More fun and pictures

NCYC participant, Jennifer Williams and her Mom and our chaperone, Dawn waiting to begin Mass.


Dinner Fun!

Some pictures from NCYC

Steve Angrisano warming up the crowd before closing Eucharist.


Yea, I know, Catholic kids don't want to go to Mass. There were at least 10,000 youth waiting from 5pm for the doors of the Sprint Center to open at 7pm for the closing liturgy whcih began at 8:30pm...yea, Catholic kids don't want to go to Mass.

Let's Kick Some Miter!

Today, as I was meandering through the expansive exhibit hall at NCYC, I noticed a priest standing near a booth. As I walked by, he walked up to me and said what may be the strangest phrase anyone has ever told me: "Philip," he said, reading my name-tag, "have you ever bowled with a bishop?" As you may have guessed I was intrigued. "Ummm... no I actually haven't" I replied. I talked with him a little more, and he pointed to where I could bowl with a bishop and "kick some miter," if I was so inclined. As It turned out, a booth advocating the priesthood had set up a Nintendo Wii console, and was letting youth challenge a bishop in Wii Sports bowling. This, in my mind, illustrated just how amazing NCYC is. Things happen here that do not happen anywhere else. As I sat in mass with over 20000 people, I mulled over some of the other reasons. Nowhere else do people walk around with signs advertising free hugs for all. Nowhere else do you see two priests jumping and dancing during a rap concert. Nowhere else do you see 170 priests and seminarians saying the communion rite simoultaneously. None of these things you can see anywhere else, which is what makes NCYC like nothing else on earth.

Good Bless,
Philip Arbogast-Wilson

great dinner, goodnight!

The night was better than good...it was great and Peter's description gives a great view of what is going on here. The youth are truly excited to be here and they appreciate the presenters, performers, peers, parents, pastoral ministers, and priests who make this possible (p-people rule!) Our Chaperones (they deserve the capital "C" and don't you wish you were one?)have been wonderful, understanding, adaptable, resilient, and God-guided,have always looked out for our youths best interests. Our older and more experienced youth have taken our "freshpersons" by the hand and helped them appreciate NCYC more fully. Tonight we recognized that great youth come from people who are committed to raising them well. You have our gratitude.

Tomorrow, freshpersons previously un-heard-from (is that word or is 3am taking its toll?) will post in this space.

In Christ (right there with you!) Mary Lou

Hello, my name is Peter and you are going to like me!

To start of, today was the best experience of my life. To kick start our day we listened bagpipes and Andy Adino which transitioned into our first keynote speakers Cardinal Daniel Dinardo and Brian Johnson. After they showed us how to live a life for god, we witnessed a spectacular Adoration service. Afterwards all the Saint Mary guys and I all went down to the all male workshop "Bending not Breaking" which was given by Bob Perron. In this work shop we recieved a whole new perspective on the roles of bullying and being bullied. Later in the day, after lunch, most of Saint Mary's went to Father Tony's workshop "Don't Be Stupid". With some five or six thousand people Father Tony taught what being ignorant and being stupid is. Ignorant is not know what is wrong and do it. While stupid is knowing what is wrong and doing it anyway. In the "oldschool" style he said "I don't care how you feel, but I love you enough to tell you the truth". I was just floored with his whole speech from laughs to the most eye opening truths. Afterwards The Saint Mary's gang went to eat dinner together before going to the Evening General Session. Opening with Matt Maher Band, and they gave a simply stunning performance to get us ready for our next two speakers, Jason and Crystalina Evert. The Evert's brought us their Chasisty seminar, which was very perspective altering. Both Jason and Crystalina had very different things to bring to both sexes respectively. What struck home with was Jason's idea of your future spouse, and how you should respect wemon while dating them because you don't want someone else not respecting your future spouse. We ended the night with the youth animators and one of MCs Steve Angrisano, with a very strong prayer.

God Bless,

Peter McDevitt

Mary Lou here...it's Friday night @ NCYC

...and tonight session is about to close and our youth will board their bus to come back to our hotel. We had a nice dinner at Genghis Grill, kinda like a Mongolian BBQ. Even as we enjoyed our dinners, I watched Joe Haroney go through his study cards, continuing to memorized authors, date and cities of publication, "Thomas Paine, 1794...

About half our group got freat seat tonight for the keynote session. If you were watching on www.mycatholicvoice.com you may have seen Grace, TJ, Joe or Alex or any other of our young people. I know they had a blessed day and that is due to our great chaperones, Gary Galvin, Nick Haroney and Dawn Williams.

When our kids arrive at the hotel, I am hoping a few will update our blog and maybe FB as well. Its just the beginning of the day for me...ttfn, In Christ (right there with you!)Mary Lou

NCYC: new experiences

Here are a few things I learned today:
1. Sometimes people don't understand that a YOUTH conference is supposed to have more youth than adults atttending...
2. A King-sized bed is really big and can fill up a whole hotel room by itself when there's supposed to still be a pullout couch and a rollaway...
3. Youth Conferences= TRAFFIC...
4. People like to yell and scream when they're excited, but some people don't understand that and ask you to be quiet...
5. Catholic people know good music... :)
6. In Missouri they don't recycle cans... (and I spent ten minutes trying to find a place to recylce my can.)
7. 21,000 people is A LOT!!!

Breea tschirhart NCYC!!!

The bus ride was horrible. There was no where to sleep, and your back ended up hurting like no other. Even though everybody was stinky and achey you completely forget about by the time you get to mass. The mass is huge. The way mass is done feels like the way it's suppose to be done. But the fun doesn't even START then, the fun starts at the beginning of NCYC. The music starts, and everybodies dancing/partying together. Then after a while you realize just HOW MANY people are actually there, and it blows your mind. Honestly, I was dancing and the light hit the crowd just right and I DID see the magnitude of people there and i teared up with amazment and pride for my religion!!

Your Pilgrims arrived safely!

Dear Moms, Dads, Husband, Wives, Brothers, and Sisters,

Your pilgrims arrived today around 2:45pm. What an awesome bunch of pilgrims they are! No complaints...no moaning...even after 13 hours on a bus and a 1 hour turn around time to go to our opening Mass, they were cheerful and happy to be here b/c they understand that this is a pilgrimage not a vacation...they are here to glorify Christ the King (who we will celebrate this Sunday!) After the Opening Region 6 Mass (Michigan and Ohio...little ironic, isn't the UofM OSU game this Sunday?), they will head over to the Sprint Center for our Opening Cereominy, always exciting. If you would like to see it live, go to www.mycatholicvoice.com/live and choose Thursday keynote. We should be back at our hotel around 10:30pm and I hope to have at least 2 bloggers telling you about our experiences tonight. Now and later in Christ! ML

Pat, Jim, and I are waiting for you!

ML here! We got in this morning about 10am, KC time, which is an hour earlier than at home. Bring your books! I want you to pass your exams as well as have a great experience here with 23,000 youth from all over the US. We've taken care of your registration and will have your packets ready for you. Some of the closer dioceses, like Salinas, KS has over 1000 youth attending. I haven't scoped it out yet but it appears that there is a 5-6 block walk between the Sprint Center and Kansas City Convention Center. If you were on NCYC in Columbus, rest assured that this hotel seems to be much more organized. It's going to be a great 4 days! Fell free to txt, call, Fb me.

So..the secret is out that all of us traveling to K.C. are missing EVERY review day for our exams. I'm personally a junior taking all honors classes, so I have recently discovered that crying is a great alternative to studying when you don't have the time.

I did get the chance to make a game plan for the bus ride- I'm going to make TJ DeRosia read my history book to me on the bus so I will not get car-sick.



--Joe Haroney
Junior in distress
NCYC alum 2007

Thanks, Jordan!

That was a great post! Since all you bloggers will be signing in on my account, please say who you are...Hi, this is Jordan, Claire, etc... I'll keeping praying that you get everything you need to ace those exams. Mary Lou

3 Feelings Besides Excitement

Well, of course we're all excited but what about the other things we're feeling? NCYC will be the first time I've been this far away from home without my mom...
1) I'm sure we're all feeling stressed; finals the day after we get back?? I keep thinking to myself, will I even be able to stay awake?! We're missing huge review days and we have face telling our teachers that. Did anyone else tell their teacher that you wanted to make sure you didn't miss anyhting important and get the reply, "Well, of course you're missing important things. We're doing all of our reviewing on those days..."?
2) I don't know about you but I am tired ALREADY! Getting everyhting that I'll need together, packing, doing EXTRA homework, and laundry. That's the worst, having to remember to switch the loads of laundry and FOLD them. But I keep thinking about how I have to run the mile in gym tomorrow as well... talk about tired. :)
3) I'm feeling a little anxious, too. I think this is different than being excited. You're waiting and waiting, counting down the days, and this trip could not come any slower! I had a countdown in my planner two weeks ago! Today I kept looking at the ONE DAY because, don't you think, our trip really starts Wednesday night.
And though there are these other feelings flowing through us right now, we're mostly excited. Someone will ask you how you're feeling and you'll automatically say 'Excited,' just so they'll ask you about NCYC. Spread the word; make everyone JEALOUS! I'm kidding, but really, don't you want someone to know that you're bursting with excitement... I do!

The prep continues...

for NCYC and not just the packing and the business end of it. Right now I am trying to prepare myself spiritually too, but my focus is constantly being interrupted. Today is St. Elizabeth of Hungry feast day. Though she came from a very wealthy background, she devoted herself to those who were poor and suffering. NCYC will be collecting items for those who have little...I gotta remember to pack some of the collection items.

Bob Rice (the guy from Jamboree) says there are 4 things to remember.
1.Know why you are going. Yup, friends and fun but the real reason is to honor Christ the King. There will be exhausting bus rides, long lines, crappy food. If this pilgrimage is just for "you," you will be quickly frazzled and frustrated...if its to give glory to Christ the King, He'll give you the grace to make it a great time.

2.Keep your eyes open for Christ in unexpected places. Did the Wise Men really expect to find the Christ the King in a small house with a teenage mother?

3. Give your gifts The Wise Men didn't come empty handed. It wasn't just to take a picture. When you find Christ, what will you do? Ask him to sign your t-shirt? No, give him your heart. Lay down your hopes, dreams, fears and failings. One practical way of doing this is in the way you treat those you are on pilgrimage with.

4. Come back different. Be open to new directions God may be showing you during this pilgrimage. Expect to be changed.

Thanks, Jordan!

Jordan is the first to volunteer to blog about the pilgrimage. Thnx, Jordie! We are about 54 hours away from the beginning of what promises to be an incredible adventure.

Participating in the National Catholic Youth Conference is always a God-filled time...and crowded...23,000 members of the body of Christ. I can't wait!

NCYC & Youth Mass Training

NCYC Meeting Nov. 15th: I have scheduled a brief info meeting following 10am Mass for NCYC participants. Just to lay out expectations, ground rules, etc. Nick Haroney and Gary Galvin have the extended trip chaperone experience and I certainly value all the insights of my adults and youth who have done this before. The tentative plan is to have the youth stay in the building following youth group (kinda an almost all nighter.) The bus will will have its pickup at St. Mary at 2am and continue to Jackson to pick up the rest of the bus load. Please make every attempt to have a parent and youth present.

Youth Eucharistic Minister and Lector Training: We will do this training on Sunday, November 15th at 11:45am following the NCYC meeting. Lunch will be provided. We’ll be finished by 1:30pm. Please sign up in advance.

Jamboree

We registered 52 and with two calling in sick, we arrived in Lansing with 50 (thanks for driving up, Breea!) The disappointment of losing to St. Pat, Brighton (who had 56) was quickly dissolved when we discovered that St. Pat had 6 youth out sick and so we TIED! Either way it was a great day. Thank you, St. Mary youth.