ONE Week Follow Up: "If you want peace, work for justice", Pope Paul VI

I just watched youth and adults from Holy Disciples (Puyallup) and Our Lady of Good Counsel (Eatonville) pull out of our parking lot on their way to Sojourner Place - "A Haven for Women in Transition", a home where many of them served in their ONE Week in Seattle back in July. The Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy Courtyard at St. James Cathedral was a pit stop for prayer on their way from one of the Volunteer Chore Services sites where they returned to support a family they met earlier this summer by clearing away a truck load of unused items for donation at St. Vincent de Paul and another load destined for the dump.

Their actions remind us all that living out our Catholic Social Teaching and responding to the call of our discipleship is not limited to one week during our summer or to a mission trip for which we might raise considerable funds to participate. Our discipleship is practiced every day and in our local communities. I am thankful to have been able to witness such selfless care and compassion in action.

The next step for them and for us all is to identify those needs within our immediate community that we are called to fill and to respond to. To engage our families and our parish communities to participate alongside us to grow the impact of ONE Week, ONE Day, ONE Moment.

ONE Week - done for Summer 2009!

As I sit here writing this, the final wrap is being put on our ONE Week program for the summer of 2009. Many of the OYYAM staff were able to make it out to the Olympic Peninsula this past week and witness in action the Junior High youth from Our Lady of the Mountain (Ft. Lewis), St. Vincent de Paul (Federal Way), Mary Queen of Peace (Issaquah), Immaculate Conception (Arlington) and St. Gabriel (Port Orchard). They closed out the summer in fine fashion, making a difference in the lives of the people of Forks, WA and growing in their own awareness of their call as disciples to live out our Catholic Social Teaching. To be sure, they were dazzled by the beauty that surrounded them during the beachside communion service led by Deacon Jeff Greer but also both affirmed and challenged by the Body of Christ that they were a part of the entire week.

A big thanks to the communities who shared hospitality by opening their facilities to us and all of the site directors who gave their time and energy in leading our youth in transforming the community and themselves through ONE Week:
St. Anne, Forks, High School - Maryelyn Scholz and Joy Galvez
Our Lady of Good Help, Hoquiam, High School - Ann LaBeck and Tanya Lange
Immaculate Conception, Seattle, High School - Tauno Latvala
St. Michael, Snohomish, Junior High - GerriAnne McMakin and Joy Galvez
St. Anne and Calvary Temple, Forks, Junior High - Maryelyn Scholz and Anthony Lezcano

A BIG thanks to our cooks who kept us well fed and healthy throughout the week so we we would be able to accomplish the tasks we were called upon to do:
Forks, Hoquiam, Seattle, Snohomish - Britta Folden
Forks - Karen Lezcano

Thank you to the adult leaders and coordinators of youth ministry who prepared and planned for their parish participation in the program and provided supervision, transportation, leadership and a supportive presence on the journey of ONE Week itself.

And most importantly, thank you to the youth who gave up ONE Week during their summer to do something for others and not for themselves. Let's do it again next summer!!!!