Confessions of a Catholic Youth Minister

There's an old story of three pastors sitting at dinner one night talking shop. They're talking about their bat problem. They all have bats hanging out inside their bell towers.The first pastor shared his plan, but the bats kept coming back. The second did the same, but with a different plan, but the same results. They can't seem to get rid of these bats. The third pastor bragged that his plan has worked perfectly. He simply Baptized and Confirmed them, and he hasn't seen them since. What is it about those high school years that seem to create the dark ages as far as spiritual and church things go? For me, it was a combination of my parents dying and a low view of myself. By December of my freshman year, my mother was experiencing headaches. They didn't go away, and in March,  she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had surgery and the doctors told us that she would not live long. It was heart crushing news for the family and especially my father. She woul...

What is it about middle school that so many people have horrible experiences? I can say that my experience was similar and it helped prepare me years later to minister to this age group. Wonder #1: Well, it all started in 6th grade. Mrs Reese was my teacher. I think we got new desks. We used to have old wooden desks that were screwed to the floor and in rows. Now we had movable metal desks and chairs. Mrs Reese had the classroom setup in groups of four desks facing each so that they made a square. I was partnered with two girls and a boy. I thought the girls hated me because they spent a lot of the time kicking me. It wasn't until many years did I discover differently. Wonder #2: One of the greatest moments in my school career came in the 6th grade. On April Fool's Day, the whole 6th grade planned a monumental trick that will never be repeated in all of school history! Every 6th grader made at least one paper airplane. At the appointed time both classes shouted out ...

Glendale Avenue is a quiet almost dead end type of street. You really would have to have a reason to be driving on it. It was kind of a strange area of Wheaton. The neighborhood had no direct connection to the rest of the city. The kids attended Glen Ellyn schools. We participated in the Glen Ellyn park district activities. Our address was even Glen Ellyn. Yet, we were in the city limits of Wheaton. Glendale was a tree lined street that had hills on both ends and was only a block long. So, I really did walk to school uphill both ways!  Our simple ranch house was in the middle of the block in the valley of both hills. Thus, when it rained, we got water coming from both sides. Consequently, our yard flooded several times every summer, so did our basement. The neighborhood streets were resurfaced in an unique way. They would spray the streets with a thick layer of tar, and then a truck, loaded with very small white stones, would spread the stones as it slowly went down the str...