SUNDAY RECAP

HELLO from Laredo!! We are so excited to be here. It was a great day of travel with beautiful weather on the drive. After passing our rest stop (because signs on the highway said the bathrooms were closed!), we stopped at our usual lunch spot in San Marcos. The teens stopped in at Jason’s Deli or Freebird’s, for the most part, and we had our usual browsing through the Dollar General. One of the buses cruised into Laredo with a cool 99º cabin temperature because the A/C went out on the way in! We are getting that bus checked out and fixed ASAP.

Our theme for the week is “Called,” and we will be breaking open a topic on this theme every evening this week. Tonight, an HSM alumna and summer intern, Nicole Rewerts, shared with us what it means to be “Called to Encounter.” She referred to the story of the hemorrhaging woman in Mark 5 as she drove home the point: “This woman is healed by her simple encounter with Christ!” She reminded us that others in the Gospel who encountered Christ were profoundly moved: the woman who dried his feet with her tears, those who ate of the loaves and fish miracle at the Sermon on the Mount, and all those who followed him.

You don’t have to wait for heaven to encounter God — God is here, in the present.

She gave us a few instructions on how to live out this encounter this week, like embracing the opportunity to see God in the beauty of nature or visiting the perpetual adoration chapel here at St. Patrick’s. Nicole had encouragement for us to BE Christ to others this week by being bold and letting the Spirit guide us. She also encouraged us to SEE Christ in others by having an open mind and an open heart.

Her biggest challenge for the evening?

“Lean into an encounter with Christ this week because you will leave changed.”