The Inadequacy of Love Songs (And how newlyweds Chris and Meghan Chapman are awesome)

Here's a truth that people who really like listening to today's radio-friendly pop music will probably find offensive: Most of today's love songs suck. Most love songs aren't actually love songs, but some deformed, wart-ridden offshoot of love. I was at my friend's house a few weeks ago having a bollywood-themed party (yes, you read that correctly. We're THAT cool), and a song popped into my head: Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows. Naturally, I started singing it:

C'mon, c'mon, move a little faster
C'mon, c'mon, the world will follow after
C'mon, c'mon, everybody's after love
Accidentally in love

Our Primary Focus

On June 12th, I travelled down to Scottsdale, Arizona for the National Life Teen Training Convention that was held for all youth ministry coordinators who had already subscribed, or were thinking of subscribing, to their youth ministry program. It was such an amazing time, filled with so many great people, so many great talks, and so much great music.

A lot of information was thrown at us over the course of 4 days. With over 500 people, we had to choose different breakout sessions. But after every session of "How to Recruit Leaders" or "Teaching Teens and their Families to Pray", or "Leading Teens into Sacred Scripture", all 500+ youth ministry coordinators and 70 priests came back together and listened to a talk that mentioned The Eucharist, or a talk that mentioned Mary. Accompanying all of this was prayer, and there was lots of it. Everywhere. Liturgy of the Hours when we woke up, prayers during general sessions, prayers at the beginning, middle, and end of breakout sessions. Daily mass and Eucharistic Adoration. Liturgy of the Hours before we went to sleep. It was incredibly challenging, yet incredibly peaceful.

Do You Believe?

Another liturgical year has passed us by, and that means, for those involved in youth ministry, another Spirit Day has come and gone as well. last weekend, the 6th annual Archdiocesan event put on by the Youth Ministry Office entitled "Believe" catered to over 1800 Gr. 7s, for the first time over 2 days and in 2 different locations (the same program was run twice). "Believe", because we believe in the Creed, in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in the Communion of Saints, in the Forgiveness of Sins, in the Resurrection of the Body, and in life everlasting.

Always

It's been a pretty average day. You woke up, maybe gave God a little "Good morning!", had some breakfast, took a shower, and went about your day. Maybe you went to work, or hung out with some friends. Maybe you needed a day to yourself and just curled up with a good book and some homemade cookies. You had some dinner in the evening, maybe hung out with some friends again, and are now ready to go to sleep. You crawl into your bed. Maybe you're feeling really connected to God right now and you say some very sincere, meaningful, perhaps lengthy prayers as you thank Him for your day. Maybe you're in a rut at the moment and just acknowledge that He had something to do with something nice that happened; you give Him a tip of the hat. Maybe you in a sticky situation, and you take a few minutes to ask Him for some help. Maybe you're just tired, but either way, you eventually feel like you've done what you needed to do and drift off to sleep. 

Such is prayer life for many of us. Life is crazy, and we always seem to be running around within the noise. Sometimes, we just "don't have the time."