[ Unchanging ] - Steubenville, Ohio, 2006

well. you're most likely wondering where i've been.
again.
this time i have a more interesting story.
I went on a Catholic youth retreat in Stuebenville Ohio.
and wow. did i ever have an amazing time.
At first, i was worried i wasnt going to be able to go, with complications at work and all. But I was able to get off work, thanks to all of you i asked to pray for me! cuz i dont know what i would've done with myself if i had missed out on this experience.

To start off, it was a 6 hour bus ride. But before you cringe, i have to tell you that we had some pretty hilarious times on that bus, that i sometimes wish that it could have been longer!! The bus is where my cousins Elise, Maeve and I were really really hyper. oo so much laughter. sry to all who had to endure our loudness. The bus was also where we first met Peter, our new friend of the weekend. haha. poor peter was sitting alone. and we decided to go and join him, and we all ended up hanging out all weekend.
and yeah, on the way there we watched "John Q" i reccommend it. rather good movie. and yeah. the guys brought out their guitars and we sang a few songs. which was fun too.

and so we finally go there. There was only one other Canadian group attending this retreat. so it was cool. Sooo many americans and they're crazy accents lol. every group had their own shirts, a certain color..so it was so cool to see them all packed in the auditorium in different colored groups. we were red and white =) obvi..on the front they said "Unchanging" with a canadian flag..and underneath it said "Eh-Men" haha..get it?:p and then on the back, there was a drawing of Jesus on the cross and it said "I Love You This Much" pretty sweet eh? =P

so when we first got there, the first time everyone was packed into the auditorium, we had this huge praise and worship sesh. andit was pretty awesome..all those teens praising God. like wow. what an inspiration. and then we met our host of the weekend, "Righteous B".. Catholic rapper. holy hilarious. but really good. 'LEMME HEAR YA SAY CAFFLIC!" lol.wow. funny times.



it was like this..times 10. this was our view to the left.

o, by the way the weekend theme was "Unchanging"..like..how God is unchanging. so we had this sweet theme song. with crazy actions. ... a bit of a challenge to do on bleachers. but we managed haha.

so anyway. yaeh, there was pretty good food. rather organized i must say lol. and we slept on this gym floor thing . at least it had astro turf aahha. it was covered in like..this plastic wrap stuff lol and we each had our own little squares marked off with tape right beside eachother of how much room we had (sleeping bag size) .holy cramped. but we fit tons of girls in that gym, so its pretty good. lol.

my favourite part of the weekend was the Saturday night Adoration.
for those of you who dont know, Adoration is when they take the bread that the priest turned into the Body of Christ and place it in this sun-looking thing called a Monstrance. and so during Adoration this time, the preist carried the Monstrance around, held it up in the air and walked around in the crowd while we all sang praise and worship. for like 45 minutes. wow . it was amazing. all these teens on their knees with they're hands in the air reaching out to Him. So many of them were crying uncontrollably, or laughing hysterically, or even falling slain in the Spirit, which it kind of like fainting, except you're like...in a peaceful sleep for a few minutes. wow. so amazing.
so heres my story of the weekend... i was sitting in the last row of bleachers, and the priest brought the Monstrance all the way up like he did for the other rows... . and He was right beside me. like..everyhting around me didnt matter. it was just me, and Him. I was reaching out and i felt all tingling all over. like wow. what a feeling. I was soo close to falling slain in the Spirit myself. i told Christ that i wasnt ready yet. and i was okay. maybe next year. But this was enough for me. The whole time, i was crying uncontrollably for Him. I really needed this. Just total giviing it all to Him. Reaching out to Him. Singing and praising Him like there was no tomorrow. After this experience, I dont know how anyone could believe that Christ is not present in the Eucharist. Because I know for sure that He is there. Because i felt it.

After adoration was over, for some reason i still didint feel totally complete. i was like..'whats missing??" i was expecting everyhting to feel better after this.. but then
Righteous B =P called anyone up, who thought they were ready to officially give their lives to Christ from that moment on to stand up, and come to the front. I was one of those people. He came around and blesssed everyone , and said a prayer for all of us to be strong and take everything we could from the retreat.
I went and sat back down..and we sang some upbeat worship songs. and then
i felt amazing.
i felt God's love so close again.
and i couldnt get enough.
like wow.
and before we had Adoration, we were all soo tired from the day.
But afterward, we were all so full of energy and it was sooo cool. ate some pizza in the dark. lol. much fun. sharing what we felt with eachother. Hugs all around. Feeling so close.

and then, the next day, Sunday, i made my stupid move of the year. lol
are you ready? =P
okay. so we were in Mass, and there was a collection basket going around..i think it was going towards hurricane Katrina. anyway. i went into my wallet to get out a couple bucks..in one hand i had 2 dollar bills..and the other hand i had two 20 dollar bills...guess whose the winner of the day and puts the wrong hand into the basket? ME. stupid american money all loooks the same.
i only noticed when i went to go buy some stuff at the gift shop when all i ahd was two bucks. ooooo dear. did i ever feel dumb. haha. i got teased about my stupidity. but whatev. it was funny. and thats more money to the poor! haha

o yeah. and it was funny. cuz weird americans would come to us and be like.. "what do you guys do in canada?" and we'd play along and asy "o you know..builing igloo's, icefishing..making snowmen. its so wierd that none of your houses are made of snow here!!" ahahaha and after we had enuf fun we'd tell them about how normal we are. lol. but this one girl we met was soo amazed with us, and our money. we showed her toonies and loonies and she was speechless!! lol she made us trace them on her shirt and we're like...cant we just draw a circle? and shes liiks no. its cooler this way =P lol. it was pretty hilarious.

so anyway. that was most of the weekend that i can explain to you. all i can say now is that that retreat was totally what i needed, on top of the amazing fun that i had, and the amazing people that i met,and the people i already knew and strengthened my relationship with. i feel so much better about my faith now than i did before.
& i can't wait for next year. =)

Yours, In Christ,
Kathleen

**Amazing love..how can it be? That you my King would die for me? Amazing love, I know its true. and its my joy to honor you. In all I do, let me honor you.**

p.s. i'm not yet finished my thoughts for the last blog, so dont get your panties in a knot ;) ahahah

Happy Canada Day!

so you're probs wondering where i've been.
i was away at a cottage with my family. twas a lovely time. and i've been quite busy. having all these thoughts that i wanted to put down into a blog. but yah. havent had much time. and i'm not feeling in the mood to write them right now. so i guess they'll just stay as contemplative thoughts in my head.
anyway.
but today i was thinking..
i've talked to a few people recently about their religion. and how they think that when they're older, they'll prolly belong to a different church. and i was so confused..
how can someone believe in something so strongly, and still think that in a few years, they're prolly going to change what they believe?
how can you be so grounded in your faith at the present moment, easily knowing that what you believe will be different in a few years?
it just boggles my mind. if i ever thought that in a few years, i'm not going to believe the same things i do now, i think i would break down and cry.
many people switch churches so often and never have the chance to build up what they're believing in that certain community.
which brings me to another thought..
i've heard this quite a few times happening, where people leave the Catholic Church that they belonged to, just because maybe the one specific church tehy attended didnt have a good youth group, or the music at the Mass wasnt to their liking or something. it made me so mad that after they've experience Christ's Body in the Eucharist, they can just leave so fast. Recieving Him physically like that is such a great gift and an honor..i dont know how anyone could have given it up... theres such a closeness you feel when you recieve Him in that way. Wow.
This is making me excited for a retreat I'm going on in a few weeks. Catholic teens from all over are going and i'm so excited. It's going to be an amazing experience.
oops!! i ddint realize what time it was..haha i gotta get going.
much love
kathleen