RETREAT!

Register now for the Catholic 20-somethings 5th Annual Retreat 2010!

Are you a Catholic in your 20’s?  Come join other Austin young adults for the Catholic 20-Somethings Retreat this August 14-15!

The spiritual & fun weekend retreat will be held at Eagle’s Wings Catholic Retreat Center near Burnet.  Please sign up by going here.  If you know a young adult in their 20’s, please encourage them to join us!

If you’re a registered 20s member, please log in and RSVP here to get retreat registration info & turn it in!

If not, please email:   trey@catholic20somethings.com to receive the retreat registration form.

Registration Forms are due August 9!

A call to duality

Any bond formed in the Catholic 20-Somethings comes with a stated intent to share and strengthen each others’ faith. It’s as if whenever you form a bond in the 20-Somethings, you‘ve in essence signed and intangible contract that you will uplift and challenge that person to be a better Christian.

This is how he strengthened the faith of the adulteress, in John 8:
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus made the adulteress a better Christian by being soft-hearted and forgiving. In the presence of this true sinner he shows great forgiveness, understanding and love. He does not label her. He makes no judgments about what brought her to his presence and he *assumes* in the future they will earn his forgiveness.

But this is how he strengthens one of his most beloved disciples, in Matthew 16:
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Jesus strengthens Peter with a harsh and pointed rebuke. Jesus goes beyond damming of Peter, he likens him to the ruler of hell itself. I’m not sure I could invent a harsher rebuke. The contradiction is not constrained to these two verses alone. This same duplicity is seen throughout the gospels.

No one deserved understanding and forgiveness more than Peter. He had left his boat, his family and his world behind and traveled many miles to follow his Lord. He would have deserved understanding more than most, but Jesus gave him a greater reward. Peter received a call to not only deeper faith, but to become the bedrock apostle of the Christian church.

So what does all of this have to do with us as 20-Somethings? I maintain that Jesus calls us to be dualist. Everyone should feel loved and accepted in 20-Somethings gatherings. And any who stay more than a brief while will probably need to be challenged at least once. But these challenges should also make them feel loved and accepted.

The challenged come with an understanding that they are loved and respected members of our community, and therefore we place in them both the burden and trust to uphold the standards of that community. Even more, it is in them we place the burden and trust to be the face of Christ in our world. Any new burdens they receive come with the honor of our faith that they are strong enough to lift them. Through this duality; by being both welcoming and challenging we can strengthen the faith of our many sisters and brothers in the 20-Somethings.

Trenton Henrichson

Editor’s note: “Duplicity” changed to “duality” to better reflect the author’s intent.

Nerd apologetics

My siblings and I were always really nerdy. Of the four Lavergne kids, three wore glasses. All had braces (though some had them longer than others). Two had pretty bad acne. All were exceptional students, not-so-exceptional socialites, and responsible teachers’ pets. My sister and I still proudly proclaim that we are Nerdfighters. (Here’s a YouTube video explaining that concept. We’re pretty big fans of these guys.)

Amy

I remember high school, when all the popular kids were out on the courtyard mingling and gossiping, I was in the library with my few friends. The librarian loved and hated us; we appreciated being surrounded by books, but weren’t always appreciating it quietly. I wasn’t exactly the smartest kid in school, which meant I was too smart to be popular but not smart enough to be envied. Still, I enjoyed the learning part of school, and as a result, usually sacrificed the social status for which I longed.

It wasn’t until recently that I began to appreciate this part of my life, when I began to reflect on what I usually cite as my favorite Bible verse, Romans 12:2: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Often as spiritual beings we neglect the mind part of ourselves. So much is focused on the spirit and the body, but how can we come to know God through rational thought?

I think the first step is to simply appreciate the vastness and complexity of the universe. This seems a pretty big task, but when I say “simply appreciate,” I mean exactly that. Gaze up at the sky, take a look at the stars, just try (and fail) to wrap your mind around how big and tangled up it all is. Albert Einstein said:

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

Albert Einstein wasn’t Catholic; he was more Deist. However I find this idea is truly a place to start. It’s all so beautiful, isn’t it?

Sometimes as young adults, we can get comfortable with what we know. We’ve finished high school, college and maybe even graduate school… and now, we apply what we’ve learned in our work. It’s challenging to keep learning when it won’t help us make more money and get that promotion to support ourselves and our families.

But as Paul said, learning, “being transformed by the renewal of your mind,” will help us discern the will of God. So often in my time at the Catholic 20-Somethings I hear my friends struggle with knowing what to do with their lives. I struggle with it myself. What is that next step?

Pray about it, live it, learn it. But know that we will never fully understand it. Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Amy

July 2010

Congratulations to Amy Lavergne for being Member of the Month for July!

Amy

Name: Amy Lavergne

Age: 26

Birthday: May 16, 1984

Job: Communications Specialist

School: University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em!)

Grew up in: Austin, TX (but born in Church Point, Louisiana).

Favorite movies: Way too many to name. I love all Pixar films and cheesy action movies in which things blow up excessively. EXPLOSIONS!

Favorite musicians: Again, way too many to name. I like everything from electronic to post-punk to pop (pretty much anything you can dance to) as well as old-timey jazz like Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday. And let’s not forget the musical genius of Cupid.

Favorite activities: Watching and following sports (especially football), playing golf, eating, spending way too much time on my iPhone, Calvinball

Favorite foods: Chocolate chip cookies

Favorite devotions: The Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration… and both at the same time

Favorite prayers: Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

Favorite scripture verse: Romans 12:2: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

What does being Catholic mean to you? It means living my life as a prayer in conjunction with the whole of the Church. It means answering to my God and to my community. It means seeing God in the people I sit next to at Mass every Sunday and experiencing Heaven on Earth through the Eucharist.

Why is your Catholic faith important to you? To put it bluntly, it’s my reason for living. Catholicism is my pathway to God.

What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings? I must experience God through my everyday interactions with people, and I’ve met the most amazing people as part of this group: people to whom I can relate and with whom I can share my deepest secrets and desires. My favorite part of the Catholic 20-Somethings is the spiritual events, such as Spirit & Truth and Sunday Mass, to really feel the connection with other young adult Catholics in the presence of God.

5 Year Anniversary Picnic!

An amazing Godincidence!

So I was walking out of daily Mass at St. William’s and a woman I recently met (who knows my mom and whose husband works at the same company as my dad) called me over to introduce me to someone. She got no further than, “This is Diana…” and my mind reeled in a million directions.

Amber

I knew this woman! I knew that face! Older, yes, but I knew her! Neighborhood? The past! The past! As I racked my brain, I interrupted the introduction.

“I know you!… You live close to me… I used to… I used to babysit for you!”

She looked at me, clearly thinking, “What? Ohhhhhh…” as it dawned on her too.

“Yes, back when my husband was converting,” she replied. And it clicked! She lived 3 blocks from my house, and I babysat for her from when her boys were 3 and 8 and when her daughter, now in 10th grade, was a baby!

At the time they were committed Christians, who, like so many, misunderstood the Church and saw her as their enemy. By the time I left home, before I saw them for what I thought was to be the last time, her husband had begun studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church, much to her horror. And now, 14 years later, I ran into her at daily Mass!

She told me her husband had entered the Church a year after I left Austin and that, thanks to Relevant Radio, she and her daughter were baptized just this past Easter!
 
Not only was I filled with the joy of reencountering old friends, but also the joy of a deeper bond, that of our faith and absolute amazement at the ways of God. It took 14 years, but there they were, overflowing with love of their new-found Catholic faith!

And just to show they aren’t the only ones who had changed, right before I had to say good-bye Diana turned and asked me, “Didn’t you used to be shy?” Time does change things!

Amber

In case you haven’t heard…

The World Champions of Puns just happen to also be Catholic 20-Somethings!

Congrats to Justin Golbabai and Kelly Dupen on their victory at the 2010 O’Henry Pun-Off! They competed while equipped with a very Catholic cheering section.

Check out the YouTube video of their performance, expertly recorded and edited by Mark Lavergne.

Finally, our famous friends were featured in an article in The Economist! This is big-time.

Amy