Youth Apostles Online
Newsletter for Catholic Teens : June 2001
Contents:
The Virtue Gym
Your Inner Self, by Pope John Paul II
The Virtue Gym
Dear Friends,
Hello everyone and welcome to Youth Apostles Online! I'm so glad that you found this website and signed up for your newsletter. Whether you heard about this site from a talk or whether you stumbled across it by chance, I hope you find inspiration and challenge to aspire to a higher standard that what the world is offering us in the realm of sexual purity. If we're going to live this higher standard, we need the grace of God, we need the encouragement of others, and we need to fill ourselves up with good, solid, counter-cultural alternatives.
My first challenge to you is not just to run away from things that are going to tempt you, but to fill yourselves up with good, solid, counter-cultural alternatives. If sexual temptation is like a big, buff bully who keeps on bothering you, to run away from sexual sin would be to constantly flee from this stupid bully.
Don't you get tired of running away? Sometimes you can't run fast enough, right? Sometimes, you don't hear him coming and he catches you by surprise, right? Don't you get tired of feeling like a helpless, skinny wimp in the face of these temptations? Wouldn't you like to tell him off? Wouldn't you like to squish him like a bug?
Why not go to the "Virtue Gym" and buff yourself up? Start reading totally encouraging and mind-forming books. Start listening to fun, Christ-centered music. Start filling your soul with the awesome words of Scripture. Start pumping your veins daily with the "Power Aide" of the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass. Start getting a "Son-tan" in the radiant rays of the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic Adoration. Start getting professional training from some of the "buffest" souls that walked this earth by reading the lives of the saints. And if you do, you will come out as a lean, mean, "Son-tanned," ripped, buff warrior of God that can squish the stupid sexual temptations of the dork-butt Satan like a bug!!!! Wooo!!!!
So, will you do it?
Will you accept the challenge?
Will you go to the Virtue Gym?
Let's get buff!!
And always remember:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil 4:13)
Until next month, I remain...
Your Eucharist loving, Blessed Mother petitioning, rockin' Catholic Church obeying, Pope John Paul II devotee and fellow sinner in need of God's grace and mercy,
Michele TePas
Youth Apostles Online
Got a Question? Need Encouragement?
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Your Inner Self
Dear young people, you are going through a time of life filled with questions and uncertainties. Yet Christ is calling you and awakening in you a desire to make your life something magnificent and beautiful, a determination to pursue high ideals, a refusal to be satisfied with mediocrity, and the courage to make commitments, with patience and perseverance.
In order to be able to respond to this call, strive constantly to grow in closeness to the Lord of life. Remain faithfully in his presence through prayer, knowledge of the Scriptures, the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In this way you will build yourselves up and strengthen what the Apostle Paul calls "your inner self". An intimate relationship with the Lord is also the secret behind a fruitful life, a life grounded in what is essential for every human being: namely, dialogue with God, our Creator and our Savior. In this way, your life will not be superficial, but profoundly rooted in the spiritual, moral and human values which sustain our whole being and our whole existence.
- Pope John Paul II on May 7, 2001 to Greek Catholic youth
