"The measure of love is to love without measure..."

YOu know i realized today that man all my life since elementary skool ive been active in some type of club/ministry/etc. Through those different things ive been active with, ive seen, learned, and developed types of leadership skills from different leaders who trained and taught me. Its amazing what you can pick up within so many yurrs. Elementary skool i was in saftey patrol(neyyooww), and student council two years in a row. Junior high, i was elected into ASB, i was then elected the position of historian. Keeping track of the memories of the different events ASB had put together. I was also historian one yurr in elementary skool also! ha! My eight grade yurr, i moved up and became activities commissioner. I was in charge of making sure each wednesday, the skool had noon time activity.

High school came and i was part of ASB again. MY freshmen yurr i was asked to be freshmen class treasuer. I ran for ASB the end of my freshmen yurr and sophmore yurr. ANother neeeyooww! So i was a loser and didnt get elected into the positions i had ran for. Although it sucked and i was upset that i didnt make it, praise God cuz it allowed me to serve in other ways. Sophmore yurr i became 'founding father' of a spanish club, i became president and ran the club pretty well i think. Junior year i became involved in the skool the newspaper, it was brought back to life after geez so many yurrs of not having one. I became the editor-in-chief, in charge of publishing and putting together a monthly skool newspaper.

That same yurr i got involved in the development of the our annual 'international week.' This was like planning for an LSS or a youf rally. In a sense its like planning for the spirit games now. I was the co-coordinator who helped put this event together. Senior year i got to be in ASB and i became inter club council commissioner. I was in charge of all the different clubs/organizations on campus. I had to hold monthly coloabo meetings w/the different leaders of the different clubs to tell them what was up. On top of that my main responsibility was to over see and plan international week. Like i said it wasnt an easy job and it took a lot of planning to do. Praise God for the fruits that it produced afterwards.

Even after HS i became active in teaching confirmation and 1st communion. Became asst. site director/enrichment coordinator at the day curr. Now yurrs later, im still involved w/so many different things. Praise God that He's pretty much kept me on the right path throughout my whole life. Praise God that my life was so consumed and still is by outside activities thurr was/is no room for getting into trouble. The reason why i say all this is cuz through serving to clubs/ministires/organizations throughout my whole life, ive seen leadership. Its through these different things, whur ive learned what leadership is all bout. How to become a leader and wha a leader is.

To me being a leader in a community is a pretty big job with many resposibilities. It takes a lot of commitment and dedication. This also means you and the rest of the leadership of the community is responsible for the souls of the community. You gotta be available and truly be committed in the service youre doing. That means going to core meetings as well as prayer meetings, not when you feel like it or when youre free but ALL THE TIME! The core group are the pillars holding up the community and when one of those pillars fall, the rest of the pillars have to carry the weight. When another one falls, thas one more less pillar carrying the weight. Point is all the pillars have to be thurr in order to hol it together.

For me personally, i have tons of other responsbilities, though i do my best to prioritize and balance my time out. Example, i teach confirmation each tues. from 7-830pm. BUt you say, 'hey dont you have prayer meetings also on tuesdays?!' Why yes i do have prayer meetings on tues. but i always make it a point to go straight to prayer meeting right after. Why? Cuz its my duty, its my job and its my resposibility as a core leader. Juss like an apple if the core on the inside is rotten, so is the rest of the apple. It takes a combined effort of whole entire core to produce good fruits for the community. I learned that if you cant be committed than, dont be in it. If you cant give your full 100% effort into the community/ministry, then step down or dont be part of it. Its not fair to the community when you cant put your whole effort to serving. The community starts to suffer when as a leader you neglect your duties.

The point is, if youre leader step up to the responsiblities of the position. A real leaders words are its actions, in wha they do and how they do it. Jus like in todays readings, St. Paul says when part of the body suffers they all suffer together. Same way with a core team and a community. I loved how nick said at the end of the meeting how we have souls here. A while back SOL had done a 'victim of his love' retreat at St. Bernards. It was a difficult one cuz of the participants werent very active, or responive. Though they said Praise God anyway. Turns out a year later, during a retreat or something a kid who went through that retreat at St. Bernards stood up and gave a testimony. Gave a testimony bout how SOL's retreat was the one thing that prevented him from committing suicide.

We have to be ready for the spiritual attacks of the devil. When youre life is juss perfect w/nothing going wrong, then something is wrong. Attacks are merely obstacles getting in our way of accomplishing our purpose. No one ever said, that serving God was going to be an easy job. When the attacks come, we gotta keep praying and stand firm. Think of those souls that you will be able to touch. Yes you may not see them right away but who knows later on you may come in contact w/that soul. Then praise God that you helped win another soul for God's greater glory. We cant let the attacks of the devil be excuses for serving God. Embrace the attacks and offering up your trials to God. He will guide you, He will direct you.

Leadership is avaiblity, commitment, intesnity, desire/dedication. Most of all it's YOUR service to God. We must love until it hurts.

"Eternal Father,
I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,
for all the holy souls in Purgatory."
Amen

"Blessed are they who stand firm when trials come; when they have stood the test, they will win the crown of life." -James 1:12


Let's get up and pick up our crosses today!

"Wake me up, wake me up to a new day..."im done, im out God bless!