a happy first birthday

We celebrated a first birthday in more than one sense - not only did Bernadette turn one year old on July 29, but we also celebrated the first Sealy family birthday in New Zealand. Bernadette was delighted with the festivities, including her "bird-day" cake - a nod to her excitement over all things that fly, but particularly birds and airplanes.

She almost has the hang of blowing candles out, although Maria was more than happy to lend a hand with extinguishing the flame and unwrapping the presents....

Tea with Bishop Dennis

Lighthouse teens with Bishop Dennis (seated, center)

This morning the bishop of our diocese celebrated Mass at St. Thomas More. We were pleased to see so many young faces turn up at 9am on a Saturday morning. Not only did the teens make up a very substantial number of the congregation, but they also sat right in the front. Afterwards, we were excited to host the bishop for another (almost) Sacred Ritual at the parish: morning tea. For about an hour we all enjoyed our first ever tea with a bishop. A quiet, unassuming man, he quickly put us all at ease by asking the youth questions and telling us a bit about what it is like to meet with the Pope! He has been a bishop under both John Paul II and under Benedict XVI, so he was able to share a little of his personal observations about each of these two special men. He blessed us, took some photos with us and left us with a humorous admonition to keep an eye on Fr. Michael, who is "not as young as he used to be." 

so THAT's a twinkie!

the makings of a great night

The new term began this week, which means that youth group events restarted as well. Our first event was girls' and boys' groups last night. Both Richard and I are doing Scripture studies with our respective groups and decided to introduce the concept of a prayer journal to accompany our studies. Richard thought that the boys' group ("A Few Good Men") would prefer NOT to decorate their prayer journals with floral paper, holy cards and scrapbooking decor. I, however, decided that my group ("Girls and God") would love it. 

holy cards and religious art sent to Kelly for the girls 

by many generous women in the States:

Thank you to Grandma and Yowee, 

Renate, Julia, Karen, Jess, Sarah, Kristi, Catie, Erin & Althea

With this kick-off event in mind, I emailed friends and family in the States begging for holy cards or religious art. The response was amazing. For almost a month I've been thrilled with frequent arrivals of little packages of beautiful, thought-provoking pictures. I saw images I have never seen before as well as many that are universal favorites. Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) sent us several short stacks of identical holy cards with prayers printed on the back. Fr. Michael, Richard and I immediately began to plan when and how to utilize those gifts to teach new prayers like the St. Michael the Archangel prayer, the Angelus and the Memorare. 

with so many choices, not an easy decision!

I had pictured sort of a mad stampede among the girls, all scrambling for the "best" pictures - and was amazed at the dignified, awed gratitude they showed when I opened the doors and revealed the treasures in my living room. Their selection of holy cards was almost prayerful; it was quiet, joyful, peaceful - beautiful. It was edifying and gratifying to watch. No limit was set on the number of cards (since we had such a wonderful abundance!) and some of the girls really stocked up! 

And the finishing touch - a box of Twinkies from Sarah Rozman. It was at the last meeting of the term that one of the girls had asked what Twinkies were like, and it was great fun to pop out the box and offer each girl her first taste of this quintessential American junk food. It was even more fun to watch their initial excitement turn to horror as the overly-sweetened cakes hit their tastebuds. No worries - the boys were meeting next door and inhaled the leftover Twinkies with a roar of joy.

Before I went to bed, I checked Facebook and saw the following post and response:
"Ate a Twinkie!"
"Jealous!"

I could go to bed. The night was a success.