Speaker: Manolito "JR" Jaldon, Jr., Seminarian from the Archdiocese of San Francisco
Time: 6:30pm fellowship; 7:00pm talk
Where: Zio Fraedo's, Vallejo
Coming fresh off the plane from WYD, JR will talk about the relationship between young adults and Bl. John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI, with particular emphasis on Pope Benedict's words to us at World Youth Day.
Here's a little more about JR: "All my life, I loved my music. I loved serving the people through my music ministry whether it was for Sunday masses, school liturgies, weddings, or funerals. At the same time, I was involved with many youth ministries throughout the Bay Area. I came to a point in my life where I knew I could give the people of God something more in my service. In 2005 I sought out the heart of God in a new way and this discernment has led me to unravel a desire that I have had since I was a young teenager: the priesthood." (from the Archdiocese of San Francisco's website: http://www.sfvocation.com/sems/jaldon.html)
When:
Friday 8.5.11
Gathering @ 4pm – St. Catherine of Siena Parish Hall
Dismissal around 12am
Saturday 8.6.11
Day 2 Begins with Mass @ 9am – St. Catherine of Siena Church
Dismissal around 12am
What:
A 1.5 day retreat where College age young adults can reflect on the lives God has given them. Find ways to stay spiritual in this secular world. Know yourself before you leave home. Learn college survival tips. Think college is gonna be tough? Easy? Spent a year or a couple in college, and need to strengthen your faith? Gain resources to defend your faith on your college campus or workplace. Meet new people your age. Explore the meaning of TRUE Freedom. Strengthen your relationship with God. Fun and Games. Come, join us, (re)ORIENT yourself to CHRIST.
Cost:
$10 Pre-Registration by 7.31.11
$20 Registration after 7.31.11
$25 Registration @ The Door
"Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. Thus the "way" which the Apostles brought to the ends of the earth is life in Christ. This is the life of the Church."
--Benedict XVI, July 16, 2008 - WYD Papal Arrival Address
On May 2, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Shroud of Turin, the traditional cloths which Joseph of Arimathea used to wrap Jesus body before laying it in the tomb. During this visit, the Holy Father gave an address which included a reflection on Holy Saturday. Besides his Address to Artists in 2009, to me this speech is one of the most profound things that Pope Benedict has ever said. Please take a few minutes to slowly read the text below (with my emphasis in bold).
Dear Friends,
This is a moment that I have been waiting for for quite some time. I have found myself before the sacred Shroud on another occasion but this time I am experiencing this pilgrimage and this pause with particular intensity: perhaps because the years make me more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary icon; perhaps, and I would say above all, because I am here as Successor of Peter, and I carry in my heart the whole Church, indeed, all of humanity. I thank God for the gift of this pilgrimage, and also for the opportunity to share with you a brief meditation, which was suggested to me by the title of this solemn exhibition: “The Mystery of Holy Saturday.” One could say that the Shroud is the icon of this mystery, the icon of Holy Saturday. It is in fact a winding sheet, which covered the corpse of a man who was crucified, corresponding to everything that the Gospels say of Jesus, who was crucified about noon and died at about 3 in the afternoon.
Once evening came, since it was Parasceve, the eve of the solemn Sabbath of Passover, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and influential member of the Sanhedrin, courageously asked Pontius Pilate to be able to bury Jesus in his new tomb, that he had made in the rock not far from Golgotha. Having received the permission, he bought linen and, taking the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the linen and put him in that tomb (cf. Mark 15:42-46). This is what is related by the Gospel of St. Matthew and the other evangelists. From that moment, Jesus remained in the sepulcher until the dawn of the day after the Sabbath, and the Shroud of Turin offers us the image of how his body was stretched out in the tomb during that time, which was brief chronologically (about a day and a half), but was immense, infinite in its value and its meaning.
Holy Saturday is the day of God’s concealment, as one reads in an ancient homily: “What happened? Today there is great silence upon the earth, great silence and solitude. Great silence because the King sleeps … God died in the flesh and descended to make the kingdom of hell (‘gli inferi’) tremble” (“Homily on Holy Saturday,” PG 43, 439). In the Creed we confess that Jesus Christ “was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried; he descended into hell (‘negli inferi’), and the third day he rose again from the dead.”
Dear brothers and sisters, in our time, especially after having passed through the last century, humanity has become especially sensitive to the mystery of Holy Saturday. God’s concealment is part of the spirituality of contemporary man, in an existential manner, almost unconscious, as an emptiness that continues to expand in the heart. At the end of the 18th century, Nietzsche wrote: “God is dead! And we have killed him!” This celebrated expression, if we consider it carefully, is taken almost word for word from the Christian tradition, we often repeat it in the Via Crucis, perhaps not fully realizing what we are saying. After the two World Wars, the concentration camps, the gulags, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our epoch has become in ever great measure a Holy Saturday: the darkness of this day questions all those who ask about life, it questions us believers in a special way. We too have something to do with this darkness.
And nevertheless, the death of the Son of God, of Jesus of Nazareth, has an opposite aspect, totally positive; it is a font of consolation and hope. And this makes me think that the sacred Shroud acts as a “photographic” document, with a “positive” and a “negative.” And in effect, this is exactly how it is: The most obscure mystery of faith is at the same time the most luminous sign of a hope without limits. Holy Saturday is the “no man’s land” between death and resurrection, but into this “no man’s land” has entered the One, the Only One, who has crossed it with the signs of his passion for man: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis” ["Passion of Christ. Passion of man"]. And the Shroud speaks to us precisely of that moment; it witnesses precisely to the unique and unrepeatable interval in the history of humanity and the universe, in which God, in Jesus Christ, shared not only our dying, but also our remaining in death. The most radical solidarity. In that “time-beyond-time” Jesus Christ “descended into hell” (“agli inferi”) What does this expression mean? It means that God, made man, went to the point of entering into the extreme and absolute solitude of man, where no ray of love enters, where there is total abandonment without any word of comfort: “hell” (“gli inferi”). Jesus Christ, remaining in death, has gone beyond the gates of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to go beyond it with him.
We have all at times felt a frightening sensation of abandonment, and that which makes us most afraid of death is precisely this [abandonment]; just as when as children we were afraid to be alone in the dark and only the presence of a person who loves us could reassure us. So, it is exactly this that happened in Holy Saturday: In the kingdom of death there resounded the voice of God. The unthinkable happened: that Love penetrated “into hell” (“negli inferi”): that in the most extreme darkness of the most absolute human solitude we can hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes us and leads us out. The human being lives by the fact that he is loved and can love; and if love even has penetrated into the realm of death, then life has also arrived there. In the hour of extreme solitude we will never be alone: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.”
This is the mystery of Holy Saturday! It is from there, from the darkness of the death of the Son of God, that the light of a new hope has shone: the light of the Resurrection. And it seems to me that looking upon this cloth with the eyes of faith one perceives something of this light. In effect, the Shroud was immersed in that profound darkness, but it is luminous at the same time; and I think that if thousands and thousands of people come to see it -- without counting those who contemplate copies of it -- it is because in it they do not see only darkness, but also light; not so much the defeat of life and love but rather victory, victory of life over death, of love over hatred; they indeed see the death of Jesus, but glimpse his resurrection [too]; in the heart of death there now beats life, inasmuch as love lives there. This is the power of the Shroud: from the countenance of this “Man of sorrows,” who takes upon himself man’s passion of every time and every place, even our passion, our suffering, our difficulties, our sins -- “Passio Christi. Passio hominis” -- from this moment there emanates a solemn majesty, a paradoxical lordship. This face, these hands and these feet, this side, this whole body speaks, it is itself a word that we can hear in silence. How does the Shroud speak? It speaks with blood, and blood is life! The Shroud is an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who has been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and wounded in his right side. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that large mark near the side, made by blood and water that poured copiously from a great wound caused by a Roman spear, that blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that speaks in silence, and we can hear it, we can listen to it, in the silence of Holy Saturday.
Dear friends, let us praise the Lord always for his faithful and merciful love. Departing from this holy place, we carry in our eyes the image of the Shroud, we carry in our heart this word of love, and we praise God with a life full of faith, of love and of charity.
There are plenty of other great Lenten Spiritual reading lists out there. I thought I would take a different approach.
Spiritual reading is one of those potentially great things we could do for Lent that unfortunately falls to the wayside in the busy lives of Young Adults. Some of us just don't have enough time to do spiritual reading. So, I am here to help y'all out. I have compiled a list of books that are 200 pages or less. 200 PAGES OR LESS! That's less than 5 pages a day, and you don't even have to read on Sundays. Even if you are uber busy, you can handle that - that's something like the equivalent of watching one youtube video a day.
You can sacrifice watching the cat dancing to Justin Bieber in order to grow a bit spiritually. I believe in you.
Plus, even though they are short, they are still great books.
Priestblock 25487 by Jean Bernard (177 pages)
4 & 1/2 pages a day
In May 1941, Fr. Jean Bernard was arrested for denouncing the Nazis and imprisoned in Dachau's "Priest Block," a barracks that housed more than 3,000 clergy (the vast majority Roman Catholic priests). Priestblock 25487 tells the gripping true story of one remarkable priest's survival amid the inhuman brutality and torture of a Nazi concentration camp.
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis(160 pages)
4 pages a day
This book is for someone who wants to have their mindblown to the reality of sin and insight on the tactics the devil uses to draw us away from God.The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".
Blessed are the Bored in Spirit by Mark Hart (129 pages)
3 1/4 pages a day
Too many young Catholics experience their faith as Mark Hart did. They rarely miss Mass even if they don't understand it; they have a Bible even if they never read it; they go to confession even if they are not particularly repentant. Is that your experience of Catholicism? Is yours a religion of Thou Shalt Nots? If so, forget about a dreary life of mindless obedience and rules you don't understand. It's time to enter into the transforming light of your Creator who invites you to live from the still center of his undying love. The author's humorous and hard-hitting reflections drive home the point that God isn't calling the reader to be a good person--someone who merely obeys the rules--but a new person in Jesus Christ.
Adventures in Orthodoxy by Father Dwight Longenecker (192 pages)
5 pages a day
In this book, Father Longenecker breaks down the Creed line by line. In a word, says Longenecker, the Creed catapults believers to the brink of mystery and invites them to dwell there, in silent wonder and contemplation. Here you'll finally encounter the Creed as it really is: a striking affirmation that bears us not into theological dead ends, but unto a world that never ends; not into an obsolete medieval universe — closed, dark, and dying — but unto a bright and exciting world that moves in ever increasing spirals of glory, a world to which the only natural response is a grateful and hearty "Amen!"
Journey to Easter by Pope Benedict XVI (184 pages)
4 & 1/2 pages a day
I had to include something from the Holy Father. Pope Benedict shares a Lenten blessing that evaluates the meaning of the season, the significance of the birth and death of Christ, and the meaning of Jesus in the lives of Christians everywhere, in a spiritual meditation that follows such themes as the mystery of Mary and the Pentecostal sending of the Spirit.
What Happens at Mass by Fr. Jeremy Drischoll, OSB (144 pages)
3 & 1/2 pages a day
For anyone who is interested in deepening their understanding of the mass. Father Jeremy is a priest at my school. Do you want to know the meaning behind all the actions we do at mass? Read this book. Father Jeremy explains it all in an engaging and easy to read manner. Beautiful stuff.
Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to Blessed Mary: Prayers and Meditations for Thirty-One Visits (106 pages)
2 & 1/2 pages a day*
There are 31 visits so although you could do 2 1/2 pages a day, if you have the time, hop into a church for even 10 minutes a day and do these reflections... given that it is only 31 visits you can miss 9 days. Be prepared to have your heart broken open to the realities of Jesus' love for you, and the power of the Real Presence.
Honorable mentions (Books slightly over 200 pages)
Faith at the Edge: A New Generation of Catholic Writers Reflects on Life, Love, Sex and Other Mysteries (224 pages)
5 1/2 pages a day
Okay... so this is over 200 pages, but it is a collection of essays and so it is easy to pick and choose which ones you want to read. Honestly once I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. I finished it in two plane rides. Gathering the experiences, fears, and joys of young adult Catholics whose search for faith often puts them on a collision-course with modern society, this anthology explores the mysterious, exhilarating, and sometimes infuriating terrain of faith. With celebrated contributors like Paula Huston, Matthew Lickona, and John Zmirak, and compelling personal narratives like "Porn and the Sacred Heart" and "My Tallahassee Purgatory," these essays give voice to the struggles and triumphs of a new generation of Catholics who are transforming the Church.
Story of a Soul: the Autobiography of St. Therese (216 pages)
5 1/2 pages a day
It is the story of Saint Therese. She is beautiful. Changed my life. Read it. That is all.
Hope that helps.
Those are brief descriptions, but I am hoping to do more in depth descriptions of these books before Lent begins. (Yikes... one week)
Those are my suggestions. Any additions or further comments?
Thank you to all of those who attended. Big thanks to Tove Ann and Dennis Purification for speaking about Christian courting/dating, marriage, and "stuff". Praise God for His love and truth.
*Video of the brothers serenading the sisters. A Valentine's Day gift for the ladies.
This is the blog of the St. Catherine of Siena Young Adult Ministry.
It is dedicated to things of the Catholic Christian Young Adult nature. From apologetics to "adulthood", from catechesis to culture, from important issues to ice cream.
This blog will also provide a way for communication in the YAM, as well as inform those who want information about events for Young Adults in the Solano Deanery and the rest of the Sacramento Diocese as well.
This is the blog of the St. Catherine of Siena Young Adult Ministry.
It is dedicated to things of the Catholic Christian Young Adult nature. From apologetics to "adulthood", from catechesis to culture, from important issues to ice cream.
This blog will also provide a way for communication in the YAM, as well as inform those who want information about events for Young Adults in the Solano Deanery and the rest of the Sacramento Diocese as well.
