Not So Pop Culture

Not So Pop Culture 

As we start out our traveling as a team, there has already been a considerable amount of hours stacked up in our two vehicles. One thing that we found instantly that all of our team members have in common is that we love listening to driving music, so there is often someone's listening device hooked into the speakers for some tasteful background harmony to our conversations.

The other day I became really excited hearing one song from popular culture. The thing about living your life for Jesus means that you begin to interpret the world in a refreshed way. I became excited about this seemingly ordinary, secular song, because I was able to relate it back to God. And I found it's true that so many songs in popular culture can be linked back to themes of salvation, spiritual warfare, and especially searches for truth and love. It is as if the music scene is holding back all explicit mention of God, but their search for Him is bleeding through their work, leaving blots of Him that mark His presence.

The culture is a desert, and people are lost and hunting for an oasis where they can truly be at peace--and that oasis is Jesus. I saw it at a recent retreat where one of the girls sat off to the side by herself, completely uninvolved and not interested in being there. I felt drawn to talk to her, and despite the awkwardness, I kept speaking to her until I found common ground: she loved to read, and so did I. She was not placed in my small group, but I found out later that during the time of prayer ministry she approached her small group leader, packaged rosary clutched in her hand, and said, "I don't know why, but I just feel called to pray this every day." As she left that day, she had a rosary, instructions written by her small group leader for how to pray it, and an easier smile.

This girl had recognized what she had been searching for, and even though she didn't understand why, she had a newly focused understanding of how to get there. With the way God works, I know that won't be the last time people realize what they're searching for during this year. Our whole team is excited to listen to God's symphony of salvation, and to see how He plays upon us as His instruments to amplify His sound of love.

Encounter 2 Blog ~ Samantha Wigglesworth

Bonjour de la part de Les Équipes NET!

We pray "...that the seed which they sowed may grow and give fruit of new men and women with courage,  with foresight, with a heart open to the call of the Lord.” ~ Pope Francis 

Hello! Bonjour! 

It’s been about two weeks since we arrived in Beauce, and we are so excited for the year! The trip was about seven hours long, and we were given a very warm welcome. As a team, we are involved in twelve parishes, and have been presented to four, to date. The priests, the youth, our host families and the whole community are very excited with our arrival. Being a second year parish team, many parishioners and youth have now heard of NET and were especially enthusiastic to hear about the work we will be doing this year.

Last Friday, we had our kick-off youth event which involved music, a live game of Family Feud, small groups and snacks! This year, we will be putting on youth nights for middle school and high school youth, as well as young adult nights. We will also be having youth masses and Adoration nights in the various parishes. Looking at our calendar of events for the year, it is seemingly overwhelming and we have little free time, but we are so blessed to be in such a beautiful, welcoming (and not to mention, French) environment! 

To close off, I want to share a portion of Pope Francis’ homily from this past weekend. He spoke of our team patron saints, St François de Laval and St Marie de l’Incarnation, in thanksgiving of their canonizations. As you can imagine, it is a great inspiration and providential message he spoke:

“The Church of Quebec is prolific! Prolific in many missionaries, who went everywhere. The world was filled with Canadian missionaries, like these two. Now the advice: that this memory does not lead us to abandon forthrightness. Do not abandon courage! Perhaps… no, not perhaps. It is true. The devil is envious and does not tolerate a land that is so prolific in missionaries. Our prayer to the Lord is that Quebec returns to this path of fruitfulness, to giving the world many missionaries. And that these two who—so to say–founded the Church in Quebec assist us as intercessors; that the seed which they sowed may grow and give fruit of new men and women with courage,  with foresight, with a heart open to the call of the Lord.”

In Christ,

Rebecca Atkinson, Les équipes NET  (Sara, Andrée-Anne, Matthew, Josée, Lisa, Zak, Mickel)

Hello! Bonjour!

Nous sommes en Beauce depuis deux semaines et nous avons tellement hâte pour l’année! Notre voyage a duré environ sept heures et nous avons été chaleureusement accueillis. Comme équipe, nous sommes impliqués dans douze paroisses cette année et nous avons été présentés à quatre d'entre elles pour le moment. Les prêtres, les jeunes, nos familles d’accueil et toute la communauté avaient tous très hâte de nous rencontrer. Comme nous sommes la deuxième équipe à venir, pour une deuxième année de suite, beaucoup de gens ont déjà entendu parler de Les équipes NET et ils sont tous très enthousiastes d'apprendre ce que nous allons faire cette année.

Vendredi dernier, nous avons eu notre première soirée jeunesse avec de la musique, le jeu de La Guerre des Clans, des petits groupes et une collation! Cette année, nous allons organiser des soirées jeunesses pour les jeunes du secondaire et du Cégep et d'autres soirées spécialement pour les jeunes adultes. De plus, nous allons avoir des messes jeunesse et des soirées d’adoration dans les différentes paroisses de l'unité pastorale. En regardant notre calendrier de l’année, nous pouvons déjà voir que nous serons très occupés et que nous n'aurons presque pas de temps libre. Cependant, nous sommes vraiment bénis d’être dans un environnement si beau, accueillant et merveilleux!

Pour conclure, j’aimerais partager une partie de l’homélie du pape François de cette fin de semaine. Il a parlé des deux saints patrons de notre équipe – Saint François de Laval et Sainte Marie de l’Incarnation – en commémoration de leur canonisation récente. Comme vous pouvez l’imaginer, c’est un message vraiment profond et inspirant qu’il a partagé :

 «Église féconde que celle du Québec ! Féconde de nombreux missionnaires qui sont allés partout. Le monde a été rempli de missionnaires canadiens comme ces deux-ci. Maintenant un conseil : que cette mémoire ne nous conduise pas à abandonner la franchise et le courage. Peut-être – ou plutôt non,  sans peut-être ! – le diable est jaloux et il ne tolère pas qu’une terre soit ainsi féconde de missionnaires. Prions le Seigneur pour que le Québec revienne sur ce chemin de la fécondité, pour donner au monde de nombreux missionnaires. Que ces deux-ci qui ont – pour ainsi dire – fondé l’Église du Québec, nous aident comme intercesseurs. Que la graine semée croisse et donne comme fruit de nouveaux hommes et femmes courageux, clairvoyants, avec le cœur ouvert à l’appel du Seigneur.»

Que Dieu vous bénisse!

Rebecca Atkinson, Les équipes NET (Sara, Andrée-Anne, Matthew, Josée, Lisa, Zak, Mickel)

Contagious Joy

"The more joy we have in our heart, even in the midst of busyness,
and craziness, the more people can see Christ through us."

On the outside, the life of a NET team looks like it's mostly fun and games. On retreats we are all high-energy, we play fun games, and each week we even have a team day where we are obligated to have FUN together. While the lifestyle of NET is full of fun, it's easy to get bogged down with the weight of ministry. We are high-energy and happy during retreat but it's all too easy to bring our exhaustion and stresses to team life in the office. This exhaustion isn't exclusive to NET - everyone experiences it. We can enjoy one part of our day and find ourselves completely stressed out the next moment.

As a team, iNFUSE 2 has been working to figure out what to do with all of our anxieties and we have learned that by offering our worries and problems to the Lord, and really letting Him take our problems from us, we are filled with trust and joy that we can turn back to praise. Joy is a choice, and giving our problems to the Lord makes room in our hearts to effectively cultivate that joy. 

It's all too easy to talk about our struggles because often our struggles seem so much bigger than the joys in our lives. We would rather find a solution to the problem that is at hand than look and see the beauty that is actively working in our lives - the beauty which Christ Himself is showing us. It's a trap, really. The more that we focus on our stresses and try to solve our problems the more problems and stresses we run into. However, when our first response to stress is to give it to the Lord, we make room in our hearts to see the joy and peace that the Lord surrounds us with. And that joy is contagious! The more joy we have in our heart, even in the midst of busyness, and craziness, the more people can see Christ through us. The joy of the Lord is just that - it's only found in the Lord. Our joy and willingness to seek Christ in our problems encourages others to do that same in their lives. 

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15

Seek Christ, give Him your heart, and He will turn your worries to praise and joy! May the joy of the Gospel be contagious in you!

Peace,

Jillian and the rest of iNFUSE 2 (John, Jacob, Joey, Whitney, Ashley, and Rachel) 

No Snow Yet, Thank God!!

Trapper's Lake Spirituality Centre

  


HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM iNFUSE 3!!!!

This weekend our team was grateful to all spend Thanksgiving in warm and welcoming host homes. During a family games night, team members Meghan and Olivia were delighted to share in the laughter of their host family. On Monday evening, Mike, Cameron and I were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with the host family of Shaina and Stephanie. Sharing in a delicious meal, and being able to witness the wonderful presence of love in their family, makes us so thankful for the abundant generosity and hospitality shown toward us.
  During a Thanksgiving dinner in the earlier part of the weekend, I was playing with a little boy and his ball. As I was thinking over the day, I considered how the little boy was living an amazing life, but how he relied on everyone else around him to provide for his needs. I then considered that this is how we should be with God. We should place all our needs and wants in front of Our Father in heaven, for He is a generous and loving Provider.
  
  Yellowknife. It seems that a popular opinion of people from the south is that it is bleak up here, but really it is extremely beautiful. The lakes and rocks reflect the wonderful beauty of our Creator. The women on our team have settled into their host homes and we (the men) have settled into our home at the retreat centre at Trapper’s Lake.
  We have traveled around Yellowknife advertising for our first event, Theology Uncapped. During our advertising for this event we met many new people asking them for directions (we also went backwards down a one-way street)!

.  Our team was asked to come to the yearly Catholic school's city-wide Mass that was attended by all the students of the Catholic schools here in Yellowknife. We were introduced to about 1000 students! This weekend we attended all three of the Sunday Masses at St. Patrick’s so that we could introduce ourselves to the parishioners. We have been welcomed very warmly all over the community. Over the next couple weeks we will be attending Mass at some of the different parishes of the diocese.

Until next time, may God, our Father, Bless you and yours, 

Ben from iNFUSE 3

An iNFUSE Greeting

Greetings from iNFUSE 1 in Swift Current,

NET training was a lot of fun! We made a lot of really great friendships and memories that will last forever. Although, after six weeks of training we were definitely eager and ready to get on the road and finally embark on the mission we have been called to do at Christ The Redeemer Parish in Swift Current, SK. We traveled for 4 days from training in Ottawa to get to Swift Current.  From the time we left until the time we arrived in Saskatchewan, we laughed, we sang, we got lost, and we had a ton of fun. Being stuffed in a minivan of 7 full grown young adults was not an easy task. However, we managed to make the most of the hours in the van, and made really great memories as a team.

We arrived safely in Swift Current on October 1^st, and have been busy getting things started since we got here. So, what does that mean? Well, we had the opportunity to do dramas and introductions at three masses over our first weekend here. This last week we helped serve over 600 people from the community at the Parish’s fall supper. The team hosted our first sports night and had a really great time playing games and hanging out with the youth. One of the members of the team, Joy, who is from Australia, attended her first hockey game this past week, and we had a really great time cheering on the local team, the Broncos. We are so looking forward to our kick off nights for our junior and senior high youth groups which are coming up very soon. All of us have been enjoying getting to know each other and beginning to grow in unity as a team. We are now ready to use the skills we learned over training to enkindle a burning desire for the Lord in the hearts of the Swift Current youth. 

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about planting and watering a seed. He speaks about how it doesn't matter who plants and who waters the seeds, it matters only that it is God who makes it grow. We are simply working as a team and as a community, to plant the seeds of faith inside the youth of Swift Current, and helping God make those seeds grow so they can encounter the Lord and fall madly in love with all that He is. We cannot take credit for a youth encountering God, because it is God who is working through us. 
“Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or does the watering. What’s important is that God made the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters works together for the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work; for we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building."

Stay tuned til' next time,

Hunter 

iNFUSE 1, Swift Current, SK