Staying on the right path

For all of you who heard my talk at the confirmation retreats, you heard me speak about staying on the right path in life. And you heard me say how it can be hard at times. Especially when you have to stand up for your faith when everyone else is going against you. However know this. You are not alone, first of all God is with you, and he always will be weather or not you can feel it. Because there are going to be times ware you feel like he is not there, but he is. However do not be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, like what I did in my biology class (i explained in my talk). Because you may be surprised how many other people actually feel the same way but were to afraid to stand up for what the believed in. After my little bio episode i was approached by 3 people in that class who had felt the same way as me but did were to afraid to stand up. You see by acting as a disciple and staying on the right path, you may rub of on others. The three people who i mentioned before have now decided that if a situation comes up like that again they will also stand up for there convictions. Now you may be thinking three people is not allot but if each one of them goes and gets three people, then you have 9. And if each one of them gets 3, then you have 27 (you get the point).

Also,  there are other ways to stay on the right path in life as well. Saying no to peer pressure is an example, (also to avoid peer pressure a good trick is to surround yourself with people who share the same values and convictions as you.)  and there are many other ways. Hopefully  people will notice your actions and try to get on the right path as well. Even the smallest thing such as holding open a door for someone can do the trick, you never know you may have inspired a future Saint!

Confifmation

All of you (8th graders) just had your confirmation retreats. Which as it looked like, was the time of your life. I don't know if any of you noticed this, but you all made allot of progress throughout the day. When you first came in you were not very energetic, and didn't even want to dance. However you started to slowly but surely gain energy (i think allot of this occurred durring the ski race). However most importantly many of you began to open the door to Jesus. In my group especially, many of you opened up and shared many stories about your faith. Which i beleved started to grow. This occored at both retreats, and i am proud to say that many of you told me and other leaders that you plan to come back and help after you make your confirmation. That is exacly what i wanted to hear because, as you all know your formal religiious education is coming to an end very shortly. And I am afraid to say that for many of you your church experince ends after confirmation. Which saddens me, because Church can be a fun place as you all learned yesterday. (if you had the time of your life yesterday, come to our youth group monday nights from 7-9 in the old church). However as I explained in my talk, fun is not always everything, and church can be a great tool to help you stay on the right path in life. The church can be there for you to help you with any difficulty you are facing in your life. So i am praying that this you do not end your church experince after your confirmations, but rather let it be a beggining point not an end for your spiritual experience.