Confessions of a Catholic Youth Minister

In the winter of 1997, we were completely surprised by God! Six years after Johnmark was born, Jan is pregnant!! Its a girl!! Abigail (which means father's joy) was born in July of 1998. Instant joy! I used to say that she was either gabby Abby or crabby Abby. She was by far mostly gabby. She brought great joy to her older siblings. She was her older siblings cheering section. If you ever needed an encourager in your life Abby would be your girl! Every child is unique and created by God to do specific jobs that only they are supposed to do. Abby is just in the midst of figuring it out. She already has achieved awesome things. She is great at sharing her faith, and she gets much joy out of doing it. I have told her that she would make a great youth minister some day. But, in reality she has already been doing it. She has continually invited friends from the neighborhood and school to church events. When she was younger, she got the neighborhood kids to play Mass with her. In High ...

When I made the choice of inviting God into my life back in 1984, it was just the beginning of a process that is ongoing. "Behold I stand at the door and knock" Rev. 3:20 Jesus knocks at the door of every heart! The question is how wide have you opened the door? In all my years working with teens and adults, I have met many good people. There is a difference between a good person and a person who has put Jesus at the center. When you put Jesus at the center, he will impact every aspect of your life. If you think of your life as a big circle, who/what is in your circle. Many young people don't have Jesus even in their circle. Most Catholics have Jesus in their circle, but few have Jesus at the center. Most people have SELF at the center. Where is Jesus in your circle? When we have Jesus at the center, he impacts everything! You start to take responsibility for yourself and for the good of others. For college students it means going to class, doing your school work,...

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34) I invited God into my life after college. In reality, God has always been part of my life. I grew up in a great Catholic family. My parents were awesome faithful people. They were great examples to me of people who prayed and worked. They loved God and lived it. They owned their own small business and ran it as a Catholic. They were closed on Sundays. They closed their store from noon to three on Good Friday. They served their customers and raised seven children from the proceeds. They sent all seven to twelve years of Catholic school. They were involved in the faith and civic community. I witnessed them treat everyone with respect. They were great people and highly respected in the community. You would think that they would be spared suffering. Yet, my mother suffered with brain cancer for two years before she died. My father had to experience his bride be diag...

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” ( Jn 1:14)   "O n the eve of the new millennium, I make again to you my pressing appeal to open wide the doors to Christ who “to those who received him, gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12) To receive Jesus Christ means to accept from the Father the command to live, loving Him and our brothers and sisters, showing solidarity to everyone, without distinction; it means believing that in the history of humanity even though it is marked by evil and suffering, the final word belongs to life and to love, because God came to dwell among us, so we may dwell in Him." Pope John Paul II In 2000, I took 32 teens and adults to World Youth Day Rome. Until my current illness, it was the hardest thing that I ever had to do. In order to make it affordable so that as many young people could attend, we spent two years raising $30,000. We planned two major fundraisers. I wanted these fundraisers to be ...

We moved to Aurora in the fall of 1990. We had a hard time finding suitable housing that we could afford on a youth ministry salary. We ended up renting the front half of three story house that was in pretty bad shape. The landlord promised to fix it up, but of course he never did. We discovered squirrels living between the walls of the girls bedroom. Never fixed it! He promised to install a shower in the bathroom. Never did it! The house didn't have air conditioning except one window unit. The windows didn't have screens nor could we open some of them. God surprised us again. By the spring of 1991, Jan is pregnant! Guess who was miserable the summer of 1991 with little air conditioning? Guess who spent a lot of time at her parent's house? Jan!  It is a boy! Johnmark was born a couple of weeks before Christmas in 1991. He was an early Christmas present! It is a good thing that he was born by C-section. He was active in the womb. He had the cord wrapped around his neck not...

“Young people of "World Youth Day", the Church asks you to go, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to those who are near and those who are far away. Share with them the freedom you have found in Christ. People thirst for genuine inner freedom. They yearn for the Life which Christ came to give in abundance….In your hands, carry the Cross of Christ. On your lips, the words of Life. In your hearts, the saving grace of the Lord.” St John Paul II In May of 1990, I sat down with Msgr Kobbeman at Holy Angels Church in Aurora to discuss their youth ministry opening. I remember being greeted at the door of the rectory by Fr. Lutz. It was pretty intimidating to be in a rectory with two priests dressed in their blacks. I had a desire to serve God, but I was not sure of the direction. In order to work for the church, I would need to take a pay cut. I was married with one child and one about to be born. If I was sure God was calling me to not only work in youth ministry but...

Growing up in Glen Ellyn was happy time for me. I grew up in a great neighborhood on Glendale ave. I went to a great church and school at St Petronille. The village of Glen Ellyn with its narrow tree lined streets and cement sign posts made an ideal place to grow up. Lake Ellyn was a nice park filled with tall trees and a lake which made a great place to watch fire works. It had a solid downtown filled local business owners like my father. Stores selling everything imaginable from clothes to hardware to liquor to groceries to toys. It had a volunteer fire department made up of local men from all walks of life. You would hear the siren go off and soon cars with blue lights flashing would be speeding through the streets. Glen Ellyn was big enough that you didn't know everyone but small enough that you couldn't get away with too much without your parents finding out.   As a family, our favorite place to go out for food was Don & Angie's Restaurant. They ...