Following Christ retreat

What a wonderful weekend! Thanks to all who helped out- Dave, Ally, Brittany & especially Marg. For all who donated $ to make it happen, and who prayed for protection and the power of the Holy Spirit to be with us!

How can I share what happened for the 24 young adults? I'm hoping they will share a bit themselves in the comments below...

But here are few phrases that come to mind-

joyful praise deep prayer & reflection encounter with Jesus fresh and intimate community great food and drink beautiful weather & retreat location lots of laughter (and noise in general!) freeing discovery that we are at war sweet bonfire and smores

Thanks to Jen, Dave, and Miguel- here are a few pictures:

The whole group of us

My prayer spot on Saturday morning, beautimous (a made up word, yes, I know :)

one of the guy's small groups (the loud group :)


beautiful weather on Saturday

one of the girl's small groups

Miguel and Robbie with their tasty lunches

one on one sharing on the great stump

Holy Spirit Retreat

Greetings blog readers, it's been awhile for me (Pete). Last week I had a pretty rough cold/fever that kept me resting a good amount (& blowing my nose) :-/

The retreat was held in the glass room. Here's a view, thanks to Miguel, from the veranda off the room:



Well the retreat day went wonderfully. But how was the Holy Spirit present? Well each of the 30 or so young adults who came brought Him in some way through their unique experiences and backgrounds. But, even more, several things assured me of His Presence:

1. "You can tell the weather, but can you tell the signs of the times." Well, thankfully, in classic fashion, the weather prophets were wrong about Saturday- at least at the Friary ;) It was supposed to be mid to upper 80s out. In a room with no air conditioning and the cameras and lights for the video production, this was going to be a problem. We prayed about this. It ended up being 78 with a real nice breeze. Thank you Jesus.
   
   
2. "Well Dave you don't need to give your talk..." This was my remark after hearing my wife give an awesome testimony to begin the day about God's saving presence in her life. Dave agreed... but felt like we might still give talk for video purposes :)
   
   
3. "What is the Church's greatest need?" Dave concluded the first talk quoting from Pope Paul VI who responded to this rhetorical question, saying "the Holy Spirit!" Not more programs or this or that spirituality or whatever, but the divine fiery gift Jesus promised His people! Dave's talk as well as Fr. Arnold talk answered this question in spades and were truly anointed and imparted grace and truth to all of us retreatants.
   
   
4. "We carry this treasure in earthen vessels..." This statement of St. Paul's describing the paradox of how the Lord Jesus uses weak, imperfect people like us to accomplish great things, was certainly a theme for me- due to my cold. Erik, who led the worship, also didn't feel spiritually that great about everything- but we were both pleasantly shocked by the amazing ways in which God moved people during prayer time and worship, to encounter His love, shed tears, and share together. It was very very cool :)

Lots more happened and I hope some of the leaders will also share a bit about what the Lord accomplished and is accomplishing...

I'll leave you with a picture of the "photographer," Miguel, and Vincenzo enjoying lunch break at the retreat:

An exciting few days...

Well, it's been a while since I blogged. But I thought I would share some great news. First off, my wife, Ally, and I went on a retreat this weekend with the Catholic Campus Ministry at UMBC, as part of our Following Christ course. This is the second component in our evangelization process of Discover, Follow, and Share. It was a fantastic time with 20 or so young adults - all at different places on the spiritual journey. We were so blessed to help serve them and lead them closer to Jesus Christ! Here are a few pictures from the retreat:


The location, Fatima House, rural PA is a restored barn and several houses from the 1800s - very cool spot. Lay conscerated people served us, provided hospitality, and really covered us with their intercession.


Here I am about to eat my superb dessert at our final lunch - ice cream with strawberries - yum :)

Here are three of our leaders (L-R): Vincenzo, Ejiofor, & Miguel

Here's the whole crew that went on the retreat.

So, it was a fantastic time- many of the young adults renewed their commitment to Jesus Christ, went to confession, & enjoyed the fellowship of one another. Two priests, Fr. Richard Gray, MSA, and Fr. Andrew Carr, a Redemptorist priest, led us through the weekend, sharing their lives with us and the sacraments.

-snip-

Another amazing experience was this morning, when my wife and Ally went for her second sonogram. We're having a .... (drum roll please) a girl!! Praise Him!

Funny, so there's a nun where Ally works (a Catholic school) who predicted from the beginning - it would be a girl... Then others chimed in and we had all sorts of predictions. Well, I was praying... really just talking out loud to our Father last week and I felt a slight impression in my heart- "it's a girl" - I held on to that... Well, it was right! Thank you Lord!

Watching our little girl on the sonogram machine was quite an amazing thing... You just get this deep "wow" feeling... Almost a transcendent moment.

Anyway, in the spirit of this... I watched the other week this awesome 2 minute clip from National Geographic on a new 4D sonogram... Which I think is the best argument for being "pro-life." Not sure if NG intended that - but its amazing.

Then, finally, one more awesome clip my brother Andrew shared with me the other day, with the subject line, "funny... I bet you can't wait." It's four hours in the life of a ninth month old baby sped up to 2 minutes. A delightful video. I wish I had half the energy. I can't wait :)

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