I would like to start with a huge thank you to everyone who gave to our fundraising campaign for Steubenville. Initially, when I looked at the numbers for this trip earlier this year, it was really difficult to see that it would be necessary to raise the price for the trip. We have been able to keep it the same for quite awhile, so that consistency is something that people count on. Without that consistency though, the cost can become an obstacle for kids not to attend. For any retreat, I almost always have someone that is worried about the cost in some sort of way. So with this in mind, increasing the price seemed like the wrong kind of move, so I started to pray and turn to the people of the parish for back up in this situation. I definitely was not disappointed! We raised almost $2000 for this trip alone and also received some individual donations for kids. This generosity and support for our own youth program parallels a lot with some of this week’s gospel reading.
“Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”
This part of the gospel this weekend has some beautiful meanings that we can take to prayer for the week. Mainly, that for us individually to bear fruit in our faith, we need God. Without Him we would have nothing and wouldn’t be able to see fruit coming from our own lives or in the ways that we minister in this world.
But looking at this on a bigger scale, for us at Most Holy Trinity, we are a branch that has been remaining on the vine. In many different ways, our parish has been doing more and more to build ourselves up and grow. Whether it's in our youth ministry program, Witness to Hope Campaign, our Adult Retreats, our Healing service, etc. With all of these things happening, I think that we can see that because of the ways we are staying connected to the Lord and allowing Him to work in our parish and build us up, we are seeing a lot of fruits and will continue to see the blessing of these fruits.
In my own area of youth ministry, I think we have seen a lot of fruits in our program. Not only have I seen a lot of fruits from individual kids growing in their personal relationship with the Lord through one on one meetings, but I have seen it on a larger scale as well. We had quite a few more kids come on our high school retreat, we tripled our attendance to the Mission: Wixom this year, and our 8th grade Retreat this year was probably one of the most powerful retreats that I have had the pleasure of being a part of in the last couple of years. I can see the fruits of our program and of our parish in the joy and excitement that students have been showing in what we are doing and in the way they have experienced God. These fruits would not be here if our staff wasn’t responding to God, and if our parish as a whole wasn’t responding to God.
Some of the responses to God in our youth ministry have come in the form of people in the parish being supportive of what we are doing in prayer, through volunteering, and also monetarily. All of these things have been instrumental in the trips that we have taken. Especially for Steubenville, our biggest trip that affects the largest number of youth in our parish. We have received so much support and I just ask that the parish continues to support us and allow us to keep experiencing those fruits and the growth that God has in store for us.
We have about 2 months until our Steubenville trip and it’s crazy to think that it’s already this close. For the next couple of months please keep praying for us and encouraging any of the students that you know to go on this trip. Also, please consider responding to the call to give in our investment fundraiser (more information in the bulletin insert). This is a fantastic way to be a part of Steubenville and to also keep building up another piece of our parish.
God Bless, Corey
“Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”
This part of the gospel this weekend has some beautiful meanings that we can take to prayer for the week. Mainly, that for us individually to bear fruit in our faith, we need God. Without Him we would have nothing and wouldn’t be able to see fruit coming from our own lives or in the ways that we minister in this world.
But looking at this on a bigger scale, for us at Most Holy Trinity, we are a branch that has been remaining on the vine. In many different ways, our parish has been doing more and more to build ourselves up and grow. Whether it's in our youth ministry program, Witness to Hope Campaign, our Adult Retreats, our Healing service, etc. With all of these things happening, I think that we can see that because of the ways we are staying connected to the Lord and allowing Him to work in our parish and build us up, we are seeing a lot of fruits and will continue to see the blessing of these fruits.
In my own area of youth ministry, I think we have seen a lot of fruits in our program. Not only have I seen a lot of fruits from individual kids growing in their personal relationship with the Lord through one on one meetings, but I have seen it on a larger scale as well. We had quite a few more kids come on our high school retreat, we tripled our attendance to the Mission: Wixom this year, and our 8th grade Retreat this year was probably one of the most powerful retreats that I have had the pleasure of being a part of in the last couple of years. I can see the fruits of our program and of our parish in the joy and excitement that students have been showing in what we are doing and in the way they have experienced God. These fruits would not be here if our staff wasn’t responding to God, and if our parish as a whole wasn’t responding to God.
Some of the responses to God in our youth ministry have come in the form of people in the parish being supportive of what we are doing in prayer, through volunteering, and also monetarily. All of these things have been instrumental in the trips that we have taken. Especially for Steubenville, our biggest trip that affects the largest number of youth in our parish. We have received so much support and I just ask that the parish continues to support us and allow us to keep experiencing those fruits and the growth that God has in store for us.
We have about 2 months until our Steubenville trip and it’s crazy to think that it’s already this close. For the next couple of months please keep praying for us and encouraging any of the students that you know to go on this trip. Also, please consider responding to the call to give in our investment fundraiser (more information in the bulletin insert). This is a fantastic way to be a part of Steubenville and to also keep building up another piece of our parish.
God Bless, Corey
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