Bonnie and Vern ~What does the path to a relationship with Jesus look like? For us baby boomers and generations before, this phrase “relationship with Jesus” is something new. Our faith was based on following the rules, do all the church teaches, seek absolution when we fail, and we will someday be in Heaven via purgatory. What was presumed to work back then does not work today. Recently we heard this slogan, “Rules without relationship cause rebellion.” The need for the new evangelization efforts underway testify that just obeying the commandments and Church teaching often fails.
 
Vern ~In my life this happened through High School and into my middle twenties. I call them my minimalist years. Thanks be to God he did not abandon me. He continued to make the first move pouring grace and mercy on me. Just enough to stay involved during a long slow period of learning and growth, slowly getting to know Jesus. A million little moments spread over 30 years or more. God kept putting opportunities in my path, most of which were missed as wealth, power, honor, and pleasure kept me too busy to notice.
 
Bonnie and Vern ~Things began to change as our children left the nest and daily influence over them melted away. Suddenly prayer took on a whole new meaning. We always had our individual prayer time but now it seemed natural that we spend more time in prayer together. We had a common need. The increased prayer time slowly led to the start of a relationship with the Trinity. So, in a way our children became the initiative from God that required a response of faith from us. Our response, more prayer time, then opened us up to receive more grace. We are sensing this repetitive cycle with God where He initiates, we respond in faith, He initiates again, and on and on. Each time the amount of grace seems larger.
 
Vern ~One fruit from this cycle was noticing my desires change. When MHT first started the Heart of Jesus Holy Hour, I used to marvel at the volunteers that sat through the entire Holy Hour. How could they enjoy just sitting in church that long? Now nothing seems more important to me. I hunger and thirst for opportunities to pray and help others get to know Jesus. The parish retreats met this need perfectly. Initially through attending the retreats and then later being asked to help in the presentation of them. Being invited to assist with the retreats was nothing less than God putting another opportunity in our path. In the last couple years this new abundance of grace has manifested itself with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. The pinnacle of this was the Encounter Ministries Conference 2019. I came home changed. Prior to the conference I would be hesitant or somewhat intimidated to pray with others. This has been replaced with a boldness unknown before. In Ministry School they have this saying, “crossing the chicken line,” which speaks to being too timid to follow through with opportunities God puts in our path like praying with people or giving a witness. The chicken line is quickly disappearing for me. As the cycle of faith and grace continues things that used to trump faith activities have lost ground. Prayer, worship, praying with others, ministry school, and anything that has to do with faith has taken the top of my desires. It was not too long ago when I thought this kind of happiness could never be found from doing God’s will. To the contrary, as I come closer to being and doing what God created me to be, I am finding true happiness.
 
Bonnie ~Vern has always been one to jump into everything. I have a hard time stepping out of my comfort zone. Over the years he has talked me into some crazy things that I never thought I would do. For example, riding the DALMAC bicycle tour and starting a youth group and leading it for five years. The latest challenge is attending the Encounter Ministries School. So many times, be it little or big, I go to prayer to help with the decision. God has responded by giving me the grace I need to say yes. Every time I step out in faith and say yes like Mary did, I feel God has truly blessed me and our marriage.
 
So we want to push you our of your comfort zones. Please consider attending our Parish Retreat. This is an opportunity God is putting in your path. Pray about it. We promise God will deliver.
 
Bonnie & Vern Thelen

​Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
 
People throughout the US and the world will gather in churches and public spaces on January 22nd the Anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in the US and which was accompanied by similar decisions in other Western nations.
 
Every year I read articles about whether the Pro Life movement should invest our time and resources in the March for Life and instead direct them to more practical and concrete pro life work. Let me say first of all, having worked for many years in the pro life ministry and encouraging support for our Crisis Pregnancy Centers, etc. I think anything we can do to public and prophetically speak to this very lost and confused culture of death is good. Flood the streets, pray at the street corners, stand in silent prayer at Planned Pregnancy Centers, whatever we can do to witness to life is crucial.
 
AND we need to do the practical work of accompanying women and families to save innocent lives. Throughout Church history, those scared, in trouble or need, those on the run escaping pursuers, would claim the right of sanctuary as they rushed into the safety of God’s house. That is what we need to be, out in the world, for our brothers and sisters who are hurting and wounded by abortion. We need to pray, but we also need to act. Next year we will have a national election. Those whom we elect will determine, not only the direction of our economy and welfare, but in a real sense, who lives and who dies. We are seeing, in particular in Western nations a rise in the culture of death – euthanasia, the killing of the elderly, the mentally ill. Governments and health agencies are taking upon themselves the power to determine who lives and who does not. This is very disturbing. But it reminds us that the pro life work and ministry of the Church will never end.  Death is always seeking a way in…. We need to stand up for life.
 
Pope Francis, in his ongoing global examination of conscience, that a culture that violently intrudes upon the life of a baby in the sanctuary of his or her mother’s womb, would soon lose reverence for all places intended by God as safe, secure, and nurturing? Is this not happening in our very day? A society that treats the sanctuary of the earth’s environment as a toxic waste dump; would begin to consider homes and neighborhoods as dangerous instead of as sanctuaries where families are protected and fostered; would commence to approach the poor as bothersome instead of brothers? A society that is more and more burdening the dying with guilt for peacefully and patiently savoring each day until God takes them, pressuring them instead to suicide?
 
Can any of us be safe, can any of us claim a sanctuary anywhere when the first and most significant sanctuary of them all, the mother’s womb protecting a tiny life, can be raided and ravaged? Behold the baby in the sanctuary of the womb.  Once that’s violated, once a society deems it legal to invade it, the integrity of the natural and the supernatural are ruptured . . . and we have no place safe and secure left to go.
 
We still have much to do – march down the streets of America, being the prophetic voice for those who cannot speak out, and to do the hard work in our local communities to ensure that every persons senses and knows that they are of value and inestimable worth.
 
God bless,
Fr. Dennis

In praying for the upcoming Adult Retreat we are getting the sense that the Lord wants to do some different things with the retreat this year.  We got a sense of new excitement and revival. We also got a sense that God is saying that he’s not too distant and is waiting to be invited into people’s hearts and lives.  

Often times people get so caught up in their responsibilities, schedules, and busyness of life that God isn’t a priority.  People are always on the move and when they hit the pillow at night and realize they didn’t spend much, if any time in prayer or talking with God.  It is really easy to get caught up in life and just hit cruise control. To go about your day, checking things off a list. Or maybe you feel overwhelmed by life and feel like you are just in survival mode.  There are so many things that occupy our time that the idea of a retreat maybe has never crossed your mind. Or maybe you’ve thought about it, but find excuses why you don’t have time to go on a retreat. Let’s be real, we’re never going to be perfectly ready to make something like this work in our schedule or be in the perfect place with God.  Rather we need to make a commitment to Him and give Him an opportunity to work in our lives.  

Most Holy Trinity staff is committed to providing these adult retreats because we have seen how powerfully the Lord works through them and how the lives of people have changed through attending.  Here’s a testimony of Dorthy’s experience receiving God’s love.
 
When I was asked to share my experience at the September retreat at first I was reluctant, and then decided I would do this.  I went by myself thinking it would be good to get away and relax. Friday after we checked in, we had our first speaker. I took notes and then we went into small groups.  We were not pressured into sharing anything, we could sit back and listen or join in. The leader made it very easy to share. Later that night we went to adoration and had a chance to be prayed over and go to confession.  I was having some anger issues with family and friends that I really wanted to get over. I started to feel better but still kind of had that empty feeling inside me. Saturday morning we had another speaker then we broke into small groups to discuss. This one was easier to share, we were all more relaxed.  Saturday night is when my barriers broke down ,as I was being prayed over. I could feel God’s love for me. I still get very teary eyed when I relive that moment. So please if you have never been on a retreat, go! I would give it a 5 star rating. If you have any questions just ask, that's what I did. Thanks for listening to my story. Dorothy
When we take time for God, invite him into our day, God will show up! God is faithful, he listens to the heart of his children and desires to spend time with us, shower us with his grace.  When we make time for God we can expect revival. Revival is an improvement in the condition or strength of something. That is so beautiful! God wants to improve whatever difficult situations you  may be in. He wants to give you strength for those difficult days. He wants to love on you!  
I really want to encourage you to pray about attending out next adult retreat, February 14-16, in DeWitt.  Registration is open and available online.

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​I didn’t really know God cared about me until I was in high school. Personally, I went through religious education from a young age, but I always struggled with faith. I believed in a God, but didn’t understand the amount of love and relationship that Jesus had to offer me. I always heard that God loved me but the statement and the information that I received never really permeated my heart. All my teachers were wonderful people, but I wasn’t ever really able to enter into any of the teachings they presented because I didn’t understand the reality. In high school I was able to encounter with Jesus and start having a relationship with Him that has changed my life. 
 
I think that this can be a common experience. That information or facts about God can become our religious experience or those facts can be an intimidating obstacle to a real relationship with God. Don’t get me wrong here, I absolutely think that we need to learn about our faith. Knowledge helps us to understand our God and deepen our intimacy with Him, but if we don’t teach how to have a relationship with God and then that knowledge without relationship becomes problematic. 
 
I have seen a lot of this within our youth ministry program. There are a lot of kids that come into our retreats (8th grade or early high school) with an understanding already that they can’t be good enough because they aren’t doing the right things or they don’t know the right things. More often than not that becomes the overarching obstacle to kids coming into a relationship with God.  
 
General studies about the faith in this age group reflect this mentality as well. Students are choosing whether they want to stay in their religion younger and younger. Studies done by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reports that 40% of children of this generation decide in middle school whether they are going to practice their religion or not. Obviously, we can’t apply that percentage directly to our MHT population, but it has to make us aware that middle school students need a real relationship with God to practice their faith and not just facts/information. 
 
Which is why we (MHT Ministry Staff and Teaching Staff) are trying to give this age group more exposure to an encounter with Jesus. Some of our staff referenced our Middle School Encounters in our Christmas Bulletin, but I wanted to talk more about them because it was really a privilege to be apart of. We had three different times for a Holy Spirit Encounter for grades 5-8 for the students in our Religious Education program and students in the Catholic School. We adapted our adult Holy Spirit Encounter nights and provided an opportunity for all of our 5th-8th grade students to attend one.To prepare the kids for these encounters, teachers from both programs taught classes about the Holy Spirit, hearing God’s voice, and God’s desire for a relationship with us. There was a lot of excitement as we talked about adoration and prayer teams with the kids and when we got to the Middle School Encounter it was really fun to watch God work. 
 
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” God the Father loves children and gives them an ability to give themselves to him in such a beautiful way. Throughout all the Middle School Encounters that we had, it seemed very obvious that each student had the freedom to let God in the way that they were comfortable with. Whether it was going to a prayer team or sitting in adoration there were some very powerful experiences. 
 
I remember one instance with a student very clearly after I prayed with her. When we were talking about her experience she said, “I knew in my mind that God loved me before, but now I KNOW that he loves me in my heart.” 
 
Another student that described her experience referenced three different times that she’s encountered God in the last year and then articulated how this time was different. She said that this time she just got to sit and be with Jesus the whole time and loved being able to just talk with Him.
 
Developing this sort of culture where our students can expect God to be real, to love them unconditionally, and to come to them in whatever place they are at is our overall goal. These encounters definitely are laying the groundwork for that culture and I can’t wait until we do more in the spring!