8th Graders Pray the Rosary Part 2

This blog entry continues with my 8th graders reflection on praying the Rosary. Enjoy!

The Rosary means a lot to me because my great grandmother and myself used to say the Rosary together. She passed away over the summer. Her favorite prayer was the Hail Mary. That is why the Rosary means so much to me. When I chose my Rosary I feel I didn't just have the Mother Mary there with me but both my great grandmother and Mother Mary! When Father Stan blessed our Rosaries I was filled with joy. It brought back the time I had spent with my great grandmother. Thank you Sister for the beautiful Rosary you made for us. (Samantha A.)

It is my first blessed Rosary...and it is solely mine! I'll probably put it in my room, in a place where I can see it. It will remind me to pray more and I think I'll feel safe going to bed at night knowing that Mary and Jesus are with me. I think it will remind me to say a few Hail Marys before bed. My mom has a Rosary from her Aunt Kay. It's about 105 years old. She keeps it in her treasure chest. I hope to keep this Rosary that long...and to pass it down to my children someday. (Joseph E.)

What does my Rosary mean to me? Well, after getting to pick my Rosary, and have it blessed, the Rosary feels more special to me. When we led the Rosary I really felt like a Holy Name 8th grade leader. I think that it is more of a right of passage. This Rosary is like a gift, we will all remember. Sr. Nicolette took the time to make these and Fr. Stan blessed them for us. A Rosary is an awesome gift because you can keep it forever. When I graduate from 8th grade, I'll miss all the awesome teachers and staff here. Having my Rosary will always remind me that I am a Holy Name Giant! (Jamaica H.)

I think having a Rosary made by a nun is very special because I've only had Rosaries made in other places. I think having our Rosaries blessed was cool. I like my Rosary because I have a Trinity Crucifix. I also thought it was cool that the boys and the girls had a chance to lead the Rosary. (Liam M.)

8th Graders Pray the Rosary

Last March, my mother, Kay Etienne, taught me a hobby she had been doing for years. My mother taught me how to make a Rosary. For years I watched my mother work the beads and create the most beautiful Rosaries I've ever seen. She and Dad grow their own beads, Job's Tears, in their backyard. I tried to learn this "Holy Hobby" of my mother's. My fingers couldn't seem to make the wire bend just the right way.

One day a good friend of mine, Kathy, told me she would love to learn how to make a Rosary. I told her I had just the right teacher for her. So, one Sunday afternoon we drove to Tell City and spent the afternoon with my mom learning how to make a Rosary...actually...Kathy spent the afternoon learning to make a Rosary...I spent the afternoon with my dad watching Tiger Woods win another golf tournament!

When I saw the beautiful work my friend was learning from my mother, I was determined to learn to make a Rosary as well. I spent three days of my spring break working with my mom...who was VERY patient with me. At the end of the three days, my first Rosary was made. Since then, I can't tell you how many Rosaries I've made. It has become more than a "Holy Hobby" for me. As a result of this hobby, my relationship with Our Blessed Mother has deepened, and my love for Her Son has grown even stronger.

I teach grades 4-8 Religion in a wonderful Catholic school near my Monastery. I started a new tradition this year. Every 8th grader receives a handmade Rosary from me. Yesterday my students received their Rosaries. Today after Mass Fr. Stan blessed their Rosaries. We stayed and prayed our first Rosary together on their newly Blessed Rosaries. It was a very powerful experience for all of us.

For the next several weeks I will post the 8th graders' experience of receiving their Rosary and what praying the Rosary means to them. Enjoy reading their beautiful words! I know I am.

Yesterday when I was told that the eighth graders were receiving their Rosaries I was excited. I was excited because Sister told us that we might not receive our Rosaries until Christmas or even the end of the school year. When I got to choose my Rosary it meant a lot to me. After mass today, Father Stan blessed our Rosaries. I felt blessed, too. It felt like the Rosary was truly mine now. Once we started to pray the Rosary, that moment was special to me because it was the first time I prayed the Rosary with my very own Rosary. (Josh C.)

It was nice receiving the Rosary and having it blessed. I love my Rosary. It is very pretty. Praying the Rosary means more to me when we pray it aloud because I don't become distracted. I think we should pray the Rosary more often after Mass. When Fr. Stan started spraying the water, it was unexpected because I looked up and BAM! There it was! I think it was very cool that we got these Rosaries and that Fr. Stan blessed them. I really like mine. Praying the Rosary will bring me closer to God. I can pray every night before I go to bed. Each decade I can pray for something or someone. For example I can pray for my family and then my friends. This is how it will bring me closer to God. It might even bring our class closer together if people ask God for that. You never know, God works in mysterious ways! So, thank you Sister for making me my Rosary. (Lucy M.)

Vocation Essay

How do we know if God is calling us? How do we know what our vocation is? How can we listen to God? Many people are confused about their vocation.

There are some people who have chosen a more difficult vocation. They chose to always follow God. They help us find our vocation in life. They have been helping people for many generations. They are our religious brothers and sisters.

For many years people have ignored and listened to God. Some people chose to ignore God because they think that their path will be less difficult. We sometimes forget God and we fail to hear him. God is always trying to help us but how can you help someone if they aren’t listening.
Priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us hear God’s call. They help us to listen not only with our ears but with our hearts. Listening with our heart is important because we can truly be aware of what our vocation is. Our religious brothers and sisters help us listen to God.
Some people are afraid to answer God’s call. Fear can blind us only too easily. We sometimes can’t find God but someone helps us see and hear God again. People need help from others to find the right path through life. Our religious brothers and sisters help us find the right path.
There are many ways to listen to God. We can listen through nature, people, and we can listen in our heart. Some of natural resources help us to be closer to God. The peaceful silence when you are out in nature alone. The security you feel when you’re around God’s creation. Our religious brothers and sisters help us find that peace and security.

People help us listen to our hearts. We have to be willing to listen to God and to find our vocation. People can help make us more aware of what our vocation is. People can act as messengers to guide us to our vocations. We are the ones that have to find our vocation but we need help.
There are different types of vocations. The two most important vocations are marriage and a religious life. Both of these vocations help us to be closer to God. These vocations may be hard to follow. That is why we have the help of the people around us.

In church the priest talks about vocations. He explains how we can find our vocation. Finding your vocation may take a long time. Many people are confused about their vocation. The church helps guide us to our vocation.

Our vocations are very important. Finding our vocation can be a very difficult challenge in life. Priest, deacons, religious brothers, and sisters help us find our vocation. Loving God and serving his people is also a vocation that we try to fulfill. With help from our brothers and sisters we can find our vocation.

Kristen S.
8th Grade

Jesus' September Message

Each month, Anne, a lay apostle, receives a message from Jesus. This is the message for September. To read more about the locutions Anne receives from Jesus and His Blessed Mother click on this link: Direction For Our Times.

September 1, 2009

Dear apostles, I remind you to ask heaven for the graces you require. In order to work in My plan, united to My will, you must be in the habit of asking for all that you need. This constant petitioning for help in your service creates in you an awareness of the unity within which you serve. In this way, you will begin to understand that nothing can be attributed to you except your willingness to serve. You will receive the graces you require, of course, and with these graces will come humility because you will acquire an understanding of the relationship between your requests and heaven’s answers. If heaven is supplying you with all that you need to complete the tasks heaven has assigned to you, then you cannot take credit for what is being accomplished. You may say that you are already doing this. I respond that I want you to increase both your dependence on heaven and your awareness of your dependence on heaven. Each day, every day, ask heaven for help throughout the day. My beloved apostles, I am preparing you for a new time which will bring you joy because you will serve peacefully in complete trust. Why would a child fret when his Father sees to his every need? Truly, you are united to heaven. I seek only to instil in you a greater awareness of your unity. I, your Jesus, call on you for dedication and sacrifice, it is true, but not without cause and not without benefit. See to My interests in your day, please. In turn, I will protect your intentions. Spread joy and goodness. Spread unity and peace. Spread trust in God who will never abandon His children.

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Deut 4:1-8; James 1:17-27; Mk 7:1-23

About a week and a half ago I gave a presentation at the Benedict Inn on "Eucharistic Devotion outside the Mass." At one point I was summarizing some of the Church’s current regulations as laid out in the Vatican’s documents and some participants began to ask questions like, "Why did they change from genuflection on two knees to one knee?" and "Why did they restrict the number of candles you can use at Benediction?" Finally, one woman off to the side couldn’t take it anymore and said, "Do you really think Jesus would care about any of this?" Actually, he would. Jesus was always concerned that the Temple sacrifices be done correctly. But he was even more concerned that they be done with the right attitude. With Jesus it was always the heart and the intention that mattered most.

But in another sense our frustrated woman had a point. There’s always a temptation in organized religion of getting lost in trivialities. Whether it’s the late medieval conundrum of asking, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" to the modern American bishops’ declaration changing the response to the mass readings from "This is the Word of the Lord" to "The Word of the Lord," the descent into triviality always lurks as a temptation. Then it’s necessary for a jolt of reality to get back to the basics.That’s what our frustrated woman wanted.
One of the ways that the biblical writers dealt with this temptation is to give short, pithy statements that go right to the heart of the matter. Today’s reading from the Letter of James gives us just such an example: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows and to keep oneself unstained by the world." That cuts through a great mass of religious words and actions to give a clear benchmark. It’s akin to that wonderful passage in the prophecy of Micah: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." (6:8) And, perhaps the prime example is from Jesus himself: "This is the greatest commandment: that you love the Lord your God with your whole heart and whole mind and whole will; and the second is like the first: that you love your neighbor as yourself." All of these are short statements that take us back to the heart of what Christian faith is all about.

We need the same thing in monastic life. We can get too weighed down in trivial matters. I remember one lengthy and heated chapter meeting at St. Meinrad over "at what exact time does noon prayer begin." I think the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers were used in the same way as those short biblical statements: to jolt people back to the heart of monastic living. Antony the Great said: "Our life and death is with our neighbor. If we win our neighbor, we win God. If we caused our neighbor to stumble, we have sinned against Christ." Amma Syncletica said: "You can be a solitary in your mind even when you live in the middle of a crowd. You can be a solitary and still live in the middle of the crowd of your own thoughts."

When we live the faith within large, organized religions, we all need ways and times to take us back to the basics. That’s one of the reasons for the annual retreat. It’s one of the reasons for your desert days. Some of the questions we all ought to ask ourselves today are: what are my ways of getting me back to the heart of the faith and how often do I make use of them?

Vocation Essay

How do Priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us hear God’s call in our lives? I think it really helps God feel better when he knows that people are listening to his call. For when sisters or monks take time out of their lives to praise God. Or when priests or deacons take timeout of their lives to teach and help the church.

Thinking about the call of God really makes you think. If you are young, just keep following your vocation and you’ll hear the call. For adults just keep listening to God and do what he called you to do. Everyday I try to do random acts of kindness and remember to pray. But I also try to be watchful. Maybe God does want me to be a Marine Biologist. Everyone should know to always be watchful for their call, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t want you to go for your dream job.
It makes me feel weird when I think of those people selling their bodies (showing their body), people getting in gun fights just because they are on the other side of the street. That tells me they’re not listening to their call and not following their vocation. They are telling God they don’t care what God tries to do for them or they don’t believe in him because they kicked him out of their life enough to not even think of Him. If they would’ve started their life better the world would be better because of all the people following God’s call.

A big call you can follow is to love and serve God’s people. By doing that, God will know you’re following him and he’ll know we still care that he sent his own son to die for us on the cross. He wants to see us all have an eternal life in heaven with him. I think a lot about heaven. It will feel so great to see Him give you a smile, a smile that you want to see for all of your eternal life in heaven, to live in the kingdom of God. All you have to do is follow your vocation and listen to God’s call.



Tristan
8th Grade

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Josh 24:1-15; Eph 5:21-32; Jn 6:60-69

In today’s gospel passage Jesus says to his disciples, "Does this shock you?" He is referring to statements he made earlier about himself being "the living bread come down from heaven." And "whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The disciples don’t understand and struggle to understand his teaching. As a result many of his disciples no longer followed him.

It would be easy to say that just within my own lifetime many Catholics have had to face Jesus’ question: "Does this shock you?" There were all of the changes after the Second Vatican Council which introduced one of the most massive reorganizations of the Catholic Church in the last five hundred years. Many Catholics were shocked. Then there was the large exodus of priests and sisters leaving the priesthood and religious life in the 1960s and 70s. Many Catholics were shocked. In the early 1990s there was the priest sex abuse scandal and again many Catholics were shocked. It’s been a tough fifty years for many in the Catholic Church. The reasons for the distress have not always been the same, but they have all been upsetting.

But we should step back and take a closer look at this situation and ask some hard questions. Was Jesus’ question many years ago a way of alerting his followers to the reality that shocks of faith are inevitably going to happen to them? Maybe. There’s definitely a tendency that a lot of people have to think that faith and religion should always comfort and console them. If it doesn’t, then there must be something wrong with it. But neither Jesus nor the New Testament writers say that faith is always consoling. Consoling at times, yes, but also shocking at other times. That’s not easy to accept. Christian faith is indeed a challenge for people’s lives. Faith is a two-edged sword; sometimes it comforts and sometimes it confronts.

I would even say that some shock in matters of faith is absolutely necessary for an individual to grow into a mature faith. There is without doubt a shock that comes when one confronts the challenge of moving from a childhood expression of faith to an adult expression of faith. It’s all the more shocking when it happens in force-fed fashion. I used to see that all the time in the seminary. Young men came with great ideals to study for the priesthood, usually feeling very secure in their childhood expression of faith. Then they learned that the Catholic faith didn’t just drop fully formed from heaven but in fact grew, evolved, and sometimes devolved in a historical process. They learned that the bible didn’t just drop fully formed from heaven but was shaped by an ordinary human process of writing. They learned that the Church isn’t always perfect, and has in fact committed grievous mistakes in its history. These are all shocks of faith to them. Believe me, I’ve seen enough seminary students crying in my office that their faith has been shaken and they don’t know where they are going. I try to patiently explain to them the process of moving from a childhood expression of faith to an adult expression of faith. They have to be patient with themselves and their educational project. And eventually most of them pull through. But it’s still a hard challenge for them.

Shocks of faith will come for all of us. Jesus told us to expect them. Let’s pray that we use them productively to grow to a more mature faith.