Leadership in the Mountains

Late January became a time for us to retreat to the mountains with all of our student leaders, give them some time away with their heavenly father, and give them some uplifting formation and evangelization/scripture training.

We began on a Friday leading off in prayer and talks on "Leaving the 99 for the 1," our theme that expresses the need for us to be going outside of ourselves and thinking beyond our friends to meet new students in need of our Lord. The next day was a time of prayer and the Sacraments again, and then a series of talks focusing in on the early Christian community and creating community (which I gave), being men and women (I addressed the men), and being leaders on campus, in Bible study and in Discipleship. Of course we gave the a little time to play in the afternoon. That night was a talk on the Mission of FOCUS, given by the FOCUS Director of Campus Ministry.

Sunday we were joined by our very own Denver Archbishop, his Excellency James Connelly, who prayed in an our of adoration with us and then celebrated Mass and joined us for lunch. It is great to see just how much the two Archbishops of Denver (Charles Chaput as well) care for the young people on college campuses and our efforts to reach them.

I've included some extra photos that were not in my most recent newsletter. Peace!

Young Man Joins Bible Study and Soon to be Student Leader?

I was having dinner with some students after a Sunday Mass. In my mind I noted one young man's zeal for Christ, his apparent strength as a man, and that I hadn't seen him before - he obviously wasn't involved in a FOCUS Men's Bible study.

As dinner came to an end, I asked him about his faith life, only to find out that he was a fallen away Catholic who had just started coming to Mass again (praise God!). He didn't know much about the Faith, and didn't seem to trust it much either, but was more than eager to learn. I lead a couple of senior Bible studies that wouldn't have been the best situation for him, so I told him why I thought he should join a study and what he would get out of it and then put my partner Chris in touch with him. He has since joined Chris's study, he came on a FOCUS Corporeal Work of Mercy this past weekend, and Chris is now considering inviting him into Discipleship (which would consist of mentoring him the rest of the year, and then having him start a Bible study next fall).

I'll let you know what our Lord continues to do in the heart of this young man.

While White House policies are changing, a missionary's is not

If you're like me and can be a slightly meloncholic when the moment allows, you might have felt a little depressed the night of the elections or the following morning.  For me, I've followed the candidates quite a bit recently and am still a bit unsure of what Obama's plans are on a number of issues and if they're going to work.  It is obvious that he knows how to create momentum, cast some kind of vision, and get people to follow him.  

But the slight feeling of depression probably came from the understanding that more babies than ever in America may be killed in the very near future.  His comments to Planned Parenthood were pretty clear about what he planned to do immediately after entering the White House.

But our Lord's commands will never change, and neither will our job as missionaries to teach the Truth and share a loving Faith with everyone we can.  While our mission to change the culture was never any less important, it may have in this country just become a little more important - if that makes sense.

This young man, Senior Seth DeMoor at CU and one of my FOCUS disciples, is competing at the Big 12 Championships this weekend.  Please say a prayer for him!  It is the first year he's qualified, and his last chance, as he's been plagued with different injuries for the past four years.

Seth leads a Cross Country Bible study and disciples two great young men, Bobbie and Stephen.  He is also discerning becoming a FOCUS missionary next year - so say a prayer for his discernment as well!  We're very proud of this young man.

Jacob Laughing and Playing

Jacob thought that his daddy was being VERY funny! Check out this video to see him being adorable!

Here is Jacob playing on the bed. He is getting so big sitting up on his own now, I see crawling in the very near future!

God as the Foundation for FOCUS at CU

I've been reminded often that unless God is the foundation, there's no point in me doing the building. I think it is our tremendous trust in our Lord than that is one of the reasons for our success at CU. I can't even begin to guess at all of the reasons why his blessings flow so freely into our work side-by-side with our student leaders. I simply know we place ourselves and our work into his hands as a team every morning in our holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, and every day the Holy Spirit's powerful movement is evident in the valiant hearts of those we work with who are living radically authentic Christian lives in this world (and in the Boulder world). If our Lord continues the blessings as they are going now, by year's end - almost by semester's end, our number of student leaders starting/leading weekly Bible studies on campus will have doubled and will be +40. For the sake of souls, please stop for a moment and pray for continued blessings not only for our FOCUS campus, but for all of the others as well. In our Lord and King!

How You Can Join the Mission

Our Mission field of FOCUS is the college campuses, and trained in Catechesis, Evangelization and Apologetics we go in teams to campuses where we're invited by a Bishop and Campus Priest or Ministry to reach students.  We encourage true friendship and fellowship, begin Bible studies, and train students in leadership to reach their peers for Christ.

In ten years we've grown substantially to almost two hundred missionaries on 39 campuses, and have become the largest single promoter of diocesan vocations in the nation.  But we are made a reality by those who see the importance of our work and who join our mission by adopting a missionary.

To adopt me as a missionary, click the FOCUS link at the bottom of our blog site or type www.focusonline.org into your browser.  Click "Support a Missionary" under the Support tab and find my name.  From the main page you can also find out which campuses FOCUS is currently at.  Thank you for your generosity for souls!