COLUMBUS – Annunciation School seventh grader, Mason House, collects donations for the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society from students during morning drop-off. ACS students showed that they are “Paws”itively drug and bully free by bringing donations for the local shelter during Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-27. (Photo by Katie Fenstermacher)
GREENVILLE – Oct 23 – 24, St Joseph School students welcomed the NET Ministries Retreat Team fresh from the middle school retreat. Above, they play a game between presentations. “NET retreats are designed to present youth with the truth of who they are as God’s children and how true joy and meaning in life are found by accepting Christ’s gift of salvation and living as His disciple. Every NET retreat includes an extended time for the youth to pray and be prayed with to make a personal response to God’s invitation.”(Photo by Missi Blackstock)
MACON – More than 60 seventh and eighth-grade Catholics spent the weekend of Oct. 21-22 at Lake Forest Ranch participating in the inaugural diocesan middle school retreat. Youth groups came from Clinton, Greenwood, Jackson, Madison, Meridian, Pearl and Starkville.
The retreat was organized by Abbey Schuhmann, coordinator for youth ministry for the Diocese of Jackson. “In my first year in this position, I was getting lot of feedback about the need for a diocesan middle school event. More and more parishes were having active groups at that age level so they wanted an event,” she explained. “I saw it first hand at my own parish — seventh and eighth-graders were eager to be involved and wanting to do more and adults wanted things specifically age-appropriate for them,” she added.
A team from the National Evangelization Team Ministries (NET) led the retreat. NET coordinates and trains teams of young adults to travel the country for a year offering retreats. “We have had great experience with NET ministries in our diocese in recent years. They are dynamic, they provide high energy and their retreats are well balanced with fun and prayerful activities. They are young adults actively living out faith and great role models for our youth,” said Schuhmann. She pointed out that life on the road for a year is a huge sacrifice and the retreat leaders often share stories of their own faith journeys so they can inspire the students who attend.
Bridget and John Harwell brought young people from Meridian. “The facilities were awesome, setting was perfect and the spirituality was superb. The NET team’s energy was very good and our youth were extremely impressed by their testimonies,” said Bridget.
Priests from four parishes came to offer Reconciliation and when the service started, the teens jumped up to get a spot in line.
The theme for the retreat was Safety in Numbers and many of the presentations centered on the importance of friendship and community. “I was hoping it would be an opportunity for students in this age group to come together with their peers to know there are others like them on a similar faith journey. I want to acknowledge that being Catholic in Mississippi can be challenging at times, but I also want them to know there are youth all over our diocese facing these same challenges on a similar journey,” said Schuhmann
COLUMBUS – Annunciation school kindergarten students “stomp” through the hallways for their annual dino parade on Wednesday, Oct. 4. When the students complete their studies of the prehistoric beasts, they get to dress up and act out a little. (Photos by Katie Fenstermacher)
COLUMBUS –Father Jeffrey Waldrep shows second-grade students how a baby is baptised during a role-play exercise at Annunciation School.
GREENVILLE – Bishop Joseph Kopacz visited seniors at St. Joseph School on Thursday, Oct. 19. The bishop makes a point to visit each graduating class at some point during the year. (Photo by Missi Blackstock)
MADISON – St. Joseph students, faculty and staff marked the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima with a rosary in the rosary garden on campus on Friday, Oct. 13.(Photo courtesy Terry Cassreino)
MADISON –The St. Anthony School football team won the Central Mississippi Elementary Football League Championship for the second year in a row. The fifth and sixth grade Eagles played the fifth and sixth grade Christ Covenant Warriors on Bill Rafael field at St. Joseph Catholic School on Tuesday, October 10. Both teams came to the championship game undefeated and played a tough game. (Photos by Kristian Beatty)
By Maureen Smith
College students play an ‘icebreaker’ game with marshmallows as part of their fall retreat at Tishomingo State Park the last weekend in September. (Photos by Dawn McGinley)
TISHOMINGO – Three dozen college students from Mississippi State University and the Mississippi University for Women spent the weekend of Sept. 30- Oct 1 in Tishomingo State Park participating in the campus ministry fall retreat. Father Rusty Vincent, diocesan coordinator for college campus ministry, planned the weekend around the theme GPS, guidance, purpose, sent.
“The way myself and the team came to the theme was a discussion about many of the students need help finding direction in life,” explained Father Vincent. “Guidance was about discernment and how God is seeking to guide us in our lives. For purpose we divided the students into men and women, and we had talks about who we are and how that comes together with our discernment.”
“Being sent was meant to show that once we get clarity with our purpose, we are called to go into our world and our lives and share that joy with others,” he wrote in an email to Mississippi Catholic.
More than 30 students participated in the retreat with the theme GPS, guidance, purpose, sent.
He said the retreat team was hoping the students would consider the idea of discerning God’s will as they make decisions about their next steps in life. Dawn McGinley, coordinator for campus ministry at Mississippi State, said she feels blessed every day to work with Father Vincent and was excited to present the retreat.
GREENWOOD – During the first weekend of October, 12 girls from three parishes gathered at Locus Benedictus retreat center for their first of five overnight sessions of the Young Women of Grace study program. The study, designed for girls ages 12 and older, teaches young women how to discern their purpose and mission in the world, and to find true fulfillment. It is based on an adult study program of the same name and uses a magazine-style workbook packed with facts, testimonials and stories of saints and other Catholic role models.
The retreat began with dinner on Friday at 6 p.m. and included Mass and reconciliation.. On Saturday morning after breakfast the girls gathered at the Mary, Mother of the Delta Shrine for a time of meditation and prayer.
In this first session of Young Women of Grace, the girls learned they have a special call from God and about the gifts of women to influence the world. In addition, they learned about Saints Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Madeline Sophie Barat.
The monthly sessions will continue until April 2018. For more information on the Women of Grace or the Young Women of Grace, visit the website, www.womenofgrace.com.
(Story submitted by Tara Trost)
NATCHEZ – Lt. Darrel Carter, Chuck Golden and Savanna Sanchez of the Natchez Fire Department demonstrated stop, drop and roll to students Wells Herring, Keenan Jackson, Liza Kate James, Madeline Jex and Clifford Tillman at Cathedral School earlier this month.(Photos by Cara Serio)
