Vermont Catholic Youth Conference 2010

Big plans for July 10th and 11th!

This year's MC will be STEVE ANGRISANO!!! Also we will have over 20 religious visiting for this event from Sisters of Life based in NY and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal!

This is going to be awesome!!!

Mark your calenders and register for VCYC this year!!!

The planning meetings continue and we are hoping for a very large crowd!

Local Apostolate developments

Last Saturday we had our last youth mass at Mount St. Joseph's high school chapel. I personally think it was a beautiful mass, with Adoration and confession after communion, and the music was phenomenal! I really hope to see Mr. Nolan after this summer!!

Last Wednesday was our first Praise and Worship night in Fair Haven with a short bible study with Father Lawrence. I think the only improvement would be to have our Lord present in the house in Adoration! The music was cool!

Hopefully we can get more members this year because of people having to leave for college.

Sweet Jesus, Have Mercy!

Meet J.J. ...

C. started with the beginning, now let me show you how it has continued.

All three of us recently went to a great retreat called Mount 2009. The bus ride is where it all begins. We were with a group of about fifty. We watched movies, talked and prayed all the way there. It's great to begin a retreat getting to know the community your going there with. Once we got there (about ten hours later...) we were registered and had dinner. That evening we heard a couple of talks by some great lay speakers, we celebrated Mass and witnessed the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. All night Adoration was available right across the hall from where the girls sleep. Before bed I went to confession, and that began my weekend on the right note. After confession I went to Adoration and truly committed myself to the part of the Act of Contrition were you promise to avoid the "near occasion of sin". I totally surrendered and pretty much gave up the things I had wasted the most time on in the past few years (reading Fiction and Fantasy/Sci-fie). It was such a big change in my life and something I had been struggling to do for so long, that it straightened out a lot of my life. The next day when I heard the Vocation Talk, I fell in love with the Order of the Sister who gave the talk. I've been to a lot of retreats, and at the end of the best retreats they ask for everyone who has heard the call to the Religious life to "please stand up!". I've always stood up at this time. Somehow I tend to forget or ignore it when I get back home. This time it stuck. When they asked on Sunday at the end of the Closing Mass, I stood up again. When I went home, I truly looked into things seriously, and still plan to follow through! I realize now that being completely open to doing God's Will, no matter what you have to give up, is the only way to hear when He calls you to your Vocation. The best retreat is the one at which you are open.