When life gets busy, be still

                                                        (my little sweetheart - Sophia)

     We all struggle with it. Some of us are better than others. If you are anything like me you need a reminder! Life is Crazy, busy, stressful and an opportunity to glorify our God. If we are not making time daily to just sit with the Lord in prayer the craziness, stress and business will get to us. It will take over and we will fall away from the Lord. This is the sad truth of being a Youth Minister, that many of us are so caught up in everything our teens are doing and we try the best to be present to all of them that we neglect our own needs especially spiritually. Over the past couple months this was a big struggle for me. I was leaving the parish that I worked at for 7 years and transitioning to a new parish. Stress was high as they still haven't hired anyone to fill my position. I wanted to make sure the kids knew I wasn't abandoning them but in the mean time I was abandoning making my own personal prayer time a priority in my life. The wake up call came when I finally started at my new parish. It was a new beginning, a fresh start. I realized I was getting to caught up in everything between work and family life. I needed to step back from all the business of life and all the thoughts in my head and be still, be silent. I needed to allow God to love me, and I have to be silent to hear him. I have to go in to the Church and sit there. I pray with no agenda. I need to pray like my children. My girls (ages 2 and 4) love to go into church and say hi to Jesus and Mary. 

     I can tell you that it is refreshing to remember that Jesus calls us to just be still. Matthew 26-36" Sit here while I go over there and pray" Jesus wants us to sit with Him and watch what He does in our hearts and in our ministries. Remember that it is Him who should be leading our ministries not us. I need that reminder! To allow God to be the driving force. To sit with Him and let him put thoughts in my head and to move my heart. I pray that everyone in ministry is able to keep Christ at the center and lets have someone to keep us accountable. Recently, I have been trying to connect with others in ministry. This is so important, to have others that our serving the Lord surround us. If you don't have anyone right now make the first move; find at least one person even if its your pastor. We cannot do it alone. Im praying for you and your ministries, please pray for me as well.

                              (stay awake! Pray and see what the Lord does in your ministry!)

retreat team

If you are looking for an amazing retreat please contact us and let us help! We have a ton of great speakers and we also offer to plan your entire retreat, you just book the retreat center. We will work with any budget. We want to serve your needs. God bless you and your ministry.

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Saint of the Week- Don Bosco

CYN is proud to present its new resource of a Saint of the Week. And it seems appropriate to start with the patron saint of youth ministry, St. Bosco. We can learn so much from this faith-filled man. His mission started young when he first had a dream that he was destined to work and form young boys through love; not by strict regulations and punishment. Throughout his life he had many miraculous dreams (about 150 in all) that guided and formed his work.



After being ordained in 1841, it didn’t take long for him to go to work ministering to young and adolescent boys. He eventually opened multiple oratories where young boys could come for catechesis, school, play, and for some even a place to live. St. Bosco reached out to those kids who know one else would. His work is continued today through the work of the Salesian Order (which he founded) in over 120 countries and over 40,000 priests, brothers, sisters and lay people!

In youth ministry we can take so much from the life of St. Bosco; the way that he reached out to teens, the way he loved them no matter what, and the way he never gave up on them. This week let us pray for his intercession for our ministry and our teens.
                                          

Music Monday - Music I'm Likin ( not a typo )

This week I want everyone to check out Righteous B. Catholic Hip Hop artist and Inner City youth Minister. He started a non profit for inner city youth, check out their site at http://www.dirtyvagabond.com Bob is really serving God and doing great work. He had a series of 3 strokes this past fall and has recovered tremendously through the power of prayer. Righteous B (Bob Lesnefsky) is my brother and my role model. He is the instrument in which God used to change my life. Bob has helped form me into the person and minister I am today. It is a prayer of mine that everyone would get a chance to meet him and see God at work in him and his ministry.

have you felt awkward lately

In youth ministry if we don't feel awkward we probably aren't doing a good job reaching our teens. It is easy for us to fall into being complacent when we feel like we have a good group of teens and we meet up with them often and things are good. It is so important to remember that we should always be reaching out to kids that we don't know as well as the "youth group superstars". How often are you putting yourself in a place where you are uncomfortable, really leaving your comfort zone to make yourself present to teens. This is a struggle in almost every ministry I know of but if we want to be like Christ and follow in his steps we must put ourselves out there and love the outcast and look for the unloved and show them the love of Christ. If we are sitting in the office or youth center hanging out with the kids we know how will these other teens come to know that they are loved by a God who died for us. So I ask you one more time gave you put yourself in a place that you feel awkward or uncomfortable lately. If you don't feel like this once a week you should look into making a change in your ministry. God bless you!

Music Monday - Music I'm Likin ( not a typo )

This week I want to share someone with you that many of you probably already know about but his name is Jonny Diaz. The first time I heard his song "more beautiful you" I was really moved. It is such a beautiful song to women and a great song to use in a women session in a retreat setting. Here is the video




You can find this on his album "More Beautiful You". It is definitely worth the buy. The whole album is great. He reminds me of Shawn McDonald but a little more chill. If you dont know Shawn McDonald you should check him out too. His most popular song is called "take my hand". God Bless you,

Ben

Video Challenge

Here is a sample of our video challenge that is sent out once a week to youth ministers who join our mailing list. If you are interested in joining please email us at info@catholicyouthnetwork.com - We must come together and support one another and our ministries.