As we approach the end of the liturgical year the focus of the Church turns to the end of time.  However, I know most of you are focused now more on the end of the semester!  I pray that you don't let the stress of these next few weeks distract you from God.  Take Him along with you as you study and get those last papers written.  Devote your higher education to a higher purpose and do the best you can in your studies because you know it pleases Him.

And give yourself permission to take a break now and again and reconnect with your faith and your Catholic friends at CCM!  We have a fun week this week.

Rebecca and Stephanie are cooking up some Tacos for us for dinner at 6:30.  Afterwards, Alex Bogart is leading our program – this week it's all about the family.  What does it mean to be brothers and sisters in Christ?  

A very special guest speaker will be at St. Francis in Franklin this Thursday evening.  Fr. Dwight Longenecker is a native of Greenville, SC who grew up in a very fundamentalist, anti-Catholic home.  He later became Anglican and was ordained an Anglican priest.  He moved to England where he pastored parishes for many years.  Ultimately, he returned to the US, and became a Catholic.  In 2006 he was ordained a Catholic priest under a special pastoral provision for married former Anglican clergy.  He lives once more in his hometown of Greenville where he serves as the pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary parish.  He is married with four children.  Fr. Longenecker will be speaking about his personal conversion, but also on the importance of living out the Catholic faith in a purposeful, intentional way.  His talk begins at 7:00pm, and we would like to organize carpools for any Western students who would like to attend.  St. Francis is about 30 minutes from campus, so we are hoping to leave from the Catholic Student Center by 6:20.

If you'd like to attend and either need a ride or can offer a ride, please post on our Facebook Group.  

For more information on Fr. Longenecker, see his web site and blog at:

Mass at 7:30pm.  Confessions and Rosary 30 minutes before Mass.  Be sure to stay for Credo immediately after Mass.  This week our topic will be vices & virtues.  It's sure to be an interesting discussion – come with your questions!

We are thinking now about our Peer Ministry Council leadership team for next semester.  If you missed my discussion of this last Wednesday, we are trying something a bit different.  Next semester we will be diving our Peer Ministers into different roles (small group leaders, program leaders, and a retreat team), and asking students to commit only to certain leadership positions.  This is meant both to take the pressure off of individual student leaders, and also to expand the leadership opportunities for others.

Please take the time to read my recent blog post about leadership (which essentially covers what I talked about last Wednesday).

http://wcuccm.blogspot.com/2013/11/ccm-leadership.html

And if you feel that you are being called to serve CCM in the spring semester as a Peer Ministry leader, please let me know.  

Thanks and God Bless!

Matt

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