when he is supposed to do it.
3) Service to Others. A saint devotes his life to serving others. This doesn’t have to be single handedly ending world poverty or spending the rest of your life in Africa with poor children. Service can be very small and simple things. Help your mom cook dinner one night, help that old teacher at school carry his/her books, shovel the snow for your elderly neighbor without asking for money, etc. There are so many ways we can help others in little ways we need to take advantage of it. I once heard a priest say “Happiness is a byproduct of serving others.” Happiness comes through service. Serve others and you will not only be happy, you will be a saint!
I love this formula for being a saint because it is so simple. It spells out exactly what we have to do in order to become a saint…be cheeful, do your duties, serve others. This is obviously much more easily said than done but if we can follow this simple formula like the young 15 year old St. Dominic Savio did, we will be well on our way to heaven.
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me to pray to Mary, I would be a very rich man. All the time you hear, entrust this situation to Mary, look to Mary for help for she will help you get through this, pray to Mary she will help you find Jesus, etc. I always knew Mary was a great person, a kind and loving Mother, but I would often wonder why we couldn’t just go straight to Jesus with our worries, problems, concerns, etc. bypassing Mary. Then, at mass the other day, the great Fr. Franco said in his homily “if Jesus needed Mary then who are we to say that we don’t need her.” That really struck me. Without Mary, it would have been impossible for Jesus to come into this world, teach us the many lessons he taught us throughout his life, and eventually die on the cross for us. We need Mary to be our loving mother and show us the way to the Father. She loves us all as children, so look to her and entrust your life to her care…she will not let you down.
I just got this phone call from the great Fr Franco saying I have officially been accepted into the Salesian Seminary for next year. Even though I pretty much knew I would be accepted, I cannot describe with words how excited I am that this is actually official. I honestly can’t believe I am officially a Salesian seminarian!!! This is it…the culmination of a little more than a year’s worth of discerning, most of which was very difficult and at times heartbreaking. I know this is where God is calling me to in my life right now and I’m so glad that I’ve taken this first step on my pathway to Sainthood. I couldn’t be more excited!!!
I want to extend some thank yous to a few people…first and foremost I have to thank God for showing me this path so clearly and answering each and every one of my prayers during discernment. I want to thank all of my amazing friends who I was so sure would leave me since during those tough times in discernment I was probably more of a burden than a friend, but they stuck with me because they are the BEST!!! Correale, Barone, Ralf, Matt, Mike, Pat, John…you guys were always there for me. Mr. Flores and Fr. Abe you guys pointed me in the right direction when I first decided to start seriously considering giving the priesthood a thought thanks so much. I would also like to thank my amazing spiritual director Fr. Dom, who did such an amazing job helping me sort out all the confusing thoughts and helping me to realize how much I do treasure my faith. Thanks to Br Sean my man the number of crazy stressed out emails you answered for me helped so much in my discernment. My amazing guidance counselors this year…Ms Tinaj and Ms Trombetta…I asked way more from you guys this year than any student ever should but you were both there for me whenever I had a problem I needed to discuss. To all of the above people…without you guys I know I wouldn’t have had the courage to say yes to God and be where I am today so I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You are all amazing and will always have a special place in my heart.
Yesterday at mass this song, You Are Mine, was played as the communion hymn. It is a song that I have heard many times before but for some reason this time the song really spoke to me unlike any time before. Maybe because this mass I wasn’t singing in a choir so I was able to really reflect on the lyrics and message to the song. Regardless, I was awestruck at the beautiful lyrics to this song. I really felt as if Jesus was truly speaking to me and telling me how much He loves me. The song is all about how you should not be afraid because Jesus is with you every step of the way. He has called you by name and if you just relax and follow Him throughout your life, then He will lead you into His home, the Paradise that is Heaven!!!
