Whatever Happens, Happens (World Youth Day 2011)

Yesterday, I went to an event called Camino, a day-long send-off event for all of the Vancouver World Youth Day pilgrims. The day was filled with good company, beautiful weather, pilgrimage, talks, mass (duh), and even an evening concert. It was a great way for a lot of the pilgrims to come together, celebrate faith, and even in the smallest way, prepare ourselves for our pilgrimage to Madrid.

However, what really set the mood for not only the day's activities, but for World Youth Day as a whole, were the talks given by keynote speaker Makani Marquis. Now this guy leads an interesting life. Back when World Youth Day was in Denver in 1993, he walked there. When WYD was in Toronto in 2002, he biked there - in 3 and a half weeks. Nowadays, for 6 months of the year, he works for the archdiocese of Vancouver as their webmaster. The other 6 months? He lives as a hermit, seeking solitude in the middle of nowhere, in order to become more in tune with God. He brings some spiritual reading with him, and makes it back into civilization proper every week for mass. Other than that, he doesn't speak to anyone, read any newspapers, listen to music, or watch tv. He doesn't even speak to himself. As you might expect, he had some very insightful and challenging things to say to all of the pilgrims.

Spirit Day Every Day

How time flies. I've become so immersed in the world of youth ministry that a part of my brain actually keeps track of time by which events have come and gone. Youth Day? Check. Searching in the Spirit? Check. That must mean...Yep. Spirit Day time!

This past weekend, Nov. 6th and 7th, marked the 7th annual Spirit Day, an event organized for the Gr. 7s of the archdiocese of Vancouver to gain a better understanding of what their upcoming Confirmation should mean to them, and what it really means to be part of the bigger Church. Through the wonderful juggling and antics of Apex Ministries, the awesome music of Jacob and Matthew Band, the craziness of the Spirit Team, hospitality of the Logistics Team, and the skits and testimonies of the Stage team, 1800 Gr. 7s came to understand the theme of "chosen." Hearts were uplifted, joy was increased, and faith was strengthened. The event was a huge success. The Gr. 7s absolutely loved it. God was very present, and I am so thankful and so fortunate to have been able to once again help this event come to fruition.

Better Is One Day

In Phil 4:11, St. Paul says, "Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have." With whatever he has. He realizes that because he has full faith in God, he will never be alone, and that is enough for him to be content with the situations he encounters in his life.

It's an extremely difficult thing to be truly content, in the sense that St. Paul is meaning. I take 'content' to mean 'satisfied,' but I also think that being content is very different from being complacent. Complacency is so easy to fall into. It's pretty much saying "yeah, this is good enough," and leaving it at that. It's thinking that whatever you've done thus far is great, and good enough to get you by; never feeling like you need to go anywhere else.

Apathetic Way to Be

Recently, I’ve been on a shopping spree. And by spree, I mean that I went shopping. Besides this shopping outing that I embarked on, the last time I went to a mall with the sole purpose of buying clothes was like. When Christ was born. “But wait Jeremy! You weren’t born back then!” Exactly. I go to Park Royal because there’s a Future Shop there. If I could wear an Xbox 360, I would.

My friend Daina had planted in me the seeds of “looking good.” To which I replied, “Honey, you can’t look much better than this.” Well, sort of. Well, no. And so that weekend I went to get a nice pair of jeans. And then the next weekend I went back to the mall with no specific shopping aim, but just to look around and see what caught my eye! I ended up buying some really nice stuff, and yeah I was satisfied with my purchases. Yes, I thought I looked nice in the stuff (otherwise I wouldn’t have forked over the money, even if they were on sale). But it actually made me ponder a bit, that from one sentence from a friend (not blaming her, by the way), my state of mind went from trying to look alright and keep warm to trying to look fantastic and keep cool.