TUESDAY RECAP
If you can’t tell by the recap video for today, there is NO SHORTAGE of laughs and smiles around here. Honestly, it’s so refreshing to see our teens engaging in authentic relationships, doing real work, making sacrifices and acts of charity, experiencing the Sacraments, and most of all — having a blast!
Today was busy, and rightly so — we don’t want to lose momentum on any of our projects! The team at La Frontera got all their poles set and beams up for roofing materials tomorrow. At the Bacon House, we have studs up for walls on the tiny home we’re building. The Blue House team pulled out WAY more of a disintegrated floor than we planned and made big progress on the roof. The Tar House also got a lot of roofing done and put up more ceiling drywall inside. The Trailer House totally nailed it (pun intended) on their drywall ceiling project, and discovered ways to sand paint off the ceiling in an adjacent room.
Here are a few pictures from worksites today, and you can see more by visiting the individual group pages.
After Mass and showers, we shared a delicious fajita meal before playing one of our FAVORITE HSM games - Priest of the Parish. It’s a nonsense kind of a game where the real challenge is staying in sync with your own team while trying to get another team to get out of sync. Teams earned more points toward a running total — and everyone is competing to win a trophy at the end of the week!
We had the privilege to hear from St. Ann’s visiting seminarian, Alex Fry, for tonight’s session. He shared a really great talk about what holiness really means and looks like — and how it’s different from what we might be expecting. Alex talked about how the “rich young man” from the Gospels missed his moment to follow Jesus, and we can assume so because we never hear about him returning.
Here are Alex’s big takeaways about holiness:
1. Nothing satisfies us but Jesus. We try to fill the ache in our hearts with all kinds of things, but it is ultimately only Jesus who can meet our needs.
2. It’s not enough to do good things. Even though the rich young man had done all the right, “good” things, he couldn’t surrender his heart to Jesus. The Lord doesn’t need us, He wants us.
3. Holiness is dangerous. God’s desire for us will almost always require letting go of something. We have two choices: walk away or allow him to transform us from that act of surrender.
He warned: Living for Christ is not a promise for a life that is easier or without suffering. Holiness doesn’t mean having everything you want and feeling great all the time.
He encouraged: Besides Mary and Jesus, there are no perfect people. Most of the time, it involves getting back up every time we fail and trying again.
“Holiness is not a goal that we reach in this life; it’s something we strive for every single day.”
And his instruction? Practice holiness. Pray, frequent the Sacraments, and find a community. All of those things are essential to growing in real, authentic holiness that isn’t false, based on unrealistic expectations, or dead and antiquated.
(See Alex’s talk in full in the video at the bottom of this page.)
We ended the night with small group discussion and a prayer experience led by Joey. Everyone is tucked away to rest for a big day tomorrow. Please keep praying for us!
