they grow up so fast...

This year has been interesting, because while I begin as a youth minister in a brand new parish—learning the ins and outs how to not make a lock-in conflict with volleyball and (this is a new one) trying to figure out a “pastoral” response to illegal spear fishing stories—I’m also watching some of my “first” kiddos experience their first year in the real world via the Twitter and Facebook.  The sixth graders who came to youth group when I was 23 and part-time at my first parish are now all grown up.  So, in the midst of the steady stream of humility that is life as a first year youth minister, I’m also rejoicing in these moments:

The text message that my blog on chaste dating was helpful.

The facebook status update about voting (pro-life) for the first time.

Finding out they’ve applied (and been accepted) to Franciscan University.

A beautiful instagram photo with the caption, “The Lord is everywhere”.

If you’re new to youth ministry and overwhelmed with just how…  young… the kiddos are and find yourself wondering if getting pelted with dodgeballs and shouting a lesson over the din of middle school giggles is EVER going to yield any fruit, know that one day these gangly sixth graders are going to be adults.  And while their parents are the most influential, you may be able to look at their facebook statuses and imagine that the retreats, conferences and conversations you dragged them through did something positive to form them into the Catholic adults they have become.  That is an awesome feeling.

So to all you 23 year olds who are surviving on cold pizza, entry level youth minister salaries and sheer grace, dig in.  The first couple years are tough, but you’re making a difference.  I wish you’d believe me when I say that, but I didn’t so you probably won’t.  However, put prayer first and don’t lose your soul, put yourself second so you don’t burn out—and you’ll be amazed that these kiddos who you once caught playing “lemonade pong” on retreat are now mature, Catholic, adults.  And once you see that first round grow up, the dodge balls don’t feel quite so hard.

#StandUpRally

When my friend Anne was teaching English to some spunky Creole girls in Belize, she admonished Sandy Jones, one of the feistiest students in her class.  Sandy turned around and glared at mild-mannered Anne, an English Literature major from Boston who thought nothing of offering a bit of correction.  Sandy's eyes narrowed and she growled (in a tone that would haunt Anne for the rest of the semester and her adult life) "Miss...  You have ignited the wrong flame."  

Anne admitted that while she did not know what exactly that meant, it terrified her.  She learned soon enough that Sandy and her friends would make her life miserable-- talking back, questioning assignments, trying her patience in every way and tormenting subs to the point that no one would cover her class.  While she stood by her initial decision, she learned that she had, indeed "ignited the wrong flame".

Today, in over 140 cities nationwide, there will be rallies to stand up for religious freedom.  The hope is that our President and Congress will see that with the HHS Mandate-- forcing Catholics to violate their consciences and pay for contraception, sterilization and abortions-- they have ignited the wrong flame.  We will speak up, act up and-- if necessary-- resort to civil disobedience-- before we disobey our God.  

We have a cloud of witnesses-- a tradition of over 2000 years of saints and martyrs who have risked their reputations and shed their blood -- and have led us to this moment by their example.  Truth does not change, whether it's accepted and practiced by 100% or .01% of the population. 

Mr. President, you have ignited the wrong flame.  

If you're like me and unable to attend the rallies due to distance or work, do the following:

Pray!  Join the Memorare Novena here.

Share this fact sheet with your friends, explain that this is not a birth control issue, it's a liberty issue.

Call your congress person at the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask them to overturn the HHS Mandate.

Register to vote and vote for a president who will allow us to be Catholic.

#Fathers4Daughters, praying for @PPact

As much as I tell teens that it’s important not to say things on the internet you wouldn’t say in person, sometimes I forget this myself.  Especially these last few weeks-- feelings about abortion, the HHS Mandate, Planned Parenthood, even Susan G. Komen and Nikki Minaj—have been very strong.  

Like many, I follow Planned Parenthood’s twitter-- @PPact—to stay up to date on what they’re up to, and as a sort of evangelizing, I occasionally tag them in tweets when I want to respond to something they’ve said.  It’s the beauty of social media, that everyone has a chance to speak up.  

Yesterday, as I was responding to yet another tweet that I disagreed with, it occurred to me that @PPact is one of the few accounts I frequently tag that I don’t actually know in person.  And then, I began to think that it’s not Planned Parenthood tweeting, per se.  It’s a person.  Well, probably a team of people, but a person nonetheless.  

I started thinking about this.  Wondered about them.  I’m friends with a lot of people—both on twitter and in real life—who I don’t agree with.  I wondered if I met the @PPact tweeter, if we’d get along.  If we could make small talk about shoes and movies, outside of this huge issue that is at the forefront of our disagreements on twitter.  Anne Marie Cribbin and I even invited them to meet up with us for happy hour.  

After reading Unplanned by Abby Johnson, we’re all more aware of the importance of prayer in bringing about a culture of life.  In the middle of 40 days for life, let’s recognize the social media workers behind @PPact and pray for them, specifically.  Not as a nameless organization, but the tweeters, specifically.  They’re just as passionate as we are.  They do their job with a great deal of tenacity.  Their role in promoting Planned Parenthood is critical.  They need our love and prayers. 

There is a great presence of priests and fathers in social media.  Anne Marie Cribbin and Joia Farmer had the great idea to ask priests and fathers to specifically pray for the women behind @PPact.  Priests, who have the special privilege of celebrating mass, are asked to offer masses for @PPact… and announce it on twitter!  Use the hashtag #Fathers4Daughters—stating the truth in love—that God the Father has a plan for each and every life.  That fathers matter.  That spiritual and biological fatherhood changes lives in an earthly and heavenly way.   That the women of @PPact are known, loved and awaited by God.  

I’m praying, specifically, that the women of @PPact encounter the love of God the Father in a real way.  I’m praying that as I continue to speak up in my own little way, protesting what Planned Parenthood does and says, that I do it in charity—with a desire not to win arguments but souls.  

And, I’m praying that that happy hour happens.  Why not?  It’s Lent.  Go big or go home.  

Will you commit to pray for @PPact?  You don't have to follow them, but tweet them when you do.  Remember, love wins.

First Serve God

Originally published in The Bluffton Packet, February 15, 2012:

One of my favorite films is A Man for All Seasons.  Released in 1966,  it is an adaptation of the play by Robert Bolt and based on the life  of St. Thomas More.  If you haven’t seen it, the cliffnotes version is that King Henry VIII wants to divorce the queen to marry Anne Boleyn.  Furious that the Pope won’t grant a divorce, King Henry VIII demands  that his subjects take an oath declaring him the head of the Church of England.  St. Thomas More—a good friend of the King—refuses and is eventually beheaded for treason stating, “ I die his Majesty's good
servant but God's first.”

As everyone in England signs the oath, More’s colleagues see the danger in his refusal.  The Duke of Norfolk beseeches: “Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!” to which More replies, “And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?”

What exactly is More talking about here, and with such strong language?  For a simple explanation of conscience, let’s remember what we learned from Pinochio:  it tells us  what’s right and wrong.  A more poetic description is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, describing it as “a law…not laid upon himself but which he must obey.   Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at
the right moment…  For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God”  (paragraph #1776).

Our nation has always valued our freedom to follow our conscience, making religious freedom the first in the Bill of Rights and historically respecting the individual’s right to practice their faith.  Archbishop Timothy Dolan

explained just how broad a spectrum there is in the U.S. in his recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal, saying, “The Amish do not carry health insurance.  The government respects their  principles.  Christian Scientists want to heal by prayer alone…  Quakers and others object to killing even in wartime, and the
government respects that principle for conscientious objectors”. 

 

The topic of conscience and religious freedom has been in the news a lot these past few weeks, especially with regards to the Catholic Church’s teachings on contraception and the nationwide mandate for Contraception and sterilization coverage.  While people may disagree with what the Catholic Church—or any faith—teaches, the right to follow one’s conscience is fundamental. James Madison, in defending the First Amendment, explained that “conscience is the most sacred of all property”.  The concerns currently being raised by the Catholic Church are not about imposing their beliefs on others, but about being free to follow their own beliefs and be good servants of God.

the HHS mandate: why it's not ok.

When King Henry VIII demanded that his friend St. Thomas More support his divorce and remarriage, the issue was not just the sanctity of marriage.  It was that the king had broken away from the Catholic Church and founded his own system of beliefs that would accommodate him.  Not content to merely violate the authority of God on his own, he demanded that the rest of England accompany him in his dissent.  Given the choice to obey God and his conscience or be beheaded, St. Thomas more chose death.

It seems archaic that a government like the United States of America would dare intervene in the rights of citizens to practice their faith and follow their consciences on private matters.  Lessons about Pilgrims on the Mayflower and freedom of religion come to mind and seem impossible to juxtapose with the recent decision of President Obama to uphold the HHS Mandate. 

It took me a while to wrap my brain around it—probably because I find insurance and law really complicated – but also the concept that someone could force a Church or individual to do what the government is proposing is so foreign to my liberated American brain.  However, let me explain why I—as a Catholic and employee of the Church—am outraged.  If I mess up the technicalities, please feel free to clarify.

As an employee of the Church I currently have benefits—like anyone else—as part of my compensation.  I have never attempted, but apparently under our current plan I would be unable to obtain funding for contraception, sterilization or abortion, which is cool by me because as a Catholic, I'm not down with that..   (I would add that, as the daughter of an insurance salesman, I know that this makes sense from a liability perspective as well.  Multiple sexual partners place women at greater risk for medical issues arising from contracting STD’s and STI’s, so it would seem that insurance companies would not want to encourage any pharmaceuticals that in turn enable such behavior and cause more expenses.  But I digress).

Under the HHS Mandate, my employer, the Catholic Church, will be required to provide benefits that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion.  As in the money that they provide that goes to give me discounted penicillin and trips to the dentist (things that we are not morally opposed to) could be used to fund abortion, contraception and sterilization—things that we, as Catholics, believe to be ineherently wrong. 

Here’s the kicker—(and what I’m hoping I explain correctly)—when the HHS Mandate kicks in, the Church will be fined if they choose to uphold what we believe to be true and what God demands of us as Catholic Christians and refuses to provide these as  “benefits”.  And, I will be fined if I choose to opt out of these benefits.  It’s a lose-lose.  As Archbishop Dolan, president of the USCCB, has said, “Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights”. 

Snaps, Archbishop.

And, at the heart of it all is the same issue that St. Thomas More was challenged with.  That the government would mandate funding of abortion, contraception and sterilization is odious to us as Catholics, but more so is the fact that they would have the audacity to overstep our right to practice our faith.  We are not talking about a cult in a compound arranging under-age marriages.  We’re talking about The Catholic Church and the government mandating that we violate our consciences or be punished. 

This is not a “Catholics and birth control” issue.  This is an issue of the Government over-stepping their place and telling Churches what to do.  This is an issue that should concern every citizen—Catholic, Christian—anyone who believes in natural law, religious liberty and the freedom to form their conscience and practice their faith.

St. Thomas More stood up to King Henry VIII and was beheaded.  I think we can all call our congressmen, sign a petition and stay informed..  Most importantly, this Friday is a day of fasting and prayer for our Bishops.  Do it.  They are acting courageously and need our prayers.

march for life reflections...

The youth of the Lowcountry just returned from the March for Life.  

Read my reflections at Lifeteen.com...

why you should go see "The Help"...

Taking advantage of the "Feast Day Three-Day" (yep...  Team Catholic's offices were closed for the feast of The Assumption of the Blessed Mother) I went to see The Help with my grandmothers this morning and learned a few things.  First of all, I bought tickets on-line ahead of time, and although I tried to explain, I think they think I somehow stole them, wikki-leaks style.  Second, when one of the entertainment weekly clips in the previews kept showing Bret Michaels, my grandmothers were quite confused as to why he was famous and "why does he wear that scarf on his head?".  Again, there are some things you can't explain.

"The Help", however, was phenomenal, a great story with a lot of spunk.  I won't even attempt to summarize, but the ugly reality of racism in Jackson, MS in the 1960s is portrayed in a way that makes you cringe and then think.  A lot.

What struck me the most was that this was all less than a hundred years ago.  The characters on the screen were driving cars and using telephones.  Sure, they hadn't realized smoking would kill you yet, but the events on the screen didn't feel like "history" as much as "stuff that happened when my grandmothers were even older than I am now".  This was not the distant past.

As I watched Skeeter's character thumb through the laws regarding segregation in Mississippi, the absurdity now so obvious, it made me wonder what my generation would look back on with shame.  The women of Jackson lobbied to build bathrooms for their hired help, thinking it would add value to their house when all they do is give a testimony to the gross injustices of the time.

What will my generation look back on, ashamed?  We gasp in horror as the bridge club quotes scripture to justify their actions...  but what atrocities is scripture tossed around to defend these days?

It's uncomfortable...  but worth thinking about.

Let's hijack this hashtag...

So, Planned Parenthood’s twitter account, @PPact is collaborating with The National Women’s Law Center to host a “blog carnival” on Thursday, July 21.  Check out http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/positions/birth-control-matters-blog-carnival-1081.htm for details.  

It’s a little unclear what a “blog carnival” is, but it appears the point is for bloggers to share why they think there should be no co-pays for birth control and wax eloquently on all that it’s done for women.

You can apparently sign up to participate in the “blog carnival” here:  http://action.nwlc.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=12441 and it’s probably worth entering your blog information, but I have a feeling they’ll be screening for content.  However, they are publicizing the “event” under the hashtag #BCBC.  They are also publishing the adventures of “Birth Control Girl” on a YouTube channel with the hashtag #BCGirl and the generic hashtag #birthcontrol.  

So, I propose that we hijack the hashtags.  Here’s how:

1. Write about why you disagree with Planned Parenthood’s stance on Birth Control—it can be a personal testimony, link to something you’ve already written, link to an article you agree with, etc.  The point is to give a voice to the truth.     If you need some ideas, visit    http://www.thepillkills.com/, www.onemoresoul.com, or my personal fave, Father Chris’s homily on contraception:  http://teamcatholic.blogspot.com/p/father-chriss-homily-on-contraception.html
2. Tweet your link on Thursday as much as you can. Be sure to include the hashtag #BCBC, #BCGirl and #birthcontrol.  This way, those searching twitter and the internet for blogs about birth control will find more than Planned Parenthood’s propaganda.  
3. Spread the word to bloggers—it doesn’t have to be a new post—but let’s flood the internet with links to the truth about what birth control has done to women’s health, relationships and marriages.  And remember, preach the truth in love.  Winning souls is far more important than winning arguments.

locked up for life...

I’ve mentioned that when I die, I want to be the one with the questions.  In the centuries of static between our present day and the words "What you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me…" (Matthew 25:45) I fear that I’ve re-interpreted that to mean “tithe, be nice to people who are nice to you and do what you can to help out”.  

I fear this has worsened as I get older and realize just how challenging it is to keep up with bills and carve out free time.  I love my life, I’m often smug about it.  I think to myself, “I made good choices.  If others didn’t and find themselves in a bad spot, this is not my problem”.  Then I wonder if I’ll be so confident saying that when I meet God face to face.  

So that's why I let myself get "locked up for life" to support Room at the Inn.  I've mentioned them before.  They are assisting mothers in need in the Lowcountry, giving homeless girls shelter and the assistance they need to choose life for their unborn children.  I've got to collect $1,000 in bail…  or apparently I go to jail.

When they asked me, I assured them that I was not friends with folks who could write checks for $500, $100 or even $20 (Lord knows on most days I sure can’t)…  But I thought to myself, I have plenty of friends who would give up a coffee or sacrifice a movie and could give $5 or $10 in support…  

Click here to donate on-line through pay-pal.  

Or, mail checks (put Room at the Inn of the Lowcountry in the Memo)to:

Room at the Inn of the Carolinas
PO Box 484
Colfax, NC 27235  

You don’t need to tell me what you give, but if you can let Monica, their director of development, know at mjenks@roominn.org so that, well, she doesn’t have me arrested…  That’d be great.

the hottest places in hell...

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality."  I saw this quote from Dante on a poster at the United States Holocaust Museum last weekend while in DC for the March for Life.  It was quite an experience. As soon as we stepped of the elevator, there was a sea of youth groups in absolute silence.  Hundreds of teenagers not saying a word to one another.  Not texting, not talking, not even trying to console each other with inappropriate public displays of affection.  The experience really stands out in my mind as the only time there was absolute silence all weekend.  Confronting absolute evil tends to have that effect on people, even teenagers.

I had a similar experience a few years ago when I had the chance to tour Auschwitz with some friends from college (including my good friend and blogger Cathleen).  I had always been a sort of Holocaust junkie, choosing to do my third grade book report on The Diary of Anne Frank and then moving on to The Hiding Place and any other stories I could find.  I thought I knew what to expect when we tumbled out of our cab and entered under the classic "Arbeit macht frei" sign.

Nothing, I learned, can really prepare you for what you experience actually walking through a Concentration Camp.  Standing in the gas chambers, facing the wall that was used for executions, visiting the cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe was starved to death...  It makes it real.  Your brain wants to deny that something that horrible is possible, but the evidence is there.  Then you want to do something but you realize you're several decades late to the scene.

When I was touring the museum last weekend I kept asking...  "what would I have done?"  It's easy to judge those who ignored or denied as lazy or even evil , but to really ask yourself, "what would I have done" is terrifying, because you just don't know.  Then you start thinking... decades from now, what will people be saying about me?  About my generation?  When Auschwitz was liberated, they discovered shoes, suitcases, and even human hair belonging to the victims.  It's a display that makes you physically ill, evidence of evil that cannot be denied.

Watching this video this morning I realized that this is the evidence gathering against my generation.  This is our moral crisis.  


Decades from now, what will be said about us?

we love life

Hilton Head high student wants you to know, life is good

originally published Tuesday, January 18, 2011 in the Bluffton Packet

This weekend I'll be taking 38 teens and 12 adult chaperones to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Politics aside, it's a pilgrimage -- a spiritual journey -- that gives the teens an opportunity to prayerfully stand up for their beliefs. In Deuteronomy 30:19 we are told by God, "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you are your descendents may live."

Issues surrounding human life can be emotionally charged, but one teen in our group wrote an essay on her way to a soccer practice about why she was attending the March for Life, and it beautifully captures the notion that the choice for life -- while sometimes difficult -- is good.

"MARCH FOR LIFE"

By Julee Kuklinski

When I was about 9, my mom told me that we would be adopting a child.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

She told me that she decided that China was the place she picked.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

We found out what the cost of this process would be.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

She found out about the amount of paperwork that she had to fill out.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

We had to move to South Carolina.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

We had to celebrate four more Christmases, Halloweens and Easters without you.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

The people told us that it was our turn for China to pick a child for us.

She had tears falling from her eyes.

We got the picture of you on Dec. 29, 2008.

There were tears falling from her eyes.

We got information on who we were traveling with, when we were going and more very important details.

There were tears falling from her eyes.

She held the tickets from Chicago to Beijing.

There were tears falling from her eyes.

We saw you for the first time.

There were tears falling from her eyes.

During this whole process, there were tears falling from your birth mother's eyes.

When I say "her," I mean your forever mother. And when I say "birth mother," I mean the person who chose life, even though the decision was difficult. That is the reason that I am marching in D.C., for your birth mother. Thanking her for the choice that changed our lives forever. And for all the mothers who are having a hard time choosing which way to go. I pray that my story will want them to be like these two amazing mothers who made a difference in my life.

Julee Kuklinski is in 10th grade at Hilton Head Island High School. She is an avid soccer player, member of St. Francis By the Sea Catholic Church and will be attending the March for Life in Washington D.C. with 37 other teens representing St. Francis, St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church and the Lowcountry community this weekend.

excessive?

This morning I tweeted:  "teen wants to make a sign for the #marchforlife: "abortionists: whacking babies since 1973". while true, excessive? thoughts? #youthministry"

There have been lots of good responses.  Here’s what I’ve been thinking about all day.

While teens can be apathetic (I once had a girl ask why we bother to help the third world attain clean drinking water when, “they’re used to walking miles to get it anyways”…  Yeah…) the March for Life has served as a catalyst for some passionate discussions and opinionated statements.  As an adult, I'm used to the idea of abortion.  I’m not ok with it by any means, but I’ve grown up with it being legal, know very good people who are in favor of its legalization and have friends who have decided to have abortions.  It’s a part of the world I'm in whether I like it or not.

Kids, on the other hand, are learning the reality of where babies come from, how laws are made and just what is and isn’t legal and for many of them talking about the March for Life and abortion brings about a sort of “ah-ha” moment and their minds—unaffected by the years of trying to say things diplomatically and inch our point across-- recoil when they learn what abortion is.  They are “totally grossed out” that doctors actually cooperate to end human life.  Doctors, in their minds, are like policeman, firemen or Taylor Swift—people who would never intentionally hurt you.  In their minds, it’s black and white.  Doctors are supposed to save lives, not end them.  

Like any issue, the issue of abortion must be handled with love.  Love for babies but also love for mothers and doctors and maybe even Nancy Pelosi…  Our actions and words must first reflect charity and love.  Bombing clinics and hurling insults is no way to win people over. It’s sick and wrong and a total distortion of being pro-life.

However, in a world that is growing more and more apathetic, this teen’s proposed sign made me think.  Would it have been uncharitable to hold up a sign outside of Auschwitz that read, “Nazis Gas Prisoners Here”?  Would it have been uncharitable to hold up a sign at a slave market that read “Owning Slaves is Wrong”?  Did Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Corrie TenBoom and St. Maximilian Kolbe make people uncomfortable?  You bet.  They were excessive, thank God.  They pricked the consciences of those in society who desperately needed it. 

I would never allow a teen to carry a sign condemning women who have had abortions, promoting violence against those who are pro-choice or with a message that’s obscene or profane.  However, when I look at what she proposed, while blunt, it’s not uncharitable or obscene.  It’s stating a fact that makes us all really uncomfortable.  And the group that she is calling out are doctors—  not young couples who are making decisions under the duress of an unplanned pregnancy or even the well-intentioned activists who believe legalized abortion makes the world a better place.  She’s calling out the people who hold the scalpels…  Who know full well that abortion stops a beating heart—and do it anyways.

Excessive?  Maybe.  But her sign—and my resulting discomfort—has pricked my conscience and made me think.  Above all, we love.  But there are many moments in scripture where Christ spoke the truth and made people uncomfortable.  

This makes me wonder… What sign would Jesus carry at the March for Life?

  

Confessions of a March for Lifer

I admit it.  I never would've brought the kiddos to the March for Life if Sister Mary Joseph hadn't done it first.  Back in 2009—my first year full-time at St. Francis, she blusters into my room right around this time in January with a scrap of paper she's been taking notes on and says, "hey.  Alison.  Will you be a chaperone for the march for Life?" 

"uh, you mean next year?"  The March was in two weeks.  There was no way she was pulling this off.

"no.  We spent all of math class planning it.  The kids have it all figured out."  She explained.

"You planned a trip to the March for Life, in two weeks, in one 8^th grade Math class?"…  This was gonna be good.  And, sure enough, they had.  They had found drivers, chaperones and basically mapped out the whole trip.  That was how I found myself, two weeks later, in a Honda Odyssey with three middle school boys, a Dad and a Dominican (There were girls too…  But I got put in the boys van?) speeding to Washington, DC at 4:00 a.m.

I would never have attempted this trip.  Frankly, the March for Life scared me.  I had gone when I was in college but the thought of bringing kids from Hilton Head to a huge crowd, in a city, in the middle of winter just seemed potentially catastrophic.  Plus, I thought it was one of those things that people would be all like, "oh, yeah, sounds great" and then not actually go.

What initially seemed to be a moment of insanity on the part of Sister Mary Joseph was actually a great trip.  The kids loved the Catholic Youth Rally, seeing the National Basillica and marching with hundreds of thousands through the capitol.  One of the kids, absolutely agog at the crowds asked me, said to me, "this happens every year?"

"yep.  Every year"  I replied.

"then HOW is there still abortion?"  He marveled.

That first group of six kids came home so fired up about the march for life that last year I conceded that maybe we could attempt an organized trip last year.  It was epic.  We had 35 kids and 15 adults sign up to drive all night, sleep on a floor and be freezing.  Plus, the parish supported us in a huge way—everyone told the kids how proud they were that St. Francis would be representing them.  I couldn't believe it.

The thing about the March is that it gives teens—who are very passionate about their beliefs—a forum to express them.  They love the idea of suffering for a cause that they feel strongly about.  They've written great essays and defenses of life, explained to teachers, coaches, bosses and friends where they're going and even recruited friends to come. 

This year we're bringing 38 teens and 12 adults.  I've started having nightmares about busses showing up on the wrong day and kids getting lost in DC, but as much sleep as I loose in the weeks leading up to the March for Life, I think I'd lose more if we didn't do anything.  Seeing the kids get so indignant about abortion reminds me that this law of our land is just not right.  They're enthusiastic and young and many don't understand everything that has to happen for the law of the land to change but watching them I am actually inspired by this naiveté…  ready to chant in the streets of DC, "hey, ho, hey, ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!", ask "what the FOCA?" and, basically, remind the world that life is very good.