"None of us lives for ourselves and none of us dies for ourselves alone. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord," Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans. When we make our lives only for ourselves, only for our needs, we will find ourselves coming up short. Advertising may try to convince us otherwise, but if we have a "me, me, me" attitude we will come up short of a real peace and joy. "It is finally with relief and a burst of joy that we realize that our lives are not about us," @BishopBarron has written on more than one occasion. It's about being drawn out of our comfort zone and into the "adventurous space of divine mission" he rightly tells us. Our lives, as both Saint Paul and the bishop show, is about God and His purpose. Lives tuned to this are lives that are filled with delight.
Our 7th grader caringly brings this reality home today when he writes about giving his time, and even his money, to help others.
Radical Community Care
by Brandon
To help people in need you can have a local canned food drive. I saw a YouTube video about this guy making bags of food filled with a snack, sandwich, and a water. When I was in the young Marines we went to this place that had tons of food. We sorted it all out, put it into bags and gave it to people in need. We didn't just give it to the homeless, we gave it to people who can't really afford anything.
One day I had 5 dollars I wanted to spend. Then I saw a guy at an In 'n Out holding a sign about food, so I gave the 5 dollars to him. Everyone can help people in a certain way.
The video the 7th graders saw this week for their faith reflection was a repeat of something they had seen in 4th grade. In fact, they even made their own version of what they had seen back when they in 4th grade. Tower music - A Thousand Feet of Sound is music created only from sounds collected from banging on the Eiffel Tower (link below to both videos). It's also a story of patience and faith as Joseph Bertolozzi, an American composer and musician from upstate New York, was not given permission to record sounds from the Eiffel Tower the first time he asked. Using a bridge or a tower as your instrument is amazing and we're glad Mr. Bertolozzi held out hope that it could be done. One of the 7th graders thought the video was one of the best she's ever seen and would love to see him do this again. Hear what some of the other 7th graders thought: "Even though his music is not traditional or the same as others, there is beauty in it. Just like we may sin, God finds beauty in us."; "(the video is) like how God always can make us a little bit beautiful-er by helping us to see what else we can be used for."; "I think that him making music in a way that (probably) no one else would've thought of (banging on the Eiffel Tower) shows how beauty and art can come our of anything."; "The people are like us trying to talk to God. God's response is the music coming back to us."; "It showed faith because the people let him do it, and it has faith in it because they trusted him to make the music. It shows how music is made and it's a gift from God. That God is able to make music on these structures."
Thank you. Mrs. Alhadef
Campus Minister
Link to my home page (scroll to bottom to view Playground Music):
Link to Tower Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opnK-g_htRQ