Brainstorm

Calling all married and unmarried men! Want to learn how to love your wife (or future wife) better? Consider becoming an e5 Man! An e5 Man (Eph 5:27) imitates Christ’s love for the Church by making sacrifices for the woman in his life through fasting. By fasting for our earthly bride and joining our sufferings to Christ’s we bring our brides to holiness. At the same time our act of bodily love in union with Christ accelerates our own conversion. Join 7000+ men and offer much-needed graces for the women of this world.

During the month of June, tune into Catholic Radio WRYT AM 1080 in St. Louis and KHOJ AM 1460 in St. Charles at 4pm Wednesdays and noon Saturdays for “The Splendor of You,” a radio show exploring the issue of chastity and purity in today’s world. This half-hour program will be hosted by Bernadette Munsell and Deby Sansone Schlapprizzi. Young adults, teens and parents, tune in! Grandparents, adults of all ages tune in as well!

The African American History Committee is hosting a celebration for Black History Month. Part of this celebration is an essay contest open to high schoolers. There is a $100 prize to be awarded to the finalist. The contest deadline is Friday, January 14, 2005. Download this flyer and application for more details.

There are FREE videos available through the Pro-Life Office from the group Priests for Life. This is a great resource to show on the bus on the way to Washington DC if you are planning on attending the March for Life this January. It’s also a great resource for those who cannot attend the March for Life, to use at a Life night in your parish youth groups to teach your teens more about the evils of abortion. To find out more information about this, or get your hands on a copy of this free video contact juliasheerin@archstl.org at the Pro-Life Office. All orders must be in by January 10.

Hi Everyone! I wanted to let you know about a program I’m working on and ask for your help. Instead of throwing out your used ink or toner cartridges from your printers or copiers, or returning them to the office supply store for recycling, put them to good use feeding and caring for the poorest in our hemisphere. I’m collecting qualified cartridges and sending them to Food for the Poor (FFTP), a Christian organization serving people in the Caribbean and Latin America. According to FFTP’s literature, just one cartridge, for which they can get $2, will provide beans and rice for 40 kids’ meals. 1000 cartridges allows them to build a solid, quality home for a family. If you’d like to learn more about the work of FTTP, please visit their website at www.foodforthepoor.com.

Please remember us when you change out your cartridges. Please read the list of qualified ink and toner cartridges (some, like Epson, are not recyclable) on the site. You can send them addressed to me, Susan Hannibal, at the Office of Apostolic Services, 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO 63119, or bring it by in person and visit for a minute in the West Wing of the Cardinal Rigali Center, 1st floor (directly behind the chapel). I’ll collect them and as we fill the boxes, send them off to FFTP. Please contact me with any questions at 314-792-7173 or susanh@archstl.org. Thanks for remembering the poorest of the poor in the course of your everyday activities.

Check out the resource section of Catholic Youth Foundation for great ideas on: Icebreakers and Games, Prayer Services, Fundraisers, Service Profects and much more.

All of the ideas have been posted for public domain. Do you have your own great ideas already? You also have the opportunity to post some of your own resources to help other Youth Ministers out. It’s a great way to help you come up with new ideas for your youth groups and share your own ideas with others.

Have you checked out Interlinc? Believing that Christian music has the potential to significantly reach most young people, they provide great resources for youth ministry to reach that end. From SPIN (a music book of the latest worship songs) to YLO (a comprehensive music subscription that offers the newest CD’s plus a music-based bible study for each album) - they have much to offer your youth ministry program. And they’ll help you fill up your CD rack, so check ‘em out!

We quickly wanted to bring something to your attention. It has to do with an initiative within our Archdiocese. Some well known and in many ways prominent Catholics of the Archdiocese have formed a committee to pledge that as Catholics their vote would be a vote that was informed and in accord with their faith. In that way they hope to serve as good examples for other Catholics throughout the Archdiocese.

To publicly support this effort is now possible to every Catholic in the Archdiocese at large. Please have a look at the form of the pledge to get a better idea of what it is about. Basically, this pledge reminds us that as Catholics we are responsible for promoting the common good of society. Exactly as our Archbishop Burke’s recent pastoral letter states, our faith teaches us that the common good, what we must always work toward, is dependant upon sound morality, a morality, to give an example, that recognizes the intrinsic value of all human life.

This morality, based on the natural law, finds certain realities that exist in our society to be not just wrong but intrinsically evil and therefore always sinful, regardless of the circumstances. We are obligated to vote responsibly, according to this moral hierarchy, even regardless of whatever other pros / cons we find in candidates for public office.

We would encourage you to read it over and to sign it, on the one hand, and on the other, to forward it to anyone else you know who could also benefit from it.

The forms should be printed out, signed and sent in as soon as possible so as to have all signers’ names printed on time in the St. Louis Review, just before election day. You could send it to any of your friends and family here in St. Louis and invite them in turn to send it around themselves.

As great an initiative as this is, it is not making much headway because of a lack of better organization. We know that we can do a lot to overcome that situation and we are sure you will help circulate it very quickly and that a kind of domino effect will ensue. It is also worth mentioning that Archbishop Burke is aware of what is going on and has already expressed much gratitude for the initiative. It is obviously important, however, that this initiative be seen as coming from the laity. It is for that reason that he has not personally promoted it.

If you have any questions, hopefully we can answer them.

Thanks and God Bless, Bob and Kitty Zeik

The Jamestown Sports Complex offers a variety of activities throughout the year that would benefit families of your parish. All of these activities are professionally run and provide opportunities for participants of all ages to enjoy themselves.

Several of our programs offer Parish Associations the opportunity to raise much-needed funds.

One such program is our “GRAVEYARD”. This is our October Haunted House (Halloween) adventure for all ages. Our facility sits on 14 areas and is the perfect outdoor haunted adventure. We have been open for the past two Halloweens. We have helped raise funds for several worthwhile organizations. We would like to offer your youth groups the same opportunity. All you have to do is distribute the coupons to your parish youth and have them write their ministry name on the coupon. It is a very simple fund raising opportunity. For each coupon with your parish’s ministry’s name on it, the Jamestown Sports Complex will return $2.00 back to that parish ministry. We will supply the coupons to each group.

If you feel this would be a fun and worthwhile outing for your youth groups we would be happy to send them these coupons. Please let us know if you have any questions. You can contact Tim Twellman at 314-355-5363 for more information.

Has your parish ever considered this?

Youth Mentoring: Sharing Your Gifts with the Future by Patricia L. Fry, Liguori Publications.

Teacher, mentor and author Patricia Fry has written Youth Mentoring: Sharing Your Gifts with the Future, an excellent guide for those presently mentoring children or contemplating mentoring. With an increasing number of parents overwhelmed and overstressed with just earning a living, there is very little time or energy left for the family. Countless numbers of our young people need companionship, nurturing and an example in order to grow into responsible and responsive adults.

Order Youth Mentoring: Sharing Your Gifts with the Future by calling 1-800-325-9521 or online at www.liguori.org. Be prepared to part company with $11.95!