1. I wrote last week about attending Saint Meinrad’s Youth Leadership Conference “One Bread, One Cup,” and facilitating one of the student groups that week. Our discussion and training centered on the Eucharist and training the high school students as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

    In our final afternoon session, we focused our conversation on “Mission”: how to live out the call of Christ to love God and neighbor, how to serve as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, and also how receiving Communion ought to change our lives.

    Just before the session began, I remembered a conversation about molecules my high school physics teacher, Mr. Bertram, had one day.

    Mr. Bertram breathed in and out and said, “That air, those molecules are now part of my body. I ate cereal this morning, and the molecules of those bran flakes and milk that I ate are now tissue molecules in my body.”

    Like a lightning bolt, I was struck at how in receiving Communion, the Body of Christ becomes part of our own bodies.

    Christ, in the form of bread and wine, actually becomes part of our bodies. The molecules in the bread—in the Body—become the tissue of my heart that beats for the poor and suffering. The molecules in the wine—in the Blood—become the molecules that allow my eyes to take in the image of my family, my friends, and strangers. It lets me see others with the eyes of Christ. And some of the nourishment I receive in Communion will eventually become the skin on the tips of my fingers and hands, skin which will comfort a weeping widow or greet an uncomfortable teenager or hold a niece for the first time.

    Our group had a great discussion about how Jesus could have instituted any sort of tradition to remember him. He could have said, “Mix these herbs together, burn them, and breathe in my spirit,” or, “Move your bodies into this posture, and you will channel my own body to become yours.” These sound silly to us, really.

    But Jesus gave us himself as food, as something that will actually become part of our bodies, that will strengthen us and at the same time make a way for him to live in us.


    The Eucharist is the starting point for our week of Christ living in us. Make him present as he lives in you.
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  2. Great quotes can be inspirational and motivational. Here are 50 of the best inspirational quotes to motivate you:
    1. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible”! —Audrey Hepburn
    2. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. —Maya Angelou
    3. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. —Henry Ford
    4. Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. —Vince Lombardi
    5. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. —Charles Swindoll
    6. If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough. —Oprah Winfrey
    7. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. —Eleanor Roosevelt
    8. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. —Jimmy Dean
    9. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. —Theodore Roosevelt
    10. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. —Eleanor Roosevelt
    11. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. —Les Brown
    12. Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda
    13. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. —Napoleon Hill
    14. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. —Mark Twain
    15. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. —Michael Jordan
    16. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. —Albert Einstein
    17. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. —Stephen Covey
    18. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. —Henry Ford
    19. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. —Alice Walker
    20. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. —Amelia Earhart
    21. It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. —Aristotle Onassis
    22. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. —Robert Louis Stevenson
    23. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. —Steve Jobs
    24. Change your thoughts and you change your world. —Norman Vincent Peale
    25. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. —Ayn Rand
    26. If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. —Vincent Van Gogh
    27. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. —Farrah Gray
    28. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. —Dalai Lama
    29. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. —Maya Angelou
    30. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear. —Rosa Parks
    31. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. —Vincent van Gogh
    32. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. —Unknown
    33. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.——Albert Einstein
    34. What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. —Bob Dylan
    35. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. —Leonardo da Vinci
    36. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. —Booker T. Washington
    37. Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. —Jamie Paolinetti
    38. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. —Sheryl Sandberg
    39. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. —Ancient Indian Proverb
    40. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. —Helen Keller
    41. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. —Confucius
    42. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank
    43. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. —John Lennon
    44. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
    45. We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. —Ronald Reagan
    46. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. —George Addair
    47. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. —Plato
    48. Nothing will work unless you do. —Maya Angelou
    49. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples. —Mother Teresa
    50. What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. —Plutarch
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  3. “One Bread, One Cup” is a summer youth conference at Saint Meinrad. More than 150 high school students and chaperones from Indiana, Iowa, Delaware, Virginia, and more gathered for its first session last week, and I served as a catechist.

    My group of students focused on how to serve as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. We read Jesus’s own words about this ‘bread of life’ from John 6, studied theology, and walked through how to serve as a Communion or Cup minister at Mass. The students then served all week during Mass as ministers of Communion for their peers.

    One of our conversations centered on what we know the Eucharist to be. It is Jesus Christ. It is his Body and Blood. To drive this point home, I pulled up a couple of YouTube videos.

    The first video told the story of a doubting priest in Lanciano, Italy back in the 8th century. The priest wasn’t convinced that the bread and wine became the Body and Blood of Christ, until one day at Mass, the bread changed into a piece of human flesh tissue and the wine into human blood. Needless to say, he never finished that Mass. Scientists tested the miraculous Body and Blood in the 1970’s and found that it is a piece of heart tissue and some of the blood still hasn’t dried up.

    The second video was similar, but it happened in Massachusetts in 1995. This time it occurred when a man went to the tabernacle to make a Communion call. He found a host bleeding in the tabernacle.

    Some of the students were speechless. One said, “We shouldn’t treat ‘less-miraculous’ Communion any differently. It’s still the Body of Christ.” I smiled in agreement.

    But then I asked, “Why doesn’t God grant these miracles to every parish? Why not have these astonishing things more often?”

    Well… because then we wouldn’t need Him.

    If we saw everything, and if we touched everything, and if we knew everything with scientific certitude, we wouldn’t need faith. In fact, we would be God.


    Yet God so desperately longed for us that he came in the flesh 2000 years ago, and he still so longs for us that comes to us in the form of bread and wine at Mass, and all the Lord asks of us is to believe in him and to share him with others.

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  4. I recently was given a good amount of money that I then gave away to a family in need. When I offered the gift to the family, the woman almost couldn’t lift her hand to receive it. She was so grateful, and I was glad to pass it along. I told her that’s what we do in the Church. We bring what we have that we don’t need and share it with those in need – we’ve been doing it since Jesus rose (see Acts 4).

    As I was driving home, I thought about how often many of us do good deeds for others, and I wondered how that family received that gift. Did they think it was a just local guy being nice? Was it because we might have mutual friends? Did I want to pat myself on the back? I wondered how that family saw it. What “reason” behind the gift would they perceive?

    One of the monks at Saint Meinrad often talks about how it is difficult to be Christian in a society that is generally good. This may sound strange.

    Why would it be hard to live as a Christian should live if the culture supports some of your actions? Wouldn’t it be more difficult if society was against you?

    This monk isn’t talking about whether it is easy to give away money to people in need. Rather, he points out that “being nice” and “being Christian” are often synonymous. Now, this isn’t a bad coupling of words. I hope outsiders perceive Christians as good people!

    The problem arises when we forget the connection to the true reason behind how we live.

    I did it because Jesus said to. He said to love your neighbor as yourself, to lay down your life for others, to pray, and to live together in the Church community. If I only do “nice” things because I feel like doing them or because it is viewed highly by the world, then what will motivate me when I have less I want to give or when I am persecuted for standing up for someone others are putting down?

    Our assurance is Christ Jesus. He’s the only person, the only way, truth and life we can stand on. When we live as he instructed us to live, we will never falter.


    Listen this week for a verse or phrase of Jesus’ teaching, and listen to what he tells you.

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  5. My professor in seminary explained the principle of subsidiarity rather simply. He said that responsibility should be smaller and more individualized when possible and given to larger groups only when necessary.

    We most often see violations of subsidiarity when a national agency mandates new standards in education for all states when in fact all states—not to mention all communities—have different needs. We also see violations when local farmers and other businesses are told what price they will be given without negotiation: “Sign the contract or be forced to fail.”

    But keeping influence at the lowest possible level isn’t just a “Catholic” teaching based on divine revelation. It’s common sense.

    “Town hall” gatherings are often effective for communication between large-level community leaders and those on smaller levels, these interactions happen neither often nor allow all voices present to be heard and really understood. There simply isn’t time for a presidential candidate to take every question, let alone to follow-up and get clarification to answer well.

    Instead, subsidiarity keeps decisions local, and localizing responsibility keeps those making decisions connected with the real challenges. Simply put, the people closest to the problems have the most knowledge for making informed decisions. Subsidiarity is common sense.

    It is likewise clear to imagine the ramifications of what happens when a larger body overstays its welcome.

    I’m involved with a wood delivery service program at Saint Meinrad, called “Project Warm.” We provide free or state-granted firewood in winter months to poor families in the rural parts of three counties near the seminary, and many of these families rely on the service annually. It is an act of charity, absolutely! However, if we are not attentive, the “larger body” (us) who engages “when needed” may in fact become necessary to the smaller community (those we serve).

    Providing for those who don’t really need it creates a dependency of the smaller to the larger body. Likewise, sometimes groups in “power” over smaller communities may end up denying local communities or individuals freedom when the local persons ask for it. Many historical revolutions supply evidence for that.


    Subsidiarity concerns keeping responsibility on the smallest levels when possible and at larger levels when necessary. While it is difficult for one person to fix massive systems easily, each of us can delegate responsibility to lower levels in our workplaces, parishes, and to take the more difficult path of saying “No” to handouts when we do not need them.


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  6. 3 Things Students Desire to Hear From Teachers | Edutopia



    1. Believe

    "I believe in you. You are going to be successful someday. You're going to make it! If you apply what I see in you, there is nothing holding you back!"
    To believe in another is to see what cannot be seen just yet. It requires focusing on all that is going well and right, even though there will be conflicts, bad moods, ornery behaviors, and consequences for poor choices. We notice it all -- new shoes, hairstyles, kind gestures (though they may be scattered and few) -- and we build upon even the most challenging of performances that, with a perspective shift, could turn on a dime to a strength. We are detectives, looking for the missing pieces that we know exist but have been momentarily buried. We create experiences, "forced successes," that give the student an opportunity to feel capable. By this time of year, we know our students well, yet we can fall into an emotional and academic rut. So we begin to give a few more acceptable choices that are aligned to our standards and topics. We can leave affirming notes and share our personal challenges that caused us to doubt ourselves at an earlier time in our own lives.
    "I believe in you! Let's make a plan together for just tomorrow. Let's choose two accomplishments that you want to see through and design a way for them to happen."

    2. Purpose

    “You have a purpose. I see it and feel it! Let's have fun and discover what it is. A purpose might change, and that's a good thing, but it’s there!”
    How do we help a student find his or her purpose? We begin with an affirmation: "You have a purpose!" We listen for interests and signs. We respect the off days and the off hours, and we try again. We share stories of others who lost a bit of hope and purpose, but tried again and again. J.K. Rowling, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and Walt Disney are just a few well-known individuals that defined purpose through their mistakes and failures. We talk about the gift of failing and how we can choose to respond and learn from those moments of illusory despair. We begin to create a purpose for those students at school and in our classrooms. We make a plan inviting the student to serve another. Maybe he tutors a younger student or helps to plan a surprise meal for the custodians and the cafeteria staff. Maybe she targets another student who is struggling, becoming a secret inspirer for a week.
    Maybe we connect the class to a retirement home and Skype with another generation who has lived through these tumultuous years of adolescence and would love the companionship and communication from middle and high school students. Field trips are fewer today, and this allows us to invite community members with their own purposes and gifts into our classrooms as guests, igniting and sharing the work they are doing with homeless populations, incarcerated youth, and other service organizations that thrive on volunteerism.

    3. Question Me

    Listen for this unspoken request from students:
    Ask me how I am. Ask me what I need. Ask me my thoughts and feelings. Ask me what my opinions are, even if my response is ridiculous because I don't want to stand out in front of my peers! Ask me in private -- always in private. Ask me to teach you anything about my world, my culture, music I love, my beliefs, and my story. I may not say a word, and it may take the entire school year for me to respond to your questions, but I hear you. I hear your interest and your compassionate concern for what I like, what I need, and what plans I would like to create.
    When we serve another, our own emotional circuitry changes. As we proceed with transparency, self-awareness, and persistence, our perspectives broaden, raising positive emotion while enhancing our own feelings of purpose and well-being.
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    Labels: Leadership and Personal Growth Make it Easy/Faciliation Psychology and Human Behavior Teaching
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