Church Retreat

Last night we had our retreat for Confirmation. It was an amazing experience, and I'll blog about it later (I'm pretty tired now... I've been sick the last few days, and I hardly got any sleep last night), but I wanted to share one of the songs from the retreat.

"City on our Knees" by Toby Mac

I'll post more about the retreat and put some more songs on later.

Blessings for the week!

Avery

New Show!

Hey everybody! So there's a new show out for Live WTL. You can find it, as always, at www.livewtl.com or in iTunes. For this week's show, I interviewed my Confirmation class. I totally admit that we are really spazzish (Spazzie? Spazzy? Spazzes? Are those words?...I'm not thinking so, maybe, I'll look it up... but I think you get the point here) It sounds a little weird in the interview because I edited out the really crazy stuff we said, so it kind of sounds like we're laughing for no reason, but you know, that's the fun of it. Enjoy!

Lent
What is Lent, why do we observe it, and what should we do for it?
Confirmation Class Interview
An interview with my Confirmation class about Lenten goals, Confirmation saints, and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Trivia
Thanks to:
-sarah, 13, Michigan
-Mark, 11, Washington
-Elizabeth, 14, England
-Peter, 15, West Virginia
for the awesome trivia questions this week! Send your own to me at avery@livewtl.com

Note: There was a mistake on the show's trivia this week. The holy oils are actually made on Holy Thursday, not Tuesday of Holy Week, and they are made at a special mass called the Chrism Mass. However, since the late 1950's, some diocese have these masses on other days close to Thursday, like Tuesday. Sorry for the confusion there!

Coming up soon!

An interview with Daniel from the Special Chronicles podcast and a surprise from a cool band!

Blessings,

Avery

For the someone, somewhere, somehow....

As we come into this Lenten season, many of us are making efforts to pray more often and deepen our relationship with God. I've gotten quite a few emails lately from listeners regarding prayer. Prayer can be hard. We don't always know what to say, and it is easy for our mind to wander. One thing I always like to do in prayer is my "someone, somewhere" prayers. For example:

-For the someone, somewhere, who is suffering starvation today

-For the someone, somewhere, who is sick and alone

-For the someone, somewhere, who does not feel loved

-For the someone, somewhere, who is considering an abortion and needs Christ's light

-For the someone, somewhere, who is suffering domestic violence

-For the someone, somewhere, who does not know Jesus

-For the someone, somewhere, who feels pressure to do what they know is wrong

-For the someone, somewhere, who does not feel like life is worth living

-For the someone, somewhere, who needs this prayer right now

My someone, somewhere prayers are usually short, but they really mean a lot to me. We take so much for granted, and there is so much that we can't even imagine going through. Plus, its always nice to know that someone, somewhere prays for you and cares about you. Just think about adding that to your prayers this Lenten season.

Blessings for the week,

Avery

Just an update...

Hey Everybody! I just wanted to let you know, I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with the questions from you for a little while, probably until May. Feel free to send them in, I may use them on the show, I just am really really busy right now so it may take me a while to get back to you. For now, I suggest catholic.com, a great resource. Also, look at lifeteen.com, it has some great answers too. Thanks! By the way, I still plan on posting on the blog regularly and doing the show, I'm just not able to answer usually about 5 questions a day on top of school, sports, homework, and all that. I look forward to working on that more this summer though!

Have a blessed Ash Wednesday!

Avery

God, my favorite color is green...

Reflecting on my prayer journal today, I started to think about prayer. Specifically, I thought about how my prayers change all the time. Well, that got me thinking about one time in specific, the first time I ever really prayed.

It all started on that chilly winter day in November. Well, most of it at least. I specifically remember it being cold because I was wearing my sister’s itchy hand-me-down sweater, the one with the polar bear on it. Our classroom was burning hot that day, and mom hadn’t let me get a donut after mass. I was hot, I was tired, I was hungry, and I had a cold. Basically, in my eyes, I was the most unhappy a six year old could be. I really didn’t want to be there. As lovely and quaint as little old room 136 was, there was so much else to do. Like color. Or play Barbies. The last thing I really wanted to do on this rainy November Sunday morning was put my sticker up on the attendance chart and recite my memory verse. Oh, and sit on the raggedy carpet squares that smelled funny. But Mom and Dad insisted. So I mentally told myself it would be okay and walked right up to that room to get my sticker. Little did I know, this day would change my life.

The topic of 1^st grade Sunday school happened to be prayer that day. As I look back, I really have an appreciation for Mrs. Kathleen and Mrs. Debby, my teachers. I don’t know how I could possibly try to teach six year olds about spirituality. But they did. And they did it well. I remember my memory verse from that day. Actually, I remember it quite well. It is the signature on my emails, my favorite verse to meditate on, and the motto of my show. John 14:6

For I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.

Now at that time, it didn’t mean much to me. Reciting that verse was just another way to please the adults in my life (and get a Hershey’s kiss if I said it right). But back to the lesson that day.

Prayer. My teacher Ms. Kathleen wrote in on the board in big chalk letters. She asked us if any of us knew any prayers. I immediately raised my hand.

Bless us, O Lord! and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

I proudly recited my dinner prayer. Ms. Kathleen was pleased. “Now, Avery,” she asked “what does that prayer mean?” There, I was stumped. Yeah, I said it every day before every meal, but did I know what it meant? Not a clue. I mean, I was six. I always had wondered what a “bounty” was, and when exactly we were receiving it. It didn’t really make much sense to me. I stared at her. She smiled and explained that we were giving thanks for our food. I still was wondering what a bounty was. Then a girl in my class, Sarah, raised her hand to recite the Lord’s prayer. Ms. Kathleen, again, smiled and asked if anyone knew what the prayer really meant. She had a good point there. We all knew a bunch of prayers. Ask me for the Hail Mary, and I’d have given you the Hail Mary. Ask me for the Glory Be, and I’d have given you the Glory Be. But did I have any idea what I’m saying? Nope. Not one bit.

That was when she began talking about our personal relationship with God. She told us God was our friend and he would always be with us. We could tell him anything. She said we could even tell him our favorite color. We could tell him about our friends and our pets, and even our parents.

Well, that got me excited. I was excited to meet this God who was going to be my best friend. I was excited to meet this God who would always be with me. And I was really excited to tell God about my cats. I guess I had prayed before then, but it wasn’t real. Not tangible. Well, I went home that night and prayed. I uttered the most sincere prayer I could think of. “God,” I prayed, “Thank you for my life. I want to be your friend. And God, my favorite color is green.”

Now over the years after that, my prayer life has dramatically changed. Obviously I say more than thank you and what my favorite color is. I listen to God, and it isn’t all about my problems. But that day, that chilly November Sunday when I really didn’t want to be at Church, that was the day I learned to pray.

Just a little reflection for this week. Think back through your prayers. The ones we've said so many times that they sometimes can feel like they've lost meaning. I can tell you this, they haven't. So think through the prayers you say, you just may discover something cool. Oh, and don't forget to tell God your favorite color tonight. :)

Blessings,

Avery

It's a small world after all!

So my website comes with these cool handy dandy features that give statistics and charts and stuff about my site, like how many visitors, the number of downloads, etc. I was looking at it earlier and was really surprised to see how many countries there were on the list of places that people had downloaded the show! There was a list of like 35 countries where the show had been downloaded. Some places I hadn't even heard of before... That just proves how universal our Church is. No matter where you go, you'll be sure to find at lease one of the 1 billion Catholics in our world.

Just thought I'd let you know that... I thought it was pretty cool!

Blessings,

Avery

Beautiful Song!

This week on the show we talked about 1 Corinthians 13 and how it relates to love. There's a beautiful song by Brandon Heath about this I wanted to share today...

Enjoy and God Bless!

Avery

New Show!

A new show is out for Live WTL! You can find it at www.livewtl.com

This week's show notes:

Trivia
Two of our Church's saints...
Scripture Study
1st Corinthians 13- what it means and how we can reflect on it!
Questions from You
What is occultism and why is it wrong?

Here's some specific questions:
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/quickquestions/keyword/occult

Here's a great article I found very informative:
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0007fea4.asp

For all the Harry Potter fans: (trust me, I'm one of them!)
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0107fea1.asp

Here is what the Catechism says:
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons,
conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the
future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of
omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all
conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis,
other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They
contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
(CCC 2116, emphasis added).

As always, feel free to send your feedback to me at avery@livewtl.com. I love hearing from everyone!

Have a blessed week!

Avery

Silence... Oh, how sweet the sound!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while… I hope everybody is doing great! Well, this week, I’ve been super lucky. We’ve had a five day weekend because snow and ice have been making all of the roads slick and really just can’t seem to melt. And this morning, as I was getting ready to go back to school, I was thinking about how refreshing the break had been. I had been able to relax, play in the snow, go sledding, have a sleepover with my friends, go to the mall, catch up on watching Psych (which a new episode comes on tonight, if you’re keeping score….) start recording, and even break out some of my acrylic paint and a canvas which had been hiding in the closet for quite some time. It wasn’t exactly a quiet, doing-absolutely-nothing weekend (which can really drive me crazy- I’m a people person), but it was really refreshing. For the first time in quite a while, I was actually not completely dreading school. Which by the way, is quite an improvement for me. I mean, I like learning, I love seeing my friends, even the work isn’t too bad, its just the whole cycle gets crazy. You throw in waking up at 5:30, spending an hour on a bus, sports practice, a few hours of homework, getting like 6 hours of sleep, and life gets crazy. And repetitive. And sometimes you just need a refresher. The same thing goes for God.

We can get super caught up in our lives- really easy and really fast. It’s easy to blow off God. I mean, we’re busy busy busy people. There’s always somewhere to go, someone to see, something to do, some homework or project or test to work on, and then, oh yeah, there’s God. But you have to remember, this is God. God, the creator of life. God the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end if you translate from Greek, just for trivia’s sake…) God the Father. Our Father. The One who loves us. Who made us. The Jesus Christ who loves us so very much that he gave the ultimate sacrifice on the cross so we can spend eternity with Him. Oh yeah, so that’s just God. I don’t think so.

In order to love God, we must know God. And in order to know God, we have to understand who He is. We must reflect. Meditate. Pray. That’s where the silence comes in.

Life is loud. Trust me, I know. Life is very, very loud. Somehow, someway, there’s always noise, it seems. But when I talk about silence, I don’t really mean like physical (soundical? Is that even a word?) silence. I mean spiritual silence. Now that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be quiet. I mean, it’s easier to pray and reflect when the radio and your phone and the computer are all off. But the silence I’m talking about is spiritual. We must silence ourselves and our hearts in order to listen to God.

Right now, think about the lunch table. If your friends or you are anything like my friends and I, you’re loud and crazy and you LOVE to talk to each other. Now imagine a conversation at the lunch table. Or even on the bus, if that sets the scene better for you. Now thing about what you would say. What you friend would say. Then think about what the 15 other kids at the table would say when they just happened to be hearing your lovely conversation. One thing I’ve found is, no matter what you say, someone’s going to disagree. Always. So at this lunch table, with the fifteen other kids who were really just eavesdroppers, someone’s bound to disagree. (Work with me here, I really do have a point. I promise.) So the debate begins. Then it gets to where about ten kids are having a conversation and talking over each other. A lot. Now this isn’t really a bad thing, trust me, it happens all the time. It’s really what conversation is. But whatever point you were trying to get across to your friend is not going to get there if you’re talking with these other people the whole lunch.

The same thing goes for God. In our lives, we have to silence our hearts. We must focus on our goal of salvation and promise that no matter what may try to get in the way, we’re going to spend time with Jesus. So this week, I challenge you to silence your heart. Pray to God, and draw nearer to Him and His Holy gift of salvation. It’s really refreshing to be able to get silent with yourself and pray. Just like the snow days gave me a refreshing perspective on school, prayer and intimacy with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, can give us a refreshing perspective on life, faith, and salvation.

May God Bless you this week!

Avery