​I’m going to do a dreaded thing and bring up Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Yikes! There’s even snow falling outside as I finish writing this article! I know many people are vehemently opposed to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I also know there are plenty of other people who love early Christmas music but try to hide it due to shame or the disapproving glance of loved ones who hold fast to the aforementioned Thanksgiving rule. And then there are those of you who, like my mother, really do get in the mood for Christmas in July and could play O Holy Night any time of year. No matter which camp you find yourself in, here’s the great thing: choir gives you a way around societal norms! Christmas is in just over 6 weeks, so the learning season begins a little earlier in the music world.
 
This article, however, isn’t just an appeal to join choir; rather, I’m hoping that it will draw each person to reflection in anticipation of the coming Advent and Christmas seasons. Several studies have shown that the holiday season actually tends to be pretty hard on the adult population. There’s the financial stress of presents, travel, and food; the emotional stress of seeing or not seeing family; general stresses of cleaning, cooking, and busy schedules; and sometimes the added pain of missing loved ones. It might seem like pure insanity to add something else to an already-burdened schedule, but I want to make an appeal to your personal well-being. Do you have something built in to help you get away, enrich and nourish your soul, and fill you back up in this season of giving?
 
In busy lives where we give so much to our families and friends, it’s important to make sure we’re not running dry. No one can give what they don’t have, so our efforts to love and give can become strained when we don’t take time to fill ourselves back up. Jesus himself drew away to the wilderness be alone with His Father after intense weeks of ministry. If we’re striving to be Christ-like, we need to imitate the whole person of Jesus instead of chasing the culturally-manufactured ideal of the ever-serving, never-taking Christian. Jesus’ self-sacrifice flowed directly from the Father’s love which He received in moments of renewal, both alone and with the small community of his closest disciples. We need that space too. A quiet evening with a movie and a glass of wine does some good, but we need access to sources that will truly renew us. This can be found in both our prayer lives and in a community.
 
I have worked really hard to establish adult choir as a space that provides those very things. Members have told me repeatedly over the past few years that rehearsal is their chance to get away during the week and have time to do something they enjoy. They also feel more engaged during Mass, and even though they liked singing before, now feel like they get to sing as confidently as they want because they’re surrounded by others doing the same thing. I invite you to seek out something like this for yourself. If you love to sing and you love the music of this season, take this opportunity to do something you enjoy. It doesn’t matter if you’re an incredible singer; it’s good to give ourselves permission to do something creative just because we like it, not because we’ll make a living off of it! Choir is both a way to fill yourself up and give back to the community, even if you’re unable to participate through the whole year.
 
Finally, this last part is an invitation for everyone at the parish: On Thursday, December 12 at 7:00 PM, we will have an evening prayer service of music and readings from scripture, known formally as “Lessons and Carols.” It’s a short event - under an hour - where we’ll have readings through salvation history with music sung by the various choirs as reflections between the readings. There are no high school basketball games that night, so I hope you’ll take the chance to rest in God’s presence and enjoy some beautiful music.
 
Please contact me at kayla.mhtmusic@gmail.com with any questions. I’m looking forward to a beautiful Advent and Christmas season.
 
God Bless, Kayla.

​We are just around the corner to our annual High School Retreat. It’s one of the more sizeable things that our youth ministry program puts together throughout the year, and the longer I am here the more I see how it continues to feed our program overall. Every year I get to know so many of the high school students in a deeper way, and they get to encounter God in a more profound way.
 
It’s a unique process being able to gather our youth community in this way. Not every parish has this sort of retreat available. Other parishes might get to attend bigger conferences like the Steubenville Youth Conferences or go to events available in their diocese, but a smaller retreat like this is a little different in its dynamics. Larger retreats give students the ability to see Catholicism and Jesus in a universal perspective. We gain outlook that our faith is personal but also greater than just our parish or our town. 
 
Although experiencing the Lord in those contexts is inspiring, there is something intimate and deeper in coming to encounter God with people that we see everyday. For many of the high school students, that sort of intimacy with God roots them even more in their faith and it also deepens relationships with friends and classmates that they might not have had before. The relationships they can gain from these shared experiences is so valuable because we absolutely can not live our faith alone. We need others around to walk with us through our faith journey. Many of the lasting faith friendships that have pushed me to keep saying yes to God and loving Jesus even more were formed during these retreats when I was in high school.
 
Since the fruits of this retreat are so important, often times there is a lot of spiritual warfare that comes before a retreat. The evil one likes to spin many lies to students to put obstacles in their path during the retreat or lead them away from the retreat. There can be a fear of what others might think of them (I’m not holy enough for this), a fear of being out of place or uncomfortable, general anxiety of what it could be like, a worry of being disappointed, etc. Those lies or fears can really imprison some of them to not go on the retreat, or hold back throughout the weekend.
 
While consulting some of our young adult team as well as during my own time praying for this retreat, I have felt that there is an even greater need for intercession for this retreat. So I intentionally wanted to invite our greater parish community to support the building up of our youth community for the weekend of November 22-24. For any of you that know a high school student that would benefit from this sort of weekend please encourage them, but more importantly I am asking you to pray for us! When we intercede as a community we can break any sort of imprisonment that the evil one might bring.
 
Specifically, in Acts 12:5-17 the early church took intercession to the next level!! Peter was caught and imprisoned by Herod’s guards and the odds of him getting out looked pretty bad. Peter not only had two soldiers right outside of his prison door, but he also was bound with two chains and had a guard directly to the right and left of him. There looked like no possible way to gain freedom for Peter. Instead of despairing or resorting to hopelessness, the early church FERVENTLY PRAYS for Peter’s freedom. God the Father sees his people crying out for the release of their leader and he can not hold back in breaking through miraculously! So an angel of the Lord is sent to Peter, and shines his light through the prison. This light breaks the shackles binding Peter and then the angel leads him safely out of the prison.
 
The fervent and consistent intercession of a community can bring about the miraculous power of God! I ask that all of you can bring that same intercession for us to bring about the freedom that God wants for every one of our students. Our community is capable of great things with God's help and I can't wait to share what God does over the weekend!
 
God Bless, Corey

​In our parish, we have specific theology courses so that students can learn about and grow in our faith. But what if our parish went even deeper? I truly feel that when we encounter the Lord on a personal level, we are ignited on a mission for more. More participation. More service. More courage. More boldness. More passion to share the Father’s love. These personal experiences aren’t simply about an individual’s feelings or witnessing manifestations of the Spirit (Examples: resting in the Spirit, shaking of hands, speaking in tongues, laughter…). The experiences aren’t even about individual physical healings and sharing in the amazement of small miracles. These encounters are one step along the faith journey. A moment to receive the love and graces He has for us, for whatever He has for us in that moment. These encounters are an opportunity to partake in the joy of heaven.
 
We decided to push for this deeper experience by hosting a middle school encounter for MHT students this past spring (with plans to include religious education this coming year). The feedback from the students was amazing! Sometimes, students simply enjoy an opportunity to partake in activities outside of the normal classroom routines. However, this went above and beyond, with many students begging, constantly begging me to have more encounter times! Here are a few reflections from our students:
When we had the actual middle school encounter, it was just another chance to be closer to God at first. But when it started, I could feel God’s presence, showing once again, how much he loves us.
I was crying because God’s love broke down the wall between us.
The encounter at church lets me know that He answers us.
Someone started laughing, then more people, and at that point I asked God, “Lord, give me some of that.” I soon started laughing and experienced great joy. It seemed as if God was taking some stress off my shoulders, making it feel like God was carrying my cross.
On Friday, I rested in the Spirit. I remember going down and my prayer team gently set me on the ground. While I was resting, I could feel God’s peace and love as a hand on my head. God assured me of his love and peace for me.
After group prayer and prayer teams started, I started to feel like something deep down was nudging me. I got nervous because I was terrified to break into loud laughter or to rest in the Spirit. I felt restless, so I got into line for prayer teams. I kept my eyes on the Blessed Sacrament and just prayed to God for peace. Between school and three different sports, I had a lot to be anxious about. Life wasn’t so great at that time, especially since my relationship with God seemed one-sided. I never truly felt like God was there. I eventually got to go to a prayer team. I knew both of the people, which eased my uneasiness. Once we started praying, I began to cry. I never really felt like I had ever cried from such a deep down place. Once we finished praying, one of the people talked about God being with me. They also said I can go to God for my problems. I left the prayer team consoled.
I thought it was awesome! I would want to do one every month!
This year, as a parish, we plan to incorporate more encounter experiences through MHT School and our religious education program. We’ve witnessed amazing growth and transformations in our students that we want to continue to foster. We pray that these transformations will lead to more for our students! Please keep our parish students and the parish/school/religious education staff in your prayers.
 
God Bless,
 
Jessica Campbell