"Yes, LORD"

Besides being a much sung song this past weekend, "Yes, LORD," seemed also to be a theme the Catholic teens of Jackson echoed in their plans and desires throughout Convention 2009. Just over 300 high school teens gathered at the Jackson Marriott (with a few of us youth ministers) for a weekend of song, games, skits, prayer, and too much Chick-fil-a. Steve Angrisano was our keynote presenter for the weekend engaging students in verse as well as story. Five seminarians from the diocese filled in the prayer times with Liturgy of the Hours and Eucharistic Adoration. The teens themselves came prepared with skits of all various shapes and sizes along the theme, "Rock of REAL Love." Boys in wigs and broken Guitar Hero guitars ruled the evening. I had the opportunity to speak as part of a vocation-type panel first to the whole group and then in a breakout session to the young women. Myself and the other woman presenter, Ann, did have a presentation prepared. The young women, however, had wonderful questions and kept us going for long over our allotted time with their curiosities. It was delightful. I did present in my "I Love CSJs" t-shirt and pajama bottoms with CSJ across the rear. I told the group that while I did not have a habit, I did have lots of theme clothing and stories about pajamas. I decided that maybe it was my grandma who first illuminated the CSJ charism in me of "Loving God and neighbor without distinction" when she unkowingly bought me a pajama set with the words "LOVER" plastered across them in glow-in-the-dark paint. With that story, a picture of the vocation poster I made our vocation director, and the story of the firefighter meeting me at the motherhouse during a late night firedrill and wanting to go on a date, the time went quickly. Really, my goal was just to be real. To show that nuns are normal people who like to have fun and love and serve at the same time. I had fun. I hope they did.

Anyway, it was back to work on Monday. Today, actually, I am a bit under the weather. With an opposite attitude from normal, I was glad the students had their six weeks exams so I had a few periods to just sit and read. I came home from school and went straight to bed. Kate is filling in for me at religious ed. tonight, for which I am grateful. No doubt I'll be back to normal tomorrow (positive thinking) and ready for another trip to Jackson this coming weekend to visit Sr. Donna, my temporary professed director. I hope the wind doesn't blow the warmer weather away, although I'm sure another cold snap is in order before we can officially usher in spring. For now, back to bed.

Peace.

--Sarah