NOW!!!

I don't know if anybody has been reading this blog since the start, but if you have you may remember my first couple of posts, recapping the Dallas Catholic Youth Conference. If not, please have mercy when you read them - they are not the most well written posts I have. It was actually the thing that made me decide to start blogging. ANYWAYS.......

I never really finished my recaps, I don't plan on giving a full play by play now, but rather explain WHY it was such an amazing weekend.

First off, I got much closer to one of my best friends, Kassidy. We go waaayyyyy back to the VBS days and have danced together for a while but after we shared a bed and stayed up watching Miranda Sings videos all night at DCYC we now have a pretty unbreakable bond. I got to serve as her confirmation sponsor this year, which was an honor and an incredible journey in my own faith as well as hers. If we had never gone to DCYC, who knows if we would be the Miranda Sings loving-dumb roller coaster picture taking - church boy stalking girls we are today?
DCYC pretty much confirmed my dream of becoming an evangelist/ youth minister when I grow up. I was so touched by the stories the speakers shared. I still hold the words "His will and my will are the same" close every day of my life. I will always remember that it was Mike Hoffman who spoke those words, and Naomi Lehew's talk on Blessed Chiara Badano that made them true to me. I probably say this in every single post but... I want to be somebody who can do that for other people - give them truths, help them understand God just a little bit more.
Lastly, and most importantly, I'm gonna be cliche and say that it was an inspiring weekend. The whole conference emphasized how you don't have to be an adult to make a difference. Blessed Chiara was only 18 years old when she died, and that was only 23 years ago, and she was beatified in 2010. The time is now! Now is the time to be holy, not tomorrow not in 30 years - Jesus doesn't care if you're 13 or 83, you are part of His family and it is your responsibility to be active in it. So pray! Volunteer! Go to church! There's no point in waiting on something that is available to you this instant. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I have big dreams and DCYC made me believe that they are achievable, not in ten years but in the near future. Now here I am, almost a year later, a part of the first ever Epi-Pro dance company, being blessed with the incredible opportunity to give Him glory and to bring people from all over the country closer to Him through dance! And I know that this is only the beginning of what God has in store for me!

Dallas Catholic Youth Conference gave me a retreat high that I don't ever plan on getting off of but now I bear bad news.........
This past week I recieved an e-mail from my youth minister saying that we had to cancel our DCYC trip this summer because of low registration. First of all, I think it is ridiculous that one of the largest Catholic youth groups in the nation had to pull out because not enough people signed up, and it saddens me that so many teens from my parish don't know what they're missing out on. Seeing as Kassidy and I have been counting down the days until DCYC all summer, devastated is an understatement. PLEASE pray that we can work out a way to still get to go!!!

Sorry for being a downer in the last paragraph but it is what it is. You might be thinking, "Didn't you say 'His will and my will are the same?'" Well yes, but I highly doubt that God's will is to keep a group of teens away from a place where they can grow deeper in their faith with Him. I'm praying for the best but unfortunately, preparing for the worst.

                                                                      In His Name, 

Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

 

**PRAYER REQUESTS** 

The kids at SAY Summer, VBS & all of the volunteers this coming week @ St. Ann

My friend, Evana and her mom that got in a car accident the other day

Here's the DCYC promo... I make an appearance around 50 seconds :-)


DCYC Promo from Dallas DCYC on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/77081896

"The decisions we make, and how we respond to The Lord's invitation, can affect the entire direction of our future, can affect people we do not yet know, can affect entire generations after us" - Naomi Lehew

"The future of the Church depends on you, well let me tell you all - that future is here now and you're required, not in a couple years' time but right now, you must be filled with The Holy Spirit" - Bishop Kevin Ferrell.

"Live in a way that those who know you but don't know God, will come to know God because they know you" - wooden plaque thingy in my house

DCYC Saturday Part 3 - His will and my will are the same explained

I'm not sure if I have mentioned the headlining band, Ayleron, but 1. they are awesome! and 2. they had a concert on Saturday night. Everybody from St. Ann's ate dinner super fast and rushed to the front right when the doors opened so we could have the best spots at the concert. During the concert the band played one of their original songs entitled, "Make Me Whole" I bought it right when I got back to our room that night and have had it on replay non-stop and it has already become one of my favorite songs. Click here to listen! I plan on eventually writing about my favorite Christian artists/ songs and this will definitely be there! 

After the concert, one of my youth ministers, Naomi Lehew, gave a talk. She told personal stories that the kids from my church had heard a million times, but getting to see her reach teens outside of our high school ministry was amazing. Then, she told us about Blessed Chiara Luce Badano. To make a long story short, Blessed Chiara was a girl from Italy who was beatified by Pope Bendict XVI in 2010. When she was diagnosed with a rare and painful form of bone cancer that ended her tennis career, she said, "If He wants it, then so do I" When Naomi said this, it clicked with me "His will and my will are the same" Which, like many things in the Catholic Church, is easier to say then do. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we want, that when God hands us something different, we deny it. But we need to realize that God puts obstacles in our path so He can help us overcome them. Once we learn to accept this, our lives become much more enjoyable. If it's what He wants, it is what we NEED! 

Above is the documentary made about Blessed Chiara Luce Badano. 

Along with the realization of the meaning of "His will and my will are the same." I was enthralled by Blessed Chiara's story. She was a beautiful, athletic teenage girl, she had so much going for her and she had to give it all up when she got cancer. And she did so willingly. Most people would not have the same attitude when being diagnosed with a life threatening disease. But what really got me was the fact that she is on the road to sainthood. When I think of Saints, I think of people from ancient times, but Blessed Chiara passed away in 1990! I feel that Blessed Chiara is the embodiment of what Pope Francis says in this quote, and WE can be too! 

So those were my Saturday highlights! I am soooooo sorry it took so long. I will post Sunday sometime this week!

In His Name,
Meredith
If you have questions, prayer requests or just wanna say hi please leave a comment! And remember if you need somebody to talk to feel free to email me meredithmunro@icloud.com twitter: meredith_munro
instapray: meredithbm 

DCYC - Saturday Part 1. "His will and my will are the same"

Our day began with Mass at 7:00 am. When you go to bed at two in the morning, you can't expect it to be easy to wake up at 6:00 am. But eventually we got out of bed and got ourselves down stairs. It was so early in the morning and so much went on on Saturday, I honestly cannot remember anything about the Mass except this; even at seven o'clock in the morning, everybody was singing at the top of their lungs, praising the Lord. With that, I was ready to take on the day and adsorb everything I could. 

During the conference that morning, father and daughter duo, Michael and Alli Hoffman spoke to us. They talked a lot about staying with your faith through college. Michael said that 80% of college students will not attend church weekly in college. He then had everybody except the first four rows of the room stand up.  Probably around 480 people were standing and to me that looked like a huge amount. But 80% of all college students. That's 80% of the nearly 20 million college students here in the US. That's 16 million people straying from the Lord. Mike encouraged us to be the generation that changes that statistic. And I expect to do my part in that. I'm now at the age where I need to start thinking about college (ugh) and the big thing I look for in a college is whether or not it is Catholic. Partially because I want to major in theology but also because I know that if I am in a setting where going to Mass regularly isn't encouraged, I could get swept up in the idea that God isn't number one. I have gone through times when I wasn't as close to the Lord as I should have been and they have been without a doubt the hardest times in my life. College is hard enough as it is, and I want to be surrounded by people who are as passionate about God as I am. 

The thing that most resonated with me from Mike and Alli's talk was this: "His will and my will are the same" At the time I heard it, I was like "oh that sounds really cool and profound" but it wasn't until later that night I truly understood the meaning of it. "His will and my will are the same" 

As I said, I am writing about Saturday in chunks because it was such an amazing day and I would write a novel about it if I could. Really, I want to be able to convey a message from each part of the day and there is no way I can do this with justice all in one post. So stay tuned for Saturday part 2, where I will talk about a workshop I went to with Fr. Zach Webb.

In His Name, Meredith

If you have questions, prayer requests or just wanna say hi please leave a comment! And remember if you need somebody to talk to feel free to email me meredithmunro@icloud.com 

twitter: meredith_munro

instagram: mered1th

instapray: meredithbm 

DCYC - Friday

I arrived at the High School Ministry office with my two friends, Daniella and Kassidy, and anxiously watched people arrive. We had no idea who was else was going to the conference, I was half excited to meet new people and half nervous that somebody I didn't feel comfortable around would show up. Luckily the room soon filled with a great group of people from all different schools and circles of friends, which made me even more excited.
We walked in late to the opening assembly but that didn't stop St. Ann's HSM from going full force, singing and dancing. Later that night Steve Angrisano told us a story that really stuck with me. He talked about how one night he was out with a group of Nuns and ended up in a bunch of crazy situations. In the few hours he was with these Sisters, they impacted the lives of four completely different people. The things he said about the Nuns made me realize a couple of things.
1) The nuns thanked the waiter and manager at the restaurant for the meal and how caring they were and said the meal was the best food they've eaten. Steve said these Nuns appreciated the food like they had not eaten in forty days. Simple, everyday things such as restaurants often get ignored. Yes, we pray before we eat, but do we really appreciate the food we eat? As an upper middle class teenager in Coppell, TX hunger is not something I am exposed to. But it is all around us, there are people just a few miles away from where I live who depend on Catholic charities and food banks for their meals. They can't just go out to eat whenever they feel too lazy to cook. I have volunteered at the food bank countless times and the most gratifying thing is getting to see how much the recipients of the food appreciate the people who package, shelf and sort it. The Sisters were just as thankful to the people cooking and serving the food as the people from the food bank are for the volunteers. If a group of Nuns, who certainly are never short of food and how it got there, can appreciate it that much, why can't we?
2) When the Sisters were walking out of the restaurant they were approached by a man whose asked them to pray for his wife, who had cancer. Of course the Nuns said yes but Steve was expecting that to be the end of the conversation. However, instead of taking off and praying for him later, the Nuns put their hands on the man right then and there and prayed over him and for his wife. In the middle of the street. How many times do we say, "I'll pray for you" and then wait until later to do it? Why can't we drop everything to pray for somebody? Fear? Something better to do? This made me realize a bad habit of mine, which I am deciding to call "pray-crastination" (ok well I think it is kind of funny???) As I go through the day I develop a list of things I will pray for that night, but WHY do I wait? We have the gift of prayer so we can use it wherever and whenever we need it, we should take advantage of that lovely ability we have.
3) After leaving the restaurant, Steve and the Sisters went to the grocery store. On the way there the traffic light was broken and Steve was freaking out because he thought he'd miss his flight. Outside of the grocery store there was a woman sitting on the ground and crying. The Nuns, went over and spoke with her. The woman's husband had just left her and her children homeless and she was on the brink of a breakdown. The Nuns prayed with her and gave her the address of a place where she could go for shelter, work and food. As they were driving Steve to the airport, one of the Nuns expressed how happy she was that the traffic light was broken on the way to the grocery store, because if they hadn't been there when they were, they might not have met the woman and been able to help her. Isn't that great? I absolutely love how God does things like that. And we often don't think of the things that slow us down as good things, but sometimes they are. God, along with Saint Anthony (he's awesome!!!) have worked that way in my life recently...
Over spring break I went on a school trip to London and Paris. Very late the night before we were to leave London, I got back to my hotel room and noticed I didn't have my phone. I looked everywhere, asked everyone but it was nowhere to be found. That night I repeated the prayer "Dear Saint Anthony, look around I've lost my phone and it can't be found." over and over until I fell asleep. I know a phone is a material thing that i don't necessarily need, but being halfway around the world without my parents is scary, let alone without a communication device. I was also afraid of what my parents would do, they definitely would not replace my phone if I was irresponsible enough to lose it in a foreign country. My tour guide, Linda called the bus company and asked them if they had my phone but they still had not returned her call when we were going through security at the train station to go to Paris. It was snowing very heavily in Paris that day and our train kept getting delayed. I had to find other ways to entertain myself while all of my friends were listening to music and playing games one their phones while waiting at the train station for nearly five hours. Eventually our train was cancelled and we had to stay another day in London. The extra day came with numerous blessings, we got to see a lot of things in London we didn't have time to before; The London Eye, The Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus etc. And during those times, it was a blessing not to have a cell phone to distract me from the beauty and history of the city. The afternoon we were leaving for Paris, Linda got a call from the bus company... they had my phone! Still today I don't think Linda knows how much I appreciate her. She easily could have said "Your loss kid" and not done anything, but instead she called every person possible to get my cell phone back and I am so thankful that God gave me such an amazing woman as a tour guide. We picked up my phone on the way to the airport and all was well again. But I truly could not process how incredible it was that we just so happened to be stuck in London that day I lost my phone. If God had not sent that snowstorm to Paris, I would have left the country without the cell phone that my loving parents provided me. Now, I know that my phone was not the sole reason it snowed that day, but that is the cool thing about Our Lord, he watches over every single one of us and sends his grace at all times. I know I was not the only person who benefited from Paris's snow. 
Linda to me was like the Nuns to the woman at the grocery store; they didn't have to help her out, but they did because that is what Jesus would do and they wanted to follow his example. It's what I always tell myself, "Never put yourself in a situation where you have the power to do something and choose not to" 
4) Being a Nun sounds like a 24/7 Jesus party and I want in! 

By the end of Friday night, I could tell this weekend was going to be transformational. 

A fun difference between this conference and a normal retreat is that there's no adult in your room to tell you when to shut up and go to bed. Needless to say, my friends and I did not get very much sleep that night. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog! I will post about Saturday (probably in 2 or maybe even 3 parts) as soon as possible. This is a busy week for me, please pray for my drill team as we go through line camp this week! 

In His name, 
Meredith 

If you have questions, prayer requests or just wanna say hi please leave a comment! And remember if you need somebody to talk to feel free to email me meredithmunro@icloud.com 

Dallas Catholic Youth Conference 2013!

This past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Dallas Catholic Youth Conference. DCYC, for those who don't know, is a conference put on by the Dallas Dioceses for teens. If you have ever been on a church retreat, it was a lot like that but in a hotel and with people from different churches.
When I signed up, I had no idea what do expect, but I was excited for whatever God had in store for the weekend. As always, He did not disappoint.
Over 600 Catholic teens and youth ministers attended from all over the diocese. The event was anchored by a long list of incredible Catholics including; Bishop Kevin Farrell, Bishop Douglas Deshotel, Steve Angrisano, Michael and Alli Hoffman, Jason Deuterman and my own youth minister, Naomi Lehew. All the previously named and other speakers were able to express things about our religion that I would have never been able to figure out on my own. Each talk came with an important lesson that impacted me and made me consider the way I live day-to-day. 
As much as I would love to give a play by play of the whole weekend, I understand how boring that might be. I cannot adequately express the events of this weekend in words, so you'll have to go next year to fully understand what I am talking about. However, I will share the highlights of my weekend and what I have learned.  Look for my blogs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at DCYC! 

In His name, 
Meredith 

If you have questions, prayer requests or just wanna say hi please leave a comment! And remember if you need somebody to talk to feel free to email me meredithmunro@icloud.com