Faith Reflection: Mercy—The Beauty of Our Young
Before I sat down to type this I had a couple errands to run—and yes, one of them involved getting baseball cards for my Fourth Graders; we are just ever so slightly consumed with baseball fever right now. As I was leaving Target, headed toward my next stop, a young man approached me asking if I could buy him something to eat. Our 7th grader’s essay was fresh on my mind, and I told him if he still needed a meal when I finished my errand I would be glad to take him to Farmer Boys around the corner. I was returning to him just as he approached another lady. I wished she could have had the opportunity to read the wisdom of this week’s 7th grader, it is quite possible she would have responded in a much kinder way than she did, even if she still wished to decline. As Evan will show us, even when we can’t help, we can keep our faith active and alive by how we respond, doing so with respect for the person in front of us.
As the young man, named David, and I were waiting for his order to come I asked him if he knew about Youth Hope. He was not aware of them and I passed on to him about the services they provide for young men such as himself. I will not be surprised if I see him next time I’m dropping off your donations of clothes. Please know it is young men like David who you are helping and they appreciate that there are folks out there who will help them and treat them kindly.
Keeping My Faith Active and Alive
by Evan Howard
There are many fun and interesting things I do to keep my faith active and alive. There are also many things you can do to keep your faith active and alive. And no, they are not boring. You can interact with other people and have fun with them while doing these things. So, what do I do to keep my faith active and alive? What can I do to make it even healthier? Let’s find out.
The first thing I do to keep my faith active and alive is going to church every week. Whether it’s with my school on Wednesday or with my family on Sunday, I always go to church every week. When you go to church you get to learn about God. My favorite part is listening to the miracles Jesus worked. You also get to witness the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ. If you have received your First Communion you get to eat and drink them. If you have not, you can still receive a blessing. That’s the first reason. I can also make my faith stronger by reading the Bible everyday, and so can you. Let’s move on to the final reason.
The final way I keep my faith active and alive is going to fun events. I have been to many fun events. I was even a leader in a faith camp. There are also events like mass on the beach—that is if you live on the coast. My favorite event was being a leader for the faith camp. I helped with snack. I passed out snacks to kids when it was their turn to get snack. The best part is that I got to eat at the end of the day. It was nice to see the joy on the kids’ faces when they got their snack. That is the last of the ways I listed here, but there are a lot more ways I can keep my faith active and alive.
In conclusion, there are lots of ways I keep my faith active and alive and all these ways are fun and are something you could do too. If you do them I promise you will have fun doing these things. Most importantly you will make God happy and you will be benefiting people.
Our parish’s multi-cultural Mass and pot-luck is coming up on Saturday, October 28th, beginning with the 4:30 Mass. You may bring a cloth or piece of fabric that represents your cultural heritage—they will be used to decorate the altar. Bring them to the parish office by Wednesday, October 25th. Please be sure to affix your name and phone number to your cloth so it can be returned to you afterwards. You may bring a cloth even if you are unable to attend. You will be able to pick up your cloth the following week from the parish office.
Thank you. Mrs. Alhadef